“What are you looking for?” … “Come, and you will see.”Jn 1:38-39
This page is for the woman who is wondering about religious life, even if only tentatively. We ask nothing of you here: we simply say what we see, from where we stand.
You can look for a long time before saying anything, without announcing anything to anyone. Take the time to notice what moves you, what keeps coming back from one day to the next, without trying to explain it right away.
Desire matters more than certainty. You do not need to know where it leads in order to take it seriously: it is enough to give it a little room.
Religious life is not decided in a day. One moves forward in stages: the postulancy, then the novitiate, before any profession. Each stage leaves time to check that the path is the right one, and nothing binds you until you have chosen it.
There are renunciations, and we do not hide them. They are weighed over time, not under the pressure of fear: nothing asks you to decide them before you have looked at them squarely.
There is no type. We come from different countries, families and backgrounds. The life we lead is made of ordinary things, and joy is found there too.
Certainty rarely comes on the first day: it often takes time to see clearly. Doubt is part of the journey; it does not stop it.
To discern is to look, together, for what is right for you. Such a path is walked with others, and we would not want you to walk it alone.
You choose the next step, at your own pace, and nothing obliges you to take it.
Anne de Xainctonge left her family home in Dijon in 1596, aged twenty-nine, to give herself to the education of girls; ten years later, in Dole, she opened the school where the Company of Saint Ursula began.
Her story, from Dole to Sion in 1884, is told on the page about our congregation.
You can simply write to us to ask a question. We will reply.
There is no hurry, and nothing commits you.
Write to us