Why Enter Religious Life?

[TheresaThoma]

I met with someone who will be helping me with my discernment journey and the one thing that she asked me to do before our next meeting is to write down why I feel called to religious life and to the community I am discerning with specifically.

Its been a very good exercise for me to have to solidly list out my reasons. She encouraged me to include everything from the internals to the externals.

(The other part was to write down any questions or concerns that I still have).

[Sister Marie]

I met with someone who will be helping me with my discernment journey and the one thing that she asked me to do before our next meeting is to write down why I feel called to religious life and to the community I am discerning with specifically.
Its been a very good exercise for me to have to solidly list out my reasons. She encouraged me to include everything from the internals to the externals.
(The other part was to write down any questions or concerns that I still have).

That sounds like a very interesting exercise... I wonder if you can vaguely share how she uses your list for discernment when you next meet so others might benefit from the exercise...

I love your Pedro Arrupe quote! I have a caligraphied copy of that prayer hanging in my bedroom. I think it probably sums up the answer to this thread pretty well and also the answer to why anyone would radically give their life to God (in any state of life).

[Sister Marie]

Here is the entire text for anyone interested!

Fall in Love
Attributed to Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ (1907–1991)

Nothing is more practical than
finding God, than
falling in Love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.

From Finding God in All Things: A Marquette Prayer Book © 2009 Marquette University Press. Used with permission.

- See more at: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/prayers-by-st-ignatius-and-others/fall-in-love/#sthash.ib3yHlKN.dpuf

[1054]

Here is the entire text for anyone interested!

Fall in Love
Attributed to Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ (1907–1991)

Nothing is more practical than
finding God, than
falling in Love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.

From Finding God in All Things: A Marquette Prayer Book © 2009 Marquette University Press. Used with permission.

- See more at: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/prayers-by-st-ignatius-and-others/fall-in-love/#sthash.ib3yHlKN.dpuf

 

Thank you for this!!!

[TheresaThoma]

I will definitely let you all know how it goes. I meet with her on the 28th.

[SilentJoy]

 I'm interested to hear in one sentence why any of you wish to be religious.

To take care of the Monastery; to serve the Sisters; to live with the Eucharist.

 

My vocation is Dog; I have to work and be helpful, to stay and love and give my life (and to never pee on the carpet... :hehe2: ) On Good Friday I sat near the empty tabernacle because that is where the dog should be if it's master isn't home, and I understood that whatever I pursued in life, it would ideally have to include those three, yet I was not necessarily supposed to be a nun. I thought that was odd because you need to be a nun to do those things. I had too much anxiety over the thought of entering a community with the hope of becoming a nun, in spite of the fact that I wanted to live the life with all of my heart and had been discerning for a few years. I did not realize that it was still possible to enter a community as a Lay-Sister (I thought that vocation had expired around Vatican 2); I am delighted at the prospect of becoming a Lay-Sister instead, and it is refreshing to have only normal little anxieties now and then for a change.

Edited September 10, 2014 by SilentJoy

[Graciela]

Wow! I also thought that the lay-sister category was eliminated after VatII. What community/-ties still have it?

[marigold]

To take care of the Monastery; to serve the Sisters; to live with the Eucharist.

My vocation is Dog; I have to work and be helpful, to stay and love and give my life (and to never pee on the carpet... :hehe2: ) On Good Friday I sat near the empty tabernacle because that is where the dog should be if it's master isn't home, and I understood that whatever I pursued in life, it would ideally have to include those three, yet I was not necessarily supposed to be a nun. I thought that was odd because you need to be a nun to do those things. I had too much anxiety over the thought of entering a community with the hope of becoming a nun, in spite of the fact that I wanted to live the life with all of my heart and had been discerning for a few years. I did not realize that it was still possible to enter a community as a Lay-Sister (I thought that vocation had expired around Vatican 2); I am delighted at the prospect of becoming a Lay-Sister instead, and it is refreshing to have only normal little anxieties now and then for a change.

I think this is an unusual and beautiful vocation and I hope God blesses you in it.

[SilentJoy]

Wow! I also thought that the lay-sister category was eliminated after VatII. What community/-ties still have it?

From the very little I've learned so far, it is more of a Benedictine (Cistercian, Trappist, etc.) thing and it is more common in Europe than America. Their lay-Sister is referred to as a Regular, or Internal, Oblate. In a way, it is their version of an extern Sister.

[puellapaschalis]

But lay sisters are different to extern sisters. Or is that not what you mean?

[Lady-Indis]

Why I'm considering it....

Okay, this is going to sound weird after all the other posts, but the fact of the matter is that I want to be happy in this life and the life after. The best way to be happy in this life and after is to follow God's will. I don't know what God's will is for me, so I'm trying to look into the religious life before thinking of marriage.

So...anyone else? :)

[SilentJoy]

But lay sisters are different to extern sisters. Or is that not what you mean?

I'm sorry, I don't explain things very well, especially when I'm still asking all the questions myself! Both vocations were referred to when it was explained to me.

Edited September 10, 2014 by SilentJoy

[SilentJoy]

I think this is an unusual and beautiful vocation and I hope God blesses you in it.

Awwww, thank you! (I am not surprised by the "unusual" part, lol!)