Help Tara Clemens become a Nun

·°·

•·Vocations·•

The Catholic Anchor has a wonderful story about a young Anchorage attorney, that converted to Catholicism, jumped head first into the faith, and is now attempting to answer the call of a religious vocation. Her name is Tara Clemens and she needs your help. She is trying to become a Dominican Nun at Corpus Christi Monastery. (A contemplative cloistered order in California)

Here is part of her story from the Anchor:

In praying to find a job, she “stumbled across” a vocation prayer which she began to say.
Then, one day in the kitchen, Clemens’ Protestant mother articulated a possibility that had never crossed Clemens’ mind.
“She said, ‘Just promise me you’re not going to become a nun,’ recalled Clemens, whose “jaw hit the floor” at the idea.
Still, Clemens couldn’t make the promise.
“I said, ‘I can’t do that. I don’t know what God might call me to in the future.’”
But the idea of the religious life was anathema to Clemens.
“Inside, I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, we are not going there!’ But I felt like I needed to take it to God in prayer,” she explained. So she did – in addition to reading about religious vocations and attending discernment retreats.
Now, two years later, she is applying to enter the Corpus Christi Monastery — a Dominican congregation of contemplative nuns in California.
The nuns promote devotion to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and pray for the salvation of souls. To support themselves, they bake altar bread for Mass.

·°· 

•·Financial Obligations·• 

Like many professionals that receive a religious calling, paying off debt plays a huge part in the overall process. To enter most religious orders, one must be free of all debts. Tara is a lawyer, and I can tell you from personal experience, law school loans are no easy thing to "take care of."

So how can you help? Well Tara has joined with The Laboure Society to help satisfy her financial and debt obligations. The major way in which they succeed in doing this is through the generosity of others. Tara has also set up a website to help in this effort. (http://supporttarasvocation.wordpress.com/)

There are many ways to support those called to be priests and religious – prayers and various activities to encourage our priests and religious are vitally important. But an article published by National Catholic Register in 2007 highlights another problem: educational debt. More than ever, young men and women called to give themselves in service to God and the Church need your spiritual and financial support.
I am deeply grateful to those who have already responded or will respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to support priestly and religious vocations, including my own. In addition to working to pay down my debt, I, like many others, are depending on the generosity of others to be free of the educational debt that hinders pursuing God’s call. To that end, I have decided to work with The Laboure Society to reach this goal. The Laboure Society exists to provide financial assistance to individuals who must eliminate educational debt in order to pursue their vocation to priesthood or religious life in the Catholic Church. All contributions are tax deductible and donations may be made online through their website or by mail.


Please prayerfully consider making a contribution and please pray for me, as I will be praying for all of you. God bless!

So please think about helping her out! Check out her website, and maybe leave a comment and tell her that you are praying for her. Also, leave a comment at her blog and tell her where you heard about her story, maybe she will pray for me!

·°·

Prayer

In the meantime let us pray for Tara and others discerning Dominican vocational callings:

Blessed Jordan, worthy successor of St. Dominic, in the early days of the Order, your
example and zeal prompted many men and women to follow Christ in the white habit of Our Holy Father.
As patron of Dominican vocations, continue to inspire talented and devoted men and
women to consecrate their lives to God. Through your intercession, lead to the Order of
Preachers generous and sacrificing persons, willing to give themselves fervently to the apostolate of Truth.
Help them to prepare themselves to be worthy of the grace of a Dominican vocation.
Inspire their hearts to become learned of God, that with firm determination they might aspire to be “champions of the Faith and true lights of the world.” Amen.

Saint Dominic

Ora Pro Nobis

°·°

LINKS

Tara's website & blog: http://supporttarasvocation.wordpress.com/ •

The Laboure Society •

Dominican Contemplative NunsCorpus Christi Monastery •

Support Tara's Vocation - Facebook Page •
Story at Catholic Anchor: Anchorage attorney considers the cloistered monastery • 

·°·

Fishers of Men

Belinda's Brain [click it please and give her a little DUIB love] posted three awesome AONy (Archdiocese of New York) vocation videos. The ones that I posted below are the full versions (videos 1 & 2) of something called "Fishers of Men." You should watch them below... and remember to give Belinda a click.

The fourth video, is an alternate version of one of the videos, set to a Thrice song called, "Image of the Invisible." I suggest watching that one too.

The Ordinary become extraordinary

The Crescat has posted one of the most concise and important posts that I have read in a long time. She covers vocations, the importance of the Mass to our faith, and the necessity for our clergy  and the Church to interact with children in a real and personal way. She explains how this interaction cannot be watered down and aloof. It must be authentic and real; the interaction must convey the normalcy and happiness that accompanies the religious life. Never has this message been more important than now, in a time when we as a Church face so much adversity and pervasive evil.

I hope other blogs link to this. I just found it and imagine it will sweep the Catholog-os-phere like wildfire... and if it doesn't the bloggers are slacking in their duty:

... I blog what I know and observe. I am no expert on the mass in the extraordinary form. I can not provide deep theological pontifications from a scholarly perspective. I also can not give you details of who was in attendance, those Catholic celebrities... I am terrible with names. This isn't that type of blog, and jokes aside, I am really not that type of Catholic. I'm from a simpler sort, and this post is from an even simpler perspective... that of a child.

The blog coverage of the Pontifical Solemn High Mass has been vast, with commentary and extraordinary photos. I took a few myself with my cell phone but the quality was poor. I wish I snapped a few shots of the children though. I regret that.

More so than all the beauty that surrounded me at that mass, within the liturgy and the church itself, was the beauty and looks of absolute wonder on the children's faces. I guess because I am mom I notice these things.

I noticed two little boys in some matching traditional Asian dress who kept peeking around the pews. They would get up and cautiously walk up as close as they could to see what was going on. The babies in their parents arms would raise their sleepy heads and look around at the sound of the chorus, as if angels had called their names. Toddlers sat in stunned awe and craned their necks to look at the ceiling mosaics or stand on their tip toes to look over the seated heads.

It was a mass that enveloped their entire senses; sight, sound and smell. I know it will leave a lasting impression. I still remember the first time I went to a Catholic mass as an unchurched child and the mark it left on me unbeknownst at the time but resurfacing almost two decades later.

It was a mass that fosters vocations... as I believe any reverently celebrated mass has the opportunity to be. Any time a child witnesses something so out of ordinary [hence "extraordinary" form] it burns itself into their memory.

It is why I am so adamantly opposed to the removal of sacred art from churches, or congregational centered worship. If we can think of it in terms of our children, our future, then we owe it to our faith to keep our churches beautiful and our masses solemn. The look of wide eyed wonder on their faces said it all.

Afterward I took my son to the blognic... yes, The Boy was in bar. Parental fail, I know. Let me justify, I would never miss a chance to have The Boy interact with clergy and seminarians. I think it is important for him to see that they are men. Normal men. Men who like to be sociable and love to laugh over a few beers enjoying the camaraderie. Too often when people think of the vocation of the priesthood the first thought is of all the things you must give up. Worldly things. Like material possessions and sex. My son needs to see that being a priest doesn't mean giving up your love of life and your desire for joy and fun. He sees them as intelligent and charismatic. Role models. Good role models. Men who are genuinely happy.

I have one rule for my family... they must never bash The Church or say anything negative about a priest or other member of a religious community in front of my son. So far they have respected my wishes. Whether my son becomes a priest or religious is between him and Christ, but I will do my damndest in the meantime to not persuade his opinion in a negative direction.

I wish I had thought to thank the seminarians and priests who talked with my son. They treated him with respect, talked to him not as a child but really conversed with him. And even now, he was still talking about the chicken fingers Fr. Z bought him and the Roy Rogers he got to drink at the bar with the young man in a cassock who was wearing glasses... I wish I could remember his name. He told The Boy he knew he wanted to be a priest when he was only nine years old.

I can't imagine the grace involved in that. I am almost 35 and still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up.

I apologize, I ramble. I just felt like it needed to be said. I love our priests, I support our seminarians. Thank you gentlemen.

All wars are fought in individual battles...

I did something very difficult today. I passed on an opportunity that presented itself to me. One that is, or maybe was, a dream of mine. I am not 100% sure why I did it... and I don't even know if it was the right decision.

I turned down the opportunity at a job today. It wasn't an offer per se but it was a pretty good opportunity at one. It has to do with this whole War waging in our country regarding our government, health care, and the culture of death. In fact, some are calling it a Crusade. (See: A New Crusade ) I don't feel "at peace" about making this decision like you would imagine a person would be after making a big decision about something. In fact, I felt quite unsettled.

You see, I prayed the St. Joseph Novena - that ended on Friday, St. Joseph's Day. Then, that very night I received an email about an opportunity, political in nature, someone looking to bring someone on to help them fight this war, this crusade if you will. To be honest... this was a dream of mine. A high level campaign job, for a high ranking office, the opportunity at defending freedom, morals, and maybe eventually a job with an elected representative. This dream started years ago though, in college, when I was a little younger, single, and didn't have a family. But I figured it was still there, within reach, and heck God presented it to me on St. Joseph's DAY! Patron Saint of workers, the Saint I was named after - it seemed as if the stars were aligned perfectly.

So I knew the opportunity was out there, and I knew I was being suggested as someone who could fulfill this role. So I prayed. ::SILENCE:: That is all I heard. I prayed at Mass, I prayed after Mass, I prayed before bed. ::SILENCE:: Then I woke up this morning.... ::HEADACHE:: So I got in the shower, a place where I pray quite well, and still nothing. I looked at my phone and I had a voicemail. I knew it was coming. So I listened and called the person back. All I could say was, "I am sorry, but I dont think I am the right person for this."

I talked to the people that I trust the most in my life. My mom, Brian, and of course my wife. They all said very different things, but conveyed the same message. My mom gave me advice that I expected. She told me that my allegiance to my current position in life and my family obviously put on my heart that this opportunity wasn't right for me. I figured it was just her being nice, that she was just telling me what I wanted to hear. Then there was Brian.

Brian tried really hard to make me see that I made the "right" decision. He knows how important that is to me, but everytime he would say something to explain that to me, I would say, "but..." and his argument would crumble beneath itself. He couldn't construct an argument, that would withstand one of my attacks, as to how I obviously made the decision that was ultimately what God wanted. I figured that he too was just trying to make me feel better. He tried to explain that maybe this war wasn't going to change with my decision, maybe it was bigger than me, and this opportunity. It reminded me something my dad would say.

Then I talked to my wife. She gave me the, "I would be happy with any decision you make." Most men would kill for this. A wife that is willing to uproot her life at the mere whim of her husbands desires and pursuits. She too tried to figure out a way to convince me that I made the "right" decision. She talked about my heart, my desire for my family, my desire for her, and all the happiness that I was pursuing was really God focused and it just didn't include this opportunity. Again, I thought she was just being "nice." I still came away feeling as if I maybe made the wrong decision.

I didn't understand why God wasn't "speaking" to me, why he wasn't directing me, leading me, or at least counseling me in my decision making. I mean, every blog, news site, and even facebook post seemed to be about this issue, this fight, this WAR. Who better than someone like me, to take up my sword, and charge in ready to fight! I mean, for crying out loud how often do I post about the need for men to be brave and strong and to stand up and fight for what is right?! Where would my bravery be if I slinked away from this opportunity, obviously presented to me by God, on St. Joseph's day if I shurgged it aside becasue I was worried about a few little things like time with my wife and daughter, the happiness of some family and friends, and the simple pleasures we have recently found? What a hypocrite I would be! Right?

Then it hit me.

We spent an unexpected afternoon yesterday with new friends. In fact we had just met all of these people at church yesterday. One of their sons was being baptized and I went up to them to congratulate them and to introduce myself to Dan from Gun Lovin' Alaskan Catholic Club, who was the God-father. This family then invited us over to their house for the baptism gathering, and we went. It was such a nice time with young Catholic families who were such a model of inspiration to us.

That afternoon wasn't by chance or coincidence. God placed us there to learn and experience something. Something about family. My mom, Brian, and my wife weren't just telling me things that they thought or felt. They had all prayed and were speaking from their heart. My decision likewise came from the heart. It was made in the best possible way that it could be... through prayer, contemplation, and the heart and mind joining forces. I realized that sometimes battles are won or lost not on the strongest or bravest fighter, nor are they always won by the smartest tactician or strategist. Sometimes battles are won by choosing to fight another day. And the war... well the war isn't won solely on the outcome of one battle. In fact, wars are broken up into individual battles that combine to create a war. 

I know I haven't gone into many specifics... but what I learned today is that life is bigger than just us. Even our own lives are bigger than our own self. I learned something about myself today and about life as husband and father. Life isn't ours. Our life belongs to God. I made a decision that went against what *I* wanted. I passed on a dream opportunity for the sake of trying to do the best thing for my family. It didn't feel *good* instantly because we are such creatures of ourselves. We are blinded by the *self*. I couldn't even hear the words those closest to me were saying in an effort to console and comfort me. I was blinded by the *self*.

The war against evil wages on. My battle was not the tipping point. But by choosing to not rush into the war today, I may have won my battle and live to fight another day. See, I learned that to win the war we have to know which battles to fight in. We have to pick and choose based on more than our own desires.

As I stated at the outset of this long post, I prayed the St. Joseph Novena asking for help to discern my vocation as a husband, father, and my employment vocation as a Juris Doctor. What I learned today is that the husband part comes first. Then the father part. Then the career part. Saint Joseph first had to worry about Mary. As we know, he could have ran off, saved himself scandal, and kept his reputation and life nice and secure. But he was a devout husband who thought of Mary first. He could have also said that he wasn't ready to be the earthly father figure to Jesus, the Son of God. He could have run away from that role to pursue his desires and dreams... but my how the story would have changed. He could have pursued his life, his goals, and his career and life ambitions first. He chose not to. He chose others. He laid down his life... for those of his wife, and "step"-Son.

I learned that doing that isn't easy. And that "uneasy" feeling inside me? It was doubt, despair, and fear. We all know where those come from. God doesn't put those things in our heart... the Devil does. So I guess I didn't get a job from my Novena, yet, but I did get the clarity of heart to know how I will make the decision about one when the time comes. I know at the very least that I have learned to focus on the right things and the right people when making the decision. I have learned that all wars are fought in individual battles, and when the time comes hopefully I will be ready to fight in my battle. Until then... I guess today I chose to fight another day.

St. Joseph Novena - March 10 - March 19

Today is 9 days before the feast of St. Joseph. Therefore it is the day to start a St. Joseph Novena if you plan on doing one. As is traditional with most Novenas, the day to start one is 9 days before the feast day, or special day upon which it is supposed to end.

Brian - the other blogger here, and I have decided to say this Novena for a couple reasons. First, as we are new fathers, this will be the first St. Joseph's day that we celebrate as father's. Second, we are trying to discern our vocation as lawyers in terms of the areas we would like to practice in, the location, and whether we as friends are supposed to live and work in the same community together with our families.

I would ask that you pray for us, and if you too are searching for work, direction as a father or husband, or just in need of some extra prayer on your behalf - I would ask that you pray it with us.

Here is a link to the EWTN.com version of the Novena:
St. Joseph - Novena - ETWN

Here is Day 1 of that Novena to help you get started:

Day One

FOSTER-FATHER OF JESUS

Saint Joseph, you were privileged to share in the mystery of the Incarnation as the foster-father of Jesus. Mary alone was directly connected with the fulfillment of the mystery, in that she gave her consent to Christ's conception and allowed the Holy Spirit to form the sacred humanity of Jesus from her blood. You had a part in this mystery in an indirect manner, by fulfilling the condition necessary for the Incarnation -- the protection of Mary's virginity before and during your married life with her. You made the virginal marriage possible, and this was a part of God's plan, foreseen, willed, and decreed from all eternity.

In a more direct manner you shared in the support, upbringing, and protection of the Divine Child as His foster-father. For this purpose the Heavenly Father gave you a genuine heart of a father -- a heart full of love and self-sacrifice. With the toil of your hands you were obliged to offer protection to the Divine Child, to procure for Him food, clothing, and a home. You were truly the saint of the holy childhood of Jesus -- the living created providence which watched over the Christ-Child.

When Herod sought the Child to put Him to death, the Heavenly Father sent an angel but only as a messenger, giving orders for the flight; the rest He left entirely in your hands. It was that fatherly love which was the only refuge that received and protected the Divine Child. Your fatherly love carried Him through the desert into Egypt until all enemies were removed. Then on your arms the Child returned to Nazareth to be nourished and provided for during many years by the labor of your hands. Whatever a human son owes to a human father for all the benefits of his up-bringing and support, Jesus owed to you, because you were to Him a foster-father, teacher, and protector.

You served the Divine Child with a singular love. God gave you a heart filled with heavenly, supernatural love -- a love far deeper and more powerful than any natural father's love could be.

You served the Divine Child with great unselfishness, without any regard to self-interest, but not without sacrifices. You did not toil for yourself, but you seemed to be an instrument intended for the benefit of others, to be put aside as soon as it had done its word, for you disappeared from the scene once the childhood of Jesus had passed.

You were the shadow of the Heavenly Father not only as the earthly representative of the authority of the Father, but also by means of your fatherhood -- which only appeared to be natural -- you were to hide for a while the divinity of Jesus. What a wonderfully sublime and divine vocation was yours -- the loving Child which you carried in your arms, and loved and served so faithfully, had God in Heaven as Father and was Himself God!

Yours is a very special rank among the saints of the Kingdom of God, because you were so much a part of the very life of the Word of God made Man. In your house at Nazareth and under your care the redemption of mankind was prepared. What you accomplished, you did for us. You are not only a powerful and great saint in the Kingdom of God, but a benefactor of the whole of Christendom and mankind. Your rank in the Kingdom of God, surpassing far in dignity and honor of all the angels, deserves our very special veneration, love, and gratitude.

Saint Joseph, I thank God for your privilege of having been chosen by God to be the foster-father of His Divine Son. As a token of your own gratitude to God for this your greatest privilege, obtain for me the grace of a very devoted love for Jesus Christ, my God and my Savior. Help me to serve Him with some of the self-sacrificing love and devotion which you had while on this earth with Him. Grant that through your intercession with Jesus, your foster-Son, I may reach the degree of holiness God has destined for me, and save my soul. (*Say Novena Prayer following Daily Meditation)

*NOVENA PRAYER
*(prayer to be said at the end of each day's devotion)

Saint Joseph, I, your unworthy child, greet you. You are the faithful protector and intercessor of all who love and venerate you. You know that I have special confidence in you and that, after Jesus and Mary, I place all my hope of salvation in you, for you are especially powerful with God and will never abandon your faithful servants. Therefore I humbly invoke you and commend myself, with all who are dear to me and all that belong to me, to your intercession. I beg of you, by your love for Jesus and Mary, not to abandon me during life and to assist me at the hour of my death.

Glorious Saint Joseph, spouse of the Immaculate Virgin, obtain for me a pure, humble, charitable mind, and perfect resignation to the divine Will. Be my guide, my father, and my model through life that I may merit to die as you did in the arms of Jesus and Mary.

Loving Saint Joseph, faithful follower of Jesus Christ, I raise my heart to you to implore your powerful intercession in obtaining from the Divine Heart of Jesus all the graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare, particularly the grace of a happy death, and the special grace I now implore:

(Mention your request).

Guardian of the Word Incarnate, I feel confident that your prayers in my behalf will be graciously heard before the throne of God. Amen.

MEMORARE
Remember, most pure spouse of Mary, ever Virgin, my loving protector, Saint Joseph, that no one ever had recourse to your protection or asked for your aid without obtaining relief. Confiding, therefore, in your goodness, I come before you and humbly implore you. Despise not my petitions, foster-father of the Redeemer, but graciously receive them. Amen.

-Posted by: Joe