\tThe youth spent a week with the religious sisters praying and talking together, sharing the sisters\u2019 chores and meals \u2014 and searching for God\u2019s will about their own life.<\/p>\n
\tWould the summer \u201cinternship\u201d inspire these youth toward religious life? That\u2019s still to be seen. But all five say keeping one\u2019s mind open to the possibility and living \u201ca day in the life\u201d of a sister is a valuable experience for any young Catholic trying to discern her next steps \u2014 whether they lead to the convent or elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cOur vocation is where we\u2019re called to love best,\u201d Marisa Ramos, 16, told the Catholic Anchor in an interview.<\/p>\n
\tA parishioner at St. Benedict Church and a senior at Holy Rosary Academy in Anchorage, Ramos was in the delegation to Nashville.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI think if you close off any options \u2014 religious life is obviously an option \u2014 then you\u2019re not truly allowing yourself to love best,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0Living\u00a0like Sisters<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \t\u201cI just really wanted to know what God\u2019s will was for me,\u201d Oriele Jones, 21, explained. She is a parishioner of St. Benedict Church in Anchorage\u00a0and an engineering, math and music student at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. With the help of Bob McMorrow, St. Benedict\u2019s youth coordinator, Jones organized the July 12-17 visit to the religious congregation. Besides Jones and Ramos, three others took the trip: Briana Tobin, 18; MacKenzie Fuller, 14; and Catie McMorrow, 13.<\/p>\n \tThe Nashville Dominicans, as they are commonly called, were founded 150 years ago with the mission \u201cto contemplate and to give to others the fruits of our contemplation.\u201d Their main work is in Catholic education; they direct, teach at, or provide campus ministry services to 38 schools and universities across the United States, Canada and Australia. They state that one of their principal goals is \u201cto enlighten minds and inspire hearts with knowledge and love of the Truth, especially the Person of Christ, the Source of all Truth.\u201d<\/p>\n \tThe Nashville Dominicans are well-known and liked by many young people in Alaska, as over the past decade members of the congregation have presented talks at the popular, annual Alaska Catholic Youth Conference (ACYC). Each of the girls who traveled to Nashville this summer had been acquainted with the congregation through ACYC.<\/p>\n \t\u201cIt was really exciting already having that connection,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe were really able to just jump right into the retreat and focus \u2026 It felt like home right away because we\u2019ve already known the sisters, and we were seeing a lot of them again.\u201d<\/p>\n \tAt the Dominican convent in Nashville, the Alaskans followed the schedules of their sister-hosts. They woke at around 6 a.m. and headed to the chapel for 30 minutes of meditation and morning prayer. Then came Mass, followed by breakfast with the sisters. Afterward some of the sisters gave retreat-styled spiritual talks to the girls, or together they performed light chores like cleaning the chapel or kitchen.<\/p>\n \tWhile the Nashville Dominicans host retreats specifically for those discerning a religious vocation, the Alaskan girls\u2019 time was focused more generally on openness to God\u2019s will \u2014 \u201chow to listen for God and how to love,\u201d Jones explained.<\/p>\n \tDuring morning leisure time, the girls played games, took walks and talked with postulants and novices \u2014 candidates on their way to becoming avowed sisters. There was lunch, a rosary and recreation time. And as the sun waned, the sisters and the girls prayed evening prayer and ate dinner. There was another period of recreation, followed by spiritual reading and night prayer before bedtime.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThe whole day was centered around prayer, which was really cool,\u201d said St. Benedict parishioner Catie McMorrow.<\/p>\n \t\u00a0Support from home<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \tThe travelers found a mix of support but also curiosity and questions from family and friends who knew of their venture to the convent.<\/p>\n \tIt was a \u201cfantastic opportunity,\u201d said Val Tobin, mother of Briana. Such an experience gives Catholic youth \u201csomething more to consider as they are thinking about what they are being called to do.\u201d<\/p>\n \tBriana Tobin\u00a0\u2014 parishioner of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, graduate of Polaris Charter School and soon-to-be freshman at University of Alaska Anchorage \u2014 said non-Catholic friends have showered her with \u201ctons of questions\u201d about the experience. It\u2019s \u201cintriguing\u201d for them, she said, because \u201cwe don\u2019t really have the same exposure to religious life as you would in some places in the Lower 48.\u201d<\/p>\n \tRamos said her parents were behind her \u201c100 percent,\u201d though visiting a religious congregation for vocational discernment is \u201cnothing they ever thought of doing when they were younger.\u201d Friends were positive, too, she added, but a \u201clittle puzzled because I don\u2019t seem to be the type that would do something like this, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u00a0Surprises<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \tThe five Alaskans found their own amazements and surprises in Nashville.<\/p>\n \t\u201cIt was sort of an out-of-this-world experience,\u201d Tobin explained.<\/p>\n \tShe was struck most by the number and joyfulness of the Dominican sisters \u2014 including the retired sisters the girls met during a tea party there.<\/p>\n \t\u201cThere wasn\u2019t one sister who I saw who wasn\u2019t exuding joy,\u201d Jones noted.<\/p>\n \tAs a result, \u201cthe sisters don\u2019t seem to really age,\u201d McMorrow said. \u201cSo sometimes if you went to look at them, you wouldn\u2019t be able to tell the difference between the sisters that just entered and they\u2019re like 18 or the sisters who are 72 and are sitting in their wheelchairs. They all have this joy about them that the rest of the world doesn\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n \tMcMorrow was surprised also by the beauty of the convent grounds and the chapel with vaulted ceilings and intricate stained-glass windows. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a different beauty than we have here,\u201d she observed.<\/p>\n \tTobin and Fuller were awed, too, by the power of silent prayer during the sisters\u2019 monthly day-long, silent Eucharistic adoration. \u201cI\u2019ve never been silent for that long,\u201d Tobin said, smiling. \u201cI had no idea that silence could be that filling.\u201d<\/p>\n \tRamos was \u201cblown away by the greatness of it all, by how very, very much God is involved\u201d in the sisters\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n \t\u201cIt\u2019s profound, it\u2019s beautiful, it\u2019s exciting and joyful,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to know what they do. It\u2019s another to experience it and live like it.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u00a0Religious vocations?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \tIt\u2019s uncertain whether the positive experience will lead these young Alaskans back to the convent. But increasingly women entering religious life say they first considered the idea in their teens.<\/p>\n \tAccording to the study \u201cNew Sisters and Brothers in Perpetual Vows\u201d by the Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, those who professed perpetual religious vows in 2011 on average reported they were 19 years old when they first considered a vocation to religious life, and half were 17 or younger.<\/p>\n \tTo be sure the convent experience has inspired these\u00a0 Alaskans to more serious prayer in finding their calling.<\/p>\n \t\u201cI\u2019ve definitely come back with a sense of spiritual renewal, and I\u2019m definitely wanting to strive for holiness more so than I did before,\u201d Jones explained. Before the trip, \u201cI was just really impatient and kind of restless inside.\u201d But one of the sisters \u201creminded me that God has a plan for me right now,\u201d she said. So Jones aims to spend the next year on \u201chow to love better and trying to get holy.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\u201cIf I keep Christ as my center and I work on saying, \u2018Yes\u2019 (to God) and thinking about his will for me on a daily basis, then I think eventually it will become clear,\u201d Jones explained. Already she has secured a spiritual director to help her in that work.<\/p>\n \tAs to a religious vocation, before the trip Jones couldn\u2019t picture herself as a religious sister, but now it seems possible.<\/p>\n \t\u201cI\u2019m definitely even more open to it than I was before I went,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \tTobin, who had never seen a convent or been around many sisters before, said the trip \u201cpointed the way for me.\u201d She plans on returning for a religious vocation-focused retreat in January. Until then, together Jones and Tobin plan to go to daily Mass and maintain a prayer routine to \u201ckeep us Christ centered,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n \tFor a year Fuller has been considering a religious vocation as a Dominican. She said that while visiting the sisters \u201cdidn\u2019t really confirm or deny anything,\u201d if she decides to go into religious life, she\u2019ll be well-informed enough \u201cto choose.\u201d Fuller will \u201ccontinue praying and reflecting on the trip.\u201d<\/p>\n \tMcMorrow said she can envision becoming a religious sister.<\/p>\n \t\u201cI would really like my vocation to be that, but we\u2019ll see.\u201d For now, she said, \u201cI\u2019m going to live my vocation as a high school student, and I\u2019m going to make it a priority to pray and find a spiritual director.\u201d<\/p>\n \tAnd for Ramos: \u201cIt\u2019s finish high school, become closer to God, learn his will a little more \u2013 do it every single day because it\u2019s not some far off thing. It\u2019s something current and right now. So just do that and hopefully by doing that on a daily basis, he\u2019ll show me what his plan is for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n \t\u201cGod\u2019s will be done,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \tPosted with permission from Catholic Anchor<\/a>, official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Anchorage.<\/p>\n