Video Monday – Dominican Sisters of Nashville

I found this to be a really good video, not just about the Dominican Sisters of Nashville, but about discernment as well. This is a secular video, but well worth watching.

I’d love to hear what others think of this video. It addressed some good points about the return of many young people to more traditional faith.

Friday Community Highlight – Daughters of St Mary of Providence

This week’s highlighted community is:

The Daughters of St. Mary of Providence were founded by Blessed Louis Guanella and came to the United States in 1913.  They work with the elderly, with the homeless, with the developmentally disabled, and in parish ministry.  The sisters wear a modified habit and live in community.

Take a few minutes and visit their website!

Wednesday Discernment Link: Meg Funk

While this site isn’t specifically about discernment, I think it has a great deal to offer anyone who is currently discerning religious life, as well as anyone seeking to live a more holy life in general.

Meg Funk is actually Sr. Mary Margaret Funk, OSB of Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove, Indiana.  I’ve been subscribed to her blog feed for a while now.  She writes about many things, but mostly about meditative practices and prayer.  I highly recommend her blog for anyone who wants to pursue a life of holiness.

Video Monday – Sr. Rose Marie Jasinski, CBS

Sr. Rose Marie Jasinski, a Sister of Bon Secours, talks about her ministry.

Can You Help?

Note:  This is a sticky note.  For new content, please scroll down.

Consecrated Life has been around now for almost 9 years.  It’s been a labor of love, and all I’ve wanted out of it was the satisfaction of helping women find their path in this life.

Things are a little round in our household at the moment, though.  I was laid off from my job two weeks ago, and while I’ve applied for everything that will stand still long enough, I haven’t gotten so much as a phone interview in response.  My husband is in the immigration process, so he can’t work until he gets his greencard, which could be anywhere from next month to some time next year.

On top of all this, a month ago one of our three dachshunds ruptured a disc in her back and is partially paralyzed.  Between vet visits, medications, x-rays, and her brand new doggon wheels, our savings have been sorely depleted.

My chief concern is losing my health insurance.  I have multiple health issues which require medication.  In addition, if I’m without my health insurance for more than 62 days, when I finally do get a job, they can hit me for pre-existing conditions for a year and wouldn’t’ cover my meds during that time period. And I just can’t afford to COBRA my insurance at this point.

I’ve always hated asking anyone for help.  When I was in community, my novice mistress was always on me about my refusal to ask for help.  Well, she’d be proud of me today, because I’m asking for help.

UPDATE: First, I’d like to thank the two people who have donated. Every little bit is a blessing for us right now. I am so grateful for every little bit of help we receive, and we are keeping our donors in our prayers.

Now for the update: I am still unemployed. I’ve had a number of interviews but no job offers yet. We’re getting to the point where our savings are depleted and we only have unemployment to rely upon. That will pay our rent and utilities with nothing left over. In addition, the hosting for this site is due in November. It costs about $60 to host this site for a year. At the moment, we just will not have the money to pay for the hosting in November. So there is a possibility the site will be down starting in mid-November if I don’t get work. We just won’t have the money to continue to pay for it.

However, all news isn’t bad. I told you all about Amber, our middle dog, who was paralyzed from a ruptured disc in her back. Well, Amber has made almost a full recovery. She still doesn’t have full feeling in her back legs, but she has regained most of the movement, and she can walk unassisted if she is on even ground. She still requires daily medication, but we are just so happy with her progress as is our vet. She was astounded last week when Amber walked unassisted into the clinic. So, thank you for your prayers. They have definitely been effective for our little girl. I have a bunch of videos that we shot over the course of her recovery. I’ll be posting them on YouTube later and will link them for anyone who wants to see her.

If this site has been of assistance to you over the years, and if you have any extra money to spare, we’d appreciate any assistance you can give.  Rest assured that you will be in our prayers.  If you wish to donate, just click on the button below:

Site Updates

A few updates to the site:

• I finally brought in the old Discernment Resources and Nun Blogs lists.  You can access them now on the menu at the top of the page.
• Updated various e-mail links that were out of date and a few links that were still pointing at the pages from the old site.  Hopefully all internal links are now pointing to the right place.
• I finally went out and deleted all of the old pages from the previous site.  If you have those bookmarked, you’ll need to go to the new page and bookmark it.  The old pages aren’t being updated anyway.

Friday Community Highlight – Sisters of St. Chretienne

This week’s highlighted community is:

Wednesday Discernment Link: Catholic Vocations Ministry Australia

Whether you are an Aussie or not, this is a wonderful site for those discerning religious life.  Be sure, especially, to check out the discernment information and the Vocations FAQs.  They’ve put a great deal of work into the site.  It’s interesting, helpful, as well as visually appealing and easy to navigate.  Give them a look.

Video Monday – Nuns, the Cloister, and Discernment

This was from a (I believe) 20/20 episode. The video quality is poor, but still worth watching. It’s been divided into two parts for YouTube.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Friday Community Highlight – Wheaton Franciscans

This week’s highlighted community, chosen at random from all the community links on the site, is:

The Wheaton Franciscans

From their website:

Who We Are: The Wheaton Franciscans comprise the United States Province of the International Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters, Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary. We are a community of vowed women religious and covenant (associate) women and men whose mission is to live the Gospel following the spirit of Francis and Clare of Assisi, and our foundress M. Clara Pfaender. This spirit challenges us to live a life of ministering in mutuality and partnership, with love as the energy which moves us. We collaborate with other religious communities and lay partners in health, shelter and other human service ministries. Our individual ministries are as diverse as the gifts that we each bring to community life.

I also received an electronic copy of their brochure on their Covenant Membership, which some of you may be interested in.

I encourage all of my readers to take the time to give their website a look.