http://www.stemma.org/vocations/ en webservices@etapestry.com Copyright 2011 2011-02-06T20:18:43+00:00 http://www.stemma.org/vocations/formation-process/the_initial_formation_process/ http://www.stemma.org/vocations/formation-process/the_initial_formation_process/#When:20:55:15Z After a woman has been in contact with us, visited, and both she and we feel that she may have a vocation to our monastic life she is invited to come for a 3 month live in period.  After that time, if both she and community discern that God is indeed calling her to pursue our monastic vocation, postulancy begins. 2011-02-01T20:55:15+00:00 http://www.stemma.org/vocations/formation-process/solemn_vows/ http://www.stemma.org/vocations/formation-process/solemn_vows/#When:20:18:43Z At the end of her Triennial Profession, the Sister having fully discerned her vocation and completing her formation period, makes Solemn (or life time) Profession.  This fully incorporates her into the monastic community.  During the profession ceremony, she receives the double veil (black veil with white liner), ring and profession wreath, breviary and candle.  2011-02-06T20:18:43+00:00 http://www.stemma.org/vocations/formation-process/triennial_vows_vows_for_three_years/ http://www.stemma.org/vocations/formation-process/triennial_vows_vows_for_three_years/#When:20:18:08Z With the profession of Triennial Vows, the newly professed Sister receives the black veil and her religious name.  During this time she continues to attend classes and grows deeper both in her vocation and in our community life. 2011-02-04T20:18:08+00:00 http://www.stemma.org/vocations/formation-process/novice/ http://www.stemma.org/vocations/formation-process/novice/#When:20:17:12Z At the beginning of the Novitiate, the new novice is presented with the habit and white veil.  During this two year period, she continues to attend classes that will further her understanding and appreciation of our monastic life.  It is a time of deepening one’s prayer life and trying one’s monastic vocation. 2011-02-02T20:17:12+00:00 http://www.stemma.org/vocations/formation-process/postulancy/ http://www.stemma.org/vocations/formation-process/postulancy/#When:20:13:38Z Postulancy is the first step in the formation process.  During this time, she attends classes that introduce her to the Rule of St. Benedict and monastic life, The Liturgy of the Hours, lectio divina, and scripture.  The postulancy is usually one year. 2011-02-01T20:13:38+00:00 http://www.stemma.org/vocations/live-in-opportunities/live-in_opportunities/ http://www.stemma.org/vocations/live-in-opportunities/live-in_opportunities/#When:21:23:51Z Is Jesus Calling you to follow Him as a Benedictine nun at St. Emma Monastery? Have you been wondering if you have a monastic vocation?  Do you want to experience the ore et labora of our monastery?  Do you desire a closer look?  Do you want to share our life for a few days but without a commitment to enter on your side?  Single Catholic women, between the ages 16-38, are invited to join us at various times throughout the year to experience our Benedictine monastic life for themselves. We host several “formal” Monastic Immersion Experiences each year, please see the schedule below for our upcoming dates.  Additionally, individuals are welcome to come for informal Immersion Experiences as their schedules permit. During these visits, vocation guests have the opportunity to explore the possibility that Jesus Christ might be inviting them to follow Him more closely through a monastic vocation with our community. Participants take part in our daily schedule of prayer – the daily Eucharist and The Liturgy of the Hours – and in our work in the monastery, in caring for guests and in our gift and book shop.  Recreational time together belongs also to the monastic day.  Time is also provided to spend in silence, reading and reflecting.  Talks with Mother Prioress and the vocation director also offered.  The Monastic Immersion Experiences normally begins with arrival in the afternoon on the opening day and closes after lunch on the closing day.  For those desiring a longer time, arrangements can be made. Please contact Sr. Mary Clare at 724-610-7586 or email for additional information or to register or an upcoming Monastic Immersion Experience. Upcoming Monastic Immersion Experiences Palm Sunday Weekend - March 22-24, 2013 Triduum - March 27-31, 2013 (or whatever time your schedule permits) Corpus Christi - May 31-June 2, 2013 Thanksgiving Weekend - November 29-December 1, 2013 New Years - January 3-5, 2014 Besides these weekends, you are welcome to come for an informal Immersion Experience at a time that is convenient for you; please let us know about your desire to visit. Some thoughts shared with us from a participant in one of our Immersion Experiences The first three days I spent on the Monastic Immersion Experience, all I could think was:  Is this it?  Is this where I’m called?  I found myself growing frustrated and resentful.  Why don’t they give me time to think?! Kneeling before Him in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, it hit me:  This is a Monastic Immersion Experience.  If you want time to think, go on a silent retreat! I have seven days here, I thought.  I’m here to experience monastic life the way it really is.  If I’m going to really have that experience, I need to have it in my heart, too.  I will have plenty of time to reflect on the experience from a discernment perspective once I get home.  For now, just live in the moment. Why is it important to wait on the Lord?  Because I cannot possibly know where I am called by my own power.  Real discernment is too complex to “figure out” on my own.  Once I had seen monastic life from the inside, I understood why you can’t approach discernment as if it were a hunt for the right college.  You have to chill out, and wait on Him. But like pretty much every other discerner, I want to know where I will be in one year, five years, twenty-five years…  That day before Our Lord at St. Emma’s, I realized that my desire to know — especially to know NOW — is a desire for control.  I want control over my life.  I want to know because the predictability will give me a sense of peace and comfort.  But in having control, I fail to hand my life over to Him.  In finding my peace and comfort in my own power, I fail to find it in Him. After that hour in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, things got much better.  I felt instantly less frustrated, drained, and impatient.  In fact, I started to have a pretty good time. When I got home, I was not the same discerner that I was.  These wonderful women gave me a place to stay, three meals a day, an opportunity to learn to pray the Divine Office, great conversation, some wonderful spiritual direction, and loads and loads of love.  But much more importantly, they blessed me with an experience that taught me to wait for Him, and in so doing, they gave me peace.    - JES 2011-01-21T21:23:51+00:00 http://www.stemma.org/vocations/how_is_monastic_life_lived_at_st._emmas/ http://www.stemma.org/vocations/how_is_monastic_life_lived_at_st._emmas/#When:21:16:41Z For St. Benedict, the search for God colors all facets of the monastic life and, therefore, of our life.  This faith-based life finds its expression in giving ourselves to God through our vows.  Daily it is expressed in trying to have God as Number 1 in our lives, in the time we give to the praise of God in The Liturgy of the Hours, in daily Mass, lectio divina and in personal prayer and reading.  Our faith-based life seeks to see Christ in our superior, our Sisters (where our beautiful title of “Sister” originates), the sick, the guests.  Our work, putting our prayer and love into practice, we are asked to use the “tools of the monastery as sacred vessels” of the altar — as indeed they are!    Here at St. Emma’s, our rich monastic tradition dates back to 1035, the founding of our motherhouse in Eichstätt, Germany where our 40 founding Sisters entered.  This tradition shaped the lives of our Sisters during their 56 years as they worked at St. Vincent Archabbey, College and Seminary until 1987 and shaped the lives of us who have entered St. Emma Moanstery since 1961.  Our community is further enhanced and blessed by our close association with our Benedictine brothers at St. Vincent Archabbey.  Our day is full and centered around the praise of God — The Liturgy of the Hours — which we chant together six times daily beginning with Vigils at 5:25 a.m.  The Office of Lauds is at 6:30 followed by our daily communal celebration of the Eucharist at 7:00.  The Eucharist, the high point of our day, provides us with the food for the journey, both in Word and Sacrament. That “food for the journey” we also experience in our formal, communal meals.  Just as we are nourished by the Body and Blood of our Lord during Holy Mass, so we are nourished at table by food and drink.  Just as we are nourished by the Word proclaimed at Holy Mass, so we are nourished by table reading during our meals.  Our monastic refectory, further expresses this idea through faceted glass windows that came from our previous chapel and depict six moments of the Mass. In the mornings after the celebration of the Eucharist and the office of Terce, we have time set aside for lectio divina (sacred reading), with is followed by our morning work period.  The work of our hearts, the expression of our prayer, is very varied; it includes cooking, gardening, caring for our infirm members, sewing, working in the office, working in our gift and book shop or taking care of the details of that go into our retreat work.  These are works of hospitality towards one another and in preparing everything for the retreatants or cleaning up and preparing for the next group.  We have a second work period in the afternoon as well.  The morning comes to a close with the midday offices of Sext and None, which is followed by lunch.  After lunch we have personal time until our second work period begins.  During personal time Sisters may read, enjoy our grounds, spend time in chapel or take a needed nap.  After another period of work, the pray Vespers and have supper (clean up time always comes with meal time!).  The community then gathers for a time of recreation together.  What is recreation?  It is time to sit and share what has happened that day, play various games, enjoy each other’s company or perhaps even enjoy a game of badminton or other lawn game! Our day comes to a close with the office of Compline which signals the beginning of our time of sacred silence which lasts until after Mass the following morning.  The time remaining after Compline until a Sister goes to bed provides another time for reading and personal prayer. Our monastic life is a life of love, lived out in service to God and to others.  It is a life full of possibilities to discover our true selves hidden under many layers.  It is a life spent searching and seeking after God, because we never can truly finally grasp Him until we stand before Him at the end of our lives.  It is a life spent on a journey, learning in this “school of the Lord’s service” what it means to truly to “have our hearts enlarged and run in the way of God’s commandments”  (cf Prologue, Rule of St. Benedict). If you would like additional information about our monastic life or upcoming Monastic Immerision Experiences, please email .  2011-01-21T21:16:41+00:00 http://www.stemma.org/vocations/faqs/faqs/ http://www.stemma.org/vocations/faqs/faqs/#When:13:40:12Z 2011-01-20T13:40:12+00:00