- At the Annunciation, God’s will was made known very clearly through Gabriel! Although our vocational callings are often more subtle, in what ways we can better open our ears – and hearts – to hear God’s will? Particularly in Lent, how can we answer God’s call?
- Meditate on the scene which took place during the Annunciation. What emotions do you imagine Mary experiencing?
- Shortly after the Annunciation, Mary travels to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who already knows the good news! Do we celebrate with joy once we recognize God’s call in our lives?
Mary Roberta Viano: Who is being called to what vocation -how and when
Mary Roberta Viano: The priest in our parish actively discouraged me.
AL: My priest also …
Am Why?
Mar 30 2014, 7:59 PM
SrSusan (guest): Really!
Mar 30 2014, 7:59 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: He said I was too orthodox and conservative for most religious orders.
Am: I know, I’ve been called a fanatic
Mary Roberta Viano: I was grateful that my two sons were very supportive after my husband’s death.
Mar 30 2014, 7:54 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: But that’s probably not typical.
Al: its not!
Mar 30 2014, 8:01 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: But you said it’s been 5 years. I entered less than a year after my husband died.
Al: wow! Mine said I should wait
14, 8:00 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: wait for what?
Al: well i told him soon after my husband died
Mar 30 2014, 8:00 PM
Am: I know, wait for what?
PM
Al: maybe he thought it was grief
Am: I know, my priest thought maybe I wasted too much of my past life, too late
Mary Roberta Viano: My husband and I had talked about it at length before he died, though.
Al before my husband died- i told my sister kelly i was called:03 PM
Am: I think I have been discerning for about at least a year, and the call is still there:03 PM
Ki(guest): Priests have always been very supportive in my discerning a vocation and my husband and I also talked about it before he passed away. 03 PM
Amy Cochran: why haven’t you jumped into it> I’m kinda like you8:03 PM
Ji: Us men have a way of driving women into the Nunnery
Mary Roberta Viano: In one of his Conferences SFdS said: To be a Religious is to be bound to God by the continual mortification of ourselves and to live only for Him.”
Al: I still have a 15 yr old home
SrSusan (guest): J, that’s what my boss said to me at my job before I entered!
Al: I am 56
Mary Roberta Viano: Oh, having dependents makes a difference.
Am: I have no dependents, except my dog lol
Am: Have you thought of becoming an oblate or third order, Al
Mary Roberta Viano: Our Lord is a Man, and he did “drive” me in!
Al: I am in the confraternity of penitents
Mar 30 2014, 8:06 PM
SrSusan (guest): Or a Daughter of St Francis de Sales?
Mary Roberta Viano: Good idea,
J:See Sister Roberta..the rest of us are just following his lead.
Am: Being on oblate or third order presents other difficulties, ie living in the world and your congregation, and still struggling with people/priests not understanding
Al: Sister Mary Roberta- were all your children grown when your husband passed?
SrSusan (guest): Even St Jane had to wait a number of years, about 8 I guess, before her vocation was made clear even tho she knew she wanted to belong to God
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, I just have two sons.
Al: I have to say, its not the same as being a Sister
Jwill they require you to wait at least 3 years?
Mary Roberta Viano: Again SFdS says: “We cannot possibly arrive at Religious life except by continual mortification of all our passions, inclinations, tempers, and antipathies…”
SrSusan (guest): We had a woman enter with a 19 year old still in school but the 19 yr old still was not too mature.
SrSusan (guest): So now we wait til they are 21
SrSusan (guest): Or truly not dependent- working, or in the military, or married
Am: Do all of the sisters in your monastery teach also at the school?
Al: what can a woman do during the wait?
Mary Roberta Viano: Mine were 33 and 29.
Mar 30 2014, 8:11 PM
SrSusan (guest): In Brooklyn, no 5 out of 15 teach
SrSusan (guest): During the wait, if interested, become an associate of the Monastery. Our Sr did that for 5 years
Am: I know your heart must be aching, Al. WHat do the other ten do during that time.
SrSusan (guest): Now she’s professed
Mar 30 2014, 8:12 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: With the proper credentials our sister could teach, which they did – but are now all retired.
Am What is an associate?
Mar 30 2014, 8:12 PM
SrSusan (guest): Monastery assignments: finances, infirmary, refectory, sacristy
Mar 30 2014, 8:12 PM
Al: thats a good idea
Mary Roberta Viano: and for us it’s driving sisters to appts
Mar 30 2014, 8:13 PM
SrSusan (guest): An associate is a non- canonical association, with promises, in our community. Privileges to partake of community events and a formation program
Mary Roberta Viano: We don’t have a formal program of Associates.
Al: how do you go about that Sister
SrSusan (guest): Also kitchen and maintenance at vrs times. Right now we have lay help in the kitchen weekdays
Al: So you would live close by?
SrSusan (guest): Usually you are near enough to the Monastery to come for monthly meetings.
Am: Don’t you live in NY, Al?
Mar 30 2014, 8:15 PM
SrSusan (guest): But one could do something like the Daughters do, they have a long distance kind of program, isolated Daughters, they call them
Al: I am from NY but live in Maine
PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Reading about our founders – SFdS and SJFdC – is important, too. M
Al Really, because I am in rural maine, everything is long distance
Mary Roberta Viano: Could you make an annual or bi-annual retreat at a monastery, Alice?
Ali I can Sister
PM
Mary Roberta Viano: That’s one way to establish a connection. Mary Roberta Viano: That’s one way to establish a connection.
Mary Roberta Viano: You could also write regularly to a sister as an ongoing connection.
Al: That would be helpful.
M
Mary Roberta Viano: One of our transfer sisters wrote to our Mother Superior for years before she decided to make the move.
Mar 30 2014, 8:20 PM
Al: A transfer from another monastery?
Am: this chat room helps, also
Al it does Am
Mar 30 2014, 8:20 PM
SrSusan (guest): In a former chat we talked about the effect of this choice on one’s family. Even St Jane felt great repercussions from her young son.
Mary Roberta Viano: Probably the most important thing is to spend an hour or two weekly before Our Eucharistic Lord to learn His will for you.
Alt: I am willing to do all of these suggestions. Thank you! 1 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, she transferred from another Religious order.
JI: How young was he Sister Susan?
Mar 30 2014, 8:21 PM
SrSusan (guest): How do our Constitutions put it- this decision to embrace this life must be resolute
Mary Roberta Viano: That’s always the “bottom line”: What is Our Lord’s will – not my will.
SrSusan (guest): Off to boarding school, maybe? She took another child into the convent with her. One cannot do that today
SrSusan (guest): Our circumstances often show God’s Will for us too
At: she must have known that she was called to religious life
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: she must have known that she was called to religious life
how so Sister
SrSusan (guest): and St Jane had a saint for a director
J she sent the kid off to boarding school show she could enter? Hmmmmm
Mar 30 2014, 8:23 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: She had a great spiritual director (SFdS) to help her decide!
SrSusan (guest): I think that was normal for nobility. ST Francis went off to school even younger than that
Mary Roberta Viano: Looking for a good spiritual director is another possibility.
PM
SrSusan (guest): God’s good pleasure is revealed in the circumstances of our life
Am: I know, Al, our priests are overwhelmed. My pastor has three churches
Al I guess i have a hard time waiting!
Am: do your children know of your desire?
SrSusan (guest): St Jane was a Foundress and Saint and sometimes what their lives are like, because of their missions, are different
Al: Yes our priest is up in years and has hit a moose and has a logging trucks logs hit him due to constant travel!
Mar 30 2014, 8:26 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Maybe you could find a priest to correspond with long distance.
SrSusan (guest): It would be great if a priest would join the chat room!
,
Am: I agree
Mary Roberta Viano: Maybe each of us could invite one priest and see what happens…
SrSusan (guest): Yes let’s try
Al: we could try that
29 PM
Am There were mixed reactions when I told mine, but they are coming around, especially since they know that I can still be in touch, although it’s not like I talk to them daily
Mar 30 2014, 8:29 PM
Al: what does a priest or Superior look for in a woman?
Al: 4 of mine are local but busy with their own lives- as it should be
SrSusan (guest): There’s both an “intangible” quality that one can’t define, then the “requirements”
Am: what are the requirements?
SrSusan (guest): A desire for the life, faithfulness as a lay Catholic, for an older person, a prayer life
Mary Roberta Viano: Each community is different. SFdS says: “If we desire to know whether God wishes us to enter Religion or not, we must not wait until He sends an Angel from heaven to signify His will for us.” Hmm…
SrSusan (guest): Ability to live in community
Am: I like that, Sister, I guess we have to just eventually do it. Al, you and I have been doing this chat for about six months now, I think…….
Alit: Haha True Am
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes to ability to live in community! Also, pliability and, in the case of Visitation communities, gentleness and humility.
Mar 30 2014, 8:32 PM
SrSusan (guest): Is it helping you or stalling you?
Am: ability to live in community would be the hardest for me. I’ve been a hermit for about a year now
Al: We are sticking with it for sure
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, perseverance is really important, too. A sister here put that on a sign in my bedroom when I first arrived 11 years ago!
Am It’s helping, for sure. You all are real human beings, not perfect saints, but real lives and trials of your own
Mar 30 2014, 8:34 PM
SrSusan (guest): There is a hermit community in Chester NJ for both men and women. I have been there on retreat.
Al: I look forward to it and if I need to miss it, sad
Al: so helping!
Am: Really? I bet they don’t take older people. So many don’t realize older can mean more stable, also
Mar 30 2014, 8:35 PM
SrSusan (guest): They used to take older people but they may have changed
Al: Whaat if you could only marry at 18 or 20
Mar 30 2014, 8:36 PM
Mary Roberta Viano: Yes, many focus on younger vocations, but our sisters always say that 40 is the new 20 and 60 is the new 40!
Mary Roberta Viano: depends on one’s health in general
Ali: people live so much longer now
Am: Yes, I like the hermit thing, but I have the ability to go to a monastery once a week for hours and mass. I look forward to human beings, too!
Ali: yes and to me, part of my religion requires contact with others
SrSusan (guest): Oh they meet for Mass every day
Mary Roberta Viano: The Carmelite Spritual Life Institute in Crestone, CO, is a group of hermits who come together once a week for a meal and every day for Mass. PM
Al: why are they hermits? do they each live alone?
Mar 30 2014, 8:39 PM
Am: Yes, I look forward to daily mass every day, but that’s it. That sounds like it might be a fit.
Mary Roberta Viano: Each lives in his or her own hermitage.
Mary Roberta Viano: Intercessory prayer is an important service for people, though.
M
Alice Lewis-Eckardt: Good night Sister