Your next response to God’s call is formally initiated through the ceremony of First Monastic Profession when you promise stability, fidelity to the monastic way of life, and obedience, a commitment in which you intensify your baptismal commitment and enter into a covenant with our Benedictine Community.
The duration of First Monastic Profession—a three to six-year period—is a time of fuller immersion in the Benedictine way of life, a time for you to deepen your spirituality, a time to study the Rule of St. Benedict and Monastic Profession, a time when you become more fully integrated into our Community here at St. Scholastica Monastery.
Your work in Community—your ministry—will be determined by you and the Prioress, based on your education, your experience, your talents, and the needs of the Community. We are college professors and catechists, health care administrators and writers, spiritual directors and photographers, secretaries and students, painters and potters, hospital chaplains and grade school teachers.
We visit the homebound, serve meals to those in need, direct retreats and work in daycare, are consultants in chapel design and liturgy. We sponsor a college and a health care system. We plant beans and potatoes, pull rhubarb for pies.
We are whatever God calls us to be; we respond with open hearts and willing hands to whatever God sets before us.
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Sister Teri Spinler
Prayer, work, and leisure – I have to say to have that balance has been a struggle all my life…”
During this grace-filled time you will continue the process of growth and formation in the monastic way of life. During this time you will strive to live a balanced life of prayer, work, and leisure, a challenge each of us faces throughout our lives.
You will continue to discern God’s will for you for at least three years, and when you and the Formation Director decide it is time, you will take the final step and request to make your Perpetual Monastic Profession.
