Hey,
has anyone here visited the Hawthorne Dominicans or met one of them? I'm looking into nursing religious orders (trying to discern my vocation) and these look like a very good order.
Thank you!

~Rose

I spent a week with them a few years ago. They are a very beautiful community actually, very faithful. At noon, all the sisters who are working in the home with patients come into the hallway and recite the angelus to the bells from the church. It's a beautiful sight to see them all lined up down the hall in their white habits. They always have a live-in discernment week each summer for those discerning a vocation. It should be coming up soon. God Bless, Lisa

you should totally check them out. I've never visited them but I know they are great. A former roommate of mine volunteers at their cancer home in St.Paul. She always had such wonderful things to say about the Sisters. Are they any near your area?

Well, I live in PA. If I visited them, I would go to their motherhouse in New York. It would be about a two hours drive. I'd love to visit, and see what they're like!

They're marvelous. The peace comes to meet you the minute you walk into the lobby.

Don't forget the Little Sisters of the Poor! Our resident littlesister is too humble to say anything, but the lsp's are really REALLY great. I've known their Sisters both in St. Louis and in New York, and they have always been incredibly welcoming and loving, with eachother, with visitors, and most especially for their patients. Their love for Christ truly shines through all that they do. You very rarely see a Little Sister without a smile on her face!

BTW, Are you looking for orders that are exclusively nurses? Or just that its one of their apostalates?
If you're looking at various orders, I also recommend the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus
Another medical order (both nurses and doctors, but also teachers, and theologians), the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma

All are very wonderful Sisters. I know all three orders personally!
In Jesus and Mary,
Lauren

Thanks, Lauren. We have done three-in-one vocation displays with the Sisters of Life and the Hawthorne Dominicans. We call the exhibit "Serving the Gospel of Life," since among the three communities life is served from conception (S.L.'s) to natural death at any age (O.P's) or at the end of a long life (lsp's). We all have web sites, so come in and welcome!

Well, in particular I'm looking for orders who help with sick children... I'm really looking for any order that helps with children, but not a teaching order, like orders that minister to orphans and at risk children.
But I'm also looking into nursing orders, as a chief apostolate. I think I may be called to that.
I'm sure the Little Sisters of the Poor are a great order! My mom lived next door to them when she was growing up, and she loved them. For a while, she wanted to become one. Obviously though, she didn't. ;-)

I enjoy visiting our Little Sister's of the Poor residents.
I usally go for prayer, Divine Office and I never refuse to help the sisters. Sr.M.G. always asks me to help feed some of the residents, well yesterday I graduated she says, now whenever I am there and able, after Divine Office I just go up and help. What a joy it is to help out on the floors!
There was a time I thought I was being called to them, but then I noticed that God was calling me to do something ratical with my life, now if I would stop running away from him and just set my acnhor in his heart and trust him, and stop worring.
Anyway, Yes the Little Sister's of the Poor are great, the Mother house is in New York and when I went with some sisters and residents to see 4 postulats become novies, I tell ya, that church was chuck full! There was people standing along the walls and out into the halls that is how full, and to see all those sister's in one place! WOW!!!!

The Hawthorne Dominicans are a great and traditional order. I had a grand-cousin? (my grandmother's sister's daughter) who was a Hawthorne Dominican in the 50's and she herself died of cancer. I have pictures of her entrance, clothing and solemn profession in the full traditional habit they wore back then. When my grand-aunt? was dying, she gave me her daughter's religious profession cross, which I cherish.

Also in this blog, http://5countrygirls.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_archive.html , some college girls went either on nun runs or just to visit orders in New Jersey and NY some years back. The page given in the link is to these visits. Scroll down to where the visits start - the first is the Carmelites of Morristown, NJ and farther past this and other others where you see the "Rosary Hill" sign starts some pictures of the Hawthorne Dominicans. They go to visit a friend who at the time was postulant and now is solemnly professed - her picture is on their website in the "Hawthorne Happenings" online newsletter I believe.

As a nurse myself, if I had an active vocation, I'd join these sisters in a flash!

I first learned of the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Healing Love on these very boards. There have been a number of threads about them here. They work with abused and neglected children. They might be worth a phone call or an email for you in your continued discernment.

Thanks! Yes, they look like a very beautiful order. Maybe I will write to them. I love the work they're doing.

Has anyone else heard anything about them?

Rose, I really thank you for starting this thread. We need more religious women in healthcare and you have prompted people to highlight some very good communities!

Thanks a lot!

I wonder if there are any good religious sisters who minister in the city, like helping the kids and the homeless and everything. I know Rosalind Moss is starting an order like that, but I wonder if there are any that are already established.

I think the Missionaries of Charity would fit that description. What about the sister CFR's?

Also, just to add what others have alreday said, I have had nothing but good experiences (which were considerable at one time) with both the Hawthorne Dominicans and the Little Sisters of the Poor. My mother used to volunteer at the Little Sisters' Home in Northern New Jersey - St. Joseph's Home, I believe. I went to a coule of funerals there for long time resdents of the home. WHAT A PLACE. The kindness of the sisters to the elderly population is absolutely WONDERFUL. This is NOT your typical "nursing home". Same for the Hospice's of the Hawthorne Domincians that I've seen...the give amazing, compassionate, professional care.

Peace

Rose, something that I found very helpful in my discernment was to stop thinking about communities for a while. When I began to discern actively for the first time my initial approach was to look at lots of websites and books about different communities. I didn't know any other way to go about it. While the tug towards the Carmelite way and witness was with me from the first moment, I had no other knowledge about where I was supposed to be, and the more I looked at different communities the more confused I became.

God's response to my flustered behaviour was to encourage me to spend lots of time in quiet, reflective, structured prayer. Your call to religious life is founded on time spent in conversation and communion with God, not on in-depth knowledge of various communities and their apostolates. Too often we fall into the trap of thinking that religious life is like a career - if we choose an order that suits our talents and inclinations and personalities, we're following God's will. That's not necessarily the case. Lots of prayer will immunise you against this trend, and its current will carry you to places where you may never have thought of looking.

This is the advice that comes to me when I read your posts. I may be way off, but for some reason I get the impression that now is not the best time to be pinpointing specific communities. Just get a general taster of what religious life is all about and settle down on your knees.

Thanks for this post... I'm in this position right now.

Thanks a lot for the advice :-)
I have generally been feeling very confused as to where I should be... nursing or working with children or a cloistered community... It makes my head spin trying to find what God wants with me!
How can you be sure though which community God is calling you to?

You settle into prayer, visit an order, pray some more, seek guidance from a spiritual director, and pray some more. In time, with patience and perseverance, and a heart open to God's will, not your own preferences, you'll find the community where God is calling you. Just stay patient, and trust that he will lead you!

I'll try. It's hard though.
But I mean, what are the signs that one kind of religious life is for you? How does He let you know?

What do you like to do? Are you already trained in some field??? It is important to love the work the congragation does. Certainly you are there to serve the Lord, but you must feel some inclination to do the work.
Thebest thing to do, of course first is to pray!!! Then start visiting different communities. If it is a cloister, write or email them and set up a visit. Go meet them and get a 'feel'. Trust me, when you find where you belong, you will feel it in your heart. Some places will turn you off when you walk in the door.
I realize that may be difficult when money is tight. Alot of gals do those nun runs when they visit a bunch of convents on semester breaks. That is a great way to see some communities, without obligation.
Dont limit yourself to just one group of sisters or charisms. Go explore as much as possible, even if it be online. Soon you will feel a calling to a certain charism, be it Dominican, Carmelite, Benedictine etc.
Get to know the saints. They have gone through the same struggles and doubts.
Read all you can, there are loads of books available on places like Amazon.com, that have good information.
And just take your time. There is no hurry. When you meet some sisters that you seem to click with, spend a week or two with them. That is the only way you will know.
Best of luck to you!!

I remind myself on a regular basis that my vocation does not begin next year or next month or next week, but today. Now. Mary could not have known for sure what God was calling her to do - as soon as Gabriel told her that she was to be the mother of Christ, and she accepted, he vanished. Luke puts it very starkly: "And the angel left her." There was no time for her to quiz him on the particulars. There was no time for her to sit there pondering about what being the mother of her Lord would entail - the specific jobs that she would have to do, the places she would have to go. She could not possibly have known either of those things.

All she could have known was what she had to be. Trusting, loving, faithful in everything she did - then God's plan would be unfolded in her. Simeon and Anna knew something of what would happen to Mary; Mary herself, the mother of God and our own mother, knew nothing. And she was content that way. It didn't get in the way of her vocation.

Concentrate on being faithful, loving, and trusting in the tasks and activities that make up your daily life now. Ask God to make Himself known to you in each one. You may realise that you love a particular kind of work with an enthusiasm that you have rarely felt before, and start looking for orders that carry out this work. You may discover that you are called to serve God in silence and pure prayer. Then will be the time to look seriously at communities. Visiting one or two convents now won't hurt you - it's always good to talk to sisters and ask them questions about the lives that they lead. But bear in mind that much of your discernment won't take place in monastic parlours or at 'Come and See' weekends, but in your own home and the other seemingly mundane and ordinary places and activities that make up your life as it is now.

I would look at the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul-- they do exactly the kind of work you mention. Now, you will see that their habit is a simple combination of blue and white, though some sisters wear a blue dress and veil. If a very distinctive habit is important to you, this may disappoint you, but the apostolate is centered on the poor.

If you're still really having a hard time, make a quasi-list of things that are important to you. Do you want sisters that where a habit? That have very strict rules about community life? A certain apostalate? The list isn't binding, just a few things that attract you for now.
If you feel you can't even do that, start by contacting two or three local orders to you (if there are any) and ask if you can come for a small visit, maybe a day working with the or even just evening prayer and dinner (or whatever they allow). Try to vary the groups you ask, maybe visit one active, one semi-contempletive, and one contemplative. (the contemplative one can be trickier...)
Just contact different groups and explain your situation: "I am a young woman, and I think I may be called to the religious life, but I am just beginning my search and am not really sure if the Lord is calling me to an active order or cloistered, what apostalate, etc. I am interested n your community b/c of ............. Would it be possible for me to come for a short visit?"
The vocation directresses are there to help you discern your vocation, even if its not to their community! So ask their advice, because they've been through the whole discernment process.
The most important thing is to realize that the first community you visit may not be it. Just like if you were getting married, the first boy you date probably isn't the one you are going to marry. But the experience, seeing both what you want and don't want, will help guide you and help you know where the Lord is calling you, based on your prayers and what attracts you.
Hang in there!!



There's also the Salesians Sisters of Don Bosco I kind of when I reread your post.
God bless you!
Lauren

During my discernment I was Quite Sure of a certain community, then Very Sure that another one most certainly wouldn't do, and guess which one's noviciate I'll be visiting for a week in October

The community you enter can't change who you are (the idea it that it brings the "real you" out!), because God has made you exactly the way He wants you. That's why there are two foundations under discernment: getting to know the community you want to enter, and getting to know yourself. The last one is much harder and often overlooked a bit. If you start going over all your daily activities in prayer (for example as an examination of conscience during Compline), God will be able to tell you which of your activities "fit" and which didn't.

Who knows what you'll find out! It's terribly exciting, really

Oh ho ho ho! Sounds like my life, my friend! They say God has a sense of humor. I believe it!

Completely true

Blessed are those who can laugh at the time He uses it... not three months later (I have some work to do in that aspect.)