Religious Life with Chronic Health Issues

[WannabeMonk]

I am curious if anyone has any knowledge regarding the possibility of being accepted into a religious order with chronic health issues. Several years ago I had the life-changing experience of spending a month living in a monastery with Trappist monks on a “monastic life retreat,” and that experience has left me with the unquenchable desire toward living a life as a religious person. My concern, however, is that no monastery would accept me because about a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and I’m currently 36. In my admittedly surface-level explorations, I’ve seen that the orders I’ve encountered seek men in good health, and generally under the age of 35, which puts two huge barriers in my way of ever being able to answer this calling. In addition, I was not raised Catholic and have not yet been baptized, and my understanding is that most orders want you to have been baptized for several years before they will consider you, so that puts me at being nearly 40 before I could start applying, and then I’d still have the MS as a barrier in addition to added years on my age. Does anyone know of religious orders where these barriers would be worked with to allow me to live the life of holiness I feel called to?

 

[Cloisters]

Let’s work on your relationship with God first. Get baptized, then use the following three years to deepen your relationship. No matter who you contact, they will tell you to write back after two or three years of a regular sacramental life.

There are third orders, oblatures, and secular institutes which would be an option. Since the Trappists are Benedictine, I believe they have oblates.

I think I’d be working more on maintaining that interior experience. Peace begins within. The externals would be the same as a third order, but you wouldn’t have the one-to-one contact with a group. Having a spiritual director there locally would be essential. As would a personal prayer plan, which one would do if they became an oblate.

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

 

[TomH1]

I think this fits into a very old saying, “putting the cart before the horse”.

I would respectfully suggest your primary focus is on coming into the Church through baptism.

If you visit some Trappist monastery websites and read the information on their vocation pages they do not just lay down these ‘rules’ but explain why they have them.

Men beyond a certain age are so formed in their current life that they find it extremely difficult to adapt to the life of a monastic. It is a big change and not an easy one to make. Age limits are not cast in stone, exceptions can be but they do have them for a reason with centuries of experience behind them.

If you are posting on CAF I believe I could make a rough guess and say you are in the USA. That means if an order were to accept you it will have to take on all your medical bills. If you have MS your medical bills will not be insignificant. That is a considerable economic burden on a community that must earn its own income. That is becoming more of a challenge for communities as they age and individuals can do less work.

Also if your MS progresses to a stage where you need a lot of physical care who is going to give that to you? As I mentioned above monastic communities have a lot of elderly members. They do not get a lot of vocations from young men. You could join a community and be its youngest member. Do you expect elderly men to provide for your physical needs?

The reason why you have to be a Catholic for a certain length of time is so the order you want to join knows you are committed to your faith and that you have a well developed liturgical and spiritual life. All their entry requirements exist for reasons.

I cannot imagine how difficult life must be with a diagnosis of MS. You must be disappointed if you believe you have a vocation but a monastery will not accept you. A positive thing to do is try to focus on the positives in your life. Live in the moment and focus on preparing for your baptism. Most of all pray and see what God has in mind for you.

 

[Mary888]

Praying St. Anthony the Great guide you and your future brothers into this new path for you. I think you will ve accepted. Contact those monks whose monastery you wish to join and ask them what to do in order to get accepted.
May God be with you.
I also wish your health be restored. Nothing is impossible.