Just as a monastery is a place where the remembrance of God is constant, the formation of a Dominican nun is a process intended to lead each Sister to a deeper relationship with Christ. She gradually learns to hear the Word of God in reading, study and prayer, and proclaims that Word in the life of worship. She learns to enter into the life of the community, for community life is the testing ground for the nun's attachment to God and her growth in virtue.There are several stages in the formation program in our monastery.
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1. Aspirancy: a four to six week period lived within the monastic enclosure, sharing in the life of the nuns in order to discern the authenticity of one's vocation.
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2. Postulancy: nine to twelve months spent learning the basics of monastic life and the customs of the community.
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3. Novitiate: a two year period which begins with the clothing in the Dominican habit; a time of deepening one's understanding of religious consecration and preparation for profession of vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
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4. Temporary Profession: a four-year period which begins with one's first profession, during which time the nun is helped to deepen her relationship with God and her understanding of the mysteries of the Faith.
5. Solemn Profession: the culmination of formation in which the nun surrenders herself to God without reserve ... until death.
Suggested reading for young women discerning a call to the contemplative life:
1. "Verbi Sponsa: Instruction on the Contemplative Life and on the Enclosure of Nuns" by the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life
2. The Contemplative Life by Thomas Philippe, OP; Crossroad Publishing Co. 1990
3. Walled About With God by Dom Jean Prou, OSB and the Benedictine Nuns of the Solesmes Congregation; Gracewing 2005
If you are between the ages of 20 and 38 and think you might have a vocation to Dominican monastic life, please contact us through our website, by phone or by mail for further information:
St. Dominic's Monastery
2636 Monastery Road
Linden, VA 22642
(540) 635-3259
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