Youngest Orders?

[i<3franciscans]

[quote name='MaterMisericordiae' timestamp='1336856222' post='2430091']
Many communities consider Catholic home-schooled women to be more mature than those that have attended public school. They are more committed to their studies. I have a friend that did the Seton Home Study program and the CFR Sisters thought that was really inspiring. I also have another friend that I met when I visited the RSMs in November last year. She is only 17, but the Sisters allowed her to make an application since she was homeschooled and MUCH more advanced than a regular student.

I do agree that life experience is important, but it's nice to know that communities judge character individually.
[/quote]
I am home schooled and know that this is true. I am really teaching myself high school and therefore must be committed and disciplined to keep myself going.

Personally, I am thinking of college before religious life though... I think that time beyond high school will be really important to spiritually grow and become a little more mature in adult matters.

[Strictlyinkblot]

[quote name='i<3franciscans' timestamp='1337983118' post='2434843']
I am home schooled and know that this is true. I am really teaching myself high school and therefore must be committed and disciplined to keep myself going.

Personally, I am thinking of college before religious life though... I think that time beyond high school will be really important to spiritually grow and become a little more mature in adult matters.
[/quote]

God calls at different times, and its always the right time for you

[LaPetiteSoeur]

[quote name='i<3franciscans' timestamp='1337983118' post='2434843']
I am home schooled and know that this is true. I am really teaching myself high school and therefore must be committed and disciplined to keep myself going.

Personally, I am thinking of college before religious life though... I think that time beyond high school will be really important to spiritually grow and become a little more mature in adult matters.
[/quote]

I am going to get ready to be impaled by others, but I think this is really, really important. I know everyone ages differently and matures at a different rate. Everyone tells me I was mature when I graduated high school (and at the time I was a full time summer pastoral assistant for a Catholic Church and their main liturgical person), but I cannot [i]imagine [/i]what my life would be like had I not gone to college. I have learned so much that will only help me in religious life--in whatever order I end up in. I've met people, some very different and some whose stories have made me seriously question my faith, who have helped me get out of my comfort zone and taught me how to minister to others.

It's important, i think, to be on your own at least for a little while, be it one year, two years, or four or five (or even more! One novice I know has a law degree!). It helps you experience a bit more of the world.
Anyway, prayers for all discerners and religious out there, as always.

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='LaPetiteSoeur' timestamp='1338004249' post='2435013']
I am going to get ready to be impaled by others, but I think this is really, really important. I know everyone ages differently and matures at a different rate. Everyone tells me I was mature when I graduated high school (and at the time I was a full time summer pastoral assistant for a Catholic Church and their main liturgical person), but I cannot [i]imagine [/i]what my life would be like had I not gone to college. I have learned so much that will only help me in religious life--in whatever order I end up in. I've met people, some very different and some whose stories have made me seriously question my faith, who have helped me get out of my comfort zone and taught me how to minister to others.

It's important, i think, to be on your own at least for a little while, be it one year, two years, or four or five (or even more! One novice I know has a law degree!). It helps you experience a bit more of the world.
Anyway, prayers for all discerners and religious out there, as always.
[/quote]

I agree with this. I didn't start discerning until I was 24 because I had no idea about religious life. But, even if I had started earlier, I would like to think that I still would have gone to college. I have learned so much that will be useful to the apostolate that I am hoping *my* religious order has and I am still pursuing higher goals. I also don't think I will be ready until I'm 30 or 31 to enter (1-2 years away). I want to finish my Associate in Science degree in Medical Office Administration so that I can get some experience in and THEN enter. Of course, this could change if God says otherwise.

[mantellata]

[quote name='LaPetiteSoeur' timestamp='1338004249' post='2435013']

It's important, i think, to be on your own at least for a little while, be it one year, two years, or four or five (or even more! One novice I know has a law degree!). It helps you experience a bit more of the world.
Anyway, prayers for all discerners and religious out there, as always.
[/quote]


My experience is that it depends on the individual - - and the community she is entering. Many (maybe most) young women benefit from a little "on your own" experience prior to religious life -- but in many communities you get some of this formation (and experience) by being in the community itself -- especially in active orders. I know A TON of well adjusted, wonderful [b][i]normal[/i][/b] young women who entered religious life right out of high school (I also lived with them). I was grateful for my college memories and experience (I entered at 22) but wouldn't have minded entering earlier. My former community provided a lot of room to be yourself, grow up and all the rest.

[Lisa]

This is a discussion we've had many times in the last few years on phatmass. I say we simply encourage people of any age to grow in both both maturity and love for the Lord, because we can't put ourselves in an individual's shoes and know their experiences. For some people, that's best done within the convent during formation; for others, they need the time "in the world."

I loved my college years, but whenever a person is ready to make a commitment to serious discernment within a convent, praise God!

[Strictlyinkblot]

It would not have been right for me to enter after school, even though it would have been easier from a financial point of view. And even in my twenties I just wasn't sorted in my head. I had so many issues I needed to put behind me first. Its a little ironic that now I'm ready spiritually and psychologically (at least I think I am ) I'm not financially. But hopefully by October next year I will be.

[PhuturePriest]

[quote name='the171' timestamp='1336776936' post='2429911']
WAIT! 16? Girls can enter at 16??
[/quote]

I wouldn't be surprised. Canon Law says you must be seventeen when you enter the novitiate, so you could enter when you are sixteen and be seventeen by the time you're ready to take the novitiate. Unfortunately for me, guys tend to do this thing called "maturing at a much slower rate than women", so most of the male orders I find depress me with things like "No one may enter until age twenty-two". In fact, the average that I have seen is between twenty and twenty-two. Some even go to thirty! However, there are still some really razzle dazzle ones like the Franciscan Brothers of Peace that allow you entrance when you are eighteen. The lowest I have ever seen is seventeen, but that is the Franciscan Friars Minor, so it shouldn't shock anyone that they would have such an [i]a[/i]wesome rule like that.

Edited May 27, 2012 by FuturePriest387

[AnneLine]

Everybody is different.... and I know it is hard to wait.... but you want to give yourself the best chance of perservering..... some people go in at 18 or 19 and do well... but a lot come out at that point, too.

Enjoy the next 1000 days FuturePriest... it seems to be what God is asking of you. Each one will be a chance to bring another soul to God.... and that will help you to be a better future priest!

And you never know... I was SURE during high school I was going to be a religious... and God had some big surprises for me..... who knows that He has in mind for you!

[PhuturePriest]

[quote name='AnneLine' timestamp='1338093426' post='2435614']
Everybody is different.... and I know it is hard to wait.... but you want to give yourself the best chance of perservering..... some people go in at 18 or 19 and do well... but a lot come out at that point, too.

Enjoy the next 1000 days FuturePriest... it seems to be what God is asking of you. Each one will be a chance to bring another soul to God.... and that will help you to be a better future priest!

And you never know... I was SURE during high school I was going to be a religious... and God had some big surprises for me..... who knows that He has in mind for you!
[/quote]

Well, everyone is different, that's what drives me nuts about these definitive age rules. I am not sure I will be ready for the Religious life when I am seventeen or even eighteen, but there are people that are and they shouldn't be denied those precious years because other people may find it unfair. I have been told by a few people in real life that I am very mature for my age, and whether this is true or not I do not know. If it is I owe it all to my parents. Making me work a job all my life has done wonders for me and I have many benefits a lot of other kids don't have, unfortunately.

I know. That's actually what my first spiritual director told me when I was fourteen since he sensed I was impatient about it, what with statements like "I just wish I could enter tomorrow" and all. He said if God wanted me to enter now I would, but he obviously doesn't so I won't, and not to waste the time he has given me to use on someone else out here in the secular world.

Let's see... Professional singer, stand-up comedian, and... yeah, those are my only two back-up plans. Nothing else is appealing except for the Religious life and the Priesthood. Let's pray I'm called so I don't end up a homeless singer with no money.

[Sister Marie]

A few weeks ago a sister who I don't know well was visiting my convent and we were all chatting over coffee and she asked me how old I was when I entered. When I told her she asked me if I thought now, looking back, that it was the right choice for me to enter in the middle of my college education. I hadn't really thought about it too much before then so I just said, "It all seemed to work out so I guess yes!"

A week ago I was in the car on my way to a meeting about a new apostolate I'm working with during the summer. (I do my best thinking in the car!) It is incredibly exciting because nothing has been done like this before and I was so excited about starting some new work for God and for the poor. I was thinking about the sister's questions and I realized that if I had entered earlier or later I may not have been able to be a part of that ministry and the same thing is true for the mission I am now in and the sisters I now live with and all the places I might live and things I might do in the future.

God is in charge but in religious life He is in charge through the leadership of each community. The age limits are valid even if we don't like them. As with obedience for the rest of our lives, sometimes we have to accept the fact that 1) we aren't always right and 2) even if we are right, it doesn't matter.

[PhuturePriest]

[quote name='Sister Marie' timestamp='1338120268' post='2435721']
A few weeks ago a sister who I don't know well was visiting my convent and we were all chatting over coffee and she asked me how old I was when I entered. When I told her she asked me if I thought now, looking back, that it was the right choice for me to enter in the middle of my college education. I hadn't really thought about it too much before then so I just said, "It all seemed to work out so I guess yes!"

A week ago I was in the car on my way to a meeting about a new apostolate I'm working with during the summer. (I do my best thinking in the car!) It is incredibly exciting because nothing has been done like this before and I was so excited about starting some new work for God and for the poor. I was thinking about the sister's questions and I realized that if I had entered earlier or later I may not have been able to be a part of that ministry and the same thing is true for the mission I am now in and the sisters I now live with and all the places I might live and things I might do in the future.

God is in charge but in religious life He is in charge through the leadership of each community. The age limits are valid even if we don't like them. As with obedience for the rest of our lives, sometimes we have to accept the fact that 1) we aren't always right and 2) even if we are right, it doesn't matter.
[/quote]

It is as Father David Mary of the Franciscan Brothers Minor said (Rather loosely): "They didn't trust me because I was eighteen, so I went to college for a year. I came back and asked again at the age of nineteen, and they finally gave in, but they still distrusted me because of my age. I entered the Capuchin Franciscans when I was nineteen, and I am so thankful for it. If I had entered at a later time, I can't imagine how many people I spoke to wouldn't have been there, and how many experiences I wouldn't have had."

Of course. Religious life is all about obedience and obviously I'm going to obey (Seeing as how if I don't they just won't accept me anyway. ).