How did you find the Dominican Monastery of St. Jude?I had known the Dominican Nuns in Marbury for six years before entering. When I first came I was one of four college girls on a “Nun Run.” Three of us came only because the other one (my older sister) was very insistent and persistent. The three of us were not actively looking for a religious vocation like she was. I was open to it, but believed I was called to marriage, like most girls. When we made our retreat all of us felt a holiness and peace about Marbury. We all loved the nuns. They were striving for holiness, but also funny and down to earth. I loved Marbury, but did not think it was my vocation. Throughout the years I would return for retreats, work days, and to make donations. From the original four girls, three of us ultimately entered religious life. How did you find your contemplative vocation?For six years I grew more in my faith and as a person. God was drawing me closer to Himself. In those six years I became a very active Catholic. I was involved with the Catholic Student Centers for two universities, missions (national and international), parish work, and also immigrant organizations. (Of course, always keeping an eye out for my “other half.”) More and more I was seeking God. I went to daily Mass, made holy hours, prayed the rosary, and even started praying morning and evening prayer with the Divine Office. During those years I discerned both marriage and religious life. I dated a few really great guys. But there was something missing—I did not feel complete. It wasn't until I was missioned in Albania (Eastern Europe) that I discovered what I was longing for. I knew how much God loved me. He not only created me from nothing because of His great love—which He did not have to do—but He also came here and died because of that love. I realized He gave me everything. He gave me Himself. Now . . . What will I give Him in response? Then my question came to Him: “God, how do I give You my everything?” Right away I knew; it was etched in my heart: Marbury. I realized I would not be satisfied anywhere else. I wanted to become a contemplative nun in order to give God everything that He had given me. Those six years were building up to my entrance day. I learned a lot and do not regret the events that took place during that time. I know that I realized my vocation in God's time, not mine.
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What drew you to become a cloistered nun?In my early teens, reading the New Testament awoke in me a strong desire to live a life radically dedicated to Jesus. Soon this took the form of attraction to what I now know is a monastic vocation: a structured community life marked by a strong Christian culture formed by the rhythm of the liturgical year, drawing one ever more deeply into the mysteries of Christ. I came to Christendom College aware of a call to “restore Catholic culture.” I wanted to find out “what went wrong” and how I could fix it! With what I learned in such an intensely Catholic environment I would be equipped to teach and demonstrate for others an authentic Christian culture, as a teacher in the home, school, or in the religious life. That I would be a teacher was a sure thing, I thought. By my senior year, however, I had repeatedly visited the Dominican teaching Sisters but to no avail. To belong totally to Christ—yes! To live the monastic life in community—yes! To sing the Divine Office, to allow the liturgy to form Jesus in me—yes! To study the Truth—yes! And teaching of course! Why wasn’t I excitedly waving my application papers? At this point priests and Sisters began asking me, “Are you thinking active or contemplative?” I could only respond, “I’ve never considered the contemplative life. How would I know?” The final answer to this question only came when I visited the Dominican Monastery of St. Jude. It wasn’t simply the joy and simplicity I saw in the Sisters, their Eucharistic Adoration and Total Consecration, or the Latin chant during the Divine Office. Even though I had previously visited other fine Dominicans and even another monastery, it was only here at Marbury that I discovered a joy and desire in my heart to give myself and my whole life totally to Jesus here, in this life, in this community, without reserve, and to accept whatever He had in store for me. Did you give up changing the world?I still want people to be able to live out their faith effectively in their lives. But I know that JESUS is the one who changes hearts and who creates the only authentic Catholic culture from without and from within. Here in the monastery our life is totally immersed in Him. Beyond simply “Catholic culture,” the contemplative life is wholly and exclusively dedicated to the end towards which culture should dispose every life: union with God. We live this hidden life of prayer and penance not for ourselves alone, but so that through our total gift of ourselves in union with Christ’s gift of Himself on the Cross, all mankind should come to that same fulfillment. Why have you stayed in the cloister?Because of Jesus! What an invitation—to be the spouse of Christ, to belong totally to Him every minute of every day in a life totally dedicated to loving Him in purity of heart! Contemplative monastic life is so different from life in the world that our Novice Mistress describes our initial month-long formation period as “getting over culture shock”! It takes much longer than a month to really slow down, let go of the interior “busy”-ness left over from the world, and begin to possess instead the interior freedom and openness of the contemplative life. But it is as Fr. Walter Farrell, O.P. says in his Companion to the Summa: People in the world ask if you know what you are missing; but it rarely dawns on them that you will never come to the end of what you are getting. What did your parents think?Although my parents were very supportive of a religious vocation, they were initially hesitant about the cloistered life. Wasn’t I throwing away my God-given talents? No; I was giving them back to God. As the Vocation Directress told me, “Who do you think enters the cloister? Unattractive, unintelligent girls unable to do anything ‘useful’?” It only took one visit to the monastery, seeing the beauty of the life and the joy of the Sisters, to assure my parents that I also could thrive and serve God and His people in this beautiful vocation. For More InformationYoung women ages 17-28 who feel drawn to give Jesus their “everything” in the Dominican monastic life may contact:
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