VisitationSiste: Some chat starters for tonight: What’s the ideal number of communities one should visit when discerning?
VisitationSiste Do you have to like the place God is calling you?
VisitationSiste: If you are not interested in a particular ministry what should your approach be to communties who serve in that ministry?
VisitationSiste: What do you think about pre-conceived conditions in discernment?
VisitationSiste: How would you rate flexibility in oneself and the process of discernment?
7:37 PM
R: Well, I’m not sure what the ideal number of communities would be?
I’m thinking 3-4 but only because I have enough PTO at work to be able to visit that many
Sister : Well, one Sister in a Visitation community was told no more than 5
See- you’re close!
R: yes, I’m trying to get it down to like 3-4 communities within 2-3 Orders.. right now I’m thinking Discalced Carmelites and visitation
__R__: although I’ve spoken with some Poor Clares too, but I have a lot of praying to do
Guest829 (guest): i do love the sisters of the visitation and have for years.
R: lets see, do you have to like the place God is calling you… I would say yes and no… yes because well, if you want to do God’s will you should, plus you’ll be spending the rest of your life there.. no because if you don’t, or want to but don’t yet, you can pray for the Grace to be able to like it.. do you think?
Sister : Now I have heard it said that the Spirit does the prompting and we might be resisting, which could take the form of a dislike
R: yea, but if you truly are called to a community you’ll have the grace from God to make it, even if you resist
J: you mean like when one is to take care of poor or other is for evangelizing etc?
Sister : Yes and if you are open and the Spirit keeps sending “sign” in whatever form, interior or otherwise, you won’t be able or want to resist any longer
Sister : That’s another consideration. Does one have the gift or desire for a particular mission?
Care of the poor vs evangelizing was your example.
J: oic…just a vocation to religious in general
Sep 23 2012, 7:52 PM
Sister : Either way.. one might not be drawn interiorly to one of those yet still find oneself approaching a group whose ministry it is. It has happened to some
__R__: well, I think that even though I was talking about a religious vocation, it could translate overover
Sister : Can you identify how you started to grow in this direction? or was it so gradual?
Sister : Because in responding to the quiet and now considering a contemplative life, your inner self was discerning
R: God does some miraculous things.. making me like quiet is one of them
Sister : And you may have been exhibiting that “flexibility in the process of discernment” that we posted as a question
Sister : So , it was a “feeling” then a major event then a gradual process. You probably covered most of the ways people will experience it
SR M: Our SFdS says: ” if you always try to keep your will firm in desiring the good which has been shown to you, God will not fail to make all succeed and rebound to His glory.” (from one of his Conferences)