After waiting longer than anticipated due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we are finally able to welcome our newest postulant-to-be on Saturday, the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary!

The time of postulancy is a time of committed discernment. Before entering the monastery as a postulant, a young woman has already spent more than a year getting to know the community (and the community, her). She has completed her aspirancy period, which requires a month-long stay inside the enclosure. She has now given up most of her possessions, her car, her apartment, and her job, because she has been led by God to believe this really could be the vocation He has called her, and the community has affirmed this possibility by accepting her application to the postulancy. But no formal commitment has yet been made, nor even a commitment to enter into a formal commitment. Rather, the postulancy is a time of learning more about what that commitment will entail, with the joys and crosses of religious life and observance of the Rule and the Constitutions of the Nuns of the Order of Preachers.

A calling to the cloistered life is a mystery, that is, it requires faith to see its beauty and importance. How wonderful it is to be called to give unceasing praise to God in the liturgy, seven times a day on behalf of all the faithful, to seek the face of God for the salvation of souls! God doesn’t call everyone to this path to love, but for those He does call and who respond generously, He gives abundantly more in return.

Will you join us in praying for our postulant-to-be as she also makes her last preparations to enter, as well as praying for her family and loved ones. And please too remember all those God is calling to take the next step of faith and trust in their own vocation journeys.

Deo gratias!