Difficulties in Religious Life

From Marie Veronica:

From reading "The Story of a Soul".. I had determined that religious life is anything but easy. Was I correct in my understanding of St. Thereses' words? It caused me to wonder if ever.. anyone goes into religious life.. with unrealistic expectations? But.. I suppose that is why they spend time as postulants and novices? To discern?





Religious life is a difficult life. The difficulties specific to it is the fact that people of different personalities, educational background, spirituality and level of maturity, chose to live together to answer a call. You choose who you marry, you can quit a job if you don't like it, or remain in the world as a single person with your own plans and endeavors. But not in religious life. But it is a CHOSEN life. One chooses to be a religious. Everybody is here with the same goal- to follow God and grow in holiness- but the problem however lies in the fact that everybody sees holiness in different ways, relates to God in different ways and lives the Gospel invitation in different ways.

Everybody who entered religious life had some kind of unrealistic expectations in varying degrees. Just like marriage, you grow into the relationship with God and your Sisters. If one is faithful to prayer, God gives you the understanding and purifies your vision. One continually grows in religious life, not just during postulancy and novitiate. Formation is a lifelong process. The fruit of a good discernment is to be able to accept the fact that one enters the convent or monastery in order to be tried in virtue. If this is not one's goal, there will be plenty of opportunities in the world for holiness and ministry.