Revisiting Vocation

A religious habit is a sign of an inward consecration. Without this consecration, I can wear every sort of wimple and every length of veil, and still I am not 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 personal stories by individuals who have answered a call to cloistered life:


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



This is a repost from our archives. It is linked to Reconciled to You and Theology is a Verb for 'It's Worth Revisiting Wednesday.'  

I Just Know

'How does one know if the Lord is calling? In varied ways, but as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta responded when asked how someone knows if she is called: 'She knows. She knows.' This is the language of the heart, and often it is difficult to put words to the language of the heart. The good news is, no one discerns a vocation in the Church alone - with the help of a vocation director, you will be able to discern whether the Lord is calling you to one community or another, or to marriage or the single life. All disciples of Christ are called to love without limits...' (from Sisters of Life website)

'She knows. She knows...' 

When I first heard these words spoken by Mother Teresa, I thought my heart would burst into flame. Watching a videotape with my husband, I too felt an inexplicable, unwordable sense of being called.  Not able to understand how that fit in with my life as a wife and mother, still I knew. I just knew.

I have a fuller idea now, thirty years later, of that sense of 'call.' I still can't describe it, really, and obviously I was not being called to Religious life. I was, however, being called to a total gift of self to God, and to living for Him with no ifs, ands or buts, and to be His disciple.

As a layperson with such a call, I am not alone. 'ALL disciples of Christ are called to love without limits.'

Every absolute one of us is called.

If I sit with Jesus and let Him draw me closer, I become more aware of the truth of His call. I may not be able to describe it, really, but I know. I know.

I just know.
____________________________________________________________________________

For Reflection: 

'It was not you who chose Me, it was I Who chose you to go forth and bear fruit.' (John 15:16)

'Go courageously to God along the way He has traced out for you, steadfastly embracing the means He offers you.' (St. Margaret Mary Alacoque)

- Do I have an awareness of God calling me? What 'next step' can I take to answer His call?

- What path(s) has God traced out for me? Am I following these steadfastly, or do I need to pray for courage to embrace these means more fully?

- Was there ever a time when I felt 'my heart would burst into flame?' Can I identify at all with these words?

'Intimacy with God is not for the saints only, it is for all of us. God dwells in each soul which is in the state of grace and calls each of us to be united to Him in intimate friendship....We are all called therefore to this life of intimacy, to this communing with the Most High.' (from 'Listening to the Indwelling Presence,' compiled by a Religious, Pellegrini)

Painting: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Calling of St Matthew

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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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

Come, Visit the Joy!

If we are at all interested in cloistered life, we're likely to love the following video clip.  I know I did. 

"Our labor here is brief, 
but the reward is eternal.  
Do not be disturbed 
by the clamor of the world, 
which passes like a shadow." 
(St. Clare of Assisi)



Painting:  Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, 
St. Clare Tending Plants, in US public domain






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Inside the Walls

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a crack in the wall

The following is from a woman who discerned, after several years in the postulancy and novitiate of a Community, that the religious vocation was not her call from God.  "Rose" brings a perspective I have never had, so I share this with her permission:


"When I left the convent I thought I had to leave prayer and the spiritual life behind.  I tried to leave it behind, but God had other ideas.  He constantly tugged at my heart and I was always longing for more spirituality in my life.  I had this idea that prayer, holiness, and the spiritual life were for the religious vocation and hidden behind high, thick brick walls.  I longed to find a crack in that wall so I could have just a tiny taste of the spiritual life I once knew. 

"Then the Holy Spirit brought the Cloistered Heart to me.  The Cloistered Heart allowed me to squeeze through a tiny crack in that big brick wall.  My spiritual life began to blossom.  I found renewed joy in prayer, the Mass, and the sacraments...

"I long for the fullness of all of God's promises for those who love Him to the heights.  And if that sounds presumptive, then so be it, because I know that it is meant for us all.  Not just the Religious or the saints, but for all......"  (Rose)

© 2012 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org      

the call

It was as insistent, sometimes, as a telephone ringing.   A persistent “come…come…come..”  that I couldn’t quite ignore.  Walking by the stairs leading up to my school’s chapel, I would often feel that pull.  

I was a student in a Catholic girls’ academy taught by semi-cloistered nuns.  I found, there, just enough quiet to allow the Lord’s gentle “voice” to make its way through.  …Come to the chapel…. Come make a visit to Me…. give Me a few minutes of your time…   These were not words, but a gentle sense of invitation.  I never heard a “voice,” only the secret nudging that seemed (always) to be there.

Sometimes I wondered where this call could be leading.  Everyone I’d known who’d mentioned having “a call” was either in a convent or serving as a priest.  That didn’t seem to fit with what I envisioned for my life.  Marriage, children, perhaps a career in the arts … these were my dreams.  Were they God’s dreams for me?  I don't remember stopping to ask.  One day I WAS stopped, however, and told about another kind of dream …

My Speech teacher pulled me aside after class.  Smiling (knowingly?), she said:  “I had a little dream about you last night.  I dreamed you joined our order here.”   

Many years later, Sister and I talked about that day.   She remarked:  “Nancy, I find it interesting that I didn’t say I dreamed you became a nun.  I said I dreamed you joined our order.”    I had never entered a convent.  I’d married and had children.  Yet, as Sister said these words, I knew she was recognizing my specific answer to God’s call.  Mine was a vocation to marriage and motherhood.  Intertwined with that was (and is) my life as a cloistered heart.

Mine is the call of every Christian.  To give my life to Christ, minute by minute. To keep making the choice, circumstance by circumstance, to live as He wants.  To find ways to be with Him, even in the midst of a busy life. 

 …Come… visit Me…. Come… give your life to Me…. Come…spend a few minutes with Me…. 

May He give us the grace to answer His call.  

Text not in quotes © 2011 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org