I Need Some Help...

[HisChild]

I know I've read about these souls before but I can't recall the details. Do you know of any religious in history, Saints or saints, who have entered more than one community before they discovered where our Lord wanted them?

Any help you're able to give would be most helpful.

Thank you.

God bless you,

HisChild

[dakurgie]

[quote name='HisChild' date='19 August 2009 - 10:45 PM' timestamp='1250739928' post='1953079']
I know I've read about these souls before but I can't recall the details. Do you know of any religious in history, Saints or saints, who have entered more than one community before they discovered where our Lord wanted them?

Any help you're able to give would be most helpful.

Thank you.

God bless you,

HisChild
[/quote]


I beliee Leonie Martin, St. Therese's sister entered more than one community.

[HisChild]

[quote name='dakurgie' date='19 August 2009 - 09:07 PM' timestamp='1250741221' post='1953085']
I beliee Leonie Martin, St. Therese's sister entered more than one community.
[/quote]


YES! I thought one of the Martin sisters was one on my mind. I wonder if there are any others...

http://www.helpfellowship.org/Sr_Francoise-Therese.htm


I've entered more than one community and for a while was really depressed (not clinically, just befuddled and disappointed). This is a great help to me. Thank you SO much.


Any others?

[VeniteAdoremus]

The first Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, but she isn't a Saint

In the old days, there were several who were dragged from community to community a lot, if not actually leaving and re-entering. Bl. Lucia de Narni springs to mind.

[Sr Marianne]

Well, St Teresa of Calcutta had to leave and found her own Order.
The same is true of our own foundress, Mother Francis Murphy (not a canonized saint) who left the Poor Servants of the Mother of God to found our congretation the Francican sisters Minoress.
http://www.stclaresconvent.fsnet.co.uk/
Sr Marianne

[puellapaschalis]

St. Anthony of Padua (or did I dream that?)

[Maria Faustina]

Didn't Saint Faustina visit a lot of different convents and then enter the one that accepted her? Maybe I made that up haha.

[ortus]

There are several male saints who spring to mind. Most of them went on to found religious orders and congregations.

- St Peter Julian Eymard was a diocesan priest who then joined the Marist Fathers and afterwards went on to found the Blessed Sacrament Fathers.

- St Camillus de Lellis tried his vocation with the Capuchin Franciscans but was dismissed from their novitiate. He went on to found the Ministers of the Sick.

- St Anthony Mary Claret spent some time in the Jesuit novitiate before ordination as a diocesan priest and then founded the Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

For me that seems to indicate the Holy Spirit may lead us into all sorts of unexpected places. Even if we think we have made some terrible mistake in discerning the Lords will, have faith and perhaps in time we will see that even the 'dead ends' were part of His Providence.

Peace and Joy in the Lord.

[VeniteAdoremus]

[quote name='puellapaschalis' date='20 August 2009 - 02:12 PM' timestamp='1250766761' post='1953177']
St. Anthony of Padua (or did I dream that?)
[/quote]

Oh, right, he was an Augustinian canon! Good one

[Indwelling Trinity]

Nazarena, an American Camaldolese anchoress had been in many communities before receiving a papal indult to live as a Camaldolese anchoress in Rome.

[stlmom]

[quote name='Maria Faustina' date='20 August 2009 - 07:16 AM' timestamp='1250766987' post='1953178']
Didn't Saint Faustina visit a lot of different convents and then enter the one that accepted her? Maybe I made that up haha.
[/quote]

Actually it is true that St. Faustina knocked on many convent doors in Warsaw before one would admit her.

[HisChild]

Thank you all! I'm so grateful to all your responses. I will have a lot of reading this weekend I can just tell!

You've all really edified me. I was told by a well meaning someone (a religious) that since I'd been in more than one community (only as a postulant) that must mean I wasn't called to religious life. Perhaps that IS true I'm still discerning and praying... but have you ever placed two or more things before our Lord asking for direction? All are good choices, but only one makes your heart calm? That's me and religious life. I'm not sure I'm meant to found a religious community, although I've journalled my ideas of what came to mind one night after a particularly vivid dream. I DO know whatever I do will be somewhat if not completely cloistered. I also feel called to the Carmelite charism, but our Lord will reveal Himself and His will for me. Sighs. In His time...that's what I continue to tell myself, but sometimes I don't listen.


[quote name='ortus' date='20 August 2009 - 04:28 AM' timestamp='1250767707' post='1953182']
...For me that seems to indicate the Holy Spirit may lead us into all sorts of unexpected places. Even if we think we have made some terrible mistake in discerning the Lords will, have faith and perhaps in time we will see that even the 'dead ends' were part of His Providence.

Peace and Joy in the Lord.
[/quote]


Yes. I still say, even to my own family, 'for some reason I've entered and left...it's Providential, and eventually the rest of the story will be revealed.'

But I still hang my head in shame and sorrow thinking my past was a failure. I try to be kind to myself. That's sometimes difficult.


[quote name='Indwelling Trinity' date='20 August 2009 - 05:10 AM' timestamp='1250770241' post='1953185']
Nazarena, an American Camaldolese anchoress had been in many communities before receiving a papal indult to live as a Camaldolese anchoress in Rome.


[/quote]

I'm reading Nazarena's book right now! Isn't her story wonderful? Her life builds mine up. She too thought she was called to Carmel and ended up Camaldolese. Her story is why I continue to be open to the gentle guiding wind of the Holy Spirit.

Thank you all for your assistance. May God reward you!

HisChild, who never ceases to be amazed in the love God has for me

[HisChild]

Oh! By the way, when I said Saints and saints (with a little 's'), I asked for those well known like Saints, only because it's easier to find written material about them... But I'd certainly be interested in any servant of our Lord whose story can be found. I didn't mean to imply that only canonized saints matter.

God bless.

[VeniteAdoremus]

Well, in that case my dear Mother Milagro was a Carmelite before she became a Servant of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara.

One of the Dutch SSVM sisters in temporary vows has been a postulant in a German cloistered monastery, and an older SSVM in temporary vows left to become a volunteer with a Trappistine community, where she later discerned a call, was accepted and is now a novice.

My future Prioress transferred just before final vows, one of the OSB postulants at Tyburn in England was a novice at Colwich before, while one of the sisters at Colwich transferred there from another OSB monastery...

Mmm... that's most of the ones I can come up with in one go, I believe

[puellapaschalis]

I know a Benedictine monk who had previously been with the Carmelites.

[ortus]

[quote name='HisChild' date='20 August 2009 - 11:02 AM' timestamp='1250780528' post='1953216']


Yes. I still say, even to my own family, 'for some reason I've entered and left...it's Providential, and eventually the rest of the story will be revealed.'

But I still hang my head in shame and sorrow thinking my past was a failure. I try to be kind to myself. That's sometimes difficult.



[/quote]


I think I understand something of what you write. When I was 18 I tried my vocation and left part way through my novitiate. For a long time, I went over and over my decision to leave and regretting it - carrying it round like my own private millstone.

It was years later that I started to reconsider the possibility that I may have a call to the religious life and something that my Spiritual Director said to me helped me quite a lot. He said that I bring all of my uniqueness to my vocation and that includes my baggage - all of my frustrations and regrets as well as my talents and capabilities. By saying yes to the possibility of a religious vocation, I am offering all of this to the Lord to do with what He will. I can have no way of knowing how he will use that uniqueness but I guess that is all part of His Providence. All I can be is grateful that He is still offering me the gift of the possibility of following Him. I hope that does not sound too much like a sermon and I am not trying to give you advice but what you wrote struck a chord with me.

I had another thought about another figure with a meandering vocation. Fr Gerard Fitzgerald was a diocesan priest who went on to become a Holy Cross Father and then founded the Handmaids of the Precious Blood and the Servants of the Paraclete. There is a lovely biography of him by the late Fr Hardon SJ, I think it's called Apostle of the Eucharist. Fr Hardon, whose own Cause for canonization is in the early stages, certainly rated Fr Gerald very highly.

Peace and Joy in the Lord

[Indwelling Trinity]

[quote name='HisChild' date='20 August 2009 - 12:02 PM' timestamp='1250780528' post='1953216']
Thank you all! I'm so grateful to all your responses. I will have a lot of reading this weekend I can just tell!

You've all really edified me. I was told by a well meaning someone (a religious) that since I'd been in more than one community (only as a postulant) that must mean I wasn't called to religious life. Perhaps that IS true I'm still discerning and praying... but have you ever placed two or more things before our Lord asking for direction? All are good choices, but only one makes your heart calm? That's me and religious life. I'm not sure I'm meant to found a religious community, although I've journalled my ideas of what came to mind one night after a particularly vivid dream. I DO know whatever I do will be somewhat if not completely cloistered. I also feel called to the Carmelite charism, but our Lord will reveal Himself and His will for me. Sighs. In His time...that's what I continue to tell myself, but sometimes I don't listen.

Dear His Child:

Laughing... don't let your heart be upset. I enetered religious life at 18 was professed left to become a Carmelite and had many ups and downs over the years. yet in my heart I know at its deepest level I am still a Carmelite
Currently I am a consecrated hermit in the Carmelite tradition when seemingly out of no where other women started coming to me asking to start a Carmelite Laura. Trust me i did not go out looking for this and made sure i got plenty of good spiritual direction from other Carmelites both Fathers, hermits and Prioresses. and so I with two others have embarked on this Journey of love not knowing where it will lead. If any saying is true, the one that says God writes straight with crooked lines is very true. After coming out of Carmel i obtained a degree in medicine and post graduate work in clinical psychology. I have experienced complete brokenness feeling completely abandoned by God for many years.

All I can say is that God is found in the journey and everything i have endured to this day only serves to expand my heart in Love not only for God, but for myself and others. It has developed a Mother's heart in me and now all that i have learned through the years i see is now a gift to God and to others. God is ever faithful. He uses trials like this in order to completely strip us of all that is not Him. Yes it is a painful process but isnt that what we wanted? To love Him totally for Himself? He is the Potter we the clay to be formed as He wishes and each creation of His is beautiful and unique. Today we see only the broken threads of the underside of the tapestry, one day we will see the face of the tapestry he has created with our lives and will wonder at the Goodness of God! Keep walking your journey step by step. God will not let you or any other who is truly seeking Him to fall or be lost. He is a God of Merciful Love. Let us ask him for the grace to follow him in blind faith. This is the Carmelite way.

Tenderly,

Indwelling Trinity


Yes. I still say, even to my own family, 'for some reason I've entered and left...it's Providential, and eventually the rest of the story will be revealed.'

But I still hang my head in shame and sorrow thinking my past was a failure. I try to be kind to myself. That's sometimes difficult.




I'm reading Nazarena's book right now! Isn't her story wonderful? Her life builds mine up. She too thought she was called to Carmel and ended up Camaldolese. Her story is why I continue to be open to the gentle guiding wind of the Holy Spirit.

Thank you all for your assistance. May God reward you!

HisChild, who never ceases to be amazed in the love God has for me
[/quote]

[Indwelling Trinity]

[quote name='HisChild' date='20 August 2009 - 12:02 PM' timestamp='1250780528' post='1953216']
Thank you all! I'm so grateful to all your responses. I will have a lot of reading this weekend I can just tell!

You've all really edified me. I was told by a well meaning someone (a religious) that since I'd been in more than one community (only as a postulant) that must mean I wasn't called to religious life. Perhaps that IS true I'm still discerning and praying... but have you ever placed two or more things before our Lord asking for direction? All are good choices, but only one makes your heart calm? That's me and religious life. I'm not sure I'm meant to found a religious community, although I've journalled my ideas of what came to mind one night after a particularly vivid dream. I DO know whatever I do will be somewhat if not completely cloistered. I also feel called to the Carmelite charism, but our Lord will reveal Himself and His will for me. Sighs. In His time...that's what I continue to tell myself, but sometimes I don't listen.

Dear His Child:

Laughing... don't let your heart be upset. I enetered religious life at 18 was professed left to become a Carmelite and had many ups and downs over the years. yet in my heart I know at its deepest level I am still a Carmelite
Currently I am a consecrated hermit in the Carmelite tradition when seemingly out of no where other women started coming to me asking to start a Carmelite Laura. Trust me i did not go out looking for this and made sure i got plenty of good spiritual direction from other Carmelites both Fathers, hermits and Prioresses. and so I with two others have embarked on this Journey of love not knowing where it will lead. If any saying is true, the one that says God writes straight with crooked lines is very true. After coming out of Carmel i obtained a degree in medicine and post graduate work in clinical psychology. I have experienced complete brokenness feeling completely abandoned by God for many years.

All I can say is that God is found in the journey and everything i have endured to this day only serves to expand my heart in Love not only for God, but for myself and others. It has developed a Mother's heart in me and now all that i have learned through the years i see is now a gift to God and to others. God is ever faithful. He uses trials like this in order to completely strip us of all that is not Him. Yes it is a painful process but isnt that what we wanted? To love Him totally for Himself? He is the Potter we the clay to be formed as He wishes and each creation of His is beautiful and unique. Today we see only the broken threads of the underside of the tapestry, one day we will see the face of the tapestry he has created with our lives and will wonder at the Goodness of God! Keep walking your journey step by step. God will not let you or any other who is truly seeking Him to fall or be lost. He is a God of Merciful Love. Let us ask him for the grace to follow him in blind faith. This is the Carmelite way.

Tenderly,

Indwelling Trinity


Yes. I still say, even to my own family, 'for some reason I've entered and left...it's Providential, and eventually the rest of the story will be revealed.'

But I still hang my head in shame and sorrow thinking my past was a failure. I try to be kind to myself. That's sometimes difficult.




I'm reading Nazarena's book right now! Isn't her story wonderful? Her life builds mine up. She too thought she was called to Carmel and ended up Camaldolese. Her story is why I continue to be open to the gentle guiding wind of the Holy Spirit.

Thank you all for your assistance. May God reward you!

HisChild, who never ceases to be amazed in the love God has for me
[/quote]

[Indwelling Trinity]

Yes I love Nazarena. When i was a young missionary in Rome i knew Don Anselmo Nazarena's spiritual director at San Gregorio al Cielio also Father Thomas Matus was a young priest then at San Gregorio. We sisters had a house for the poor at San Gregorio laughing.. and our convent was the old monastery's chicken coop! I am not kidding! Mother Teresa loved it as it was very poor.

I hope you got my last post.

Hugs,

Indwelling Trinity

[littlesister]

Mother Nadine Brown left the Good Shepherd Contemplatives to found the Intercessors of the Lamb.