It’s been years since I picked up that book, but I always remembered the conclusion as basically being “Enter religious life if you’re drawn to it and able.” I remember better the final article of the II-II of Thomas, concluding that you basically don’t need to take counsel before entering religious life: Christ himself has counseled it.
I’m in an odd spot. I’ve been drawn to the religious life almost as long as I’ve known it existed. In 2022, I took a month with the Carthusians. It was wonderful though challenging, and yet the Novice Master seemed to believe that my vocation was in the world. Three years later, I think most people I know would agree with him, but I still can’t get it out of my head! It was much easier to be holy in the Charterhouse and I seem to waste so much of my time now that it’s hard for me to believe I am more pleasing to God in the world than I would be in the solitude and discipline of the Carthusians.
Anyway, please pray for me that I may do God’s will! That if I must be in the world, He may show me how to do it and become a saint. I am a sinner and very undisciplined.
Aquinas's treatise De Perfectione I think pushes many Catholics like you too far in terms of prompting undue anxieties and guilt about the process. I think it needs to be read in the context of more recent--and less purely intellectual theologians and Fathers.
Your story sounds quite similar in trajectory to mine. Did you consider it because of friends or relatives who were also considering? I'd be interested in talking to you further to compare paths and stories if you'd be at all interested. Contact me at sumchristianus@gmail.com if you'd all like to.
Outside of reading Thomas Merton's "A Silent Life", I didn't know there were still Carthusians in the United States. They are really at the extreme when it comes to ascetism amidst all the orders, and a month with them must have been quite the transformative, and, relative to the things of the world, liberating experience.
I had a few friends enter religious life years before. Since my visit, a friend of mine is actually joining the Dominican sisters! But I don’t personally know anyone who entered the Carthusians, or really anyone who entered that sort of contemplative life.
One reason I was drawn to it was that it was so different from my life. As excellent as the Dominicans are, say, they seem to be living in the world as much as anyone else. It would seem odd to change my state of life, only to end up in a relatively similar lifestyle.
The visit certainly is one of the highlights in my life. Though I’ve done plenty in the 3 years since, none of it really compares to that. They are indeed ascetic: one or two meals a day, no meat, interrupted sleep, awful bed, manual labor, solitude apart from liturgy and a weekly hike. The one penance I did not expect was that they don’t drink coffee!! But for all that, it was a life wholly centered on the contemplation of God. I pray each day now, certainly, but it seems so mediocre when I compare.
I wish I knew how you maintained your zeal for institutional Christianity. I regard it with sadness and disappointment mostly (and sometimes-like when that Presbyterian lady gave her speech in the National Chapel-frustration). You seem committed and certain. I would be interested to read some writing explaining why, and how.
Thanks. I hope to cover some of this soon in greater detail, but I guess a lot of it has been the personal, well, I wouldn't call them mystical, but at least "weird" experiences I've had that have confirmed me against any doubts toward faith I've ever had. Yes, it is at least partially mimetic, and therefore, one could theoretically question it, but being in strong Church-centric prayer groups of friends has also helped. I'd say utter terror at confronting the terrors, powers, and principalities of the world (seen and unseen) is a good way of summarizing why I have the confidence I do. I need the help of the Church to stay sane.
I'd love to chat further with you on this, as I love your thoughts on bureaucracy and political systems.
It’s been years since I picked up that book, but I always remembered the conclusion as basically being “Enter religious life if you’re drawn to it and able.” I remember better the final article of the II-II of Thomas, concluding that you basically don’t need to take counsel before entering religious life: Christ himself has counseled it.
I’m in an odd spot. I’ve been drawn to the religious life almost as long as I’ve known it existed. In 2022, I took a month with the Carthusians. It was wonderful though challenging, and yet the Novice Master seemed to believe that my vocation was in the world. Three years later, I think most people I know would agree with him, but I still can’t get it out of my head! It was much easier to be holy in the Charterhouse and I seem to waste so much of my time now that it’s hard for me to believe I am more pleasing to God in the world than I would be in the solitude and discipline of the Carthusians.
Anyway, please pray for me that I may do God’s will! That if I must be in the world, He may show me how to do it and become a saint. I am a sinner and very undisciplined.
Thank you. A priest I somewhat know, Fr. Joseph Bolin, also wrote a helpful book with similar injunctions, summarized here: https://grainofwheat.substack.com/p/fr-joseph-bolin-on-discernment
Aquinas's treatise De Perfectione I think pushes many Catholics like you too far in terms of prompting undue anxieties and guilt about the process. I think it needs to be read in the context of more recent--and less purely intellectual theologians and Fathers.
Your story sounds quite similar in trajectory to mine. Did you consider it because of friends or relatives who were also considering? I'd be interested in talking to you further to compare paths and stories if you'd be at all interested. Contact me at sumchristianus@gmail.com if you'd all like to.
Outside of reading Thomas Merton's "A Silent Life", I didn't know there were still Carthusians in the United States. They are really at the extreme when it comes to ascetism amidst all the orders, and a month with them must have been quite the transformative, and, relative to the things of the world, liberating experience.
I had a few friends enter religious life years before. Since my visit, a friend of mine is actually joining the Dominican sisters! But I don’t personally know anyone who entered the Carthusians, or really anyone who entered that sort of contemplative life.
One reason I was drawn to it was that it was so different from my life. As excellent as the Dominicans are, say, they seem to be living in the world as much as anyone else. It would seem odd to change my state of life, only to end up in a relatively similar lifestyle.
The visit certainly is one of the highlights in my life. Though I’ve done plenty in the 3 years since, none of it really compares to that. They are indeed ascetic: one or two meals a day, no meat, interrupted sleep, awful bed, manual labor, solitude apart from liturgy and a weekly hike. The one penance I did not expect was that they don’t drink coffee!! But for all that, it was a life wholly centered on the contemplation of God. I pray each day now, certainly, but it seems so mediocre when I compare.
I wish I knew how you maintained your zeal for institutional Christianity. I regard it with sadness and disappointment mostly (and sometimes-like when that Presbyterian lady gave her speech in the National Chapel-frustration). You seem committed and certain. I would be interested to read some writing explaining why, and how.
Thanks. I hope to cover some of this soon in greater detail, but I guess a lot of it has been the personal, well, I wouldn't call them mystical, but at least "weird" experiences I've had that have confirmed me against any doubts toward faith I've ever had. Yes, it is at least partially mimetic, and therefore, one could theoretically question it, but being in strong Church-centric prayer groups of friends has also helped. I'd say utter terror at confronting the terrors, powers, and principalities of the world (seen and unseen) is a good way of summarizing why I have the confidence I do. I need the help of the Church to stay sane.
I'd love to chat further with you on this, as I love your thoughts on bureaucracy and political systems.