Delayed Vocations: Westfield, VT, Benedictine Nuns

[Cloisters]

This monastery is part of the Solemnes Congregation. They have a 70 year-old extern. In 2014, a 46 year-old nun made her solemn profession alongside a thirty year-old.

http://www.ihmwestfield.com/index.html

Blessings,
Mrs Cloisters OP
Lay Dominican
http://cloisters.tripod.com/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/charity/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/holyangels/id9.html/

 

[Greenfields]

Thanks for the links that you provide Cloisters
This one mentions about Oblates,and I’m afraid I know very little about that …do many people become an Oblate? Do most religious Orders have this opportunity for both men and women?
Who are your typical people who become an Oblate?
Thanks in advance

 

[Cloisters]

Oblates are similar to Third Orders and lay Associates.

In some monasteries, there are claustral Oblates, but that’s an entirely different ball game. Those Oblates are similar to volunteers, but they receive Novitiate formation and a habit. They’re free to leave at any time, or be dismissed.

Secular Oblates meet at the monastery, usually monthly. They devise a plan of life based on the Benedictine Rule. Oblate comes from the word oblature, which means offering. After two years of formation, they make their oblation.

Our Safe Harbor Vocation Support group has a Ben Oblate contributing editor who posts “A Few Thoughts” daily. He writes meditations on bits of the Rule, as well as prayer intentions.

Hope this explains.