REGINA Magazine 23 | Page 51

REGINA: What is the most surprising thing about your vocation?

SR. CLARE, POSTULANT: I would say the most surprising thing about my vocation was the discovery that God was calling me to the Dominican Monastic life. I used to imagine the Dominicans as being deeply involved with highly intellectual dealings that were too lofty for me, while I saw myself as a rather simple person who preferred something mellower.

I do feel a sense of complementarity with my vocation and it lends a wonderful harmony to my whole person. There is an inner joy that wells up like a spring within me, and I wish for it to gush forth that I may share this joy of the Gospel with others.

SR. CHIARA MARIE OF OUR LADY STAR OF THE SEA, 1ST YEAR NOVICE: That I could be so happy. Throughout my twenties and thirties I felt adrift, moving from job to job.

I couldn’t settle anywhere. Then when I was thirty-five I had a conversion of heart and knew God was calling me.

I’m Irish and at the time I was living on the island of Guernsey (which is between England and France). So the idea of entering a monastery in America never occurred to me. After a few emails I was invited to fly over for an aspirancy in 2012 and I just knew I was home.

Millennial Sisters

“My dad knew it was for real when I left my cell phone to go into the cloister.”

t’s not exactly what most Millennials have been exposed to. But in fact,

it’s a trend happening all over the USA these days, though under-reported in the media. So why would modern young women enter a cloistered convent? REGINA recently sat down with the Dominican Nuns of Summit, New Jersey to ask the hard questions of a group of young postulant and novices there.

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