Vocation Letters
This fictional series of letters follows the formation of a young woman, Sister Mary Rosaria, as she discerns her vocation to be a cloistered Dominican nun. While keeping our day-to-day life veiled behind the enclosure, these letters show a glimpse of Dominican monastic life as it is typically lived here at Marbury. Here are all the Vocation Letters, starting with the most recent.
What role does lectio divina and the Word of God have in Dominican monastic life? Sister Rosaria shares in this fictional Vocation Letter. (Plus, she includes an example she found from her days as a postulant.)
In this Vocation Letter, Sister Mary Rosaria shares her reflections on a beautiful passage of our Custom Book. As the nuns keep their Rosary Hours of Guard, holy angels bear the sheaves of these Aves up to Our Lady's throne in heaven.
In this Vocation Letter, Sister tells of a favorite monastery tradition--and another unexpected surprise of the religious life.
In this Vocation Letter, Sister shares how our monastic graces at meals put our earthly life in a liturgical and heavenly perspective.
What does Easter Exultation look like in the monastery? In this entry in our Vocation Letter series, Sister Mary Rosaria shares how we enter deeply into the Paschal Mystery of Christ through the monastic celebration of the Triduum, ending in Easter joy.
Lent in the monastery is a going into the desert--even amid all the spring flowers in Alabama! Read this Vocation Letter to hear about Sister Mary Rosaria's experience of living Lent as a cloistered Dominican nun.
In this Vocation Letter, our fictional novice Sister Mary Rosaria reflects on the incarnational joy of Christmas celebrations in the monastery.
In the first installment in a mini-series on the liturgical seasons, our fictional novice Sister Mary Rosaria reflects on the special atmosphere of longing during the Advent season. Come, Lord Jesus!
Why would a young woman embrace enclosure? Our fictional novice Sister Mary Rosaria reflects on the meaning of enclosure in this entry in our Vocation Letter series.
Pruning, pinning, praying--and who are the Hillbilly Thomists? Learn more in this Vocation Letter by our fictional novice Sister Mary Rosaria.
Our fictional novice, Sister Mary Rosaria, has been waiting long enough for her two years of novitiate to end with her profession of temporary vows! Read more here.
What was it like inside the enclosure? Now home from her Residential Aspirancy, our fictional discerner Melanie writes this letter to her fictional Vocation Directress/Novice Mistress, Sister Mary Magistra.
