Visitation Spirit

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C: I’m always surprised just how busy a monastery is-lots more coming and going than one might think!

Jan 13 2013, 7:34 PM

Sister : Yes- definitely busier than I ever thought it would be- want real quiet? be a hermit!

Sister : I guess hospitality is essential to monasteries and alot of what crops up relates to that aspect

For ex in one’s discernment process it would be good to observe the rythmn of the monastery you are considering, or the convent in an apostolic order and see the flow

C: yes, hospitality is key, while maintaining the quiet necessary for building a personal relationship with God

Sister : While most monasteries have a form of enclosure, hospitality can bend that a bit

C: yes, because you would never want to be so rigid that you drove people away

Sister : So the horarium should provide the quiet time yet sometimes special events pop up that change it

Sister People can caught up in rigid enclosure and forget their neighbor

C: yes, though I can see a reason for a rigid enclosure as well–

Sister : In what respects?

C: it just seems for me that never having contact with anyone outside would make me unheedful of their problems

C: in a rigid enclosure, your only business is with God-the horarium, intercession for the world

and of course maintaining the monastery. with no outside distractions focus can be total\ but, being human, then wouldn’t it be a risk that one might forget why we’re praying?

Sister : Do you think one gets more into the spiritual realm then in that more total separation?

C: I think it’s possible-but I also see a risk of living too much inside your own head

__R: I think it depends on what specifics God calls someone to. If you’re in that situation when it’s not something God wants, then no, if you are, then yes

C: True  and we are all called to different things, and they are all good

43 PM

__R: God knows stuff about us we don’t know.. and He knows where we will grow spiritually

Sister : I think spiritual direction should help keep a balance in not living too much in one’s own head, or conferences with the superior or attention to one’s own sisters in community

He’s the only one who really knows, even more than directors, Superiors etc

C: I don’t know, maybe it’s different because I’m older, but I feel the need to know the people I am praying for, not just in headlines or news stories, but to make an individual difference

Sister : In a monastery you sometimes know the people who call in for prayer and of course we wiith schools know the families needing prayer but if your community is isolated you might not know

__R: I know at the Carmel I go to all the time, they always seem to know what’s going on because people come in all day and tell them

C: or know only by anonymous prayer requests

I’m in the middle of the outside assessment I have to have so that I can maybe be invited for the three month visit

__R: how does that work with working ? Does your employer just let you have 3 months off?

Sister Ma: As SFdS says: “Let us leave the world in order to follow, serve and love God, or remain in it for the same end in accordance with His wishes.”

C: My employer is me, so I gave myself the time off…hehe

J I would prefer to leave the world part Sister Mary…I get too distracted with the latter

Sister We have never insisted on 3 months but people do want to come for at least one month

Jan 13 2013, 8:17 PM

__R: oh good deal then how would that work though with anyone else that worked for a company, would it be the same 3 month visit? That would be hard in this economy to go for 3 months and hope you still had a job afterward without knowing if you were staying

Sister Ma: I took one month off work during my discernment.

Jan 13 2013, 8:18 PM

Sister : I only did 2 weeks together during my vacation but I came alot of weekends because I lived close enough to do that

C: yes, its the same three months for everyone, and it depends on the employer, but mostly it would be go, and if you don’t go into novitiate, find a new job

__R: yea, one month an employer may do, 3… not so sure

Sister : We never ask for 3 months do you Sister?

Sister Ma: No

Jan 13 2013, 8:18 PM

Sister Ma: Frequent weekends are good.

__R: I have a month I’m taking in the summer myself actually, but I know my employer, they would fire me if I tried to take off 3 months

C: I know everyone is different so, I went on one week interview, three week trial, now assessment. followed by three month visit, followed by a month out of the monastery, followed by invitiation to novitiate

Sister Ma: We go with whatever is reasonable and manageable.

No postulancy first?

J: after being there for 3 months and if you loved it that must be very hard to leave

Sister : We do too. You can get to have a sense of a person in a month and on their side the novitiate years will serve the purpose

C: Well, maybe it is the postulancy after the three months, then novitiate. Some of us are a little fuzzy

__R: The Carmel here has 1 yr postulancy

Sister Ma: I was just reading about a saint who lived on the Host, and only the Host, for years!

A priest told her that Jesus ate, so why shouldn’t she, but she told him that Jesus promised that His Body was REAL FOOD, so why shouldn’t she believe Him!

J: that doesn’t seem enough to survive on physically so had to be a miracle

Jan 13 2013, 8:31 PM

Sister : One of our Visitandines lived only on the Eucharist

Sister : Sr Mary Martha Chambon I believe but only for a period of 4 years

C: Wow, so much faith…it seems that most of us are not called to that

Sister Ma: In this YEAR OF FAITH, we can ask Our Lord to increase ours some!

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