Saying ‘yes’ to God leads women to Monastery of the Visitation |
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Written by LAURIE STEVENS BERTKE, Chronicle Writer
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Friday, 02 January 2009 01:00 |
TOLEDO—The silence was one of the things Visitation Sister Jennifer Kermode found most striking on her first weekend retreat at the Monastery of the Visitation.
Even though she grew up near the monastery in Toledo, Sr. Kermode, 32, knew little about the Contemplative Order of the Visitation before that encounter in 2004. She admits she felt ìpetrifiedî even calling to arrange the retreat, which her spiritual director recommended since she was discerning a call to religious life.
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Sisters in the Contemplative Order of the Visitation in Toledo chant
evening prayer in their choir, a chapel separated by a grille from the
sanctuary. All of the sisters wear simple black and white habits
similar to what their foundress St. Jane de Chantal wore nearly 400
years ago. Women in the novitiate wear white veils. (Chronicle photo by
Laurie Stevens Bertke) |
"By the time I got off the phone, I’m like, what did I just do?" Sr. Kermode recalls with a laugh.
That first retreat with the cloistered nuns was unlike anything she had experienced in visits she had made to other religious communities. "The way they were serving God was very different," explains Sr. Kermode.
The contemplative nuns spend most of their lives within the enclosure of the monastery, leaving the distractions of the world behind to devote their lives more fully to God in a life of prayer.
Daily life is structured around times of prayer, with the sisters rising daily at 5:30 a.m. for meditation and Mass, and gathering in their choir five more times throughout the day to chant the Liturgy of the Hours on behalf of the church and the world. Their schedule includes time for work, study, spiritual reading and meals, with the sisters striving to observe silence in all activities except for two brief daily recreation periods when they are able to chat with one another and work on crafts like knitting or crocheting.
Sr. Kermode was intrigued by this life centered on prayer and community, but the idea of joining a cloistered order was still "at the way-other end of the spectrum that I couldn’t even fathom living" after that first retreat, she says.
"Then God took me on some more side trips that got me here," says Sr. Kermode, a former member of Toledo St. Pius X who is now a second-year novice with the Contemplative Order of the Visitation.
Despite the countercultural nature of this monastic way of life, Sr. Kermode is part of a recent upswing in vocations to the Contemplative Order of the Visitation.
Visitation Sister Noel Faustina Honor took the final step toward joining the community in September when she made her solemn profession of the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
Six women are in formation with the order, and four have made their first, temporary profession of vows in the past year: Sister Josefa Maria Golisano, Sister Maria Gabriela Schulz, Sister Teresa Maria Spangler and Sister Maria Engracia Uhl. The order also has a new postulant, Sister Kathleen Champion.
The women range from ages 32 to 72, and each one followed a very different path to arrive at the monastery.
"I never, ever pictured myself as a cloistered nun," says Sr. Golisano, 71, a native of Greenville, S.C., who was working in Toledo when she discovered the Monastery of the Visitation in 2003.
She was not considering religious life at the time, but during a retreat she made at the monastery she says she heard the Lord speaking in her heart, asking her to stay.
"It was a very definite thing — something that I couldn’t shake," she explains. "Usually if it’s not from God speaking to me, it will go away, and go away quickly. But this stayed.
"I said, ‘OK, Lord, if this is what You want, then here I am,’ " says Sr. Golisano.
Courage to say ‘yes’
For Sr. Golisano and several other women in formation, religious life has been a second vocation after marriage and motherhood.
Sr. Golisano says her four adult children affectionately call her "Sister Mom" now. "They really have a lot of fun with this, because people don’t believe them when they say, ‘My mother is a nun’ — ‘Sure, my mother is Queen Elizabeth,’ " she jokes.
Sr. Schulz, a former member of Oak Harbor St. Boniface who felt called to contemplative life at age 53, admits entering the monastery as a mother of five adult children and grandmother of two brings its own set of challenges, "with sacrifice on both sides." The nuns are generally only permitted to visit with family members once a month at the monastery, though they can write letters between visits.
As difficult as this separation is, each family receives graces for their sacrifice, according to Visitation Sister Marie de Sales Kaspar, the novice mistress.
Sr. Schulz adds the sisters are spiritually with their families, praying for them even though they can’t be there physically.
"Sister moms" are not a new phenomenon: St. Jane de Chantal, who founded the Order of the Visitation in 1610 with St. Francis de Sales, was a wife and mother before she entered religious life. Sr. Kaspar says St. Francis opened membership in the order to widows, mothers and older women who were not "physically austere enough" for other religious orders, believing the Lord would send stronger, younger women to "balance out" the community.
Today Visitation Sister Mary Bernard Grote, superior of the order, is praying for more young vocations to the aging community, which has never been large in numbers. When she entered 50 years ago, there were 36 women in the monastery. That number had shrunk to 17 just eight years ago; today there are 23 sisters including the women in formation.
In light of all the attractions and enticements of the world today, Sr. Kaspar says it takes a great deal of courage for any woman to say yes to God. The temptation is strong to travel and work and do other things before trying religious life, but she asks retreatants to consider giving God the first choice.
"If that doesn’t work out, then go on with your life and try the other things you want to try," she says.
"You could not live a cloistered life if God did not call you to it," adds Sr. Kaspar. "It’s a gift and a challenge."
Adapting to life in the monastery
It takes six years for a woman to progress through the formation stages of postulancy, novitiate and first profession before she may make her solemn profession of vows to the order.
Adjusting to life in the community, where a sister must ask the superior permission for everything, can be challenging for one who is used to living independently in the world. Sr. Kermode says dying to her natural way of doing and perceiving things has been the hardest part of the novitiate.
"Our motto is ‘to Live Jesus,’ " she explains. "And unless we die — unless that grain of wheat gets to the ground, He can’t live in us, and He can’t move and have His being and He can’t totally take us over and consume us."
The silence of the monastery was a big adjustment for Sr. Spangler, 72, who made her first profession of vows Dec. 8. A former switchboard operator, she notes the irony that her "specialty" used to be sitting and talking. More than 40 years of working in Toledo, first for a law firm and then for an architectural and engineering firm, had earned her a comfortable retirement with a nice home and dear friends, but Sr. Spangler says she found herself wanting something more.
"I wanted my life to count. And so I came, and I found the something more," says Sr. Spangler.
She also feels God has returned all she gave up to enter the monastery. "I live in a beautiful house [and] I have beautiful sisters I truly love," says Sr. Spangler. "I’m surrounded by women who are kind and good and love the Lord."
Close relationships develop among the sisters as they bond through prayer, work and by having fun together, according to Sr. Grote. "We’re not saints and we have our ins and outs with each other," she adds. "But all-in-all I think there’s a lot of love in the community."
Prayer requests pour in to the monastery from around the diocese and the world, and now that they have a Web site and use e-mail, the sisters hear from people as far away as England, the Philippines and Poland.
Sr. Grote says the community posts the prayer requests on "two big cork boards that are almost loaded with little notes."
The sisters see little of the daily newspaper and do not watch television, but family, friends and others keep them abreast of world events. On Sept. 11, 2001, Sr. Kaspar says callers alerted the sisters about the tragedy almost immediately to request special prayers.
Sr. Grote notes the prayers of the entire community are what make the difference. ìIf they depended on my prayers, they’d be in bad shape, but all of us together can do a whole lot,î she says.
Sr. Spangler compares monastic life to the Old Testament story in which Moses stands on the mountaintop raising his arms in prayer.
"As long as he’s got his hands raised in prayer, the Israelites are winning the battle," she says. "That’s what cloistered men and women do — they raise their arms in prayer day and night."
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 03 March 2009 13:44 |
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