Catholic Benedictine Sisters of St. Mary Monastery, Rock Island, Ill., blog with inquirers discerning their religious calling to monastic life.
Posted in discernment, discernment prayer on Mar 6th, 2009
My 84-year-old friend, Sister Rosemary Murphy, told me today that she had read my recent blogs and enjoyed them. So I asked her what I should write today to the women discerning their vocation. Her answer came out of today’s Gospel, when Jesus instructed his disciples how to pray. He said, Ask my Father for [...]
Posted in discernment, discernment prayer on Feb 13th, 2009
Mary sat at the feet of Jesus…to listen to Him speak. Luke 11: 38 – 42 This passage was what I found in my daily mediation book on Monday and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. The story of Mary and Martha is often the Gospel used for the Feast of St. Scholastica. I’ve [...]
Posted in discernment prayer, prayer on Feb 7th, 2009
Turn away your face from my sins, blot out all my guilt. A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit Psalm 51 When discerning about religious life it is essential to look at yourself and where you have been in your life. My last blog posed the question of who [...]
Posted in Birth family, discernment, discernment prayer on Feb 2nd, 2009
‘I know your resting and your rising…..” PS 139 This week I focused my prayer on one of the passages I offered for discerners in my earlier bog. PS 139 has always been a very favorite of mine. It is a very intimate prayer between Creator God and creation. It is a prayer of being [...]
Posted in discernment, discernment prayer on Jan 27th, 2009
Create in me a discerning heart, O God, and put a new spirit within me. (Psalm 51) The discernment process is to help you come to some resolution regarding your call to religious life. As we begin a new Liturgical Year of Ordinary Time I thought it might be helpful to ‘walk through’ some key [...]
Posted in discernment, discernment prayer on Oct 4th, 2008
Read Nancy’s wonderful discernment prayer comparing her life to autumn in “A Time to Plant,” below. Leaves must fall before new growth can begin, she says, and I agree! In our lives we must shed our old leaves in order to grow. Discernment is a Paschal Mystery walk, where we pray to let go of [...]