First Profession, Cistercian Nun, Ma

[krissylou]

Novice #3 made her simple profession on August 15.

http://www.mtstmarysabbey.org/MSMAbbey/Photos/Pages/Sr_Sofias_Profession.html


What a blessed summer for this monastery!


[img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/nun2.gif[/img]

[sistersintigo]

A blessed summer, in a bittersweet year, for Mount St Mary's Trappistine Nuns.
I exchanged letters with Mother Maureen, the Abbess recently. I had written to her regarding the diocesan Vocations Retreat, which I had attended some years earlier, and to which Mother Maureen sent a Trappistine white novice, granting her permission to give a presentation to the women in discernment, regarding contemplative cloistered life. The novice, a native of a faraway country, had moved me deeply with her words and her evident sincerity. Of course to Mother Maureen I spoke of the novice by name, but for privacy's sake I will keep her anonymous in this post. I knew that since that presentation years earlier, she had professed simple vows.
Mother Maureen wrote back that the ceremony of simple profession had changed their novice in a way that was not anticipated. For the ceremony, it was arranged that the sister's blood relatives could come, many of them from the faraway native country. The young sister had not seen many of them in years.
In fact, it was deeply overwhelming for her after the profession ceremony, when she had to say goodbye to her birth-family all over again. And to make a long story short, she was allowed to leave the abbey and the United States, and return to her first home and her people, whom she desperately missed.
Mother Maureen wrote: "Vocations -- like people -- are so mysterious!" It is also a fact that the young woman is missed at Mount Saint Mary's where she was dearly loved.

A possible postscript:
The native country of the sister, is also anonymous here, for reasons of confidentiality. Two things can be directly remarked upon regarding her native land:
Catholicism is well established there and she can easily continue to be observant.
There is an abbey of Trappistine nuns in her country.

[Micah]

Popping in to rep love for the cistercians. They're the coolest. 8] Hope you get lots of postulants and God bless.

Edited August 29, 2010 by Micah

[krissylou]

Ohhh ... I am 99% sure I know who you are talking about. I knew there was a Sister who had made her first profession a couple years ago and left shortly thereafter.

Now I am the absolute first person to say that religious life isn't for everyone and there is nothing wrong with trying for a while and then leaving before solemn profession. I don't even much like Thomas Aquinas's saying that religious life is a higher good -- no, it's just different.

BUT -- that order seemed odd to me. I understood leaving at the end of novitiate and not making first profession. I understand leaving as you are far into your temporary profession and perpetual is looming. But right after first profession? That does not quite compute.

This makes so much more sense.

I'm sure it's very hard for everyone.

[sistersintigo]

Just came from looking at updates on the website (plenty of links on previous posts on this thread) of Mount St Mary's Abbey of Trappistine/Cistercian nuns in Wrentham, Massachusetts.
I pulled up this thread, because I remembered people getting all confused about a photograph of the youngest vocations in Wrentham, all grouped together. Of course all of them were women. One was noticeably taller than the others; at the time, her dress was secular, not a habit.
Well, there has been a first profession of another of these young women at the Abbey, one of the shorter ones. As usual, the Abbey's website has multiple color photographs, which may be viewed as a sideshow if you know how to work that mouse clicker.
The tall one is still there. And still taller than all the others.
The dress is what has changed. Now the tall one is dressed as a white novice. She is the only one of the four young women, in the most recent photos, who has not made some form of profession. The other three all have their white robes topped by those black -- what do you call 'em -- scapulars? And the one who just made profession, wears a gorgeous corsage at her collarbone.

[homeschoolmom]

Lots of reports on this thread. I'm going to close it until I (or another mod) can read through it.

[sistersintigo]

[quote name='sistersintigo' timestamp='1283103212' post='2164985']
A blessed summer, in a bittersweet year, for Mount St Mary's Trappistine Nuns.
I exchanged letters with Mother Maureen, the Abbess recently. I had written to her regarding the diocesan Vocations Retreat, which I had attended some years earlier, and to which Mother Maureen sent a Trappistine white novice, granting her permission to give a presentation to the women in discernment, regarding contemplative cloistered life. Of course to Mother Maureen I spoke of the novice by name, but for privacy's sake I will keep her anonymous in this post. I knew that since that presentation years earlier, she had professed simple vows.
Mother Maureen wrote back that the ceremony of simple profession had changed their novice in a way that was not anticipated.

And to make a long story short, she was allowed to leave the abbey and the United States, and return to her first home and her people, whom she desperately missed.
Mother Maureen wrote: "Vocations -- like people -- are so mysterious!" It is also a fact that the young woman is missed at Mount Saint Mary's where she was dearly loved.
[/quote]
Time to take my medicine.
The above post has both fact and ... something other than fact ... in it.
A suggestion has been put to me that I say so, with all due discretion.
The part that is factual, is that letters were exchanged between me and the superior.
It is also a fact, that the vowed religious of whom I wrote, the one I kept anonymous, who was sent by her superior to aid the diocesan facilitator of the above-mentioned retreat, did not interact with the discerners, including me; the young woman is not acquainted with me at all; and I have never been introduced to her, and it would be entirely false to presume that I know her or her situation.
I am not at liberty to reveal what has been disclosed to me, nor by whom. But I am satisfied with the communication I have received, that the story of the young woman's departure, as reported to me and as repeated above, is misleading at best, and largely inaccurate.
It was not my intention to break the commandment which reads, Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor. What was in my earlier post, was communicated from me in good faith and with no malice of intent.
Nevertheless, I have broken the commandment in this case, and it is a lesson to me that sin can be committed without premeditation or understanding. I don't know if my confessor will see it that way, but that is how I see it.
I apologize to the young woman involved, and more practically, to the readers and moderators of this thread.

[franciscanheart]

[quote name='sistersintigo' timestamp='1297356077' post='2210974']
Time to take my medicine.
The above post has both fact and ... something other than fact ... in it.
A suggestion has been put to me that I say so, with all due discretion.
The part that is factual, is that letters were exchanged between me and the superior.
It is also a fact, that the vowed religious of whom I wrote, the one I kept anonymous, who was sent by her superior to aid the diocesan facilitator of the above-mentioned retreat, did not interact with the discerners, including me; the young woman is not acquainted with me at all; and I have never been introduced to her, and it would be entirely false to presume that I know her or her situation.
I am not at liberty to reveal what has been disclosed to me, nor by whom. But I am satisfied with the communication I have received, that the story of the young woman's departure, as reported to me and as repeated above, is misleading at best, and largely inaccurate.
It was not my intention to break the commandment which reads, Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor. What was in my earlier post, was communicated from me in good faith and with no malice of intent.
Nevertheless, I have broken the commandment in this case, and it is a lesson to me that sin can be committed without premeditation or understanding. I don't know if my confessor will see it that way, but that is how I see it.
I apologize to the young woman involved, and more practically, to the readers and moderators of this thread.
[/quote]
I believe it is completely understood that no malice was intended and there was no intentional fabrication. Be gentle.