Vocations

Prayer for Vocations
O Holy Spirit, Spirit of wisdom and divine love, impart Your knowledge,
understanding, and counsel to youth that they may know the vocation wherein
they can best serve God.

Give them courage and strength to follow God's holy will. Guide their uncertain
steps, strengthen their resolutions, shield their chastity, fashion their minds,
conquer their hearts, and lead them to the vineyards where they will labour in
God's holy service.
Amen.

Rublev's icon
of the Trinity

The Contemplative Vocation
Rublev's icon of the Trinity is a very good image of the Christian vocation, an invitation into the family circle of the Trinity.
The contemplative vocation is a call to do this in a particular way. While prayer is essential for all Christians, contemplatives are called to make their whole lives a prayer. My favourite definition of prayer is the 'St. John of the Cross' definition of prayer as 'silent love.'
We don't have to be on our knees all day to be occupied in that. The various religious orders in the Church reflect a particular aspect of Christ's life, teaching, preaching, healing.

Contemplatives imitate Christ withdrawing to a lonely place to pray to His Father, always on behalf of us all.

People have very different attitudes towards enclosed monks and nuns. On the one hand they surround the life with a kind of mystique and imagine us floating around all day wrapped in God. Others think we are wasting our lives and would be better off doing something 'useful' for people, like teaching, helping the poor, nursing etc.
Both views are extreme. Our life is as down to earth as eating your porridge, and we are convinced we are doing something supremely useful. Franz Werfel says in "The Song of Bernadette" 'for those who have faith no explanation is needed, for those who have not, no
explanation is possible.'

Fr. Thomas Keating in "Open mind open heart' likens the contemplative role with that of Our Lady. "Mary brought the Word of God into the world or rather let Him come into the world through her.

It is not so much what we do but what we are that allows Christ live in the world.
Then the presence of God emerges from our inmost being, whether we walk down the road or drink a cup of soup divine life is pouring into the world.
The effectiveness of every action depends on the source from which it springs. If it is coming out of a person immersed in God it is extremely effective. The contemplative state like the vocation of Mary brings Christ into the world "

As our name suggests the Eucharist is at the very heart of our vocation. We are a Diocesan foundation and the Bishop is our Superior. Being attached to the local Church we see ourselves as very much part of the Parish of Wexford. Bishop Furlong founded us, among other things, to be 'a source of spiritual energy for the priests and people of the Diocese.' So praying
for the spiritual needs of the Diocese is a priority with us.

Part of our Constitution states: 'Our faith reveals to us the action and presence of Christ in the Eucharist as the total gift of love calling for a response of love which involves our whole lives'. This is the kernal of our vocation.
Through our personal prayer we become more and more aware of God's love for us. Within ourselves there is a growing desire to surrender our whole lives to Him.

In our own small way we try to imitate St. Therese and be 'love in the heart of the Church.' We are never more aware of this than when we kneel, in faith before Jesus in the Monstrance and, united to His prayer before the Father we send out His healing love, forgiveness, mercy and comfort to suffering humanity. Our way of life is our apostolate.

The following are some comments the sisters made on what Eucharistic Adoration means to them:

"..Adoration is one of the deepest instincts of a creaturehood. Adoration we surrender all we are and have to the Father."

"...We offer Him praise on our own behalf and that of the whole world."

"Jesus in the Monstrance is the glorified Christ standing before the Father. I unite my small drop with His ocean of praise, thanksgiving, intercession to the Father.

"It is such a mystery, the best response is to be silent and adore."

"..I think prayer is like a generator of energy in the Church
and that energy is love."

"...Prayer is resting in loving attentiveness in the Presence of the One by whom we know ourselves to be loved."

Our whole day is arranged in such a way as to create an atmosphere of silence and peace so that prayer can flourish. We start our day at 6.00 a.m. and end about 9.00 p.m.
The Eucharist Celebration and the Divine Office are the high points of the day.
St. Benedict sees the Divine Office as sanctifying the whole day, so six times a day we come together to recite the various hours of the office. In between we have our work
periods, four hours in the morning and two in the afternoon and one hour for spiritual reading.

We have two periods of recreation, one at mid-day and one after supper. All the time the Eucharistic Adoration is taking place. We relieve each other at half hourly intervals during the day and every hour at night. The day ends with Compline and Benediction.
The sisters have free time then to spend as they wish.

	Work is an important element of our life - to balance the hours of prayer. There is no unemployment problem in the Convent. The running of a large house ensures a variety of occupations. There are the usual domestic chores as well as Sacristy work, taking
	care of visitors, acting as Portress is a very busy job, with a constant stream of callers for prayers or just a listening ear.
To support ourselves we make altar breads and the workroom turns out embroidered vestments, altar-cloths and all Church requirements. We can put to use all support creative, artistic and musical talents. As one sister said to another recently "God bless you sister but you are certainly using all the talents God gave you and a few that He didn't."

Living in an enclosed environment with the same people for a lifetime has its own difficulties, and it would be unrealistic to think that there would not be occasional tensions and differences in the nitty gritty of daily life. But what unites us is far stronger than these surface frustrations. There is a real unity, warmth and loyalty
in our relationships. It's not a case of, as a Poor Clare remarked 'a group of dour females' with their jaws set on 'perfection' and their nerves forever a jangle turning the cloister into a psychopathic ward.

Rather, contentment and joy would be characteristic of our community living.
Contemplative sisters as a group in the Church do not have an identity crisis. I know this from meeting sisters from all the different traditions in Ireland over the past six years at our Annual Gathering.
Without exception they are confident of their role in the Church and the best means to make God's Kingdom a reality among people is through their lives of prayer. We can never say we have reached the ideal. 'For us there is only trying.' Pope John Paul has a special word for contemplatives wherever he goes.
At Maynooth in 1979 he said: "I express the Pope's need for you... the Church's need for you... be with me, close to me, you who are at the heart of this Church."

Where does the future point us? Karl Rahner said that the Church of the future would consist of much smaller groups of Christians but they would be contemplative.
The Holy Spirit seems to be moving us in that direction.

	I see great signs of hope in the many prayer movements that are emerging among the laity, Centring groups, John Main groups, Eucharistic Adoration groups, Charismatic groups. For too long the rich mystical traditions of the Catholic Church have
been hidden behind the high walls of Monasteries and Convents with the result that hundreds of young people went East in the
sixties and seventies seeking Hindu and Buddhist Gurus to teach them how to meditate, hungry for an experience of God. A priest who gives retreats and talks all over Ireland told us that the topics that most interest the laity are, Scripture and prayer. The hunger is there. So is the challenge that faces us as we move into a new century - that the priests, religious and the laity who are leaders in the Church be people of deep prayer so that in their turn they pass on their wisdom to the many who are seeking a closer relationship with the Lord. "Return to the Wellsprings of the Spirit deep within you and you will find a new energy for life and love." St. Agustine