Becoming a Postulant

By Kara Davis

The Provincial Counselor from St. Louis in 

charge of Postulant Formation led a simple 

evening prayer service in our chapel at 

Claiborne Residence in New Orleans.

After spending about a year as a pre-postulant with the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, I requested to continue discerning, and to enter more deeply into formation with the community.  On August 11, 2015, I was formally received as a Postulant and will spend a year continuing to deepen my Spiritual life, Christian identity, and understanding of the Vincentian charism.

"Postulancy is the stage during which the candidate experiences living a spiritual, community, and apostolic life in common.  She continues to discern her vocation and to deepen her human and Christian formation.  In the light of the Gospel, she seeks to discover the Vincentian charism and to learn the requirements of her vocation as expressed in the Constitutions and Statutes."  (Constitution 54)

I am excited and filled with joy as I engage in this new stage of formation with the Sisters, surrendering myself more deeply to Christ, and allowing myself to be formed into the Woman of God He has called me to be.

I received the Miraculous Medal to wear, and 

the Community Constitutions & Statutes to 

review before in-depth study during the 

next stage, Seminary (aka novitiate). 

Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic self-hood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be.  As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks -we will find our path to authentic service in the world.  True vocation joins self and service, as Frederick Buechner asserts when he defines vocation as "the place where your deep gladness meets the world's great need."  (from Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer)

Please continue to pray for me, and all women who feel called to respond to the world's great need as Sisters.