 Anne
de Xainctonge desired to make God known and loved. Anne did this in 1606,
by founding a community of women whose mission is the Christian education
of girls and women, the absence of cloister, and Ignatian spirituality.
Over 400 years later, we continue to invite women to make God known and loved.
If a woman believes that God may be asking her to do this by living a religious
vocation, she is invited to email Barbara Marie Cady, SU, our vocation director, or complete the Information
Request form on our Information page. |
Becoming a Sister
of St. Ursula
 Religious
formation is a life long process. During it we are called to put on the
mind and heart of Jesus. What follows is a brief outline of our formation
process, which is always adapted to meet the needs of the individual as
well as the Society of St. Ursula.
The first step is simply
to make contact with a sister. This can be done in a variety of ways including
meeting a sister personally, or asking for more information on this web
site. After initially getting to know the Sisters of St. Ursula, a woman
who wishes to become a Sister of St. Ursula contacts our vocation director
for help in discerning whether or not this is her vocation.
 If
the initial discernment indicates to the woman and to the community, that
she is being called to enter the Society of Saint Ursula, the woman asks
to be admitted as a candidate. The time of candidacy allows one to familiarize
herself with apostolic religious life, deepen her life of personal prayer
and live experiences of life in community. An assessment of the candidate's
human and spiritual maturity, determines whether or not one begins the
novitiate.
The
novitiate is a time of intense spiritual formation. The novice comes to
an understanding of the vows, the charism, the history and constitutions
of the Society of Saint Ursula. Personal and community prayer, spiritual
conversation, the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and other formative
experiences, allow the novice to deepen her experience of God's call in
her life. At the end of the novitiate, aware of God's grace, she asks to
make temporary vows.
The sister pronounces her
vows of chastity, poverty and obedience and receives the cross of the Society
of Saint Ursula. She lives these vows for several years, to give her an
opportunity to deepen her spiritual life and her knowledge of the mission
of the community before she makes final vows.
Final vows commit the sister,
publicly and definitively, to live out her life according to the charism
of Anne de Xainctonge, in the Society of St. Ursula. |
