V O C A T I O N S

The Order is composed of Monastics, Oblates, Priest Associates and Associates, reflecting, basically, the degree to which one may feel called to the religious life in the context of one's secular calling.

At the present time there are no female monastics, or nuns, but we will do all we can to assist anyone interested in pursuing this vocation. The nuns would be a separate community, distinct from the community of monks, but under the jurisdiction of the Prior for a more-or-less extended period of formation. (Father Prior has directed the establishment of an Oblate House for women to be established near the monastery. Two Oblate women have now moved to Lexington and taken an apartment about five blocks from the monastery to be the first stage of the development for an Oblate House. The Oblate House will allow these women to spend much more time in regular study, prayer and work both at the monastery and within their small and developing community life.) Anyone interested should contact the Director of Vocations.

A true vocation to the life of a religious is typically a development over a period of time, generally extending over a period of years. One finds that the thought that he should be doing something else is frequently at the back of his mind, and the time usually arrives that one finds himself in the position of "it is now or never", so to speak -- the Holy Spirit has so arranged things that one feels absolutely free to make the change, usually dramatic, that he feels he is being called to make. In reviewing his past life he can now see more clearly how things have arranged themselves to bring him to the position he now finds himself in and he can't escape the conclusion that God's hand has wrought it. It can still be put off, but one may rest assured that it will surface again -- God is not whimsical, His call is open until it is answered!. His call of a particular individual is for that particular individual, and no other -- it is not a situation of "if I don't answer the call, someone else will". God's will for each individual is unique.

The understanding of the monastic journey is more often than not obscured by many misconceptions and to such a degree that most church people have only a hazy, and a very idealized, notion of what it really is. Most think of the "giving up" that must take place as if it could not be other than painful forever after, not understanding the freedom, the joy, the love, the wholeness that Our Lord gives us as we draw nearer to him. Some have the image of the monastic life as being one of floating in and out of chapel to the accompaniment of chanting the psalms in the background, while someone else cleans the toilets, scrubs the floors, washes the dishes and repairs the roof.

The discipline is one of prayer, that is what the monastic does, that is what he is called to do -- or to put it another way, to seek the face of God -- and it can indeed become hard work, but if prayer becomes hard work, hard work becomes prayer, as it is all done for the love of God. It should be realized that the monastic's work is neither glamorous nor is it more than the work of those in the secular world. Make no mistake, monks and nuns live in the real world, even though they are not of the world. Their days are filled with work, prayer, study, meditation -- work was not put at the head of the list by mistake, as Saint Benedict makes it clear in the Holy Rule that work, centered in prayer and dedicated to God, makes for happiness and being filled with love for God. The hours of the day are allocated to prayer, study, meditation and work. It only takes a glimpse at the Horarium on the first page of this section to see where the emphasis lies.

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