Benedictine

I am hearing a call. A call I have heard for years to serve God. A call to walk away
from the secular life and embrace the monastic life. I have began with a letter of
inquiry to the order of Benedictine monks at St. Benedict Monastery. The first
step is taken. I will see and I am looking forward to what will happen next. This
has been in the back of my mind for many years and I am only now seeing the way
clear.

I was driving the Greyhound bus from Mobile to New Orleans. I had a young lady on
the very front seat across from me talking to me about her young life and in talking
to her about my older life, I heard her say the words that have put me on this path.
All of those years ago-and I have come to believe she may have been an angel sent there
to save me from myself. In those few hours, our conversation saved me by opening my
eyes. So young, just a hippie chick moving around the country from youth hostel to youth
hostel, seeing the country-deciding where she was supposed to be-she was saving lives
all along the way.

What she said to me that day was so simple:

Just before she left me there in the Big Easy, she said; "...so,you like your things!"

I must have been letting her know how many things i had and how proud I was of myself for acquiring these things and how that was my measure of success. I was pleased with myself too when i learned this and then she spoiled my glow by making that one simple statement that for all of these years has haunted me and my success or lack there of. Nothing I have done or acquired since that day, has meant a thing to me. I am grateful to her for pointing out to me how meaningless my life has been. I am never going to forget her or that bus ride, the rest of my life has to be dedicated to her revelation to me on that fateful day.

Last night I looked into the Benedictine order on line. I found their monastery in Oxford,
Michigan and i am taking the first step-a letter of inquiry. From there, I wait, keep praying and wait for the brothers there to call on me and make the next step. I feel like I am destined. God is calling-has been calling and I am finally ready to answer.