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"How can one not read in the story of the "servant Jesus"  the story of every vocation: the story that the Creator has planned for every human being, the story that inevitably passes through the call to serve... In particular, how can one not read in the parable of the Son, Servant and Lord, the vocational story of the person who is called by Jesus to follow him more closely: that is, to be a servant in the priestly ministry or in religious consecration? In fact, the priestly vocation or the religious vocation are always, by their very nature, vocations to the generous service of God and of neighbor.                        ( Pope John Paul II on Vocations, 2003)

 

Sr Jennifer's Story - A Continuing Journey
PART 1  -  THE SEED IS PLANTED                    "I am the oldest of five girls who grew up in  southeastern Pennsylvania. Growing up, I never understood the importance of spiritual things and often tried to avoid them as much as possible.  Once I was old enough to drive, I stopped going to Sunday Mass.  After a very long time away from the Church, I found myself turning towards God and returning to the Church after I was made intensely aware of just how incredibly wrong I’d been.              While I was in law school, I began to think of religious life.  At first, I considered the idea to be shocking and scary.  I did everything I could to avoid investigating the possibilities for the next two years.  Finally, I couldn’t stand running from God anymore and voiced my thoughts and my fears in two e-mail listserves.  The people I met there knew exactly where I was coming from and offered me a great deal of support.   Soon  It was also obvious to me and everyone involved that God was telling me to go to the  "Come and See" weekends of religious Communities -  even though I really didn’t think I wanted to.  These visits were amazing experiences. Before I visited religious communities I basically thought that entering the convent would be the equivalent of locking myself away in a Catholic prison, bound by rules designed to make sure I’d never be happy.  What I learned was that nuns can actually be happy with their lifestyle, and they usually are!  And I learned that Sisters  have a strong prayer life outside of Sunday Mass. Nowadays I can laugh about it, but it really hadn’t occurred to me that my prayer life only serves to make me spiritually healthy, not different.   I began to narrow my choices and eventually focused on the Sisters of St John the Baptist  - a decision that would be life-changing. Every time I arrived for a visit I was warmly welcomed by the Sisters who lived in that Convent and participated in morning and evening prayer with them.  During the day, we discerners participated in various activities with Sisters from the Vocation Committee.  Evenings and mealtimes were spent with the Sisters who happened to be home that weekend.  I loved all of the Sisters I met during these visits.  I found them to be a warm and genuinely caring group of women.  I also found them to be very diverse in their ministries and nationalities, but still very much the same in a way that I can’t really describe.  I would leaves at the end of the weekend flying higher than a kite, already trying to find a way to be able to come back for a second visit as soon as possible.  I couldn’t tell you what was making me so happy, but I was smiling so much that my face hurt.  I remember holding my face while I was driving home trying to stop myself from smiling because it hurt so much.  It lasted for days and continued to happen every time I visited the Sisters of St John the Baptist.               In August, 2001, I had the privilege of visiting Rome and meeting the Baptistine Sisters there.  Before I left the United States, the vocation director gave me the names and telephone numbers of several Sisters at the Generalate and Provincial Convents.  When I arrived in Rome, many Sisters had left for vacations.  Nevertheless, those that remained generously welcomed me, encouraged me in my discernment, and invited me to a party the next day.  I agreed to return for the party feeling that same extreme happiness that I just couldn’t contain inside me. As we were leaving the party, my friend told me that she had never before seen me as happy as I had been during our two visits with the Sisters in Rome.  She also asked why I couldn’t just enter the convent in Rome right away and said she thought it was what would be best for me.  This was the first active support in my discernment that I had ever received from any of my friends outside of my e-mail group.  It meant everything to me and I am immensely grateful to the Sisters we met in Rome for making that happen.  It was also a definite turning point in my discernment.           After I returned to the United States, I kept in touch with the Vocation Director.  I would get an e-mail or a phone call from her checking to see how I was doing and that was always the highlight of my week.   As I got to know the Sisters, I always felt very well cared for.  I knew I was the Vocation Director’s top priority.  Any concerns I had or experiences I wanted (especially more weekend trips) were always addressed in an equally concerned manner.  As time passed, I got to know more Baptistine Sisters and made many visits to be with them while still participating in discernment weekends.  The five to seven hour drive up north never bothered me when I went to visit the Sisters.  I was always too excited about the upcoming weekend to notice it.  Coming home, however, was a far different story.  The trip is much shorter on a Sunday afternoon than it is on a Friday night, but I found that it felt longer and longer each time I visited because I couldn’t find a reason to want to go home.  Home was good, but the convent was better.            In February 2003, I was accepted into the Affiliate program.  Until recently, I considered it to be the highest honor I’ve ever achieved.  I couldn’t believe that the Sisters seriously thought that I might have that mysterious something that’s needed to become one of them.  I was very excited about having the opportunity to participate in more community events and visit more Baptistine houses.  I couldn’t wait to meet even more Sisters or to participate in summer service projects.  I was also certain that they were going to realize that they’d made a mistake in thinking I could ever be like these women that I admired and loved so intensely.  I half-expected to be asked to leave the Affiliate within a year.  When I think about it, I’m still surprised and relieved that nightmare never came true.            As I write this, I am still amazed to see just how far I have come in my faith and in my discernment journey with the Sisters over the last four years.  The thought of finally being able to continue on to the postulant phase of discernment fills my heart with a deep sense of joy and brings back that incredible happiness I felt in my earlier days of discernment with the Sisters.  I still can’t believe that it’s finally time to prepare for this change, but I know my years of prayer and hard work have paid off.  It is with great pleasure that I look forward to that Sunday afternoon in September when I don’t have to face that long drive back to Virginia.  I will finally be home."          PART 2  -  THE SEED NOW BLOSSOMS          As I reflect on the past three years, I am amazed to see how much my life has changed and the woman of faith I’ve become.        In September 2005 I moved to St. Dominic Convent in the Bronx to begin my first year of formation with the Sisters as a postulant. This was a year filled with many new experiences for me.  I came to the big city from a lifetime in the suburbs and learned to use public transportation.  I left a full-time law career and began working only part-time.  On the spiritual side, I learned new ways of praying and met weekly with my formation director to study the meaning of Religious Life, my new community’s constitution and statutes, and the life of our Founder, Bl. Alfonso Maria Fusco.  I also attended classes in Monroe, New York with postulants and novices from several other communities.        Having completed my first year of preparation (postulancy) I and the Community agreed that I was ready to move to the next stage of the formation program. On Saturday, September 23, 2006 in a simple ceremony at Providence Rest Chapel, Bronx, NY in the presence of the Sisters and my family, I received the habit of the Sisters of St John the Baptist and begin a two year novitiate program year.        On March 25, 2006, the American Province of the Sisters of St John the Baptist celebrated its 100th Anniversary. Postulant Sr. Jennifer, the newest member of the American Province, accompanied  Sr Ermelinda, who was celebrating her 75th Anniversary as a Baptistine, in carrying the relic of Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco, Founder of the Community, into Sacred Heart Cathedral, Newark, NJ.           Many changes were taking place. I was now wearing the same simple habit that the Sisters wear but without the veil.  I left the workforce to immerse myself more completely into a life of prayer and the community experience.  During my first year as a novice,  I devoted myself more intensely to prayer, studies of the vows and knowledge of the history and tradition of the Congregation. I met with my formation director twice a week, continued taking inter-community classes in Monroe, and attended an overnight Inter-community Novitiate program in Ossining, NY with my formation director.  The year was a challenging experience in which I was encouraged to draw closer to God and seek personal growth and give  volunteer service at one of our apostolic locations.          During my second year as a novice I was sent out of the formation house to live with our Sisters and participate in our various ministries for a few months at a time.  We refer to these ventures as “apostolic experiences.”  I also continued taking classes in Monroe and meeting with my formation director regularly.  During this period the mystery of the Cross became a personla experience.          One month after my first apostolic experience began, I became ill with meningitis and had to be hospitalized. For a number of days I was "touch and go". My Sisters supported me through every step of the ordeal, from forcing me to wake up enough to go to the hospital, to visiting me daily and bringing me essentials like a walkman and CDs, and of course helping me with prayer and loving care to cope with the trauma of it all.           Physically speaking, I was the weakest I have ever been, but spiritually speaking, I could not have been better prepared.  I was teaching a high school student some RCIA material and had spent the week before I got sick reading up on Anointing of the Sick not knowing that I was about to receive the sacrament for the first time.  More importantly, the many hours I’d spent in prayer throughout formation gave me the strength and the relationship with God I needed to be able to cling to Him during my time of crisis.  I can’t tell you how many hours I spent in that hospital room listening to Stan Fortuna sing “Mary, Joy of All Who Sorrow” when I was too weak to do much of anything else.  Of course, I would have preferred not to have discovered how much  the Sisters had given me in quite this way, but it all is a gift I may not have had if the Sisters had not allowed me to journey with them.          I am now fully recovered, newly professed (September 2008), living in a new home, and beginning a new ministry.  Much of the excitement and sense of adventure that I felt when I first moved into the formation house three years ago has returned.  I am enjoying my new ministries on Staten Island at St. John Villa Academy and St.Paul-Assumption Parish.  I love my community just as much now, if not more so, as I did on that exciting day three years ago when I first became a postulant.  I am finally home."
PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS  Creator God, Life is Your gift to me. Through baptism You invite me to share the gift of my life in service to others. Be with me as I choose each day to show Your presence in our world. Give me the courage and generosity to respond to Your love, to Your call.        I pray for those who serve You as  priests, Sisters, Brothers, deacons, and lay ministers. Keep them close to You. Open the minds and hearts of many other women and men that they may accept Your loving challenge to build the Kingdom.                             Amen.	*   Each year for the next 5 years Sr Jennifer will discern her journey and annually decide whether consecrated religious life is truly God's calling for her. With the blessing of the Church and the Community, Sister will decide each year whether to continue her journey with the Sisters of St John the Baptist and renew her vows or freely choose to walk a different pathway. *  The support of your prayers will be most important to Sr Jennnifer - and all those  who are in religious formation programs -  as she deepens her response to God's call.  *  Please pray that many other young women and men will also have the generosity of spirit to hear and respond to God's call tthe consecrated life. *  If you would like to assist us in the expenses of forming our new members, financial contributions can be sent to:  Sr Rosaria De Maro, C.S.JB. Development Office, PO Box 711, Gladstone, NJ 07934-0711

Membership  As  A  Vowed  Sister                                 My daughters, what do you think you have  come to the Institute for?  You have come here to form a family,  a family of saints.  This is the scope of our lives,  to sanctify ourselves through love."         (Fr. Alfonso Maria Fusco, Founder)  Why Does Anyone Become a Sister? The choice to become a Sister is really a response to an invitation and a plan - God's loving call and God's unique plan.  In almost every religious tradition there are those who are called forth from the community of faith to serve and to lead the community by example in their faith journey. In accepting this call, the individual promises in a public way to put God first. All else follows from this.     What Does a Sister of St John the Baptist Do All Day? For a religious Sister there are 4 major aspects of her life: *  Her relationship to God; *  Her relationship with her Community; *  Her relationship with those to whom she ministers; *  Her personal relationship with family, friends and self.  In deepening these relationships, the Sister spends a part of each day in prayer and worship; in sharing daily routines and responsibilities with her Sisters; in some form of ministry or apostolic work, and in personal time both private and social.      Why Can't Sisters Marry?        A Sister of St. John the Baptist, through her religious congregation, makes solemn promises to God, called vows, to imitate Jesus by living certain Gospel values in a special manner: Chastity -  Acknowledging that God is Love and that every human person is a channel of God’s love, through the vow of chastity the Sister chooses to express her love for others and her relationship with God through prayer and service to a wide circle of God’s family rather than by directing her love to one special person or human family. Poverty  -  Acknowledging that all life is dependent on God,  through the vow of poverty the Sister strives to free herself from the excesses of material goods and consumption. Each Sister chooses to live a simple life and to share all goods in common, being mindful of each one’s obligation to the poor and to the stewardship of all of God's resources. Obedience  -  Acknowledging that the God's will is primary in her life, through the vow of obedience the Sister chooses to live in a community, to participate in its daily life, and to dedicate herself to furthering its goals, its hopes and its mission. To accomplish this the Sister commits herself to listening to and responding to the will of God as expressed by her fellow Sisters, her religious superiors and the signs of the times in society.    How Do I Know If Being a Sister Is For Me?      Coming to know God’s will is a prayerful process of individual and communal reflection combined with personal experience that takes place gradually over a period of time. Before a young woman is fully a member of the Sisters of St John the Baptist there are phases of increasingly greater incorporation into the experience of religious life. Each phase provides an opportunity for the applicant and the Community to come to know each other better Time of Affiliation - This phase extends from 6 months to two years. During this time the candidate lives and works or studies from home. She meets on a regular basis with the Vocation Directress for prayer and vocational guidance. Time of Postulancy - This phase extends from 6 months to one year. The "sister-in-formation" lives in a local convent and shares in the Sisters’ apostolic ministry under the direction of an experienced Sister. Time of Noviceship - The duration of this phase is two years. The novice lives in a formation community. She devotes the first year to prayer, spiritual and theological preparation, and learning the history and mission of the Baptistine Community. In the second year the novice lives in a variety of local communities and engages in periods of apostolic ministry. Commitment  of Temporary Profession - For five years the professed Sister lives and serves as an active member of a Baptistine local community. During each of these years, as the Sister and the Congregation mutually evaluate her call to Baptistine religious life, there is the free choice to renew her vows. Commitment of Perpetual Vows - Confirmed in God's call to follow Jesus by living in the Church as a religious Sister according to the constitutions of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist, the Sister undertakes a lifetime commitment of vowed love to God in and through the Congregation of the Sisters of St John the Baptist.  Is Anyone Becoming a Sister Anymore? God still calls many women to follow Jesus  through religious life. In years past it was common for young girls, often soon after high school, to  "become a Sister".  Now, the Holy Spirit is leading  many women who have already completed college or spent years in a career or who have even raised a family to consider religious life.                                       More information can be obtained from our Vocation Office:                                                                   Sr Elsa C.S.JB.  or Sr. Liceria, C.S.JB.                                                                   Vocation Directress                                                                    St John Villa Academy                                                                   26 Landis Avenue                                                                   Staten Island, NY 10305                                                                   Phone:  718/447-4150 Ext. 196                                                                   E-mail:  Baptistinevoc@aol.com         MEMBERSHIP IN OUR LAY ASSOCIATE PROGRAM               The Holy Spirit is leading the Church today to rediscover the power, purpose and uniqueness of the gifts given to the laity for the growth of the Kingdom. To facilitate this growing bond between religious and laity, to further our common mission to "prepare the way of the Lord", and to nurture a mutual vision of living in the charism of our Founder, Fr. Alphonso Fusco, the Sisters of St. John the Baptist offer to their friends and colleagues a program of Lay Association   Who  Are  Baptistine Lay Associates? Lay Associates of the Sisters of St John the Baptist are:   - women and men, single or married, 18 years or older,   - who desire to take a more active role in the life of the Church,    - through greater union with the Sisters of St. John the Baptist.      Through the Lay Associate program these women and men grow in the knowledge and love of God while sharing in the charism and mission of the Baptistine Sisters through one or more types of association.       Who Directs the Lay Associate Program? A Board of Directors consisting of both Sisters and Lay Associates is appointed by the Provincial Superior and her Council. Each Lay Associate serves for a renewable term of 2 years; each Sister serves for a renewable term of 3 years. The current Board members are: President: Sr. Mary Cecile Swanton, CSJB, Provincial Superior Director: Sr. Madeleine Werner, CSJB Co-Director: Secretary: Secretary: Treasurer:   What Are the Requirements of Membership? The requirements for becoming an Associate on any level are:    - the wish to deepen one’s own faith;    - the desire to participate more fully in the life of the Church;    - and the willingness to promote the mission and charism       of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist in a manner appropriate       to one’s life circumstances.  The obligations that a Lay Associate assumes depend on the type of Association selected, ranging from prayer only (Legion of Prayer) to direct involvement with the Sisters’ apostolic works (Associate in Ministry).       I'm Interested. What Should I Do? First       -  Pray that God is leading you to this commitment; Second  -  Read below the descriptions of the various forms                    of Lay Association program; Third      -  Contact the Director of the Lay Associate Program: Sr. Madeleine Werner, CSJB St. John Villa Convent 57 Cleveland Place Staten Island, NY 10305 718-447-4150  Xt161      What are the Types of Association?   Associates in Ministry     -  have journeyed with the Sisters of St John the Baptist as     Associate  Friends for at least one year -  have a strong desire to be more formally associated with     the Sisters while maintaining their own living and working     situations.     Women and men choosing this form of affiliation share in     the charism and spirit of the Sisters of St John the Baptist     through a commitment to active involvement in the     apostolic works of the Sisters.     These Associates  meet once a month at a local Baptistine     convent to:               -  share in faith, prayer and fellowship,                -  receive spiritual guidance                -  deepen their understanding of the mission and                  charism of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist.      Additionally, they receive the Community newsletter,      attend an annual meeting and weekend retreat, and are      invited to participate in various Baptistine celebrations      such as Founder’s Day, the annual Mass for Deceased      Sisters, and selected Provincial meetings. A formal      commitment to the Associates in Ministry program is      made and renewed annually on the Feast of the Baptism      of Jesus.     Associate Friends are united with the Sisters of     St John the Baptist in a spirit of prayer and mutual     support. They may assist the Sisters informally in     various activities but they do not make a formal     commitment of involvement.       Like Associates in Ministry  these Associates  meet      once a month at a local Baptistine convent to:          -  to share in faith, prayer and fellowship,           -  to receive spiritual guidance           -  to deepen their understanding of the mission              and charism of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist.      Additionally, they receive the Community newsletter     and are invited to attend an annual meeting and     weekend retreat, as well as such Baptistine     celebrations as Founder’s Day and the annual Mass     for Deceased Sisters. A formal commitment for     Associate Friends is made and renewed annually on     the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus.         Association Through The Legion Of Prayer "In all our needs let us pray, for this is the most effective way to obtain the grace of God."                                          (Fr. Alfonso Maria Fusco, Founder) For members of the Legion of Prayer the primary mode of association with the Sisters of St John the Baptist is through prayer. Established in 1975 the Legion of Prayer now includes hundreds of people across the country who pray for the Sisters and their ministries as well as for each other. Periodically throughout the year members receive a letter with spiritual reflections. Membership in the Legion of Prayer incurs no obligation other than that of reciting the following prayer each day.     Legion of Prayer  -  Member's  Daily Prayer O God, give the Sisters of St. John the Baptist the strength, the courage and the integrity of your Precursor, St. John the Baptist.  Guide them in a  sincere love and concern for the well-being of all  peoples. Let them be selfless in reaching out to  those in need and thereby share in the effort to  restore all things in Christ.  Bless their work and may their numbers multiply  for your honor  and glory.   Bless all the members of the Legion of Prayer and their  families.  Guide us in  our work;  in our family decisions and in all  our needs, both spiritual and material. Give us your peace as you shared it with Mary and Joseph.   Amen.   For more information on the Legion of Prayer please contact:   Sr. Marian Francis, C.S.JB. Legion of Prayer  Mt. St. John Convent  150 Anderson Hill Rd.  Purchase, NY 10577