It's time to blog about the convent!

Now that I have announced to my students that I am leaving JPII to enter the Dominican convent next year, I can officially blog about my story. I also want to share my story for all those who are generously considering offering a donation to help me retire my student loan debt. In order to enter religious life one cannot have debt.

I first heard my vocational call, quite literally, in the middle of the night, my freshmen year at Notre Dame. I was asleep, and I was awoken from my dream by the sound of someone calling my name. The voice was clear, crisp and distinct, but I was so disoriented and alarmed, I was not sure what was taking place. I decided I was still dreaming, so I tried to go back to sleep. Then it happened a second time, I heard my name, very clearly and distinctly and I knew I was not asleep. And it sounded like my mother's voice. At this time I thought the Lord was trying to communicate to me that something was wrong at home. I was not yet familiar with the call of Samuel in the Bible (http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/1samuel/1samuel3.htm). The next morning it dawned on me that I was being called to religious life.

My first reaction was fear and denial. I knew the Lord was calling me but I did not see anything attractive about religious life. I knew I could not say, "No" to the Lord, so I decided to just put off answering the call. The next strong pull occurred when I was studying abroad the following year in Angers, France. When I had some distance from college social life, I began to be attracted to religious life and I decided to explore the possibility when I returned to campus. It wasn't until my senior year that I sat down with a great priest from Notre Dame, Fr. Paul Doyle.

I told Fr. Doyle my story and he said, "Courtney there could be two explanations for your experience. You could be truly called by God or you could have still been in the in between awake and consciousness state when you heard God's voice. Only you can determine if God is truly calling you. And if God is calling you, the only choice is to go." I was not yet ready to hear the "Go" part of Fr. Doyle's advice. I did not know any sisters or nuns personally and I had very little knowledge about religious life. Although my faith has always been very important to me, the thought of laying down my entire life for Jesus was still terrifying. So I continued to wait.

And I waited for 6 years total after the initial call. At different , quiet points in my life, I felt the "tug" but I lacked the maturity and the conviction. As a result I had a hard time finding God's purpose for me and I begin to feel increasingly listless. After living and working in Chicago for three years I decided to move home to Nashville to "find my purpose" but I still wasn't ready to address that vocation issue.

I joined a Bible study at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville with my mother. I knew I needed to focus on my relationship with God and strengthen that bond in order to truly find out what He wanted me to do. The amazing part was as soon as I turned to God for answers, He literally began to pour them into my heart. Every week of the Bible study brought the "vocation question" to the forefront of my mind with increasing urgency. I finally decided to call the Dominican Motherhouse in Nashville and signed up for a vocation retreat.

At the retreat I not only knew God was calling me, I knew he was calling me to be a Dominican Sister. Given that I studied philosophy at Notre Dame, their charisms of studying, preaching and teaching are perfectly natural for me. God also pointed me to JPII where I began my first year of teaching and found that it was an undiscovered passion.

So to make this lengthy story brief, I heard an initial call in my dorm room at the University of Notre Dame and that call has been confirmed throughout various moments of my life. It was the Bible study that enabled me to truly give my heart to Jesus and once I opened that door, the graces poured in that enabled me to formally pursue the process of becoming His bride.

I feel more happiness, peace and joy than I have ever felt in my life. I am so excited for all the beautiful adventures God has planned for me. And I am even more excited to spend my life teaching and bringing God's children back to Him.

Please check out the Dominican's website for more information about the order:

http://nashvilledominican.org/

Thank you for reading my story and please consider a donation to help me reach my goal.

God Bless, pcb.