Category Archives: Discernment

Discernment, General interest, Vocations

“Souls in the Game” – Seminary Life through the Lens of Fraternity and Sportsmanship

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A very enjoyable and moving 30-minute documentary showing a group of seminarians, some without any real basketball experience, joining together to form a team in the truest sense of the word. From the Press Release and website:

Souls in the Game, a co-production of Saint John’s Seminary and the Archdiocese of Boston, is a heartwarming new 30-minute documentary that tells the story of seminary formation beyond theology and philosophy classes.  Released in time for National Vocation Awareness Week, the documentary offers a glimpse into seminary life through the lens of fraternity and sportsmanship, showing brothers supporting each other– on and off the court– as they grow to understand their own vocations.

Deacon Marcelo Ferrari, who is currently studying at Saint John’s Seminary, added, “We are excited to show a youthful church on fire with faith. By coming to the basketball tournament, you get to see this bright future of the Church. There’s a lot of young men living the joy of the Gospel and following Christ.”

Souls in the Game is available for free viewing at soulsinthegame.com or YouTube. Discussion questions
are also available making it appropriate for religious education curriculum or vocation awareness initiatives.

For more information and a complete press kit, visit https://www.soulsinthegame.com/press.

Discernment, Women's Communities

A Poem Written by Sr. Mary Michael Huseman, OSF, Upon Entering Religious Life

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Is My Life Enough?

By Sr. Mary Michael Huseman, OSF
(Written as she was entering religious life in 1993)

What special gift do I have
To repay the One I love?
The One Who gives me everything –
Even grace from above.

I asked Him to forgive me
Of my many, many sins.
He said, “I will – you asked me with love.”
I wanted to repay Him. “Where do I begin?

How do I repay Someone…
Who died for me,
and forgave my sins?
Is there a fee?

How do I repay Someone
Who gave His flesh and blood…
Who gives me joy and peace
And fills me with love!?

I asked, “How could I repay You?
You’ve been here from the start!
There’s nothing I have that you could want.”
He said: “I want your heart.”

“What?!” I immediately thought.
“That is a lot to ask!
He took my heart. He took my life.
Now He wants this task?!

He went on to explain,
“If you will abandon your will to Me,
Then you will be part of my Heavenly Plan
That I’ve formed for eternity.”

“I have given you many gifts
And much grace from above.
Will you let Me use you
To save the people I love?”

Once again, I gave into Him,
For He melts my heart, you see.
“True happiness comes,” He said,
“When you come and follow me.”

“There may be days of darkness.
There may be times when you are blue.
But do not worry. Do not be sad.
I am ALWAYS with you!”

Sr. Mary Michael Huseman, OSF, grew up as the youngest of nine children in Nazareth, Texas, a German Catholic farming town. While visiting the shrine of the Eucharistic Miracle in Lanciano, Italy, she writes: “I was overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit with instant clarity.  All of my doubts about the faith disappeared.  The knowledge and truth of the Love of God for each soul on earth was tangible.  His keen interest in each and every person was amazingly beautiful.  I wanted to put my face on the ground, for it hit my heart the first time that I was truly standing in front of God!”

She eventually discerned the call to religious life and visited a local Franciscan convent to see how the sisters lived their lives, not thinking that this was the right community for her. “If you want to make God laugh,” she said, “tell Him your plans.”  She was was touched by the love the Sisters had for each other, their lifestyle, their traditionalism, their apostolate, and that they were Franciscan.  Sister Mary Michael is now the vocation director for the School Sisters of Third Order of St. Francis in Panhandle, Texas (www.panhandlefranciscans.org).  You can read her full vocation story in the November/December issue of Religious Life magazine.

Discernment, General interest, Liturgical Year, News, Reflection, Resources, Saints, Vocations, Women's Communities

New IRL Affiliate Alert: Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa!

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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too… It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s Faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place.”  ​
​- Pope Benedict XVI, concerning the venerable liturgical rites of the Church

We at the IRL are happy to announce a new community added to our roster: Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa!

The Superiors of the Marian Sisters previously belonged to another religious Traditional order, however at the gracious invitation of Robert F. Vasa, Bishop of Santa Rosa, California, they founded a new community “to make visible the invisible reality of God’s love in the Diocese of Santa Rosa.”

As Marian Sisters, they live and love at the heart of the Church.  Their spirituality can be described as Ecclesial, Eucharistic, and Marian.  This is, in part, lived out through their charism of living the fullness of the liturgical life of the Roman Catholic Church – they participate in both the Ordinary Form (Novus Ordo) and also the Extraordinary Form (traditional Latin) in their chapel several times a week and provide the choir for the Extraordinary Form High Mass at the Cathedral each Sunday.

Since their founding, the community has grown and its active apostolates have expanded.  Committed to the spread of the faith in the Diocese, every Sister teaches the Faith in some manner.  While some are formal classroom teachers, most of the Sisters exercise the charism more broadly through children’s catechesis, faith formation groups, retreats and camps, and any other way in which God’s will is made manifest.

Called to a life of total consecration to Christ and His Church, the Sisters take the Blessed Virgin Mary as their inspiration and model and dedicate their time and talents completely to the service of God and neighbor.

The Constitutions of the Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa  were approved and canonically erected the community on January 4, 2012.

 

 

Discernment, News, Women's Communities

Bethany House: A New House of Discernment For Women

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Bethany House is a women’s discernment house, sponsored by the Office of Vocations in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Located in Minneapolis, it opened in September of 2017 and is a home for women ages 20-27 who live in community and discern whether they are called to consecrated life

This is a new initiative of the Office of Vocations in partnership with the Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus, a religious community based in New Ulm, Minnesota. The women may work or go to school, but the objective is the same – to sit at the feet of Jesus like Mary of Bethany, listening. “This is about discerning God’s will, and that’s the goal … wherever God may lead them,” said Father David Blume, vocations director for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Father Blume was inspired to found Bethany House after a young woman told him: “Our men have a path, but for us women, we don’t have a path — we have 500 paths, and it’s kind of confusing.” The Vocations Office takes care of the house’s administration while the Handmaids oversee the formation and pastoral aspects.

Handmaid Sister Mary Joseph Evans makes it clear that this is not a Handmaid discernment house. “They have total freedom to discern any community. … Because we’re diocesan sisters, part of our role in our service of the diocese is to walk with young women in general, in helping them know and discern and embrace the Lord’s will, just like a diocesan priest would for the men.”

Residents at Bethany House commit to nine months of common living as well as a weekday schedule that includes a 5:45 a.m. Holy Hour with morning prayer in the parish’s Adoration chapel. The women then attend daily Mass before heading to classes or work. They share three evening meals each week, and pray night prayer together each night. Then they observe “grand silence” until after Mass the following day. A 2-month summer program is also an option.

One resident described the experience as a retreat. “And that’s how they really set it up to be,” she said. “We’re retreating to Jesus, and Jesus is really retreating to us more, I feel like, because He wants to be in our hearts.”

For more information, please visit: 10000vocations.org/bethany-house

 

Cloistered life, Consecrated Virgins, Discernment, General interest, News, Pro-life, Reflection, Resources, Saints, Vocations, Women's Communities

New Website Alert: Poor Clare Colettine Nuns of Corpus Christi Monastery in Rockford, IL

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In the Fall of 2017, a seminarian for the Diocese of Rockford, Jack Reichardt began exchanging letters with Poor Clares Mother Abbess, Mother Maria Dominica, PCC, in order to obtain permission and discuss building a new website for the local monastery, home to twenty professed nuns.

Finally meeting at the Monastery in January, Reichardt and Mother Dominica decided that the site should serve two purposes:

  1. To appear to an audience of those women who may be discerning a call to the consecrated life as a Poor Clare nun, and
  2.  To appeal to the faithful who would like to visit with the Poor Clares in prayer.

Having taken a web design course while in high school, Reichardt wanted to put his hobby to use and build something worthy of the Poor Clares that reflected their “beautiful life, that is chaste and pure and prayerful” where people could find out more about their history, life, and vocation.

Click here: Poor Clare Colettine Nuns of Rockford, Illinois | JMJ+FCC

In gratitude for his hard work, one of the sisters offered the following remarks:

“[Jack’s] deliberation and prayerfulness impressed us very much, and his competence to create a site that is simple but beautiful and which effectively reflects our way of life has been crowned with success. We are grateful to him and to all those who contributed!”

 

Discernment, Women's Communities

God knows No Boundaries: Finding a Vocation With the Carmelites in California

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Two Sisters from the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles came from opposite coasts for a recent Come & See weekend in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Sr. Elizabeth Therese, O.C.D., and Sr. Catherine Marie, O.C.D., live in Alhambra, CA, and Miami, FL, respectively, but have their roots in Minnesota. God’s call is not limited to state boundaries and each sister discerned that God was asking them to leave their home and kinfolk to find their fulfillment as spouses of Christ in the Carmelite community in Alhambra, California. (See article)

Sr. Elizabeth Therese is the vocation directress and slowly realized her vocation from interactions with a campus ministry, a third order Carmelite group, Adoration and monthly discernment dinners. She also was engaged to be married. Though, “it’s not until you have a personal relationship with the Lord, whether you’re called to religious life or marriage,” she said. “that you’re going to be able to know what your vocation is.”

Sr. Catherine Marie felt her call through the Eucharist and Adoration. A teacher, she immediate felt that she had come home once she visited the Carmelites in Alhambra. “It was as if Jesus was saying to me, ‘Welcome home, I have been waiting for you.’”, she said, “Inside my heart I felt myself responding, ‘Finally, I am home.’”

A stumbling block for Sr. Catherine Marie was her educational debt. But thanks to The Labouré Society, located in Eagan, MN, she was able to raise the money to pay off the balance. Sister advises: “Do not be afraid to say, ‘yes’ to Christ,” she said. “He takes nothing away and gives you everything your heart could desire.”

If you live in the California area, please consider becoming part of Handmaidens, a faith formation group for single women between the ages of 18 and 35, dedicated to cultivating a deeper relationship with the Lord, as well as a greater understanding and appreciation of the dignity of their vocation as women. Formation and living holiness in the world is supported and nurtured through adoration, prayer and conferences given by the Carmelite Sisters and chosen laity.

The next meeting date is November 18, 2017.

Discernment, News, Resources

Parents of Vocations Forum

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The Kissel family with Sr. M. Gemma, FSGM

One of the little talked about issues surrounding religious vocations is the impact it can have on the parents of a young man or women entering religious life. The process of discernment can be challenging enough but  it is often complicated by the reaction of the parents.

Even in the most supportive of families, the thought of your child entering religious life can bring heartache, questions, sorrow, puzzlement and even anger—the whole gauntlet of emotions. Since religious communities are quite invisible in our culture, parents today typically do not have an aunt or uncle who is in religious life and thus a level of comfort and familiarity with the vocation. They have many questions, and understandably, want the best for their children.

The Blessed Mother & St Joseph present Mary to the Temple

That is why Tom Kissel developed this new website—to have a forum where parents can ask questions, share experiences and network. Tom’s only daughter is in an active Franciscan community (The Sisters of St Francis of the Martyr St. George) so he is familiar first-hand with the path that parents walk along with their son or daughter and the stages of grief and joy.

The website has just been launched but do not hesitate to jump on and participate in this much-needed initiative in the Church.

Please visit parentsofvocations.com to join the conversation!

 

Discernment, Men's communities, Resources, Vocations

5 Common Fears As You Discern Your Vocation

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This post, helpful for everyone in the process of discernment, comes from Conception Abbey, a Benedictine Monastery  in Conception, MO . For the complete blog post, visit:  https://www.conceptionabbey.org/discernment-fears/

5 Common Fears with Discerning your Vocation

Many men and women who are discerning a religious vocation hesitate in taking the next step because they are restrained by any number of fears. Listed below are five fears common to men and women discerning religious life and some helpful advice to banish the fear and draw near to the Risen Christ who offers you peace.

  1. What if I am making the wrong (or a bad) decision?

If you are praying daily, striving to live a virtuous life, and remaining close to the Sacraments, you will know if you are making the wrong decision. Religious formation is a process where you continue to discover and realize God’s call in your life. When you enter a religious community, there is a period of one to two years (or longer) that you experience before you profess vows or make any further commitment. Additionally, religious communities are wise in the discernment process and only want candidates who have an authentic call to commit themselves to the way of life, and this call is most fully realized when it is tested over a period of time.

  1. The fear of what others will think, especially parents or friends

Sometimes friends and family members may not understand or completely accept your decision to enter religious life. It is important for friends or family to visit the religious community to meet and interact with its members. If you decide to enter a community and find peace and fulfillment, it often alleviates the pressure that comes from friends or family members, because their opposition diminishes when they see your joy.

  1. Focusing too much on the sacrifices

Jesus assured St. Peter, “Everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life” (Mt 19:29). Do not be afraid to live no longer for yourselves, but for Christ. There are many joys and blessings in following Christ in religious life, and many times you find yourself surprised by how good and generous God truly is!

  1. I’m afraid that I’m following my own voice and not Jesus’ voice

If you truly desire to hear God, the call will not remain hidden, nor will it be presented as a puzzle that you have to ‘figure out.’ Gather all the information necessary to make a well-informed and prudent decision, pray as if it all depends on God, but when it is time to act, place your trust entirely in God. If your decision was made peacefully and with a desire to please God, then you can move forward with confidence. Since it is a real challenge not to be guided by self-will, it is most important to find a priest or spiritual director to listen and guide you throughout the process.

  1. I’m not worthy or holy enough

Religious life is not for the perfect, but for those who desire holiness and strive to call themselves to conversion each and every day. Jesus said, “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners“ (Mark 2:17). Most religious men and women seek community life because they are aware of and readily admit their need for the support and encouragement of others to persevere on the path that leads to God. The call to holiness requires that you embrace your humanity, with both your strengths and weaknesses, to become the man or the woman that God desires you to be.

I encourage you to visit the Conception Abbey website/blog posts for more information on discernment.

https://www.conceptionabbey.org/monastery/getting-started/