Monastic weekend provides chance for discernment

Nuns from Abbey of St. Walburga will hold a weekend retreat at Westminster Abbey in October

Nuns at the Abbey of St. Walburga in Colorado.

Discerning a vocation is a difficult task, according to Sister Maria Johanna Avila, OSB. To help with this process the nuns from the Abbey of St. Walburga will hold a monastic weekend Oct. 12-14 at Westminster Abbey. Sister Avila describes what an inquirer can expect from the spiritual weekend:

Twice a year the monks at Westminster Abbey offer a weekend for young women to experience a taste of monasticism firsthand. Monastic life fosters silence, order, and balance, with the liturgy as its source and summit, so that a person may have an ideal setting for seeking God.

Young women are able to join the monks in chanting the Divine Office, the main duty given to Benedictines by the Church, and to learn more about how to pray with the Scriptures. They also complement that prayer with work.

The weekend will also give them an opportunity to meet other young women who are on the same journey. Some women who have attended the "live-in weekends" have gone on to be Benedictine nuns or have entered other religious communities, and some have discerned their call to marriage and motherhood.

Read the full story at The B.C. Catholic website.