Finally going to meet with my Priest tomorrow

[TeresaAnn]

This appointment has been scheduled for 1 1/2 months which is good because I have had more time to investigate and think options, pray, and worry…

I have known this priest for years and he is a really great. This will be the first he has heard of my feeling of being called to the religious life. I’m sure it will surprise him because he was the priest the married my ex and myself and he baptised 2 out of 4 of my sons.

I have been getting the butterflies the last few days about this meeting. Not that I cannot talk to him because I can, very easily. I’m just so afraid of being told at some point in the process that it won’t be happening, I can not become a nun. The only reason I can think this would happen is because of age. It’s a very strange feeling because at 37 I certainly don’t feel old. It’s just that by the time I can actually enter I will be 47 or 48. There is always the possibility of someone needing me after that. While I love my family with all my heart, It would really crush my heart not to be able to live my life entirely for God.

Anyway, this Priest will have a lot of insight and I know he is the right person to begin my discernment with.

If you have a spare moment I would really appreciate any prayers. I feel so vunerable right now.

God Bless,
Teresa Ann

 

[Hidden_One]

I will pray for you.

Remember the famous motto of Padre Pio: “Pray and don’t worry!”

And read Proverbs 3:5-6 when that gets difficult.

 

[LilFranciscan25]

This appointment has been scheduled for 1 1/2 months which is good because I have had more time to investigate and think options, pray, and worry…

I have known this priest for years and he is a really great. This will be the first he has heard of my feeling of being called to the religious life. I’m sure it will surprise him because he was the priest the married my ex and myself and he baptised 2 out of 4 of my sons.

I have been getting the butterflies the last few days about this meeting. Not that I cannot talk to him because I can, very easily. I’m just so afraid of being told at some point in the process that it won’t be happening, I can not become a nun. The only reason I can think this would happen is because of age. It’s a very strange feeling because at 37 I certainly don’t feel old. It’s just that by the time I can actually enter I will be 47 or 48. There is always the possibility of someone needing me after that. While I love my family with all my heart, It would really crush my heart not to be able to live my life entirely for God.

Anyway, this Priest will have a lot of insight and I know he is the right person to begin my discernment with.

If you have a spare moment I would really appreciate any prayers. I feel so vunerable right now.

God Bless,
Teresa Ann

Don’t worry about the age factor, my dear. I’ve been looking extensively at the Visitation order established by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal and I would be more than happy to refer you to the convents in Canada and the United States. The founders did not set an age limit.

There are other orders around that will accept applicants under 50 (which you would be within), and I even know other orders that have no age limit.

I will keep you in my prayers! If you want the information, please let me know as I am more than happy to research for you. I love the Visitation order, and I feel that is where I am called, so I would be happy to give you extensive information about the founding and the rules of the order.

I would feel that the only requirements you would need is to have an annulment from your ex-husband, wait until your children are no longer dependent, and be free of any serious mental illness. Visitation orders are open to those with physical ailments. If you meet all these requirements, and the priest believes you have a genuine vocation, there will be nothing standing in your way except for acceptance to an order!

God bless you and be with you dear!

 

[janessa1850]

Teresa Ann,
I do understand how you feel about going to talk with your priest. I am about to make an appointment to do the same thing. It’s like- please don’t tell me there is nothing that can be done, that I will never be a nun. Please don’t take my hope away!

I am praying for you also. Let us know how things turn out. Blessings:thumbsup:

 

[TeresaAnn]

Thank-you so much for your replies and prayers, they meant a lot to me as I was heading out the door.

LilFranciscan25, Thank-you so much! Your post gave me hope I would love any information you have. I had a quick search myself about the visitation nuns and didn’t come up with anything in Canada.

The meeting went well. You always hope to go in and upon revealing your desires and have them jump up for joy, stretch out their hand and a way you go!! Not really, I know the long road I have ahead of me and my Priest thought I had a good attitude about it. He has offered to connect me with a spiritual director when I feel ready. The one he mentioned is actually one of the Nuns of the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood, here in town. I find THAT quite exciting! He said as far as me being called, it will be revealed as time goes on. I know he is concerned about my current situation (in therapy getting a lot of old abuse issues dealt with) but I did get the feeling that he could see me succeed.

I am hopeful, and grateful for the time to improve.

Thanks again and God Bless,
Teresa Ann

 

[LilFranciscan25]

Thank-you so much for your replies and prayers, they meant a lot to me as I was heading out the door.

LilFranciscan25, Thank-you so much! Your post gave me hope I would love any information you have. I had a quick search myself about the visitation nuns and didn’t come up with anything in Canada.

The meeting went well. You always hope to go in and upon revealing your desires and have them jump up for joy, stretch out their hand and a way you go!! Not really, I know the long road I have ahead of me and my Priest thought I had a good attitude about it. He has offered to connect me with a spiritual director when I feel ready. The one he mentioned is actually one of the Nuns of the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood, here in town. I find THAT quite exciting! He said as far as me being called, it will be revealed as time goes on. I know he is concerned about my current situation (in therapy getting a lot of old abuse issues dealt with) but I did get the feeling that he could see me succeed.

I am hopeful, and grateful for the time to improve.

Thanks again and God Bless,
Teresa Ann

Teresa, I am very happy to hear that your meeting went well, dear. Did you know that the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood accept women up to age 50? They are a possibility for you as well.

As for the Visitandines (Visitation Nuns) in Canada, I found a website of an order, but it’s in French, and I couldn’t translate it. Perhaps, you know French?

visitandinescanada.com/

The music (harp and oboe) is beautiful!

I will continue to pray for you!

 

[TeresaAnn]

Teresa, I am very happy to hear that your meeting went well, dear. Did you know that the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood accept women up to age 50? They are a possibility for you as well.

As for the Visitandines (Visitation Nuns) in Canada, I found a website of an order, but it’s in French, and I couldn’t translate it. Perhaps, you know French?

visitandinescanada.com/

The music (harp and oboe) is beautiful!

I will continue to pray for you!

Wow! You are the master of research aren’t you? No, I did not know that about the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood, that makes my heart race I’m looking forward to meeting them. It was interesting, when my Priest brought them up he got this very calm and gentle look on his face and he said they were helpful to him as well, you could tell he thought they were lovely. I think he has taken retreats at their convent.

The visitandinescanada website is interesting isn’t it? I think it is the music that causes you to stay longer. I do have some high school french but probably not enough. Although, I do have 10 years!

Thanks so much for the prayers, I have been following your journey with interest and praying for you as well. You will be a wonderful nun when you find your home.

God Bless,
Teresa

 

[LilFranciscan25]

Wow! You are the master of research aren’t you? No, I did not know that about the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood, that makes my heart race I’m looking forward to meeting them. It was interesting, when my Priest brought them up he got this very calm and gentle look on his face and he said they were helpful to him as well, you could tell he thought they were lovely. I think he has taken retreats at their convent.

The visitandinescanada website is interesting isn’t it? I think it is the music that causes you to stay longer. I do have some high school french but probably not enough. Although, I do have 10 years!

Thanks so much for the prayers, I have been following your journey with interest and praying for you as well. You will be a wonderful nun when you find your home.

God Bless,
Teresa

LOL, yes, I am the master of research! I just really enjoy helping others in giving back what information has been given to me throughout my discernment. I’m glad I was able to help you find the website.

For your interest, here is the website for the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood:

sisterspreciousblood.org/index.htm

Their location in Canada is Edmonton.

Thank you very much for the compliment. I’m trying to save up enough money to go to Mobile, AL to visit the Visitation Nuns there later this summer.

God bless!

 

[TeresaAnn]

LOL, yes, I am the master of research! I just really enjoy helping others in giving back what information has been given to me throughout my discernment. I’m glad I was able to help you find the website.

For your interest, here is the website for the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood:

sisterspreciousblood.org/index.htm

Their location in Canada is Edmonton.

Thank you very much for the compliment. I’m trying to save up enough money to go to Mobile, AL to visit the Visitation Nuns there later this summer.

God bless!

I was confused there for a minute but then found this on their website…

“The Community of the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood is a contemplative community of Pontifical right founded in 1861 by Catherine Aurelia Caouette in St. Hyacinth, Canada. Today there are 19 monasteries of the Precious Blood. Six of these are autonomous houses joined together in the American Federation; four belong to the French Generalate of Canada and seven belong to the English Generalate of Canada. Two independent monasteries are located in Japan.”

We have a monastery right here in London, which is part of the English Generalate of Canada.

Here’s another website…
adoratricesps.net/application/content_en/orig_dev.html

 

[anode]

I was confused there for a minute but then found this on their website…

“The Community of the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood is a contemplative community of Pontifical right founded in 1861 by Catherine Aurelia Caouette in St. Hyacinth, Canada. Today there are 19 monasteries of the Precious Blood. Six of these are autonomous houses joined together in the American Federation; four belong to the French Generalate of Canada and seven belong to the English Generalate of Canada. Two independent monasteries are located in Japan.”

We have a monastery right here in London, which is part of the English Generalate of Canada.

Here’s another website…
adoratricesps.net/application/content_en/orig_dev.html

My impression is that the Sister Adorers really need vocations…

 

[Spiritu]

Here’s a translation of a couple of pages of the Visitandine website. I’ve run out of time right now, but will happily provide a translation of the vocation page if anyone’s interested in further reading. (The music makes it worth hanging around the site!)

Welcome. Order of the Visitation of Saint Marie.

(“How happy you are to believe that the Lord’s message to you will come true” - Luke 1:45.)

Welcome to our site, of the Sisters of the Visitation of Saint Marie (Visitandines). Our three monasteries form a Federation of the Visitation Order in Canada. We will attempt to give you an overview of who we are and our origins, and above all, of that which characterises our religious family, according to the desire of our founders, Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jeanne Francoise de Chantal, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Missions et Oeuvres:

Prayer is at the centre of the existence of the contemplative religious.

“That nothing may separate them from the celestial Spouse. Thus, they participate in the evangelisation of the world through a secret apostolic productivity (literal: fertility).”

• Constitutions.

We offer the sharing of:
Daily Eucharist
The prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours with those who desire it

Welcome of those on retreat:

The Sisters, true to their spirit, open themselves to the need for truth and to the thirst of God in the contemporary world. They are able to welcome people who wish to rest in the silence of the cloister. (And then some more info on the facilities they offer to people who want to go on retreat - garden, library, daily Eucharist and so on.)

Work:

Monastic work is a good ascetic practice for the fatigue and the demands that it imposes. But it also contributes to a healthy equilibrium for the person and the community.

• Distribution of the sales of altar bread (hosts).
• Sale of artworks.
• Manufacture of cards (to order).
• Repairing vestments.
• Sale of hosts.

Spirituality:

In founding the Visitation Order, St Francis de Sales and St Jeanne de Chantal wanted “to give to God prayer-filled girls and interior souls, that they may be found worthy to serve His infinite Majesty and to adore in spirit and in truth.”

“The particular spirit of the Visitation Order is a spirit of profound humility towards God and a great calmness toward that which is to come.”

“Finally, the spirit of the Insitute is a righteous and pure one, a spirit which seeks nothing but God, which tends perpetually to the union of the soul with God, which does not live except in God, which loves God and that which is to come.”

“All by love, nothing by force.”

Asceticism for the Visitandines is first of all fidelity to their mission of contemplation. They submit freely to an interior discipline of life, undertaking with perseverance an intimate act which makes them accept certain deaths to themselves in order to live more profoundly. (This is probably not the best translation, but hopefully it gives a sense of what they’re trying to say.) Supported by the grace of the Lord, they leave themselves purified and delivered to God without reserve and without division.

The absence of austere penances in the Visitation Order must not carry one along easily, but create a demand for intimacy with Christ - Constitutions.

 

[dashso40]

God Bless you, teresann, I will pray for you, you are not too old, good for you that you picked yourself up after an abusive relationship, which I can only imagine can be very hard to deal with…God Bless you, this will be the start of a wonderful life for you with Jesus…

 

[TeresaAnn]

My impression is that the Sister Adorers really need vocations…

That makes me excited too. I have ideas… not to say that I would over step my bounds or that they would even want them, but I do have some. :idea: I certainly have time to further develop them as well

Here’s a translation of a couple of pages of the Visitandine website. I’ve run out of time right now, but will happily provide a translation of the vocation page if anyone’s interested in further reading. (The music makes it worth hanging around the site!)

Thanks Spiritu! That was sweet of you!

God Bless,
Teresa

 

[TeresaAnn]

God Bless you, teresann, I will pray for you, you are not too old, good for you that you picked yourself up after an abusive relationship, which I can only imagine can be very hard to deal with…God Bless you, this will be the start of a wonderful life for you with Jesus…

Thank-you dasho40, your words mean a lot to me. :hug3: It certainly is my dream, I’m hoping with all my heart that it is God’s will as well. Thank-you for the prayers, I will pray for you as well!

God Bless,
Teresa

 

[Spiritu]

Had a forehead-slapping moment this morning!

The word for “girls” in French is the same as the word for “daughters,” so the phrase under Spirituality that I translated “prayer-filled girls” actually ought to be “prayer-filled daughters.”

 

[anode]

Had a forehead-slapping moment this morning!

The word for “girls” in French is the same as the word for “daughters,” so the phrase under Spirituality that I translated “prayer-filled girls” actually ought to be “prayer-filled daughters.”

I was wondering about that. The word is “filles”. As Jane de Chantal targeted widows as one of the groups eligible for her order, the Visitation, ‘girls’ is inappropriate.

There is another recent thread which refers to “Tyringham”, and posters interested in this monastery, especially those contemplating a visit, might seek it out and PM its poster for more information.

 

[Spiritu]

I was wondering about that. The word is “filles”. As Jane de Chantal targeted widows as one of the groups eligible for her order, the Visitation, ‘girls’ is inappropriate.

That’s why I figured it would be better to 'fess up to my mistake, rather than confuse people.

Here’s the vocations page, by the way. I hope it will be interesting to people looking at the Visitation Order, especially in Canada - even if a French-speaking convent isn’t a practical option!

Do you have the desire (literally “do you have the taste”) to live totally a relationship of love with Christ?
Do you search for somewhere you can best live the radicalism of the Gospel?
Do you feel a call to engage yourself?

“Come, follow Me” (Mark 10:21.)

Our “yes” must be pronounced in all loving liberty, to the One who invites us to follow Him.
A love in the image of the Virgin Mary, which is receptiveness, which is welcoming the Word, which is a gift of oneself.

This gift, lived absolutely in intimacy with Christ, our beloved Spouse, is deepened by personal and communal prayer which favours silence, solitude, and a continuous search to unite our will to the Divine Will of the Master. To be faithful to their vocation, the Sisters endeavour to live the Gospel according to the spirit of their founders, “a spirit which seeks nothing but God, and tends continually toward unity with Him, independent of everything except the good pleasure of the divine.”

To best respond to the love of God, we make a profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience.

• Poverty: one wants to detach from oneself in order to be open to receiving all Providence.
• Chastity: we do not renounce love… one the contrary, we choose Love.
• Obedience: we choose freely to do what God wants. To belong to God is to be free.

(And then the contact details of various convents. That part is pretty clear without translation.)

Real retreat from the world does not ask us to break the profound solidarity which must unite contemplatives with their human brothers and sisters. Without being in the world, the Sisters do not lead a life live less attentive to their aspirations and their sufferings. (The Sisters) relive (literally “return to life”) the sentiments of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and His love for the whole of humanity.

In this third millenium, the search for the way to follow is omnipresent,
The need for truth exists always,
The desire to find an authentic meaning to one’s life digs deeply into what it means to be human.

Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”