Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you,there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands,with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.
On Saturday a serious candidate for entrance to our community drove for five hours to take her three cats to some loving friends. She said goodbye to them – even as she hopes to visit them there someday. It was a hard goodbye and even harder to return home and experience their absence. She did this because one cannot enter a monastery with pets – even when they are deeply loved, as these three have been. We must be free…ready to embrace the life that is to come in community. This is one of the very hardest realities of coming to the monastic life today. I ask your prayers for our candidate – who we may one day call, ‘sister’ – and for all the women in discernment with us. May they each have the grace and courage to leave behind what they must to embrace the Benedictine way. May they know the joy of community and the certainty that they have chosen the right path – narrow though it may be. I am in awe of the women who are coming to join us. They are truly eager to seek GOD and willing to do what is necessary to prepare the soil for a good harvest. God is blessing our house…and I am so very grateful!
On Saturday a serious candidate for entrance to our community drove for five hours to take her three cats to some loving friends. She said goodbye to them – even as she hopes to visit them there someday. It was a hard goodbye and even harder to return home and experience their absence. She did this because one cannot enter a monastery with pets – even when they are deeply loved, as these three have been. We must be free…ready to embrace the life that is to come in community. This is one of the very hardest realities of coming to the monastic life today. I ask your prayers for our candidate – who we may one day call, ‘sister’ – and for all the women in discernment with us. May they each have the grace and courage to leave behind what they must to embrace the Benedictine way. May they know the joy of community and the certainty that they have chosen the right path – narrow though it may be. I am in awe of the women who are coming to join us. They are truly eager to seek GOD and willing to do what is necessary to prepare the soil for a good harvest. God is blessing our house…and I am so very grateful!
Blessings and love,
- Sister Vicki
