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Whisperings
Mark
Your Calendar!
Is
God calling YOU to something more?
Vocation Live-In Experience at
Annunciation Monastery
for Women age 18+ ~ July 9 - 13, 2008
We invite women ages 18+ to a vocation live-in
experience at Annunciation Monastery Wed., July 9 to Mon., July 13. Experience
the vibrant community life of Annunciation Monastery by participating in our
prayer, meals and recreation. Renew your spirit while enjoying the
peaceful walking paths and quiet reflective environment. Get to know our
sisters, why they feel called to this life, and about their ministries. We'd
love to journey with you.
There is no charge, however, preregistration is necessary. "Come and see" Benedictine
hospitality. For more info, contact Sister Nicole Kunze at (701)255-1520
or email
vocations@annunciationmonastery.org
Vocation
Team: Sister Nancy Miller, Sister Nicole Kunze, and
vocation director, Sister
Kathleen Atkinson
Congratulations
and Welcome Novices
Sister Madelyn
and Sister Hannah!
Novice
Director Sister Agatha Muggli with Sister Madelyn and Sister
Hannah
Mady Louttit
and Hannah Vanorny were welcomed into the community as
novices on Saturday, September 8th. In a private
monastic ceremony, each expressed their desire to continue
their journey as Benedictine Sisters in the novitiate.
The women were surrounded by community members who blessed
them and embraced them, addressing them as "Sister Madeline"
and "Sister Hannah." The ceremony was followed by
community prayer, dinner and joyful celebration.
Please join us in prayers of thanksgiving for Sister
Madelyn and Sister Hannah.
Sister Hannah Vanorny, novice
Sister Madelyn Louttit,
novice
Reflection from Sister Kathleen
Atkinson, OSB, director of vocations
To be open to God's life call and
to have the courage to pursue the direction God is giving,
be it to the priesthood, religious life, married or single
life.
At first glance, I rejoice that we are
spending this day in prayer for men and women discerning
their call. I’m grateful for the prayers offered not only
today, but so faithfully offered every day that people may
be open and respond to God’s direction. Working in vocation
ministry, I have the awesome privilege of walking alongside
people who are truly searching for that place of vocation
described by Frederick Buechner – “That place where our
deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” These
men and women are open to search out the deep
gladness, not just surface comfort; to touch the world’s
hunger, not just it’s offerings of security and
satisfaction.
This takes great courage.
At a second glance of our intention, I
lift up the women in initial formation in our community. We
are so blessed.
What courage it takes to pick up lives
well-established and settled to join with us ---
to join with you and me and the unknown
women who will follow.
I lift up our sisters in intial
formation and the others we hold in prayer.
Truly, may they be welcomed into our
hearts and into our monastic life.
- May we be faithful models and
mentors.
- May we be challenged as to the
intensity of our own living and the integrity of our own
monastic professions.
- May we be challenged by a song
that has been recently used in a few community events
and has a refrain that hauntingly echoes – “May all who
come behind us find us faithful.”
To come forth and join and walk with
us – in all of our mutual giftedness and weakness; our
mutual blessing and sin.
This takes great courage.
Finally, this
day of contemplation draws me to an even deeper, penetrating
glance; it calls me to pray that I may be open
to God's life call and to have the courage to pursue the
direction God is giving.
As I pray for Mady, selling her home of
over 20 years; leaving a stable job, friends, and faith
community; moving across the country, I pray also for
myself.
- God give me the courage to be
willing to move to another house, another bedroom,
another place in chapel.
- God, give me the courage to open
my life, my relationships, and my time in welcome to
another.
- God, give me the courage not to
get too settled and lose the edge that keeps me ever
searching for You.
I have had the privilege to serve in
vocation ministry these past couple of years, and I know
that the vocation journey that has been most challenging is
my own. I have been confronted with the question ---“ if I
had to do it all over again; now, as we are and as I am…
Would I? Could I?”
I find myself asking “Would you accept
me as a new member knowing me as you do? Would I, as
vocation director, encourage you to join with us? What
would people say about me when I came to visit? What do I
say about my sisters now?”
This day of contemplation would be a
lot easier if I kept it as a day of prayer for others --- I
could be comfortable and so rested with the day of reprieve
from talking;
But our intention is for courage, not
for comfort.
It is for openness, not for completion.
Rilke says it
thus:
You see, I want a lot
Maybe I want it all;
The darkness of each
endless fall,
The shimmering light of
each ascent.
So many are alive who
don’t seem to care
Casual, easy, they move in
the world as though untouched
But God, you take pleasure
in the faces of those who know they thirst.
You cherish those who grip
you for survival
You are not dead yet, it’s
not too late
To open your depths by
plunging into them
And drink in the life
That reveals itself quietly
there.
(Book of Hours. Love Poems to God)
Plunging into the depths.
Gripping God for survival.
That’s the direction God is giving.
Let us pray courage for ourselves, our
sisters, and all seekers.
*****
The vocation ministry newsletter
of Annunciation Monastery.
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