{"id":2671,"date":"2007-03-07T09:09:25","date_gmt":"2007-03-07T09:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/answering-the-call.html"},"modified":"2007-03-07T09:09:25","modified_gmt":"2007-03-07T09:09:25","slug":"answering-the-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/answering-the-call.html","title":{"rendered":"Answering the Call"},"content":{"rendered":"

People sometimes think that once you’ve answered the call, entering religious life is a piece of cake. Not so. Religious communities don’t accept potential members unless they are free from worldly ties, responsibilities and burdens. Including…student loans.<\/p>\n

One blogger is asking for some help in paying off her student loan so she can <\/a>enter the convent. Read more about her story and appeal at these links.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Some may ask why they should trust me. I suppose that in this world of cyberspace you can never be sure. I have the endorsement of the Salesian Sisters\u2019 vocation director (you can call her directly, if you wish – email me for her personal number) and my spiritual director. I have been a Salesian Cooperator<\/span><\/a> for almost three years now (not including 2 years of formation) and I was the local coordinator of my Salesian Cooperator Unit. A newstory about it (with a terrible picture of me) is on the Salesian website.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I am a published author of a 32 page booklet entitled \u201cAll Things to All, The Life of Blessed Artemides Zatti\u201d available from the Salesian Missions<\/span><\/a> (which you can obtain by calling them at 1-888-608-2327), and I have also written articles for the Salesian Bulletin<\/span><\/em><\/a> and one of them can be found HERE<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

I have taught Religious Education, run a youth group, worked at food pantries, and tutored English Composition to immigrants and ESL students.<\/p>\n

You have my promise that any money you send will be applied directly towards my student loan. If you wish to be refunded should I leave the convent during my formation because I have decided that it is not my calling, you can note that in the \u201cOptional Comments\u201d box on the donation form. I will keep the information of all of my donors and and I will keep you updated once I am in the convent about what the formation process is like and what I am up to. I think of this also as a way of involving the general public in the life of a religious and giving you the opportunity to see what my life is like.<\/p>\n

If you cannot afford to donate, PLEASE pray for me, not only for money, but for grace that I might do God\u2019s will and persevere. It is not easy to leave everything and go into the convent, but it is a small thing in comparison to being able to give yourself totally to the service of others in love.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Do go read Brittany’s wonderful blog and consider helping her out in some way!<\/p>\n

By the way, there is a group that exists for this purpose, as well – the Laboure Society:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Upon discovering that religious communities and dioceses require aspirants to be free of debt before entering formation, Minnesota businessman Cy Laurent decided something had to be done to mitigate the impediment of debt from those called to priesthood or religious life. Drawing from his twenty-plus years of experience in Fortune 500 companies and his twenty five years as an entrepreneur, Laurent began working with others toward assisting this population, which he expected could be quite a few. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People sometimes think that once you’ve answered the call, entering religious life is a piece of cake. Not so. Religious communities don’t accept potential members unless they are free from worldly ties, responsibilities and burdens. Including…student loans. One blogger is asking for some help in paying off her student loan so she can enter the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAnswering the Call - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/answering-the-call.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Answering the Call - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"People sometimes think that once you’ve answered the call, entering religious life is a piece of cake. Not so. Religious communities don’t accept potential members unless they are free from worldly ties, responsibilities and burdens. Including…student loans. One blogger is asking for some help in paying off her student loan so she can enter the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/answering-the-call.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-03-07T09:09:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Answering the Call - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/answering-the-call.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Answering the Call - Via Media","og_description":"People sometimes think that once you’ve answered the call, entering religious life is a piece of cake. Not so. Religious communities don’t accept potential members unless they are free from worldly ties, responsibilities and burdens. Including…student loans. One blogger is asking for some help in paying off her student loan so she can enter the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/answering-the-call.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2007-03-07T09:09:25+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/answering-the-call.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/answering-the-call.html","name":"Answering the Call - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-03-07T09:09:25+00:00","dateModified":"2007-03-07T09:09:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/answering-the-call.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/answering-the-call.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/03\/answering-the-call.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Answering the Call"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}