Benedictine Sisters of Virginia

Daily Mass Readings
from the
United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops
(USCCB)

Options for Discernment
Formation Process
Our Women in Formation

The Monastic Discernment Weekend is a program offered in the fall and late winter for new inquirers. Participants arrive Friday evening and depart around noon on Sunday. The weekend is packed with information, opportunities to pray and reflect on God's will in your life.

Affiliation ~ a woman's expressed desire to enter into relationship with the community as an exploratory stage; a time to visit regularly while living independently.

Live-In ~ an optional opportunity for a woman to live with the community for an extended period of time, while remaining financially independent and either continuing your current employment or volunteering in community ministry.

Many women take advantage of the live-in program to live with the community for an extended period of time while remaining financially independent by either continuing their current employment or volunteering in community ministry.

Acceptance into the Live-In Program requires an application, letters of reference and an interview.

Where Do You Want Me Lord?

from the poem by Sister Karen Lynn Trespacz, OSB

So I think I need community
But not just any community.
"Particular person in that particular moment"
Means it has to be a particular community -
Prescisely those people You have brought together
Who You will use to teach me how to love -
And who You will use me as an instrument for.
Knowing me, probably as an instrument for
Learning patience, tolerance and forgiveness
Because there is a lot in me that needs
Patience, tolerance and forgiveness!
Knowing how much You love all of us
This has got to be a two-way street
The community has to be right for me
And I have to be right for the community.

Contact Sister Andrea, our Director of Vocation Ministry, by phone at 703.298.5337 or email at vocations@osbva.org for more information on our options for discernment.

Postulancy ~ following formal entrance into the community, this stage introduces the member to prayer, work and Benedictine spirituality.

Novitiate ~ a year of intense prayer, study and preparation for monastic profession.

First Monastic Profession ~ a minimum of three years which may be extended, during which the woman lives as a professed member of the community while continuing to study and deepen her understanding of monastic life.

Perpetual Monastic Profession ~ the professed member makes a lifelong commitment with full membership in the Benedictine Sisters as she seeks God according to the Gospels and the Rule of Benedict.

Our Scholastics
Sister Karen Lynn Trespacz, OSB, is in her fourth year of Temporary Monastic Profession.	Sister Mary Clark, OSB,is in her third year of Temporary Monastic Profession.	Sister Pat Novak, OSB, is in her second year of Temporary Monastic Profession.

Our New Scholastics

	From left to right: Sisters Andrea Westkamp, OSB, Shirley Arce, OSB and Joanna Burley, OSB

Our New Postulant
	Julia Elena Abdala

Where Do You Want Me Lord?

Our Scholastics

Our New Scholastics

Our New Postulant