Vocations News: Coping with COVID-19 and Come and Sees
Yes, 2020 has been quite a year. We managed to get in a couple visits with inquiring women before COVID became a byword and seeming harbinger of all that could go wrong with the year 2020. By lockdown in March it was hoped a few weeks would be sufficient to dispel the plague of 2020. Now, as fall approaches with lifts and more lock downs and Advent promises to arrive quickly, many wouldn’t be blamed for thinking things will never get back to ‘normal’. Even the phrase ‘new normal’ really can’t fit this strange culture of permanent distancing and sanitization. And yet...who really defines normal?
Take the normal process of discerning a vocation to the religious life. Correspondence, a building relationship, an in person visit or visits (Come and See) to experience a little bit of the life, further education and learning, entrance....etc. All the predictable steps that were standard now have a virus template to adapt to. And with our limited capacity to communicate via the internet in our neck of the woods, video meetings over a computer wouldn’t be just another strange hurdle to learn, they would be cost prohibitive given our data caps. You would think with this new COVID-19 ’normal’ that, between social distancing and communications obstacles, we would have to forego welcoming inquirers, candidates, and aspirants. But who really defines normal? God. He can work around EVERYTHING.
So this fall and God willing, into the new year as well, we’ve scheduled women for Come and See experiences, suitably adapted to the precautions of coronavirus. We plan on sharing lots of information and communication in both directions....just not any germs or viruses! It demands creativity, flexibility, and ingenuity. Perhaps we can add the live video stuff someday but for now, God’s providing! #sisterreginacomicstrip ...

How does the cat discern?

Yes, we are sort of sharing some of our news regarding how we are going to manage Come and See visits during COVID. But, thanks to the amazing qualities of fictional cartoons, we can do so all while respecting the privacy and discretion of the women discerning their possible religious vocations.

When you are lighting a fire with a match or a spark, you are careful not to expose the early flame to too much wind or it will go out. Gunther, however, has no such reservations. And he’s very discriminating about who can rub his ears. #sisterreginacomicstrip ...

ANOTHER HELPER TO SANCTIFY THE WORLD OF SOCIAL MEDIA

On Saturday October 10th the Italian teen Carlo Acutis will be beatified. Since one of his great apostolates, even as a pre-teen, was using the internet to evangelize and catechize the Church’s teachings on the Eucharist, he will be a wonderful patron for social media. His tomb depicts many scenes from his amazing, but short, life including his use of computers, the internet, and social media. In one small panel on his tomb you can even find small icons representing the most common social media platforms.

This tiny detail in the tomb of a holy youth now being held up to the world as an example of sanctity assures us that the seeming acceptance of the lack of civility in many online interactions does not have to be. It should hit us right between the eyes that Blessed Carlo maintained charity and enthusiasm as a teenager in the modern world. That is as wonderful as it is hopeful. May we all follow his lead. Because it was his wish to lead souls to Heaven.

Quotes of Blessed Carlo Acutis:
“To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan. I’m happy to die because I’ve lived my life without wasting even a minute of it doing things that wouldn’t have pleased God.”

“The Infinite is our homeland. We have always been expected in Heaven.” #sisterreginacomicstrip ...

OK...we all know what is happening this week and we are all praying about it. Of course, we mean All Souls Day! Our nation undeniably needs unity and healing but without prayer and sacrifice, elections alone will not solve the deeper problems in our society. So let us entrust all our elected leaders to the intercession of the Saints and the Holy Souls as Saint Paul advises us. While it is easy to point far up the ladder to blame whoever is at the top, it is easy to forget that true conversion starts with the self. And harder still to do it. We need to be faithful Catholics. That will enable us to flourish as good citizens as well. PRAY AND SACRIFICE for them, whether or not you agree with them. Their salvation, and yours, may very well depend on it.

#sisterreginacomicstrip ...

GOOD NEWS!
We’re off to pray more deeply and there are more of us to pray! It’s time for our annual retreat from Oct 15th through Nov 1st! So while pre-scheduled cartoons will appear, we will really be deep in the desert in prayer with our Lord remembering all your needs and intentions. That also means that we will be limiting communications. Prayer requests, as ever, will still be received and held up before the Blessed Sacrament.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
We couldn’t slip away into silent prayer without first sharing more good news after our first foray into COVID-era Come and See visits:

We are happy to announce that Chrissy will be entering our Aspirancy program. She joins Aspirant Maria and Aspirant Renae and we rejoice for them all and ask your prayers for their ongoing discernment with us.

#sisterreginacomicstrip ...

Ahhhh....the easy life?

Who doesn`t want a life of ease and comfort? Who wouldn`t want a calm life free of stress, anxiety, and hard work? Well, if you`re looking for that, rest assured you won`t find it, even in a monastery. You`ll find lots of hard work, of course, and little ease or comfort. As to stress or anxiety? No matter your walk of life, you`ll find some of that. So, if "all we do is pray" sounds overly cozy and pleasant, read on.

We haven`t entered into monastic life to escape the stress and anxiety of the world. We come to this life to enter into a long spiritual combat that consists of our entire lives offered up to Christ for the sanctification of his priests and the needs of the entire world. Combat implies you automatically have an enemy to contend with. Most often that is our own selves, our fallen nature. But when our mission encompasses others, in this case priests, we can`t ignore the enemy outside ourselves whom we know, beyond doubt, is after their Christ-marked souls.

Knowing the devil is after priests, and thus also after all those who pray and sacrifice for them, actually need not cause any stress or anxiety either, because it grants us the calming assurance that every hardship can be transformed into grace purchased for priests. Even the roughest situation can be offered up with tranquility of soul. The `stress-less-ness` of our lives is in this exchange: our little battles for their peace.

#SisterReginaComicStrip ...