Vocation Letters - Dominican Nuns

Following is a series of letters concerning the discernment and formation of a fictional young woman, Melanie, as she discerns her vocation to be a cloistered Dominican nun. How fictional is fictional? Events may not have a one-on-one correspondance with events at the monastery, as we wish to keep our day-to-day life veiled behind the enclosure, but these letters do accurately depict Dominican monastic life as it is typically lived here at Marbury. For example, does Sister report that the nuns planted corn? This doesn’t mean that we planted corn that day; but it does mean that we do garden, and sometimes do grow corn, although perhaps this year we decided to plant zucchini and did so last month!

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Here are all the Vocation Letters, starting with the most recent. Scroll past the thumbnails to read them in full beginning with the first (oldest) letter. (To read them in full beginning with the most recent letter, see the Vocations Letters category.)

Vocation Letters in full from Oldest to Most Recent

Vocation Letters: Contemplative? Active?

The following is a letter to a fictional young woman discerning a Dominican monastic vocation. It is the first in a series which will accompany her discernment and formation. The name of the Novice Mistress is also fictional: “Magistra” is Latin for “lady teacher.”

Ave + Maria

Dear Melanie, Prayerful Advent greetings from Marbury! We received your letter expressing interest in our community, and sharing about your family and your own discernment. May Our Lord be praised for what He is working in your heart! Yes, it may be possible to arrange a discernment visit. Would you be able to come over your Christmas break from college? Please let us know. In answer to your question about discerning the contemplative life, it seems to be a common misconception that “extroverts should be active, introverts should be contemplative.” However our community history does not bear that out. We have had outgoing, “extroverted” Sisters as well as more withdrawn, “introverted” types. God calls people of all temperaments to live for Him in the contemplative life. The question in discerning a vocation to a particular religious community involves two elements: first, the desire to be consecrated to God through a life of obedience in that particular charism; second, qualities suitable for the life (such as good health, appropriate maturity, etc.). The Dominican contemplative life calls for an interior solitude with God, which might be seen as “introverted,” along with an intense community life of prayer, work, recreation, everything—which is more on the “extroverted” side. So really a balance is best. We have included some of our vocation literature with this letter. Let us know if you have any other questions! We will keep you in our prayers as we enter this last period of Advent. The great “O” antiphons begin today in anticipation of Our Lord’s birth. We hope you have a blessed Christmas. In Our Lady, Sister Mary Magistra Also see: Vocations, Vocation Contact Form.

Vocation Letters: Why Cloistered Dominicans?

The following is a letter to a fictional young woman discerning a Dominican monastic vocation. It is the second in a series of Vocation Letters which will accompany her discernment and formation.

Ave + Maria

Dear Melanie,

Joyful greetings on this feast of the Baptism of the Lord. We’re glad to hear you enjoyed such a good Christmas holiday with your family. Our Christmas was very beautiful as well—Father sang Midnight Mass in Latin with a solemnity truly befitting Christ’s birth. In the monastery the Liturgy carries us through all the seasons of the Church year, so that we can experience again in ourselves the graces of each of the mysteries of Christ’s life. Each year seems to bring something new even in the midst of all our traditional celebrations.

I am glad you asked about the role of our vocation as cloistered nuns in an Order dedicated to apostolic preaching, because this is so central to our identity as Dominican nuns. We are contemplative nuns, “free for God alone,” as our Holy Father St. Dominic founded us to be, but at the same time we are associated with the “holy preaching” of his Dominican friars by our prayer and penance. There is a beautiful passage from the letter of Fr. Anecitus Fernandez, O.P., the Master General who introduced our new Constitutions. He says: “The contemplative life of the nuns is of the greatest benefit to the apostolate of the Order, not only because, like other contemplatives, they offer their prayers and their life to God on behalf of the apostolic needs of the Church, but also because their contemplation and their life, inasmuch as they are truly and properly Dominican, are from the beginning and by their very nature ordered to the apostolate which the Dominican family exercises as a whole, and in which alone the fullness of the Dominican vocation is to be found.” It is a great motive for fidelity and joy in living our cloistered, contemplative life, to know that we are living it on behalf of and in union with our brethren the Dominican friars (and the other members of the Dominican family) in their consecration to God and in their preaching for the salvation of souls.

That is also why we recommend reading the Spiritual Motherhood for Priests booklet (PDF) published by the Congregation for the Clergy. Although it is not about Dominican nuns, the stories it contains illustrate so vividly the value of a hidden life of prayer and penance for the salvation of souls. We hope that is a help.

Concerning your visit, the dates you mention work well for us. Flying is no problem; just send us your flight information and we will have a friend pick you up at the airport. We hope your semester has gotten off to a good start, and we will look forward to seeing you next month!

With prayers in Our Lady,

“Sister Mary Magistra”

View the Vocations Page, contact the Vocation Directress.

Vocation Letters: Visiting a Cloister

This installment in our fictional Vocation Letter series is from Melanie to her older sister Clare.

JMJ

Dear Clare,

Thank you for your prayers during my latest vocation visit, to the Dominican Nuns in Marbury, Alabama. You know I have been increasingly drawn to contemplative life, but this was my first visit to a cloistered order.

You are probably wondering, “What is it like to visit a cloister?” Since the nuns stayed in the enclosure and I stayed outside, how much “come and see”ing could there be? I found the monastery to be amazingly simple and radiantly beautiful. Yes, I stayed outside the cloistered part, in the small guest area. Through a door at one end of the hall I could walk right into the chapel, where Our Lord awaited me in the Blessed Sacrament; at the other end, the door opened to the parlor, where the visitors’ section is separated from the nuns’ section by a railing and grille. I thought the grille might be an obstacle in talking to Sister, but after a few minutes I didn’t even notice it. There is also a grille in the chapel separating the sanctuary from the choir (the part where the nuns pray).

Praying the Office with the nuns was incredible. They gave me a little booklet with the chant so I could follow along with the antiphons and with the Latin psalms and canticles of Lauds and Vespers. (Compline has its own booklet—with the Dominican Salve Regina for the Salve procession!) The chant itself is so beautiful. I was also able to speak with the Vocation Directress, who answered many of my questions about discerning a cloistered contemplative vocation and about the Dominican monastic life. It was also helpful and a lot of fun to hear a few of the Sisters’ vocation stories—some more recent, one from the very first Sister to enter this monastery back in the ‘40s! She’s been here 68 years! Do you know what she told me? “It’s been the best life.”

My strongest impression from the weekend is of simplicity and peace. From the chapel, with its simple concrete block walls and holy statues immersed in peace and the presence of God, to the grounds (they have some nice wooded parts in front, lots of pine trees), to the spirit of the Sisters. It really is the spirit of Our Lady, too. Sister says that they are hidden away “under the mantle of Our Lady.” That is a really beautiful image.

I could go on and on, but I’ll tell you more when I talk with you next. Please keep praying for me to know what is God’s will!

With love,
Melanie

The complete series of Vocation Letters can be read here. See also Vocations, Vocation Retreats.

Vocation Letters: Living the Total Consecration

The following letter in our fictional Vocation Letter series speaks of the role of Marian Consecration in our vocation as cloistered Dominican Nuns at Marbury.

Ave + Maria

Dear Melanie,

Prayerful greetings from the Dominican Nuns during this month of Our Lady. It was truly a delight to meet you this past spring, and to receive your most recent letter. All the Sisters have been asking, “Have you heard from Melanie?” so it was most welcome.

How good to hear that you and your sister will be preparing to make St. Louis Marie de Montfort’s Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary on the feast of Our Lady’s Assumption. Have you finished reading his True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin? Each Sister here has made the full preparation and official Consecration. During the year we make a formal renewal using a shorter form of the Total Consecration on each Marian feast day–and there are quite a few of them! Our devotion to Our Lady is like the air we breathe–all around us, all the time, present in each activity of our lives as Mary’s Guard of Honor. Our devotion especially focuses on the “Ave Maria” (as you see at the head of our letters) because we devote ourselves to the “Perpetual Rosary” which overflows from the Hour of Guard to all the actions of the day.

Our practice of renewing our Consecration each morning upon rising (and each evening before retiring) is just one example of how interwoven our Blessed Mother is with our life, which is really to say with our giving ourselves to Jesus for the salvation of souls. Our monastery’s Custom Book holds her out to us as an example in everything: “It is indeed our desire that we should so well reproduce in ourselves the virtues and dispositions of this ever Blessed Virgin that, our lives being wholly in accord with her example, we might become, to Jesus, so many ‘other Marys.” Of course, the exterior practices are meant to intensify our interior practice of living through, with, by, and for Mary that we may live more perfectly through, with, by, and for Jesus.

We will be praying for you as you prepare for your Consecration and as you enjoy your time at home this summer. Thank you for your prayers for us, and especially for the other young women who are writing and visiting.

In Our Lady,
“Sister Mary Magistra”

Vocation Letters: Helping Parents Understand

This following installment in our fictional Vocation Letter series touches on some difficulties parents may face in understanding and accepting their daughter’s vocation to the cloistered life. Some imagine that girls who enter the cloister aren’t close to their families. Not so! We loved our families very much in the world, and love them even more now in Christ — and by fidelity to our cloistered vocation, we pray for an eternity with them in Heaven.

Drawing of a Dominican nun kneeling in prayer as she entrusts her family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus — The cloistered Dominican nun entrusts her family to the Heart of Jesus, her Spouse.

Ave + Maria

Dear Melanie,

Prayerful greetings from Marbury during this month of the Precious Blood. We hope you are enjoying summer—we certainly are here, with a good deal of rain and a flourishing garden.

The concerns expressed by your parents as you become more serious about a cloistered vocation seem pretty normal to us. Often even those who are very supportive of a religious vocation in general, find the cloistered life hard to understand and support. “My daughter is so talented! She won’t be fulfilled or happy in the cloister.” And also, of course, the reality of the sacrifice involved is often hard to accept. Many of our Sisters can tell you that their family’s first visit to the monastery helped enormously. When Mom and Dad experience first-hand the peace to be found here, and see for themselves the joy of the nuns, they understand much better why such a life could be attractive and fulfilling for their own child. Giving oneself totally to God—living here on earth a little foretaste of every person’s ultimate vocation to union with God in Heaven—is an ultimately fulfilling and joyful life.

That is not to say that it does not also involve sacrifice. The cloister does mean a real separation from family and friends—not because such relationships are bad, but because the radicality of this way of belonging to Christ includes giving up those true goods for the sake of the higher good. We still love our families dearly, of course, but it is a love in and through the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We entrust our families to His Heart, pray for them, keep in touch, and enjoy their parlor visits several times a year, but we know that we no longer live in their midst. Our life is now “hidden with Christ in God.” Certainly, it takes time to adjust, but Our Lord showers many graces on both the nun and her family for this generous sacrifice. “We brought a whole suitcase full of graces home with us,” said one mother after visiting her daughter as a postulant for the first time. It can also be a great consolation to parents to know that this daughter, at least, is safe in the Heart of Christ, in a world in which so many children fall away from the Faith.

We will be praying for you and your family, and looking forward to seeing you again soon. We’re so glad you could squeeze in another visit before heading back to college. Keep us in your prayers too—especially the young women attending our Vocation Retreat.

In Our Lady,
“Sister Mary Magistra”

Vocation Letters: The Best Time To Enter

Part of our series of “Vocation Letters” to a fictional young woman discerning religious life, the following letter considers the appropriate time to enter religious life, and the difference between preparation and delay.

Ave + Maria

Dear Melanie,

Joyful greetings from Marbury on this feast of the Queenship of Our Lady! It was such a delight to visit with you this past week; Our Lady certainly obtained a great grace for you during your stay, so soon after your Total Consecration to her! How many more she has in store as well. We know you are preparing to return to college soon but we wanted to get this note out as soon as possible.

When is the best time to enter religious life? Without delay. Usually a time of preparation is required, at least to complete the application and settle one’s affairs; for some, this may also mean finishing high school or college, depending on the requirements of the community, or working to pay off a certain amount of debt. Preparation is different from delay. As soon as you have decided to respond to Our Lord’s invitation to religious life, and are morally certain which community you should enter, don’t delay. Remember Peter and Andrew’s response to Our Lord in the Gospel? “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”

One of our Sisters hoped to enter a convent after high school, but when she received a scholarship for university studies she went off to college instead. During her freshman year, however, Our Lord gave her the grace to realize that the excitement of college social life and studies was distracting her from her vocation. “No,” she said to herself, “This won’t do. If I keep on like this, I will lose my vocation. Go now.” After the spring semester ended she prepared to enter the monastery—but her brother was being discharged from the army! Should she wait to visit with him? This time our Mother Foundress was the instrument of God’s grace. “Come now,” she wrote. One delay leads to another. Jesus’ invitation is not to dawdle with the goods of the world, but to leave everything and follow Him. Sister did.

After talking with Mother, we think that it would be best for you finish your last year of college while you complete the entrance application and prepare to enter. Your idea of bringing a group of girls down from your school sounds good as well—one of our Sisters managed to bring two different groups to visit during the nine months before she entered!

Be assured of all of our prayers for you. Please keep us and the other young women discerning with us in your prayers as well.

In Our Lady,
“Sister Mary Magistra”

What happens after one applies to enter the monastery? Find out here: Stages in Formation. See also Vocations, Vocation Retreats.

Vocation Letters: Two Preparation Pitfalls

In this letter to a fictional young woman applying to enter the monastery, Sister addresses two temptations facing those preparing to enter religious life. Read all Vocation Letters here.

Ave + Maria

Dear Melanie,

Prayerful greetings from Marbury on the feast of our patron, St. Jude! It’s been great to hear from you about how your semester is going, and how you are growing in your desire for this vocation. As you continue to discern and to prepare your heart in the months ahead, you should beware of two “preparation pitfalls.”: first, “living it up” now, “while you have the chance!” and second, trying to live according to some grim penitential idea of life in the cloister.

St. Therese of Lisieux mentions the first preparation pitfall in her Story of a Soul. During the three months between her acceptance and her entrance to the monastery, she was initially tempted not to lead a life “as well regulated as had been my custom.” It’s easy to imagine this temptation: After all, a girl might think, I’m soon going to embrace a life of total abnegation! To sacrifice everything to God in the cloister! This is my LAST CHANCE to indulge myself–I’d better eat more ice-cream NOW!

But Therese wasn’t taken in by this. “I soon understood the value of the time I was being offered. I made a resolution to give myself up more than ever to a serious and mortified life.” Did she then fall into the second preparation pitfall, and try to live according to some preconceived notion of cloistered life? You know–fast every day, sleep on jagged potsherds like St. Rose of Lima, rise every night to pray for hours, deny oneself every pleasure. Ice-cream? Unthinkable!

The Little Flower did not make that error either. “When I say mortified, this is not to give the impression that I performed acts of penance. Alas, I never made any.” Instead, she says, “My mortifications consisted in breaking my will, always so ready to impose itself on others, in holding back a reply, in rendering little services without any recognition, . . . etc., etc. It was through the practice of these nothings that I prepared myself to become the fiancée of Jesus, and I cannot express how much this waiting left me with sweet memories.”

This points to an excellent preparation for religious life: fidelity to one’s daily duty out of love for God; cheerful self-sacrifice in being kind, patient, and helpful to others; and denying oneself in little things in order to seek satisfaction not in creatures but in God. So, when the occasion arises, enjoy some ice-cream! At the same time you can tell Our Lord that He is your first love, simply by taking just a wee bit less than you want, or choosing your second favorite flavor rather than your first. Ask our Blessed Mother to help you give your heart to Jesus with increasing faithfulness during this time of discernment and expectation.

I have more I should say on that, but the bell just rang for Office—“the voice of Our Lord calling me!” You are in our thoughts and prayers. Please pray for us as well.

In Our Lady,
“Sister Mary Magistra”

Vocation Letters: Good News for Candlemas

Don’t worry–in real life, the Vocation Directress writes to applicants much more frequently than the correspondence posted in this fictional Vocation Letters series!

Ave + Maria

Dear Melanie,

Happy Feast of the Presentation! This is a special feast for us, traditionally closing the Christmas season with the celebration of the Purification of Our Lady and Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. For centuries this feast was known as Candlemas, because on this day the faithful brought donations of candles to the church to supply the altars and shrines throughout the year. Even now the liturgy retains a special blessing of candles (the Sisters work hard ahead of time to bring all the candle boxes into the sanctuary for Father to bless), and Mass begins with the Sisters processing through the choir bearing lit candles and singing Dominican chant. Our own brother Blessed Henry Suso used to make his spiritual preparation for this feast on the theme of “candles” as well, making a spiritual “three-standed candle” by special prayers in honor of Our Lady’s virtues.

The Feast of the Presentation is also World Day for Consecrated Life—a fitting day to write and let you know that just yesterday we received the last of the papers for your application for the Aspirancy! Now we will be able to take your application to Council. (When one of our Sisters was applying to enter, Mother mentioned the “Council” to her. Sister, as a young girl in the world, understandably didn’t know that much about religious life. “Council?” she thought. “Hm, I guess that must be something in the Vatican. Why would they send my information there? They don’t know anything about me in Rome!” Happily Mother was able to explain to her that the Council is simply the group of four Sisters elected by the Chapter—all the Solemnly Professed nuns—to advise the prioress in important matters. The entrance of a new member is certainly an important matter.)

We very much enjoyed your last letter about your adventures on the March for Life. We have received quite a bit of snow here, too, for Alabama anyway. Our Sisters from the North East and the Midwest are always excited to have some real winter weather!

With prayers in Our Lady and her little Son,

“Sister Mary Magistra”
on behalf of Mother and all the Sisters

What is the Aspirancy? See our Stages in Formation Page.
Interested in a Dominican monastic vocation? Contact the Vocation Directress.
Read all the Vocation Letters.

Vocation Letters: Beginning the Aspirancy

Our Vocation Letter series continues with this letter addressed to her grandmother by our fictional discerner, Melanie. It sure is hard to keep up with her progress!

Vocation Letters Cartoon: the aspirant Melanie helps the novices gather flowers in the garden — Melanie helps the novices cut flowers to decorate the altar.

JMJ

Dear Grandma,

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever! I am so glad you were able to attend my graduation. It was such a whirlwind of finishing up finals, packing up to move back home, and the whole excitement of commencement weekend. Me, a college graduate, and almost ready to enter the cloister? I can hardly believe it!

Mother suggested May 31, the feast of the Visitation, as the day to begin my Aspirancy. The nuns always like to plan important events as much as possible on significant feast days, especially feasts of Our Lady. In traveling “in haste” to assist her cousin Elizabeth, Our Lady was responding to God’s call with great generosity and without doubting His word or His guidance. May God grant me that same grace as I begin the Aspirancy in the cloister!

Do pray for me though, because I do want to follow God’s Will, and even amid all my excitement and the different preparations I’ve made over the past few weeks, I am still a little nervous and uncertain. After all, I’ve never been inside a cloister before. I’ve visited the nuns several times, spoken with them in the parlor, joined in singing the Office, but I know that actually living the life will be a very difference experience.

By the time you receive this letter, I will already be experiencing my first few days in the monastery. I will be staying about four weeks for my Aspirancy. I will be sure to visit you once I return home! If all goes well, I may be able to enter for good before the summer is over, God willing.

Again, please pray for me, Grandma! I will keep you in my prayers, too—I will be doing a lot of praying in the next month!

With love,

Melanie

You Might Also Like

Previous Vocation Letters in our series
Learn more about the Aspirancy on our Stages in Formation page
Next weekend’s Vocation Retreat (please keep all the young women in your prayers–and us too!)

Vocation Letters: Aspirancy Reflections

What was it like inside the enclosure? Now home from her Residential Aspirancy, our fictional discerner Melanie writes this letter to her fictional Vocation Directress/Novice Mistress, Sister Mary Magistra.

+
JMJ

Dear Sister Mary Magistra,

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever! I hope you are all having a wonderful July–are the figs ripe yet? It feels like my Aspirancy ended so quickly, there is so much more I would like to experience!

Reflecting on my recent four weeks living in the monastery, I understand much better your warning that the Aspirancy isn’t long enough to know “what it’s like to be a Dominican nun.” For the first part I was simply trying to master the rubrics of the monastic life–when to bow during the Office, how to make the processions for graces at meals, where to hang up my–I mean “our”!–apron. But there are three things that really stand out to me from my experience: the silence, the order, and community life.

I guess I never noticed before quite how LOUD my days usually are. Just listening to the radio on the way to the store, or chatting with my family constantly . . . not bad things, but many of them empty and distracting. The silence in the monastery really brought that home to me. That is one reason why the ORDER was so striking and apparent to me as well. “Here I am at 2 o’clock, doing my spiritual reading AGAIN!” To have the whole day almost “automatically” unfold so that all the different elements lead you to God–how awesome! I just love the Office and the chant, and how you are always hearing the words of Scripture and letting that form your whole life.

Finally, it was such a blessed experience to be able to join you all “inside” (the cloister) in your community life. The silence was great, but it also made me really look forward to talking at recreation! And the Sisters are so dear, and the novices so much fun!

[Here Melanie goes on to ask some questions she has for the Novice Mistress. We are sharing this fictional correspondence, but we can’t share everything! For instance, since Melanie wants to return as a Postulant, she must write a formal letter to Mother Prioress asking to be accepted. That will all happen (fictionally) behind the scenes . . . if the community accepts her, our next update here should tell about her entrance.]

Give my love to Mother and all the Sisters! Tell them I am praying for them and ask them to be sure and keep on praying for me!

Sincerely in Christ,

Melanie

Vocation Letters: A Postulant’s Rosary

Our fictional postulant Sister Melanie writes home to her family in this continuation of our Vocation Letter series.

Ave + Maria

Dear Mom, Dad, Josh, Zach, and Tessa,

Happy feast of the Holy Name of Mary! How are you all? I hope your new school year got off to a good start. Sister Mary Magistra said I could write home today, and send you this picture from when I entered the monastery last month. You can see Mother handing me the crucifix and side rosary as part of the official ceremony of beginning the postulancy. The crucifix I wear on a cord around my neck; the large, black rosary swings from my belt, on the left side just as the nuns wear their brown rosary. (Where the knights would have worn their sword!)

I have become very familiar with this Rosary over the past weeks, since as a postulant I kiss it for various monastic ceremonies when the other Sisters kiss their scapular. Both the scapular and the rosary are blessed objects, and represent devotion to Our Lady, so that makes sense. We also pray the Ave Maria (Hail Mary) frequently to bless various activities and keep recollected throughout the day, and each time reach down to pray on a bead. What a beautiful sense it gives me of the whole day strung together, bead after bead, for Jesus and Mary.

I am so glad that you all were able to drive me down to the monastery. Thank you so much for your letters, and tell everyone who sent a note how much I appreciate their prayers for me. You are all in my prayers. I hope to write you more next month!

Love and prayers in Our Lady,

Sister Melanie

P.S. I get “Sister” before my name now since I am a postulant.

Vocation Letters: I Have an Angel

This letter is written by our fictional postulant Sister Melanie to her little sister Tessa.

Ave + Maria

Dear Tessa,

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever! How are you doing? I was thinking of you especially at the beginning of this month when we celebrated the feast of the Guardian Angels. That little prayer which you like so much we pray every day here:

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light, to guard, to rule, to guide.

Our Novice Mistress also read us a passage from our Custom Book about the angels in Our Lady’s service, who keep busy carrying the “sheaves of our Aves” up before the Throne of God. How beautiful! So I think of them as I pray the Rosary during my Hour of Guard. Living in the monastery, so focused on God, I find that I am thinking of the holy angels and calling on their help much more than before.

I have another “angel,” too, that I wanted to write you about: this angel is one of the novices, whom Sister assigned to watch over me during the early days of my aspirancy and postulancy, to watch over me and help me learn where things are and what to do in the monastery. She is a big help, making sure I know the rubrics to follow for the different ceremonies, helping me find my place in our Office books for the next hour of prayer, and keeping her eye out (just like an angel!) so I don’t get lost while we’re singing! I hope that I can do as good a job when it comes my turn to be an “angel” for someone new.

When you get a chance, write and tell me how your hamster is doing with his new wheel. Mom said in her note that it was quite elaborate! I hope you are being “angelic” at home, too. You are in my prayers–please keep on praying for me!

With love and prayers in Our Lady,

Sister Melanie

Read More:

Browse the rest of our Vocation Letter Series here.

Learn about vocations to our monastery, or contact our Vocation Directress.

Vocation Letters: Living the Liturgical Year

This entry continues our series of “Vocation Letters” concerning our fictional postulant, Sister Melanie. Here she tells her family how nuns live the liturgical year. Sister Mary Magistra is our fictional Novice Mistress/Vocations Directress—”Magistra” means “lady teacher” in Latin.

Ave + Maria

Dear Mom, Dad, Josh, Zach, and Tessa,

Joyful Eastertide greetings! Christ is risen—indeed He is risen! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. I was so thrilled to see all your letters in the bundle of mail Mother had saved up during Lent to give us at Easter.

When I first was getting to know the Sisters, one of the older Sisters mentioned how intense the experience of Holy Week and Easter was for her during her first year in the monastery. She had always attended the services while growing up, but the way we live out the liturgical year here in the monastery is so all-encompassing! Now that I have experienced both Christmas and Easter here at Marbury, I can assure you that what she said is true.

I wasn’t sure what to expect as we went into Advent. The Office books changed, and I discovered that the Advent hymns and antiphons and readings, the purple of the vestments and the Advent candles, the solemnity of the Mass without any organ accompaniment, all reflected the long dark nights of December in longing and anticipation for the coming of the Redeemer. Then Christmas itself! Not simply the glorious celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord, but the grace of the Infant Christ overflowing into the feasts of St. Stephen, St. John, the Holy Innocents, then Mary, Mother of God and the feast of Epiphany! What a celebration!

Lent, of course, has a different, more penitential tone of preparation and purification in union with the sufferings of Our Lord. It’s like a desert journey preparing our souls for “dies tua, / per quam reflorent omnia” “Your day wherein all things bloom anew,” as the Lauds hymn says: the Paschal Feast of the Lamb! So we say special prayers, and pray the Passion Verses every Friday . . . Holy Week itself is like the summit of the mountain towards which we have been journeying. Everything we do becomes focused on living out this week in the Liturgy—preparing the palms, the cleaning, the purple drapes and the Repository for Holy Thursday. One of the Novices impressed me with her enthusiasm for the chants which are so powerful during this season: the chants for Good Friday, the Reproaches of our Crucified Lord and our own pleas for mercy. And we have special chants for Tenebrae too.

Then, at the Easter Vigil, all the intensity of Holy Week bursts out into joy, joy, joy, with flowers and organ and singing and light and a whole eight days of celebration! And more chant! The Haec Dies, and the Christus Resurgens! Since we don’t have to return to work or school, we can really enter into the celebration for the whole week—and everything changes, from the penitential atmosphere of Lent all throughout the house, to the radiance of Easter when now, finally, our interior joy can match the superabundance of flowers blooming all around down here in the South.

Since this was my first time being here in the monastery for the Paschal Triduum, I had to use of lot of energy just following everything and trying to turn the page at the right time, but I am so looking forward to having these ceremonies grow into a part of me over the years. That’s what Sister Mary Magistra told me: as cloistered nuns, we don’t “go anywhere”; we “stay at home all the time”; and we don’t “do” any external apostolate (I mean, we have plenty of work here—the laundry we will always have with us!—but we don’t have the occupation of an apostolate). So for us, it is truly the liturgy that gives direction and movement to our lives, drawing us ever deeper each year into union with the Mysteries of Christ, “whom we desire to love solely.”

That is all for now. After finishing up this epistle I will barely be in time for “light’s out”! I hope you all have a wonderful Easter season. Please keep up your prayers for me—you know I always keep you in mine!

Love in Our Lady,

Sister Melanie

Vocation Letters: Preparing to Receive the Habit

Are you wondering how our fictional postulant, Sister Melanie, is doing? She won’t be a postulant much longer! Below is the latest update in our Vocation Letters series.

Ave + Maria

Dear Mom, Dad, Zach, Josh, and Tessa,

Praised be Jesus Christ—now and forever! I have such good news for you: I have been accepted to receive the habit and begin my novitiate on August 22, the feast of the Queenship of Our Lady!

The past month or so has been a time of evaluation. How have I been doing in the monastery, and do I want to go ahead to the next step? My answer to this: Yes! What I have learned and experienced here in the monastery since my entrance last August only makes me want to enter more deeply into this life of total giving to Jesus through Mary for the salvation of souls. After I answered some questions for Sister Mary Magistra, the monastery Council and Chapter voted to accept me to begin the novitiate. I am so excited as I look forward to this next step in formation as a Dominican nun.

I know you are wondering, “So what happens now?” Well, the Sister in charge of sewing came and took my measurements for the habit. We Sisters in the Novitiate will be helping her sew the new habits and alter a few old ones—“preparing the trousseau” as the Sisters say. Sister Mary Magistra likes to tell us that the habit is our wedding dress that we get to wear every day of our lives. The habit marks us as belonging to Jesus and Mary, although timing-wise Solemn Profession is a better parallel with the commitment of wedding vows. (As a novice I will wear a white veil to show that I am still “in training” and have not yet made vows.)

Also, Vestition is the time when we receive our new religious name. I will have to tell you about that in my next letter! I hope you are all doing well, I keep you in my prayers, and I can’t wait to see you all again when you come in August!

Love and prayers in Our Lady,
Sister Melanie

Learn more about Vocations, Vocation Visits (Retreat), or Stages in Formation; or Contact the Vocations Directress.

Vocation Letters: Choosing a Religious Name

Happy feast of the Nativity of Our Lady! This is the last Vocation Letter from Sr. Melanie as a postulant. We had hoped to post this letter before her fictional entrance to the novitiate on August 22, the Queenship of Our Lady, but better late than never. A letter on her vestition will be coming “soon.”

Ave + Maria

August 13

Dear Mom, Dad, Zach, Josh, and Tessa,

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever! I promised to write you about how we choose our religious name, so I am trying to squeeze this letter in so that it will reach you before you leave home to come down to Marbury for my vestition.

Sister Mary Magistra told us that the custom of taking a new name has existed in our Dominican Order at least since the 14th century reform movement under Bl. Raymond of Capua (who was St. Catherine of Siena’s confessor and biographer) and Bl. John Dominic. Taking a new name symbolizes an important change or new start in life–think of Abraham in the Old Testament, and St. Peter and St. Paul in the New.

Each community has its own customs concerning choosing a religious name. Even in our monastery it has differed over the years. Some Sisters were given their names by our Foundresses; other Sisters were inspired to request the very same name that the superior had in mind for them! Usually a Sister chooses her patron and title because that Saint or mystery in the lives of Jesus and Mary has particular significance for her. We all take the name of Mary first, in honor of our Blessed Lady. We may also choose a second name and a title, or just a title alone.

Although the Novice Mistress and Prioress approve the name, it is a DEAD SECRET to everyone else until the very end of the Vestition ceremony when the postulant has been clothed in the holy habit of our Order. Then the Mother Prioress reads out: “In the world, you were known as Miss N. N.; in the Order, you shall be known as Sister Mary N. of N.!” What suspense!

Please pray for me! Tonight I begin my private “10 day” retreat in preparation for receiving the habit. I do so desire to make a good retreat and begin my novitiate well. And I am looking forward to seeing you soon.

In Our Lady,

Sister Melanie

What is the difference between a postulant and a novice? Find out here: Stages in Formation. See also Vocations, Vocation Retreats.

Vocation Letters: Sister’s Vestition

At last, our fictional postulant Sister Melanie has become our fictional novice Sister Mary Rosaria of Divine Mercy. In this Vocation Letter she shares the story of her vestition with her grandmother. The year of postulancy is a year of seeking to become part of the community—”postulare” is the Latin for “to request.” Receiving the habit—Vestition—is a sign of reception into the Dominican Order, but not of consecration, which occurs through profession.

Ave + Maria

Dear Grandma,

Prayerful greetings during this month of the Holy Rosary! I hope you are doing well. I celebrated my very first feast day in the monastery last week on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Since I received the name “Sister Mary Rosaria” almost two month ago, my daily Hour of Guard praying the Rosary has meant so much more to me. It’s as if our Blessed Mother uses these mysteries of Jesus, all strung together in the Rosary, as the “bands of love” to draw me closer to Him and conform me more closely to His image.

My title, “of Divine Mercy,” honors the Jubilee of Mercy which begins soon, and the great mercy which God has shown in my life and which is a hallmark of our Order. “What do you seek?” the Prioress asks each candidate at the entrance to the postulancy, novitiate, and profession. “God’s mercy and yours,” is the response.

That is how my Vestition ceremony began this past August: asking for God’s mercy and the mercy of Mother and the Sisters as I firmly resolved to “follow the Lord Jesus according to the evangelical way of life of our Father St. Dominic.” I knelt before Mother as she and Sister Mary Magistra clothed me in the white tunic, belt and rosary, white scapular and black cappa of our Dominican Order, and the white veil that marks me as a novice. Why do they clothe me? Because the Dominican monastic life is a tradition I am receiving in obedience from my superiors and all the Dominicans who have gone before me for the past 800 years.

If you see a picture of me from the day of my Vestition, you will notice I am wearing a crown of thorns. This isn’t part of the usual attire of a novice! Towards the end of the Vestition ceremony, Mother offers the novice two crowns, one of flowers, one of thorns. This tradition comes from an event in the life of St. Catherine of Siena:

Once, when she complained to Our Lord about a bitter slander against her, Jesus appeared to her and offered her two crowns, one jeweled and one of thorns: she could choose whichever she liked now, and the other would be hers in eternity. The Saint responded: “I choose in this life to be evermore conformed and made like to Thee, my Lord and Savior, and cheerfully to bear crosses and thorns for Thy love, as Thou hast for mine.”

We, too, choose the crown of thorns in this life, so as to receive in Heaven the crown of glory from our Spouse. It is very striking to see, even here on earth, the crown of real roses placed on the head of a deceased nun in her casket as token of that crown we pray she in enjoying in eternity.

Please pray for me, Grandma, that during these next two years of novitiate I may “assiduously follow our Holy Father St. Dominic” so that I may be “ready for the day of my espousals to Jesus Christ”! You are always in my prayers.

Love in Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria

What to Read Next:

Sister Mary Rosaria’s story: Preparing to Receive the Habit; Choosing a Religious Name (can you spot the hints in the illustration?); all the Vocation Letters.

Real Life: learn about the Stages in Formation; see our Vocation Page, Vocation Retreats, or inquire about a Vocation to our community.

Vocation Letters: Life as a Novice

After a hiatus of two years, we continue following the story of our fictional novice, Sister Mary Rosaria, taking up her life where we left her after her Vestition. For the history of this series, see our Vocation Letters page.

Ave + Maria

Dear Mom,

Joyful greetings as we close this month of the Holy Rosary! I have been meaning to write you about my life as a novice, as I know you have been wondering how things have changed for me in the months following my Vestition (reception of the habit).

I have found it to be a beautiful experience of entering more deeply into this vocation as a Dominican novice—even literally, as I “enter into” the habit each morning as I dress myself in this sign of dedication to Christ and of belonging to this Dominican community. Of course, it takes some time to get used to wearing a flowing white garment every day, and to handle the white Dominican scapular that hangs down in front and back, a sign of Our Lady’s loving care all around us. Looking so much more like a nun, and responding to my new name each day, reminds me continually to strive to correspond to God’s call by giving myself more fully to Jesus and Mary for the salvation of souls.

As a novice, I am assigned new roles in our singing of the Divine Office, which is lovely, and I have a greater responsibility to give a good example to the Sisters younger than I. Most daily activities, though, remain the same: my daily Hour of Guard praying the Rosary, our novitiate classes, helping cook on the days the novitiate helps in the kitchen, enjoying recreation with the novitiate or with Mother and all the Sisters, being ready for whatever big or little project Sister Mary Magistra has planned for our work period or to do at recreation! It is mainly my perspective which continues to grow as I enter more deeply into the life of a Dominican nun.

I keep you all in my prayers—pray for me and give my love to everyone at home!

With love in Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria

Vocation Letters: Zeal for Souls

This post continues our series of Vocation Letters from our fictional novice, Sister Mary Rosaria. Though there have been some temporal gaps, we pick up the thread of her story midway through her second year in the novitiate.

Ave + Maria

January 25, Conversion of St. Paul

Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

Dear Mom and Dad,

Greetings in Jesus and Mary on this feast of St. Paul! What an apostle he was, filled to overflowing with zeal for the salvation of souls! No wonder our Holy Father St. Dominic loved St. Paul so much and carried his epistles around with him everywhere (along with the Gospel of St. Matthew, and the writings of Cassian on the monastic life). Our great Dominican St. Catherine of Siena, too, who was on fire for souls herself, speaks of St. Paul in ardent words as a vessel of love filled with fire for the salvation of souls. This is such a shining part of our Dominican vocation!

The section of our Custom Book “On Our Interior Life,” written in the 1890’s by the original Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary, speaks so beautifully of that “zeal for souls which we consider as the marrow of our interior life.” This is one of the elements that drew me powerfully to the Dominican Order. I know I have been here in the monastery more than two years, but I am really coming to appreciate it now all over again.

When Mother shares with us the many prayer requests people send, for health, for jobs, for loved ones who have left the Church, for situations of such anguish, or when I hear of the various grave needs of the Church and the world, how could my heart not be moved like the heart of St. Dominic! He not only sold his own books to buy food for the poor during a famine, but also spend innumerable nights in prayer crying out before the Lord, “What will become of sinners!” Hearing all these intentions inspires me to give myself more fully to God with greater generosity and fidelity in our life, and to beg Him for mercy for all people to bring them to salvation.

St. Paul said he would even wish to be damned himself if by this his brethren could be saved. How many of our own Dominican saints have experienced equal ardor in their zeal for souls! St. Catherine wanted to be a rock stuck in the mouth of hell to prevent souls from falling in! In our own cloistered way here we are sharing in this great longing of Jesus, Mary, and the saints, for the salvation of all.

Of course I keep you all in my prayers too, every day. Please pray for me, that I may continue to grow as a daughter of St. Dominic with his great zeal for souls.

With prayers in Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria

Vocation Letters: Novitiate Studies

Our fictional novice Sister Mary Rosaria writes to her little sister Tessa, squeezing in a letter before Lent begins in order to share about an important aspect of life in formation to become a Dominican nun: novitiate studies! Read more of our Vocation Letters series here.

Ave + Maria

Dear Tessa,

Prayerful greetings from Marbury as we begin this month dedicated to St. Joseph! This is also my last letter before Lent begins. We are finishing up the Parce Days of reparation for the abuses of Mardi Gras . . . and we know how many offenses there are to make reparation for right now in the Church and the world!

How are your classes coming this spring? Do you have any favorites–maybe history or literature? I remember how you exclaimed, when I mentioned I was working on a paper on the Rule of St. Augustine, “Wait–novices GET to write papers!?!?” Maybe you are a budding Dominican, just champing to “share with others the fruits of your contemplation!”

We do write papers here in the novitiate, when our Novice Mistress assigns them to us. But our classes are not like college classes. I heard a friar Novice Master once describe the novitiate at “homeschooling for adults” and (depending on what your homeschooling was like!) I think that description might work. We have classes with our Novice Mistress, time to spend studying, and the opportunity to share what we are learning with the other Sisters at recreation. One main point is that our studies here in the novitiate are integrated into our life: whether we are studying the spiritual life, the Rule and Constitutions, monastic or Dominican history, or theological topics such as the liturgy or sacraments, everything we study bears directly on living out this vocation in our daily life. Daily life too, with its round of liturgical and private prayer, community and solitude, helps us understand what we are studying by our own experience.

The goal of our studies is to form us into Dominican nuns whose thirst for Truth leads us to God, and whose love of God increases our thirst for Him. “Sweet First Truth!” as St. Catherine of Siena loved to call Our Lord. So you see how the study of sacred truth is one of the central elements of our Dominican monastic life. Our Constitutions places Study after with Lectio Divina in the chapter entitled “Hearing, Studying and Keeping the Word of God.” Study in our life is not about getting degrees, but about nourishing contemplation and being an aid to human maturity. We certainly find this true in the novitiate!

I should close now, but know of my prayers for you during this holy season ahead. Please pray for us too, that we may really be open to all the graces Our Lord wants to give us to conform us to Himself in His Passion.

With love and prayers in Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria

Vocation Letters: Eucharistic Devotion

Our fictional novice Sr. Mary Rosaria continues our Vocation Letter series with this note to her little sister.

Ave + Maria

“The Blessed Sacrament is in the little tabernacle; that is important. The Master of the House is there; nothing will be lacking to them if they remain faithful to Him.” –Fr. Saintourens, writing of the small house where he established the first Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary in 1880

Dear Tessa,

Praised be Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar! I hope you have enjoyed celebrating our very many Solemnities recently! Among them all, we looked forward to the feast of Corpus Christi with special zeal this year, since our Novice Mistress, Sister Mary Magistra, chose “Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament” as our theme for June. In order to help us enter more fully into the spirit of our vocation, in the novitiate we are focusing each month on a different aspect of our devotional life. Sister shares inspiring reflections, and provides us with readings from Scripture, our Constitutions and Custom Book, and various doctrinal and devotional writings especially from our Dominican saints. So far this has been very helpful for entering into our devotional life with greater understanding and purpose (very Dominican!).

I should add, Tessa, that “devotion” is not just a warm feeling, but an actual virtue that St. Thomas talks about in the Summa Theologiae: “the will to give oneself readily to things concerning the service of God.” St. Thomas says that the principle effect of devotion is JOY, because it is keeping in mind God’s goodness that motivates us to give ourselves completely and willingly to Him. So, although our Dominican life forms us even when we aren’t aware of it, taking a step back to look at the foundation and goal of our particular devotional practices inspires our virtue of devotion all over again.

Our Eucharistic devotion is woven into every moment of our life. Every day, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament reigns in our chapel, warming our hearts like the Sun with the rays of His grace. We sing the Hours of the Office before Him, we pray the Rosary during our Hours of Guard before Him at Our Lady’s feet, we step through the chapel, bend our knees, and make Him many visits of love. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the most important act of each day, when we join with the priest in offering ourselves with Our Lord to the Father, and in receiving our Spouse in Holy Communion with great devotion. Acts of spiritual communion throughout the day keep our love for our Eucharistic Jesus bright, and help us keep a spirit of thanksgiving for our morning’s Communion, and of anticipation of receiving Him again on the marrow. Whenever we have a visiting priest, we look forward to Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at the end of the day.

It has also been inspiring to see how these specific ways that our devotion is lived out in our community in the Perpetual Rosary tradition deeply fulfills our vocation as Dominican nuns. Great love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament has been a mark of our Order from its beginning, bequeathed to us by our Holy Father St. Dominic and continued in our long line of Dominican Saints. The Constitutions of the Nuns of the Order of Preachers explicitly states: “The nuns should worship Christ in the mystery of the Eucharist so that from this wonderful exchange they may draw an increase of faith, hope, and charity.”

Of course, this is why Jesus gave Himself to us in the Blessed Sacrament: to unite us to Himself and draw us every more deeply into the life of the Blessed Trinity.

With my prayers that Jesus will draw you also to a deeper love for Himself,

In Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria, O.P.

You might also like:

Eucharistic Rosary
Stages in Formation
Vocations: Are you called? Come and See.

Vocation Letters: Preparing for First Profession

This Vocation Letter continues the story of our fictional novice, Sister Mary Rosaria, as the second year of her novitiate draws to a close. Several months before the end of the novitiate, the novice along with the community prayerfully review her progress in this vocation to decide if she should move ahead to pronounce first vows. Once Sister petitions to make profession, and the Council and Chapter approve, a date is set for the ceremony.

Giving one’s acts and one’s power to act to God by vow gives more than giving only one’s acts: “Thus, he who gives the tree and its fruits offers more than if he offered only the fruits while retaining possession of the tree.” – St. Thomas Aquinas

“As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the young men. I sat down under his shadow, whom I desired: and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” – Sg of Sg 2:3

Ave + Maria

Dear Mother,

I am writing this official letter to seek admission to temporary vows in this Dominican Monastery of St. Jude. The past three years that I have spent in formation, one as a postulant and two as a novice, have only confirmed the desire that grew in my heart during my period of aspirancy to give myself totally to Jesus through Mary for souls as a Dominican nun here at Marbury.

Living day-by-day the observances of our Dominican monastic life has caused me to appreciate in new and deeper ways how every element works together toward the goal of our profession, perfect love. In community life, I have found support, joyful witness to grace, and the challenge to see beyond myself and love my Sisters. In the living rhythm of liturgical prayer and in the unfolding richness of lectio divina, I have more deeply experienced the fruitfulness of the Word, increasingly “putting on the mind of Christ” and offering myself with Him. In the great privilege of Eucharistic Adoration and tender union with Our Lady through her Rosary and all our dear devotions to her, I have gained a greater intimacy with Jesus and Mary, and a greater longing to bring all souls to God through our intercessory prayer. Our novitiate classes and the Sisters’ sharings have increased my thirst for truth drawing me deeper into contemplation and love of God. With our Dominican emphasis on how “the exterior affects the interior,” I have come to a deeper understanding of how enclosure, silence, the holy habit, and our other observances work to dispose our hearts to be ever receptive to God’s grace.

Even areas that have been more of a challenge to me have, through God’s grace, been even more an occasion of growth and self-knowledge. The fidelity and joy of the older Sisters, especially, is a sign to me of the deeper growth Our Lord has in store for me in this vocation, united with Him in the vows of poverty, chastity, and especially obedience.

I feel ready, by God’s grace, to be “implanted and rooted in the monastic life” by temporary profession so that I may prepare for my total consecration to God in the Order until death, as our Constitutions say. I most earnestly desire to give myself totally to God, and trust Our Lady that the years of temporary profession will be a preparation under her mantle and close to her heart, to belong totally and completely to Jesus at Solemn Profession. For this reason, I humbly and sincerely ask to make my first profession of vows.

In Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria of Divine Mercy, O.P.

Vocation Letters: First Profession

Our fictional novice, Sister Mary Rosaria, has been waiting long enough for her two years of novitiate to end with her profession of temporary vows! Follow her story from the beginning with our Vocation Letters series.

Ave + Maria

Dear Mom and Dad,

Prayerful greetings from Marbury! Time has just flown by since my first profession of vows on the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 22. I’m so glad you and the whole family were able to make it for the ceremony and a delightful visit.

Being in temporary vows is such a big change from being a white novice. In our novitiate studies we learned about our monastic practices and the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and how they consecrate us to God and lead us more surely to the perfection of charity–how could I not desire even more to make vows and be truly consecrated to Him, on my way to Solemn Profession and consecration “until death”!

The Sisters have commented on how this interior transformation is externally visible almost immediately, with the change from the white to black veil. For a while they were mistaking me for some of the other Sisters who are near my own height, as everyone was getting used to seeing another black-veiled nun around the house. I still break into a smile whenever I catch a glimpse of my reflection!

My daily life is mostly the same, since I am still in formation in the novitiate community, although I do get a few more responsibilities in the kitchen and in choir. I desire to use these three years of temporary vows (with the additional years of renewal as necessary) as earnestly as I can, in order to correspond with the great graces Our Lord has given me in calling me to belong to Him in this vocation. Truly, it is all the doing of His Mercy!

With my love and prayers,

Sister Mary Rosaria of Divine Mercy, O.P.

Real Life First Professions: here and here. Learn more about our Stages in Formation; see our Vocation Page, or inquire about a Vocation to our community.

Vocation Letters: Thanksgiving for Community

This is the latest installment in the Vocation Letters of our fictional novice, Sister Mary Rosaria. We remembered all our friends and benefactors in our grateful prayers yesterday.

Cartoon of Dominican nuns making Thanksgiving dinner

Ave + Maria

Dear Mom and Dad,

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever! Happy and blessed Thanksgiving! I hope you were able to get together to celebrate Thanksgiving yesterday. Did Grandma make her special cranberry relish like always?

We had a lovely Thanksgiving here yesterday. Each Sister made a different dish — the turkey, potatoes, relish, rolls, pies, etc. — and we enjoyed the festive meal in the community room. (We usually have silent meals in the refectory with reading, so this makes it extra-celebratory.) Everyone pitched in and we had a delightful time.

As we talked about the things we are thankful for, I was reflecting particularly on the importance of community. At the beginning of his Rule, which is the foundation of our Dominican religious life, St. Augustine states that the first reason for which we are gathered together in community is to live in harmony, having one mind and heart in God. The theme of community united in God is very prominent in the Rule, and the section on common life that follows comes even before the section on prayer. When we studied the Rule of St. Augustine in our novitiate classes, one commentator’s observation struck me very powerfully: this shows that living community life is our first act of worship.

What a profound statement! Living in community is not always easy. There are certainly many delightful times, but it can also be a challenge to live all day every day with nuns of a large variety of ages, temperaments, and backgrounds. To do it well requires charity and humility; it really is a “school of charity” because even the times we fail become moments of grace for us to grow in love of God and neighbor. Our novice mistress reminds us of this here in the novitiate quite often!

Because the common life is so foundational to everything in our Dominican life–from liturgy, to work, to study, even to the observance of our vows–living this out as an act of worship of God is both sustaining and fruitful in a very deep way. I know I am only scratching the surface after a few years in the monastery, but may God grant me the grace of a lifetime to give myself to Him in and through community. What a gift to be grateful for.

I remembered all of you, too, our many Thanksgivings back home, and how grateful I am for the community of family I had while growing up! It is such a blessing for me to have that foundation for living community life today.

Looking forward to sending you our Christmas newsletter soon! There is so much to pray for right now in our country, the Church, and the world, all in such need of the only authentic community in Christ. I keep all of you in my prayers as well.

Love in Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria, O.P.

Vocation Letters: Midwinter in the Monastery

We continue our Vocation Letters series by our fictional novice Sister Mary Rosaria (now in temporary vows, but we call all Sisters in formation “novices” as a general term).

Ave + Maria

Dear Josh,

Praised be Jesus Christ! Thank you so much for your letter! A letter from my favorite big-little brother is certainly a treasure. I’m so glad to hear that you are doing well.

What are we up to here? Busy about many things, AND the “one thing necessary”! Down here in Alabama, plants grow and flowers bloom all year round, so after we finish our Christmas celebrations we have to jump right in to any pruning we hope to do with our roses, figs, and pear trees. The fig trees especially needed a lot of work–or I should say, the best fig tree, since the others are better candidates for Jesus’ parable: “‘So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?'”

Inside, we have a big project too: sewing habits! Since the goal of our life in the monastery is the fullness of charity in holiness, not “holey-ness,” Mother decided it was high time we put the pressure (foot) on to make another set of habits. Sister Seamstress cuts out all the habits according to each Sister’s measurements, then we all pitch in to sew together the various stages: placket, sleeves, hem, bindings, etc. We are literally on pins and needles until the job is done–although thankfully we haven’t quite reached the place where we need pins and needles to hold our current habits together!

Oh! Have I told you about the Hillbilly Thomists? They are a bluegrass band composed of our very own Dominican friars. The student brothers (Dominican seminarians) in Washington, D.C., made several chant or sacred music albums over at Dominicana Records a few years ago. We sing the same Dominican chant, and love listening to their music in the refectory (our monastic dining room) at meals. “But if the Hillbilly Thomists make a CD, we will listen to that at recreation!” And they did! One of the friar-musicians came to visit us last year around this time, and gave us a sneak preview of some music for their brand new recording, Living for the Other Side, which was just released. Our Sister from Nashville laughed so hard when she heard the song title, “Heaven or Tennessee.” She hasn’t been to Tennessee in over 70 years, but she’s looking forward to Heaven!

I’d better close now, but just know that I’m keeping you and your plans in my prayers every day. These days, it seems that the Fatima prayer is more appropriate than ever: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of Thy mercy!” Mercy, mercy! Like the cry of our Holy Father St. Dominic: “O God, what will become of sinners?” That’s what your big Sister is doing here, amid pruning and sewing and enjoying hillbilly music: offering her heart, in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, for the salvation of souls NOW, TODAY!

With love and prayers in Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria of Divine Mercy, O.P.

Vocation Letters: Embracing Enclosure

Why would a young woman embrace enclosure? Our fictional novice Sister Mary Rosaria reflects on the meaning of the cloistered life in this entry in our Vocation Letter series.

Vocation Letter cartoon depicting Dominican nun inside her enclosure wall.

Ave + Maria

Dear Dad,

Greetings on this feast of St. Augustine! Today is “Enclosure Day” for us–the day that the boundaries of our monastic enclosure were officially blessed, and our Mother Foundresses rejoiced in being able to again embrace their cloistered life of prayer a mere ten days after arriving to found our monastery here in Marbury, Alabama.

I was reflecting on enclosure, after living in the monastery for over four years now. Many people find it hard to understand why a young woman would choose to give up “everything life has to offer” and commit to spending the rest of her days in this one place, separated by walls and grilles from the rest of the world.

The simplest explanation of enclosure is simply love. We nuns are set apart in this sacred space to belong exclusively to God, making a free response of love to the One Who has called us out of love. Everyone in the entire world is called to give themselves to God in love, but not everyone is called to this particular way of life with its radical separation and witness to God’s primacy in all things. When I entered the monastery, I was certainly motivated by loving God and wanting to do His will, but as I have grown in this vocation, I have experienced more and more the truth of what our Constitutions say: “This hidden life should open their minds to the breadth and height and depth of the love of God who sent his Son so that the whole world might be saved through him.”

The cloister keeps outside the empty preoccupations and distractions of the world, so that inside the monastery—and inside our hearts—we can have the environment of simplicity, order, silence and peace that most readily prepares us to seek God and respond to Him in true freedom. Enclosure is like the physical aspect of silence; our Constitutions even link them together in a particularly Dominican way: “The purpose of all regular observance, especially enclosure and silence, is that the Word of God may dwell abundantly in the monastery.” Even looking back on the four (short!) years I have been here, I can see how the interior noise I brought with me has gradually decreased, and more space opened up for God and His Word that we receive in so many ways here in the monastery.

So to those who think it a special privilege when we “get” to leave the enclosure for legitimate reasons, I would say, no; we embrace our enclosure and consider it a privilege that we are set apart for God and “get” to stay inside our cloister! What God promises to give us in this cloistered contemplative life—Himself—is worth more than anything the world could have to offer.

Please give my love to Mom and the rest of the family! Even embracing enclosure, I still love my family very much and look forward to your visit in just a few weeks!

With love and prayers in Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria

P.S. You can read more about the meaning of enclosure in the Vatican document Verbi Sponsa (1999), and about the current legislation in Chapter Three of Cor Orans (2018) (specifically, sections IV and V).

Join us for the Novena for the Nativity of Our Lady – starting August 30

Each year we look forward to the lovely feast of Our Lady’s Birthday on September 8. We invite you to join us for this Novena which begins August 30. Our Lady gave us the greatest gift — her Son, Jesus Christ. Let us prepare for her birthday with devout prayer in her honor.

Vocation Letters: Longing for Advent

In the first installment in a mini-series on the liturgical seasons, our fictional novice Sister Mary Rosaria reflects on the special atmosphere of longing during the Advent season. This post is part of our Vocation Letters series.

Vocation Letters cartoon of Dominican nuns preparing for Advent and singing the Rorate Caeli.

Ave + Maria

Dear Mom and Dad,

Prayerful greetings from Marbury on the very brink of Advent! Today is our day of preparation for this season of preparation: novices cutting greens for the Advent wreath, Sister Sacristan busy with the transformation of the sanctuary to a season of penance (freshly ironed, undecorated altar cloths!), Sister Chantress bringing out all the Latin chant books for the season with their hauntingly beautiful Advent tones.

This season captures so well the longing we should all feel for God. Traditionally there is a threefold coming of Christ for which we prepare during Advent: His historical coming as an Infant, His coming to us each individually in Holy Communion, and His coming in triumph on the last day. But all of these comings are objects of our longing. Marana tha — Come, Lord Jesus! “The Spirit and the Bride say, come! Let all who hear, come! And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17).

Advent is a time to intensify our desire, in union with Our Lady whose longing for the Savior drew down that Dew from Heaven. This is the Dew of which we sing in the Rorate Caeli: “Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant justum, Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just one.” As Our Lady longed for Him and prepared for Him, so we too prepare our hearts to desire Him more ardently, to surrender ourselves to Him more completely, and to receive Him more fully.

In the monastery we have many different devotional practices to help us prepare our hearts, but one of my favorite is that of the 4000 Ave’s. The number 4000 is in honor of the traditional “4000 years” between the Creation and the Redemption, the time of longing for the coming of the Savior. Each day during the 40 days before Christmas, we pray 100 Hail Mary’s on our “Rose beads,” a little handheld Rosary with double-construction so you can pull the beads and keep your place. During my first Advent in the monastery, I found this devotion so helpful in getting the habit of praying Ave’s throughout the day and staying united with Our Lady in her longing for Christ.

We’re already in the midst of the Ave’s, but it is delightful to be on the brink of this season once again. May Our Lord grant to all people, especially those most suffering, a great thirst for Him that He may satisfy with Himself!

With prayers for many graces this Advent, in Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria, O.P.

You May Also Like:

Read more about our Advent practices in Advent in the Monastery.
Listen to the special Ave Maria we sing after Mass each day during the 40 days before Christmas.
Could this be your vocation? Take the opportunity to visit over Christmas break!

Vocation Letters: Celebrating Christmas

In the second installment in a mini-series on the liturgical seasons, our fictional novice Sister Mary Rosaria reflects on the incarnational joy of Christmas celebrations in the monastery. This post is part of our Vocation Letters series.

Vocation Letters cartoon for Dominican nuns at Christmas time.

Ave + Maria

Dear Mom and Dad,

Merry Christmas! I can still use this greeting now at the very end of the Christmas season. That is one of my favorite things about Christmas in the monastery: we really begin our celebration at Christmas, and it overflows through all the many feast days of the season.

First, the anticipation of Advent increases in intensity right up through the singing of Matins before Midnight Mass. A different Sister takes each of the sung readings from Scripture, culminating in the traditional Dominican chant of the Genealogy according to St. Matthew. Finally the Prioress and Subprioress intone the exultant strains of the Te Deum, the hymn of praise of God, when all the Christmas lights go on and the Infant Jesus is uncovered in His little crib in the stable! Then, Midnight Mass! The Holy Sacrifice of the Word Incarnate: Jesus Himself becoming present again on the altar in order to unite us with Himself in His own offering to the Father in the Holy Spirit for the redemption of the world, the real purpose of Christmas. And this, in the middle of the night, amid the glory of the poinsettias and the ardent love of our hearts, so ready to receive and give ourselves to Him again in these mysteries of Christmas after the longing of Advent.

(This really makes sense of why I can’t think of our Christmas celebrations without thinking of the Eucharist: the celebration of Christ’s birth is the celebration of Emmanuel, God-with-us, and He is with us now in the Blessed Sacrament. He is with us in the Eucharist here in the monastery all the time, with our Eucharistic Adoration, but each season of the liturgical year brings us the special graces of the mysteries of His life that we celebrate.)

The Infant Jesus came to bring “grace upon grace,” as we read in the Gospel, and the feasts that follow Christmas one after the other show that this grace is already overflowing: St. Stephen on the 26th, St. John the Evangelist on the 27th, and the Holy Innocents on the 28th. (This last is a very special feast day for the Novitiate!) We begin the New Year with a Holy Hour and the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and then Epiphany brings more of our Christmas traditions (such as a current favorite, marking the doors with blessed chalk in honor of the Three Kings). Even today’s feast of the Baptism has a special community tradition passed down from the early days of our community when the Second Sunday after Christmas was the feast of the Holy Family, with the Gospel reading about Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple. All our little traditions bring these feast days alive for us, helping us enter into the mysteries more deeply and discover their treasures anew each year.

I hope you also have enjoyed the celebrations of the Christmas season, and many graces from the Infant Jesus!

With love in Our Lady and the Infant Jesus,

Sister Mary Rosaria, O.P.

You May Also Like:

Read about how a young woman becomes a Dominican nun: Stages in Formation
Would you like to learn more about our life? Sign up for our bimonthly Vocation Newsletter for young women considering a vocation.
Could this be your vocation? Contact our Vocation Directress.

Vocation Letters: Living Lent

We recently heard from the mother of one of our Sisters, “I printed out all of the Vocation Letters from your website and brought them with me on vacation. I am really enjoying what feels like a decade-long visit with you and the Sisters and your lovely monastery by reading them.”

We hope that you also enjoy this glimpse into our life! This current Vocation Letter, part of a mini-series on the liturgical year in the monastery, looks at the season of Lent through the eyes of our fictional novice.

Vocation Letters cartoon of Dominican nuns living the liturgical season of Lent with their traditional practices of receiving Ashes, praying before Jesus on the cross, and covering statues with purple drapes for Passiontide.

Ave + Maria

Dear Mom and Dad,

Prayerful Lenten greetings from Marbury–as it will certainly be Lent by the time you receive this! Since we don’t receive social visits during Lent, you’ve never been able to get a glimpse of how we live out this season at the monastery. I would love to share it with you—I’ve been looking forward to Lent since the end of the Christmas season.

Even though spring in Alabama is in full bloom at this time of year, for our observance of Lent we enter resolutely into the desert. No flowers on the altar, no organ accompaniment at Mass; more fasting and more abstinence from meat; more prayers of reparation and devotions to the Passion of Our Lord (such as St. Catherine de Ricci’s Passion Verses, which are so beautiful). At the liturgy, the special hymns and chants for Lent keep before our eyes both penance for our sins and the power of grace to purify our hearts and prepare us to enter into the joy of our Risen Lord.

All our external ways to observe Lent are meant to both shape and express the interior life of our hearts. Our prayer enters into the meaning of what we sing, and makes our hearts more attentive and faithful to the inspirations of God’s grace. Our bodily fasting increases our spiritual hunger: as Our Lord quotes in the Gospel, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Finally, our almsgiving is expressed not only in the loving service we daily extend to our Sisters in community, but also in a more conscious attention to the urgency of our intercessory prayer for the needs of the world and the salvation of souls–not at all difficult in these times that cry out so gravely for God’s mercy!

Finally, the long weeks of Lent culminate in Passiontide and Holy Week. If you thought Lent was stark before, just wait until the purple drapes hide the familiar statues of Our Lady and the saints from our eyes! It’s truly the desert, focusing all our energies on entering into these sacred days with Our Lord. As we go about the material preparations (ironing drapes for Passiontide, preparing the repository for Holy Thursday, cleaning candelabra and all the other preparations for the Easter fesitivities), the chants we have just practiced for these holy days echo in our hearts, and we keep company with Our Lord and Our Lady going up to Jerusalem, knowing that His “hour” is now at hand.

We live these liturgical seasons every year, but somehow they never grow old. The graces of Christ’s mysteries are there for us in a new way, as we travel this path of our life with Him.

With my prayers for a most grace-filled Lent! I look forward to writing again at Easter!

In Our Lady of Sorrows,

Sister Mary Rosaria, O.P.

You May Also Like:

Join us praying a Dominican devotion for Lent: The Canticle of the Passion. Find more posts about Lent here.
What else do we do in the spring? Celebrate March as the month of our beloved father and provider, St. Joseph.
Could this be your vocation? Come and see on our Vocation Retreat this May 20-22.

Vocation Letters: Easter Exultation

In this installment in our fictional Vocation Letter series, Sister Mary Rosaria shares how we enter deeply into the Paschal Mystery of Christ through the monastic celebration of the Triduum, ending in Easter joy. This concludes our mini-series on liturgical seasons in the monastery after Vocation Letters on Advent, Christmas, and Lent.

Vocation Letters cartoon of Dominican nuns celebrating Easter Vigil with the paschal candle; Eucharistic Adoration with Easter lillies; Dominican nuns enjoying an outdoor Easter egg hunt under the statue of Our Lady.

Ave + Maria

Dear Mom and Dad,

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! How was your Easter? It struck me this year that here in the monastery we don’t simply attend services, but really live the celebrations of the mysteries of these holy days.

On Holy Thursday, the community gathers in the chapter hall for the special ceremony of the Mandatum. Mother washes the Sisters’ feet, as we sing a series of beautiful chants recalling Our Lord’s washing of His disciples’ feet, His anointing by St. Mary Magdalen, and His new commandment of charity. In the evening, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper concludes with Father and the nuns processing into the chapter hall, where we have hung special curtains and prepared the Altar of Repose for the Blessed Sacrament. There we nuns keep a solemn vigil with Our Lord until midnight, when Good Friday begins.

Good Friday is the most solemn day of the year. We keep profound silence, and wear our copes and our veils down (I’ve showed you that, right? The top part of our veil is folded back, and we can pull it forward to hide our faces and make kind of a private “cloister” for ourselves), and keep a solemn fast. We make the Stations of the Cross as a community, and at 3:00 pm hold the Good Friday service. For the Adoration of the Cross, we approach barefoot with a triple genuflection, and kiss the Cross while making the venia, our special Dominican prostration. The Dominican chant of the Reproaches echoes in our hearts all day long.

On Holy Saturday, we stay united with our Sorrowful Mother, but the atmosphere changes to one of expectant preparation. Even Our Lady knew that Jesus would rise from the dead, right? And here at the monastery, we have to prepare the altar! Get the Easter lilies ready! Prepare Easter baskets of flowers for all the different shrines around the house! Put the finishing touches on the festive Easter treats for the next day! At last comes the Easter Vigil, starting in pitch darkness, with the shining light of the Easter candle, the proclamation of the Exultet, and finally the singing of the Gloria with all the bells ringing and each nun struggling to hold the chant book (or play the organ or ring the bells vigorously) while at the same time throwing off the black cope we have worn at each liturgy since November 2. Christ is risen, alleluia, alleluia!

Even though the flowers have been blooming outside all throughout Lent, Easter seems to make them spring more truly into bloom. The monastery seems all the more filled with light! The organist pulls out all the stops on the organ (which we haven’t heard throughout Lent) and plays our special choral Regina Coelis with gusto, while the scent of the Easter lilies and special Paschal incense overflows from the chapel.

Does that give you some idea? It is so glorious! And this Easter exultation continues (a little more toned-down than during the Octave, perhaps) for all 50 days of the Easter Season until Pentecost, with the rain of Alleluias at Mass and Office and the joyful prayer of the Regina Coeli constantly reminding us of the joy of Christ’s Resurrection.

May Our Lord also give you a share in His Easter graces!

In Our Lady, joyful Queen of Heaven,

Sister Mary Rosaria, O.P.

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Vocation Letters: My Favorite Graces

With this letter to her little sister, we continue our Vocation Letter series by our fictional novice, Sister Mary Rosaria.

Ave + Maria

Dear Tessa,

Greetings in Jesus and Mary! I hope you are doing well. I wanted to share with you one of my favorite parts of our life in the monastery. This is not one of the most important elements of our life, such as community or liturgy, but it is something we do several times every day, it ties various elements together, and it gives me great joy each time we do it. Can you guess what it is? . . . Maybe you will find this surprising, but I am thinking of our monastic graces at meals!

At home you say grace before and after meals—you know, “Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts . . .” and then, “We give Thee thanks, Almighty God . . .” We also have graces before and after meals here in the monastery, but they are much more elaborate. First of all, they are processional; after praying the De Profundis (the Psalm said for the souls in purgatory), we process two by two into the refectory (our monastic “dining room”). Making a procession reminds us that our earthly life, with our food to sustain us, is a journey towards heaven.

The graces are also liturgical: once at our places, we pray some verses from the Psalms, with other liturgical elements, each Sister taking her part just as she does in the liturgical prayers in Choir. My favorite is the verse we pray every day before supper: “The poor will eat and receive their fill. / Those who seek the Lord will praise Him and will live forever.” How true that we are poor and needy before God, who lovingly supplies for us every day! We love Him, seek Him, and the praise we begin even now will continue in everlasting life. This liturgical element of our refectory graces reminds us that Our Lord provides this nourishment for our body, as He also provides Himself in the Eucharist as nourishment for our souls. After dinner each day, we even process back to the chapel and finish our graces there!

Of course, the way we spend our mealtime in the refectory is also different from at home: St. Augustine says in his Rule that we should keep silence in the refectory while listening to holy reading, “so that not only their bodies may be refreshed with food, but their minds also may be strengthened with the word of God.” Before and after each meal, our monastic graces draw even our “daily bread” into our life of liturgical and Eucharistic praise.

And where is Our Lady is all this? Can’t you see her, before each Sister’s place in the refectory?

With my love and prayers in Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria, O.P.

Vocation Letters: A Surprising Tradition

This letter to her sister continues our Vocation Letter series on our Dominican monastic life by our fictional novice, Sister Mary Rosaria.

Vocation Letters cartoon showing Dominican nuns with a secret project and a puzzled postulant.

Ave + Maria

Dear Tessa,

Happy (belated) feast of the Presentation and Purification! This feast is traditionally the end of the extended Christmas season. Yesterday we said goodbye to all the poinsettias decorating the church, and brought in all the candles to be blessed during the special procession that begins Mass. This feast is traditionally called “Candlemas” for that reason, as we celebrate Jesus’ Presentation in the Temple, and Simeon calling Him the “light of the nations.”

During Advent and Christmas this year, I was thinking about how dear to our hearts all our community traditions are. We have a new postulant this year, and so all our celebrations are even more festive and exciting, since one of our favorite traditions is actually surprising new members! I remember the first year I came, whenever during recreation one of the Sisters would be delighting in telling some story from past years, if she came too close to revealing some as-yet-secret future tradition, everyone else would jump in, “SShhh!!” with knowing looks to remind her not to let the secret slip before its time. Now, as a Sister in temporary vows, I often get to be one of the ones who is “in on the secret” and helps arrange things ahead of time. Our Sister Postulant really enjoys being surprised, too, which makes it all the more delightful!

Maybe you wouldn’t guess what is one of the biggest surprises in the monastery. It’s not that one thing (ssshh!!) that we do for that special feast day, or how we (Sshh!!) prepare for that (SSHH!) other special occasion which I can’t mention!

No, truly Tessa, it’s Jesus, and His deep and personal love for me in particular. How could this be a surprise, since after all, didn’t I enter the monastery because I loved Him and was responding to His call? But there it is. Maybe this never ceases to amaze: His love, His incredible love!

May Jesus also surprise you with His love!

With love and prayers in Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria, O.P.

Vocation Letters: The Angels of the Aves

In this Vocation Letter, our fictional novice Sister Mary Rosaria shares a reflection very appropriate to this month of the Rosary (and to her name!). Read more Vocation Letters here.

Cartoon of a Dominican nun praying the Rosary while the angels carry the sheaves of her Aves up to heaven.

Ave + Maria

Dear Mom,

Prayerful greetings during this month of the Most Holy Rosary! Thank you for the lovely feast day card you sent me for Our Lady of the Rosary. Our celebration of the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary this past Saturday was especially glorious—it is such a special day for our community, since we are devoted to praying the Perpetual Rosary as Mary’s Guard of Honor, and for me in particular, since it is my patronal feast as “Sister Mary Rosaria.”

I loved the angels surrounding Our Lady on your card, Mom. As we celebrated the feast of the Archangels and then of the Guardian Angels during the days of our special novena leading up to the feast Our Lady of the Rosary, I was reflecting more on a little passage from our Perpetual Rosary Custom Book dating back to the 1880’s. After speaking of our devotion to our Guardian Angels, it says:

Finally, we sometimes think with emotion and gratitude of those privileged angels in Heaven, who are more especially occupied in the service of their celestial Queen, and who ascend and descend towards our humble monasteries, bearing the sheaves of our perpetual “Aves” to the throne of Mary.

Isn’t that a beautiful image? How many Aves do we pray each day, kneeling before our statue of Our Lady, adoring Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration, pondering His mysteries through the eyes and heart of Our Lady as we intercede for all the needs of the world! I love to think of those sheaves of Aves rising up before the thrones of Jesus and Mary, and of how the holy angels surround us with their love and care as we join them in serving God.

Thank you again, Mom! Please give my love and prayers to everyone at home!

In Our Lady,

Sister Mary Rosaria, O.P.

You May Also Like:

Learn more about our devotion to Our Lady and our Perpetual Rosary heritage.
See our Vocation Page, consider making a Vocation Retreats, or inquire about a Vocation to our community.

Vocation Letters in full from Oldest to Most Recent

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Join us for the Novena for the Nativity of Our Lady – starting August 30

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