Beginnings

My dearest friends,

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Today I embark upon the new journey of having a blog. This has only been undertaken after serious thought and prayer. One of the greatest marks of Carmel is the practice of silence, and in today's world, we are often all too quick to share much more than perhaps we ought. I had to seriously consider whether or not God was wanting me to grow my online presence, and, if so, how He wanted me to use it.

I simply want to speak more about my story in today's post. As I mention in my 'About Me' page, I was in a Carmelite monastery for a year. I only left because the solitude became too much for me - aside from that, I had found heaven on earth, and absolutely loved the religious life. While a cloistered order was too much for me, I also did not feel called to join an active order. It was at this time that I began to actively discern and pursue the married life, deciding that I could find my "cloister" in the home, and my "ministry" in serving my husband and children.

Although I am now on a different vocational path than I had thought I would, my heart still carries the beautiful experience of my days in the monastery. I strive to carry as much as I can from that experience into my daily life, and hope to share how I do that here, as well as talk about general faith related things and various homemaking and femininity topics.

Sanctity is not just for the priests and nuns - it is for each of us. Too often, we use our calling to be in the world as an excuse to lose ourselves in it. Or, if we deeply long to withdraw from it, we may lament that we should have been in religious life, and that we just missed our chance or our call.

But this is not true. We are where God has placed us, and in that place, He provides more than sufficient opportunities for grace and growth to perfect holiness. Our marriage vows have in a sense given us the vocation to marriage, insofar as they have placed upon us the duty to fulfill the obligations of the state, and the grace whereby to do so.

So please, journey with me along the high path of sanctity to which we all are called - in religious life or married.

In the Sacred Heart,

Cecilia