So Very Confused!

[CarmeliteGirl25]

:newidea:

CG, when I read this a light went on. :newidea:

carmelitesistersocd.com/index.asp

I believe they also have made foundations outside of California.

LOL, I thought of them. I also met the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus and thought of the Carmelites of the Aged and Infirm. I will consider visiting the Carmelites in Los Angeles as they are a beautiful order! Plus, I would love to be an OCD and still be active.

 

[jackiem]

The ones in L.A. do have vocations in health care. I’m not sure doing what exactly though. Considering your medical background, I come from one too, have you thought about the Daughters of Charity? They own a few hospitals in California and there sisters can work as nurses and such. I am currently working at one of their hospitals now.

 

[CarmeliteGirl25]

The ones in L.A. do have vocations in health care. I’m not sure doing what exactly though. Considering your medical background, I come from one too, have you thought about the Daughters of Charity? They own a few hospitals in California and there sisters can work as nurses and such. I am currently working at one of their hospitals now.

The Daughters of Charity have a hospital where I live too, but they are not habited sisters. For me, personally, this is a requirement. I appreciate the recommendation though.

 

[jackiem]

The Daughters of Charity have a hospital where I live too, but they are not habited sisters. For me, personally, this is a requirement. I appreciate the recommendation though.

Habited as in wearing habits? I know that the one here do. They have a few options so they are not always in the same habit but they only wear habits here.

 

[joamy]

I’ve gone over and over again in my head trying to be rational about this decision, but I keep coming back to the CFRs. I really would love to “jump into the pool” and go visit them…

I think I’m going to do it… I think I’m going to jump! I am going to go there after the New Year and check it out! I’m going to write the vocations director or call her and see when their next “Come and See” retreats are, too

.:nun2: :nun2: :takeoff:

Jump right in!!!

Let us know how it goes, OK?

 

[Pro_Domina]

I see several here have big problem that is very common in the United States. It is called catalog vocation shopping.

When you feel that enthusiasm, above all with the founder, you don’t see the defects of the members of the community.

At the beggining, it is all joy and sweetness. If it isn’t, it is most probably not a calling, but rather a good inclination of the heart.

The litany of the Holy Spirit in Latin has an invocation that calls Him “Sweetness of those who begin in Your service”

It is not a thing you read and give it a shot.

Pray more. Pray your Rosary. She won’t leave you to think it out yourself.

 

[CarmeliteGirl25]

I see several here have big problem that is very common in the United States. It is called catalog vocation shopping.

When you feel that enthusiasm, above all with the founder, you don’t see the defects of the members of the community.

At the beggining, it is all joy and sweetness. If it isn’t, it is most probably not a calling, but rather a good inclination of the heart.

The litany of the Holy Spirit in Latin has an invocation that calls Him “Sweetness of those who begin in Your service”

It is not a thing you read and give it a shot.

Pray more. Pray your Rosary. She won’t leave you to think it out yourself.

I’m just following what the Holy Spirit is telling me to do, and I just found a spiritual director, so he will help me figure out where I’m being led.

 

[CarmeliteGirl25]

I see several here have big problem that is very common in the United States. It is called catalog vocation shopping.

When you feel that enthusiasm, above all with the founder, you don’t see the defects of the members of the community.

At the beginning, it is all joy and sweetness. If it isn’t, it is most probably not a calling, but rather a good inclination of the heart.

The litany of the Holy Spirit in Latin has an invocation that calls Him “Sweetness of those who begin in Your service”

It is not a thing you read and give it a shot.

Pray more. Pray your Rosary. She won’t leave you to think it out yourself.

I shouldn’t have to explain this to anyone, but just for interest, I have started going to Adoration and praying the Divine Mercy and Rosary with the community at my nearby Church. I have restarted my discernment so to speak, and I’m being driven back by the Holy Spirit to the active/contemplative life as I was originally drawn to. I don’t get to talk to my spiritual director until after Christmas, but, I fully intend to discuss everything with him. I am no longer posting these question posts on here because I think they have left me more confused. I need to be listening to my heart. It has never steered me wrong before.

The Holy Spirit is the best guide for discernment, but my SD will help me decipher the messages. I am leaning toward visiting the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart in Los Angeles (carmel-msh.org/)), and re-visiting the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus. If my director thinks that I need to visit different orders outside of Carmel, which I think is a good idea, I will visit the Religious Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration.

I think it’s important to point out that no one I know is doing catalogue vocation shopping. If you feel an inclination in your heart that God might be calling you to a community, whether it be by words of the founder or the community’s apostolate, then you should visit them. I don’t think anyone visits a community when they don’t like the founder or the community. 98% the time, if you don’t have a stirring, then you are not called there.

None of us are masters at hearing the Holy Spirit. We are called to seek Him out in our daily lives. That’s why it’s important to follow your heart, because God makes His desires known there.

 

[ThomasEugene]

oh carmelite girl, i think we have the same "confusion problem’. i discovered my vocation when i was reading the apparitions of the miraculous medal. the story i was reading mentioned st. vincent and i was quite interested with him after doing some research. actually, that time, i don’t know what vocation is, or what religious orders or congregations are. then i felt God wanted me to be a camillian, then a franciscan, then a dominican, then a benedictine, then a carmelite, but now i have my hopes of being a trappist someday. (oh geesh… i seldom share my vocation…!)

i am going to pray for you, i can feel the confusion that’s in your heart.

 

[CarmeliteGirl25]

oh carmelite girl, i think we have the same "confusion problem’. i discovered my vocation when i was reading the apparitions of the miraculous medal. the story i was reading mentioned st. vincent and i was quite interested with him after doing some research. actually, that time, i don’t know what vocation is, or what religious orders or congregations are. then i felt God wanted me to be a camillian, then a franciscan, then a dominican, then a benedictine, then a carmelite, but now i have my hopes of being a trappist someday. (oh geesh… i seldom share my vocation…!)

i am going to pray for you, i can feel the confusion that’s in your heart.

I’m almost 100% certain I’m going to be a Carmelite. I’ve been thinking about them more than any other order. I love the Franciscans, and I will probably visit one or two orders of Franciscans, but I believe God is calling me to the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus in the Northern Province. (I wrote more about it in the PM I sent you). I want to continue to be a nurse, because I feel that is part of my calling. I felt so at home with my patients in the clinicals of being a CNA. I love and miss them very much!

I will pray for you, Thomas, and I ask you to do the same, please. Sometimes this discernment is difficult. But I am assured that Jesus is near me because I feel Him around me. God bless you!

 

[hhdavid]

I think it’s important to point out that no one I know is doing catalogue vocation shopping. If you feel an inclination in your heart that God might be calling you to a community, whether it be by words of the founder or the community’s apostolate, then you should visit them. I don’t think anyone visits a community when they don’t like the founder or the community. 98% the time, if you don’t have a stirring, then you are not called there.

None of us are masters at hearing the Holy Spirit. We are called to seek Him out in our daily lives. That’s why it’s important to follow your heart, because God makes His desires known there.

:clapping:
Well said, and my thoughts exactly. Yes, a calling and a vocation are up-down processes, and not down-up. It’s not like I just started thinking about this yesterday. I have been thinking and praying about this for years, trying to discern if the call is still there. It is. Now where am I called, and to what purpose. It’s not like one day I heard an audible voice and I jumped up to get the vocations “catalogue”. I’ve known all along I wanted to be a cloistered contemplative. That life is not all sweet and rosy. There’s sacrifice, there’s submission. I’m not sitting on the vocational “pink cloud” so to speak. Cloistered contemplative life is not all praying and “pie in the sky”. It’s hard, it’s demanding, it’s difficult. Things worth having usually don’t come easy. The only thing now is to discern where, and when. Due to the length of time it takes to discern a vocation (Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither is a vocation discerned in one), and the time it takes to build a relationship with a vocations director in community (so you both get to know each other, and learn), I’m concentrating on Visitation communities. I will be close to 50 if and when I enter the novitiate. Like I said in another thread, if it’s God’s will, it will happen in God’s time. Not mine. My job right now is to talk to my SD and pray for His will for my life.

Way to go, CarmeliteGirl25!

 

[CarmeliteGirl25]

:clapping:
Well said, and my thoughts exactly. Yes, a calling and a vocation are up-down processes, and not down-up. It’s not like I just started thinking about this yesterday. I have been thinking and praying about this for years, trying to discern if the call is still there. It is. Now where am I called, and to what purpose. It’s not like one day I heard an audible voice and I jumped up to get the vocations “catalogue”. I’ve known all along I wanted to be a cloistered contemplative. That life is not all sweet and rosy. There’s sacrifice, there’s submission. I’m not sitting on the vocational “pink cloud” so to speak. Cloistered contemplative life is not all praying and “pie in the sky”. It’s hard, it’s demanding, it’s difficult. Things worth having usually don’t come easy. The only thing now is to discern where, and when. Due to the length of time it takes to discern a vocation (Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither is a vocation discerned in one), and the time it takes to build a relationship with a vocations director in community (so you both get to know each other, and learn), I’m concentrating on Visitation communities. I will be close to 50 if and when I enter the novitiate. Like I said in another thread, if it’s God’s will, it will happen in God’s time. Not mine. My job right now is to talk to my SD and pray for His will for my life.

Way to go, CarmeliteGirl25!

No one discerns in just one day. If they do, then they are wacky! I’ve been discerning my vocation for a little over a year, and I am willing and prepared to wait for a few years longer, if that’s what God wants. No one dives into this thing because it’s a life decision. My mom described it perfectly at the beginning of my discernment. She called it a “marriage to the Church.” And just like divorces from your husband are very difficult and frowned upon by the Church, I can only hope and imagine that it’s just as difficult, if not more, to divorce the religious community you join. No one should take this lightly, and I understand that. That’s why I am “dating” religious communities, trying to make sure, that like dating potential husbands, that this is the right fit, and that God is calling me to them.

I have met one community, and I just knew that I wasn’t called to their specific province, but the thought arose that perhaps I was called to a different province in that order because something clicked. I know, without a shred of a doubt, that God is calling me to religious life. I am 96% to 98% sure I’m called to Carmelites, but I also love the Franciscans. I am also going to be visiting Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration (ssfpa.org/) and the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal (franciscansisterscfr.com/). I also would like to meet the Religious Sisters of Mercy in Alma, MI, but I am waiting to hear back from them to see if they will allow me a visit.

 

[Pro_Domina]

No doubt. You take care of your soul as it fits best.

But just speaking numbers, the growing orders of today start young and unmistakenly enthusiastic.

Want examples?

The Legionaries, Encarnate Word, Heralds of the Gospel, PCPAs and the sort.

I would say the Opus Dei, but that is not exactly a nor…

Whatever. I think you understand what I meant by enthusiasm and youth and numbers when you look at their methods.

I mean yesterday St. Peter’s had like 200 of the Legionaries!