In the Catholic Faith there are three recognised Vocations. The word Vocation comes from the Latin, 'Vocatio', meaning 'summons'.
In other words, there are three different ways in which God created each and everyone of us to be 'summoned', or 'called' by God, to serve Him.
God's purpose is Love.
God wants us to be with Him for eternity in the next life of Heaven. He has an unfathomable plan of Salvation for mankind and although God doesn't need us to help Him save souls, it pleases Him to involve us.
God never forces anyone, He can only 'invite'. It's up to us, with our God given free Will to respond - to happily surrender ourselves, out of Love for God and give our 'Fiat', like The Blessed Virgin Mary did.
So what are the three Vocations of the Catholic Faith? The first two we have all probably heard a lot about, namely the Vocations of Marriage and Holy Orders / Religious Life. But there is a third Vocation - the Lay Vocation.
When you study Catholic Church history you can see that there has always been the Lay Vocation. We only have to look at the Desert Abba's and Ammas to see that, (The Desert Fathers and Mothers – Who Were They? - Dominic Cogan), (The Mothers of Egyptian monasticism: Sarah, Theodora and Syncletica - Vatican News).
But now, perhaps more than ever, there is a real movement by The Holy Spirit to the calling and recognition of the Catholic Lay Vocation.
Pope Francis Pontificate has seen an unprecedented number of Lay Catholic's Canonised: (Church in India: Devasahayam’s canonization a “historic moment” - Vatican News), (Pope: ‘Blessed Carlo Acutis a witness of Christ for younger generations’ - Vatican News) and https://youtu.be/N6YibixzxdI
I have not formed a Lay Association, or a new religious order. God has shown me that this is not His Will for me. I am really happy to do God's Will and not my Will. I am using this website to describe my personal vocation. I can only give my experience in the hope that it may be helpfull to someone else, whom God may be calling in a similar way.
If you feel you have been called to the Lay Catholic Vocation,of a Benedictine Solitary, then what happens next?
Discernment is the process of finding out what God's Will is for your life. It's finding out how God designed you to serve Him. My advice to anyone who is discerning a possible call to the Vocation of a Catholic Lay Benedictine Solitary, is to take the following first steps.
First of all, contact your local Catholic parish Priest and ask to sit down with him face to face for a good chat about how you are feeling, maybe show him this website. He may agree to meet with you on a regular basis to see how you are doing or advise a local Spiritual Director. Maybe your local Monastery or Convent would be willing to give your Spiritual Direction too?
As I am not founding a new Lay association or religious order, it is best not to contact me but speak with your Parish Priest/Other Religious.
But, from my own experience I would say, stay exactly where you are living and working. Don't change a thing... not yet. Try making small baby step for a year and then take stock.
I would suggest that you try slowly increasing the number of times you go to Mass every week, if logistically possible. If you can't get to daily Mass in a Catholic parish physically, try increasing the number of on-line Masses you watch during the week and start praying the Spiritual Communion prayer daily: Pope Offers Spiritual Communion Prayer | Pope Francis Daily.
So too with Eucharistic Adoration, try increasing the amount of time you are spending in silence before The Blessed Sacrament, either physically in a Catholic church or on-line. I use St Benedict's Perpetual Adoration Youtube site, in Australia: ( Perpetual Adoration live from St Benedict's, Melbourne - YouTube ) .
Also, once a month on the first Friday/Sat, to commemorate the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, consider trying out an all night Eucharist Adoration night vigil near you. If there isn't one locally, consider trying an all night Eucharist Adoration in your own home, using an on-line Youtube Perpetual Adoration site. To start with you could try 3 hours of Eucharistic Adoration between 9.30pm, First Friday, to 12.30am, First Saturday.
By the end of your first Discernment year you may be able to find/attend an all night Adoration Vigil at a local parish or be able to do an all night vigil at home using on-line Eucharistic Adoration website. You could design your own programme for the night vigil, deciding when to pray the 4 different Rosaries. Ideally the Divine Mercy Chaplet can be prayed at 3am. Your Night Vigil program could include periods of silence before The Blessed Sacrament, but also you could sing Hymns or get a little CD player and play music at certain times. Always pick music that is fitting and appropriate to be in the Real Presence of God.
Next, in your Solitary Vocation discernment process, foster and develop you own personal relationship with The Blessed Virgin Mother. She is your Blessed Mother. You could research all Catholic Church recognised Marian Apparitions - one of them may really connect with you. For me it's Our Lady of Fatima and her universal call for all to pray the Rosary daily and give our life's sacrifice ourselves for others. Make time to sit with your Blessed Mother and tell her everything that's going on, pray the Rosary and/or just sit together in comfortable silence, imagining that you are a loved babe in her arms: https://youtu.be/_cVNCuvz8qI and https://youtu.be/SFKCEhH_pao
After that... get to know St Joseph. He is your strong, silent every present Step Father and he's got your back. Pray his daily prayer, ideally before you go to work in the morning: ( Pope Francis proclaims “Year of St Joseph” - Vatican News )
After that... start studying the Saints, old and new. The Communion of Saints are your new best friends. You may be strongly drawn to some more than others - great! Make them your Patron Saints. Imitate their lives, virtues and Holiness. Call on their intercessions: https://youtu.be/jb23Z5X3uhA
In terms of taking your first steps towards praying the full Monastic Divine Office Schema - Prudence is a great Benedictine Virtue, the Mother of all virtues infact, so start small. Start using the Universalis web site daily, ( Universalis home page ) but instead of praying the Psalms that they have listed, go to St Benedict's Monastic Divine Office table, (MONASTIC (gregorianbooks.com), and try reading or chanting one Psalm from each of St Benedict's seven times a day Schema. Slowly build up over the first year, so that you are able to pray the full 150 Psalms per week, exactly as listed in St Benedict's Divine Office Monastic Schema. You will soon discover if this is your Vocation or not. In Monastic life this one year discernment period would be called the Aspirant/Postulant stage.
Next... Build a close connection to the Holy Father. Always make time to listen to the Sunday Angelus and Wednesday General Audience and check the Vatican news site for updates daily: News about Pope Francis - All the latest news - Vatican News
Next... Buy a copy of The Rule of Benedict, ( e.g. The Rule of Benedict (Penguin Classics): Amazon.co.uk: Benedict, St, White, Carolinne: 9780140449969: Books), or access it on-line, (The Rule of St. Benedict (e-benedictine.com). Try reading it from cover to cover, like they do in Monastic life, where small-ish sections are read out to the community at the start of the midday meal. You could read 5 mins of it before one of your own daily meals. When you get to the end, go back to the beginning and read it all over again, just as before. The Rule of Benedict is a work of The Holy Spirit, so the aim is to let it's wisdom slowly permeate into your heart, soul and slowly transform you and your daily life. Always remember that in Benedictine Spirituality, Prudence is the Mother of all Virtues and the antithesis of all forms of left or right extremism.
Next... Consider getting involved in your local Catholic parish - in whatever way The Holy Spirit guides you. Being a Catholic Lay Benedictine Solitary still means having contact with others, but in a slightly different way. Getting involved in your local parish or any other Catholic Church group is a great source of Catholic fellowship and you may even find other like minded souls. Other suitable local activities in your area may also be worth considering, such as a local Community Gardening group - anything that seems in keeping with a Holy, humble life.
Please don't give up your home or job to go live in a cave and spend all day cracking rocks down a mine by yourself somewhere... The Vocation of a Catholic Lay Benedictine Solitary can fit into every single person's life, just as it is right now.
If you find after the first year, at the Aspirant/Postulant level, you feel God is calling you to carry on further in the Catholic Lay Benedictine Vocation discernment process, you could say you have entered the Novice level.
At the Novice level, still supported by regular Spiritual Direction from your Catholic Parish Priest/other Religious, pick a Solemnity that means a lot personally to you and after Holy Communion, at that special Mass, make a private temporary vow /Dedication, of Poverty, Chastity, Obedience, Stability and Conversion of Life between your heart and the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts. You might want to mark this occasion with something physical, like a humble ring which you can wear on your right hand. I did.
During your Novice temporary vows you are making a 3 year commitment to God to grow in your love and faithfulness to the Catholic Lay Benedictine Vocation. If during this time, or indeed at any time in your life, you feel it is God's Will to lead you another Vocation, such as Holy Orders/Religious Life or Marriage then you can discuss this with your Spiritual Director and The Holy Spirit will guide you from there.
The aim of the 3 year Novice stage is essentially Formation. But what is Formation?
Well, Formation is like when a Bride stands in front of that 3 way mirror, you often see in Bridal stores, (hence photo above). In this 3 way mirror Brides get to see their every lump and bump, so they can make adjustments and be as beautifull as possible for their Groom on the Big day.
So too, with the Formation period of a Catholic Lay Benedictine Solitary. God will use this time, metaphorically, to hold up a giant 3 way mirror, so that you get to see every lump and bump of our own personalities, with all your strengths and weaknesses.
God is not doing this to be mean. He is your Divine Spouse. He is head over heals in love with you. He is just trying to show you where He wants you to grow in Holiness and virtue... and also where He wants you to grow out of personal short-comings, baggage, temptations of the flesh and all temporal and cardinal sins - especially pride.
God desires this for you not because He wants you to be more physically beautifull - you are already created in God's own image. Just as you are right now, in God's eyes, you are already beautifull.
But what God is really interested in, is what's inside your hearts and soul. That's where God wants to help you truly blossom, so that that when you meet Jesus face to face at the Heavenly Wedding Banquet, you will have a heart and soul bursting full of the sweetest smelling, most beautifull Wedding bouquet of flowers ever seen. That's what will make you a truly beautifull Bride of Christ, in God's Bridal 3 way mirror. Inner beauty. Beauty of the heart and soul.
Formation can't be done by human effort alone. But luckily for us, nothing is impossible for God. That's why we need God's Grace through the Eucharist in daily Mass, Adoration and The Divine Office, Rosary, Divine Mercy, Litany of Humility and other prayers like Perpetual Novena's - all balanced with a simple humble life and work of service to others.
After this 3 year Novice Formation period, if you still feel called to the Catholic Lay Vocation of the Benedictine Solitary, make a formal vow to God, after Holy Communion on your favourite Solemnity Mass and ask The Holy Spirit to give you a new name. My name in monastic life was Sr Mary St Maurus of the Immaculate Heart and I still don't know if it's God's Will for me to keep that name or not. St Maurus was sent by God to be St Benedict's instrument to save St Placid. I think I was sent to the Benedictine monastic religious order, where I was a Novice, to be a a sort of vessel/tool for The Sacred & Immaculate Hearts,through St Benedict, to help God save that Monastic order and also help heal the great many other women who were also spiritually abused there. God is Genius.
I am so happy in my Catholic Lay Benedictine Soliatary vocation. I am made for it. Maybe I will keep the spiritual name of Sr Mary St Maurus of The Immaculate Heart but I think The Holy Spirit has shown me that my name will be Sr Mary Talitha Muswell, of The Sacred and Immaculate Hearts.
So, if you feel a similar call from God and follow this humble guide, with your own Spiritual Director and make it all the way, well... I say, Congratulations! Welcome to Joy.
God will be doing great things with your offered life of Ora et Labora. Your Formation will continue for the rest of your life because in our Catholic Faith the real battle on the path to Holiness is the internal battle with ourselves but luckily God is with us, every step of the way. Wonderfull isn't it?
See you in Heaven.
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