Their Moments of Yes

The ceremony of a person entering consecrated life is (I find) beyond the reach of mortal words.

I dare not touch it with description. 

Instead, I will allow those who have made such commitments to show you their moments of yes.

I hope we will all
do ourselves a favor,
and click on the links below.....


















Click on lines to view:
Profession Ceremony

Entering Carmel











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Photo at top of post by Connie Wells, of a Sister signing vows (digitally altered with  permission)


For more about our own commitment to God, click this line

Their Vocation

A religious habit, as we read several days ago, is a sign of an inward consecration.

Without this consecration, I could wear every sort of wimple and every length of veil, and still I would not be a nun.

God called me to a different vocation, and He has given me grace to respond to that one.  Is there anything I can learn, however, from looking at the call to religious life?   How does that particular call come, and how does a person respond?

The following stories are ones I have found inspiring.  I hope they will touch you as well.

"The love of God is the strongest driving force on earth. Thousands upon hundreds of thousands have given up their lives simply because they loved Him so much that breath and heartbeat slipped into the inconsequential by comparison.  Hundreds upon thousands of young girls have walked into cloisters and never walked out of them because their youth and liberty were the very least to give the One they loved so much."  (Mother Mary Francis PCC, A Right to be Merry,  Click here for more about this book)

Links to (beautiful) personal stories by individuals who have answered a call to cloistered life:

Vocation 
A Rose Transplanted
Totally Yours, Jesus   
Prom Queen to Cloistered Nun






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As always, ads on videos here are neither chosen nor endorsed by me.

Painting at top of post:  Olga Boznanska, 1890,in US public domain due age


To read about our own call to commitment, click this line

My Habit

'From this day forward, my heart wears a habit. 

Hidden from the prying eyes of men, my habit is for His eyes alone.'

N. Shuman, The Cloistered Heart (book), 1996 edition, p. 30

Painting:  Hubert von Herkomer, au jardin




To return to the 'Monastic Adventure in Sequence' post, click here 

 

We're in the Habit

Imagine this.  A woman just entering monastic life prepares to don a habit for the first time.  She looks at the pieces of fabric folded neatly on a table before her.  Soft veil, long dress, layers of material she has waited to wear.  Her new habit smells like it was dried in the sun and pressed with just a hint of starch.  It carries the scent of the wind.

She picks up the dress and slips it on, sliding it down over the stained orange jumper she wore through the enclosure door.  She lifts the veil onto her head, covering a tattered woolen hat.  The veil snags on her mismatched earrings, but never mind.  She’ll get used to all of this, in time.

Certainly the scene I've just described is ridiculous.  But let us consider this....“Clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.” (Colossians 3:12).  I look at these and other virtues and find myself desiring to “wear” them.  Yet if I make deliberate choices to boast as I pretend to be humble, or if I'm cruel even as I write of mercy, I am simply hiding one kind of clothing under another.  I’m applying a layer of veneer.  I am in need of a habit exchange.

Habits are actions acquired over a period of time, with repetition.  

I ask myself:  would I like to cast off lifelong habits of self-seeking in order to let God clothe me in the habit of seeking His will? 

Am I willing to turn in my habit of laziness in exchange for diligence in prayer?  

For me it remains a constant struggle, and I take heart in knowing I am not the only person to have faced it.  “I cannot even understand my own actions,” wrote the apostle Paul.  “I do not do what I want to do but what I hate… what a wretched man I am!  Who can deliver me from this body under the power of death?  All praise to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 8:15-25) 

I pray to cast off my threadbare, tattered vices and see them as the worthless rags they are.  I want to outgrow them, and to - through prayer and practice – develop habits of virtue.

I pray to be clothed in the habits of a cloistered heart.  

“You must lay aside your former way of life, and the old self which deteriorates through illusion and desire, and acquire a fresh, spiritual way of thinking. You must put on that new man created in God’s image, whose justice and holiness are born of truth.” (Ephesians 4:22-24). 

"Because you are God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  Bear with one another, forgive whatever grievances you have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you.  Over all these virtues put on love, which binds the rest together and makes them perfect."  (Colossians 3:12-14)

“Do you see how little it takes to become a saint?  All that is necessary is acquiring the habit of wanting to do the will of God at all times.” (St. Vincent de Paul)

“Clothe me, O eternal Truth, clothe me with yourself, that I may run my mortal course with true obedience and the light of holy faith…” (St. Catherine of Siena)

“I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul; for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice.” (Isaiah 61:10)

"You must put on the armor of God if you are to resist on the evil day; do all that your duty requires, and hold your ground.   Stand fast, with the truth as the belt around your waist, justice as your breastplate, and zeal to propagate the gospel of peace as your footgear.  In all circumstances, hold  faith up before you as your shield, it will help you extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, the word of God."  (Ephesians 6:13-17)






text not in quotes © 2011 Nancy Shuman (repost)
thecloisteredheart.org    

all paintings on this post in US public domain due to age


For more about 'my habit,' click this line

They're in the Habit

Speaking as a layperson who has never had the opportunity to wear one, I offer my humble perspective on the habit.  Which is:  I personally find it to be a striking witness.  

It seems an external thing, and of course it is.  But a habit speaks volumes to the world around.  "I have found God to be worth the gift of my whole life," it tells me. "Nothing on earth is as important as He." 

What does a habit mean to the person who actually wears one?  For that perspective, I turn to people who are privileged to do so.   The following are only tiny excerpts; I strongly encourage you to click on the links to read these very fine articles in their entirety.   

From "The Holy Habit" (Carmelite Monks)
"The Carmelite monk, like a soldier, is clothed in the armor of the habit as he bravely does battle for God and for souls...." (see the full page by clicking here)

From "Living the Life Part II," by Sister M. Emmanuel VHM  
"I believe I can say without exaggeration, that whenever any one of us Sisters goes out into the 'world,' someone will inevitably comment on our habit....  The lovingness of the Sisters is perceivable to even a casual observer.  But the Sisters are not this way because they wear a habit.  They wear a habit (an outward sign of simplicity and consecration and a reminder of their vows of poverty and chastity) because they are this way.  They are this way because they are trying with all sincerity to follow Christ in their vocations as Visitandines.... When someone shows us deference in some way, we know that is not towards us... No, they honor something else, something greater.... ' (see the full article by clicking here)         

From "The Habit"  (Dominican Sisters)
"My religious habit is an indelible sign of an inward consecration and makes of me a public witness, to all the world, of values transcending time." (Mother Marie William MacGregor)  (see the full article by clicking here)





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To read about OUR habit, click this line