Well after about six months of not activily discerning my vocation, it is time to put it on the front burner and the flame on high.
I have been attening Mass, confession and other devotionals. My mind is on the Lord and my trust is in his arms.
God has been very good to this little soul, teaching her daily and giving her the tools she needs to do his Will, and I am so thankful to him for all he has done for me.
So now it's time to look for a community to take this little soul to the next level.
While I feel drawn to a traditional cloister, I remain open to where God wishes me to be for his Will.

Most of you know me, can you suggest a community for this little soul to do God's Will?


God Bless you all and thank you!
Jessica
http://xanga.com/adiscerningsoul

I probably can't help you but I'll be praying for you! :D

Yayyy! So first tell us

Do you want active or contemplative
Which charism you feel drawn to: Dominican, Benedictine, Carmelite, etc...?
Also, do you prefer large communities or small?
Do you want to enter close to home, or far away?
What have you like about the communities you have visited or checked out so far?
Do you like austerities or not?

Give us some info to help you!

Wonderful decision, by the way - lol!

Contemplative
Poor Clare, Carmalight, Dominican
Doesn't matter the size
Doesn't matter the distance
austerties? whats that?

thanks

Jenni

Ok, then of course I am biased -- Wolverhampton Carmel of the Magnificat (England)!

Mother Prioress - Sister Mary Bryant - I enter on the 16th July and will pray for you to find where God is calling you!

Austerities means little things like cold water only, mail being opened and read, no leaving the enclosure etc. Each community has their own little austerities.

Lockport Dominicans in Lockport, LA

Carmelite Nuns in Terre Haute, Indiana... www.heartsawake.org

How about the Visitation nuns [we have some in Virginia] They are based on the spirituality of St Francis de Sales I believe. I THINK [but don't really know] that you can actually live with them at some point in your discernment

Oh, just found the link: http://www.visitmontemaria.com/schedule.htm

I wonder what you would think of the Monastery of St. Clare in Brenham Texas. They are Franciscans who are contemplative, but they also raise miniature horses to support themselves. I think they are a small community that someone else here had considered at one time.

Cloistered vocations are called to a particular charism, and a particular monastery within that charism.

Now you've got to get one-on-one with the Holy Ghost and talk to Him about it.

If you can make it to a cloistered Visitation monastery for either a quiet discernment retreat, or an actual vocation retreat where the Retreat Mistress talks to you about the Visitation charism, that would do you a world of good.

If our Cloisterites had their monastery up and running, you'd be more than welcome to come spend some time within our quiet walls to hear the whisperings of the Holy Ghost.

HTH.

Blessings,
Gemma

Sister Angela is the Abbess and she is very sweet. There are only 4 nuns left and three of them are the original Cuban nuns. I was discerning with them, but they seem much too active for a contemplative community for my tastes, what with the gift shop and the mini horse ranch and the tourists who come to visit the ranch. There is a book about the foundress called "Cowboy Nun" which can be found on amazon.

Godspeed on your vocation journey

Austerities... the types of ascetic practices of a monastery... basically (if my understanding is correct), it is the manifestations of the nun's renunciation of the world and death to self. This would include any penitential practices, how and how often she fasts, her sleeping and eating habits, etc. I would assume it would infiltrate other aspects of the monastic life such as community life, but I may be wrong.

I still haven't made it there to visit, though I've driven by. I think they might be a nice community for DiscerningSoul to visit



I was going to suggest them as well.

Hey, Jenni!

I would recommend going onto IRL and clicking on "vocation search" to try and find communities in America. They don't have all of the communities in this country, but they do have a nice "selection," and they give little summaries of each community that I've found very helpful.

I've basically only looked at the Carmelite contemplative communities. If you're interested in Carmelite communities, here is a list of all of the Discalced Carmelite contemplative monasteries in the U.S. Complete List This website also has all the OCD (Order of Carmel, Discalced) monasteries in the world listed country by country. My two favorite U.S. Carmelite monasteries are Monastery of St. Teresa and Georgetown Carmel.

Everyone loves Mother Angelica's OLAM PCPAs, but they're "full-up" right now. Instead, if you can brave the heat and don't mind being with a community that hasn't built it's monastery yet (they're living in a house while they plan out the building of their monastery), you might try Pheonix Phive. I don't know how you feel about this, but something that I saw said that they watch the latest movies. They've been on EWTN's Life on the Rock, and they seem really happy.

I hope some of this helps! God bless you!

Blessings in Christ,

Margaret