Requirements to be a nun are difficult these days?

I have been checking out several websites of nun and religious orders and their missions, the amount of time to become a nun/monk yourself seems a little too long in my opinion. 1 to 2 years is a lot and I understand it is a testing phase to see if you are made for them but seeing that the number of nuns is decreasing today they should take new members within 6 months at least and not 2 long years in which many things can happen, is this wrong or what? For instance look at this particular convent requirements:

. We accept candidates 18-39 years old through the following process: Initial discernment stage. Allows the individual and the community to get to know each other, while the person remains living outside the community.
Postulancy is the initial transitional stage, where the candidate begins living with the community. It can last from 6 months to 2 years, depending on the process of each individual. When the Postulant is ready to continue to the next stage, she asks to enter the Novitiate

Novitiate is a very special time of spiritual growth and learning about the community and an opportunity to experience most of the demands of religious life by practicing the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, community life, and the apostolate of the community.

At the end of this 2-year period, the novice and the community discern if she is ready to make her first vows.
Juniorate is the period between the first vows and the perpetual vows. When the sister makes her first vows she continues for a period of two years in formation as a Junior Sister. After the second year she is assigned to one of the communities to work and to acquire the necessary education to better serve the Church and others.

The Juniorate lasts for 5 years, although it may be extended up to 9 years. It prepares the sister for her perpetual vows, which express her total commitment to God.


What if one is totally ready or above what the "levels" require of you and capable of more? I really think they are making it more difficult after you leave your family,passions behind, jobs, friends, worldly dreams to make you wait until you are "convent approved" can somebody shed a light on this please?

One can't be totally ready until she has been tried in the fire.

Just like gold has to be tried, the hotter the fire, the purer
the gold...

The years it may take to become a full pledge nun would seem
like a few days...I'm liking this to when Jacob worked 7 yrs. for the
woman he loved...

I wonder why they won't take anyone over 39 years of age. I would become a nun when my daughter graduates college and she is off on her own.

Life2Christ said:

I wonder why they won't take anyone over 39 years of age. I would become a nun when my daughter graduates college and she is off on her own.

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Well this is a specific convent in Florida with missionary goals so maybe people in their 40's and beyond are not physically built for this job? I don't know the answer myself it's just another of these restricted limitations they go on about without any clear explanation as to what it is. I'm glad that you want to become a nun, we are not in medieval times anymore where being a nun means to be cloistered and in silence all the time, they are out there doing god's will, traveling, laughing and even having fun, don't let the media fool you, being a nun is awesome!

BFine said:

One can't be totally ready until she has been tried in the fire.

Just like gold has to be tried, the hotter the fire, the purer
the gold...

The years it may take to become a full pledge nun would seem
like a few days...I'm liking this to when Jacob worked 7 yrs. for the
woman he loved...

Click to expand...

But the woman is still living at home and still in the world while she's preparing herself, leaving room for worldly things to happen or Satan sending people to oppress her.

Let me cite an example, my cousin was a religious woman who wanted to advanced in the world of Jesus Christ and the church but one day she met a christian man who married her, after the wedding had been consummated this man revealed his real nature by making a shocking revelation, that he wasn't in any way a christian and he had been pretending this whole time to get her "to be with him" that means this man had never been in church before or cared in any remote way about the teaching of Jesus, that his only intention was to get in her pants and then dump her, which he did, he cheated on her and called her an idiot for being innocent and "jesus like"

This is how she got tricked and left her religious career behind with 3 kids from 2 different guys, very sad indeed. The waiting is good when is done under supervision or already living in a convent or monastery, otherwise it feels like going and coming back from school with plenty of free time to get distracted, something is off with this picture if you allow me to say...

I think it varies from one convent to another.

It seems that one to two years of it being a "trial" is actually relatively short. I've read about places where that period of time lasted much longer.

It does seem too bad that they don't take people at that particular place over the age of 39. I know a 45-year-old virgin who seems somewhat nunlike. What if later in life she were to want to have the benefits of being a nun and living with "sisters", to devote herself to the Lord that way? I guess she'd have to search for another order.

Like it or no the world will still be present even in a convent and nuns are very much human beings not super holy women.

If you cannot live in the world and look at it with compassion and resist its temptations you will not survive for very long inside any convent. Religious know this and that is why the enquiry stage is external.

The vows taken are a life long commitment and it matters to get this discerned and tested over a protracted period of time. At the start of such a period it may seem to be long but it is not if its the right thing for a person to do.

Its not a career its a vocation. It should be God calling a person to this life.

Annie each order has its own charter that gives guidence allowing the order to follow its founding principles.
If a person approached one order where the chapter does not feel they are in the right place for them but that they do have a call to another order then they will be recommended to other orders. The whole discrenment process starts a new with each order so for anyone who may be considering this path it would be wise to seek spiritual direction to narrow down where they may need to be and why.

i can't see any problem at all with an initiation phase of 1-2 years.
you are looking at making a lifetime commitment when you become a nun.
from that perspective ... 18 mo's or 24 mo's is very short.

it seems as if the whole world wants immediate gratification.
but some things just do not work that way -
in fact many things don't.

i do agree with the objection about an upper age limit.
i find that to be absurd.
are they saying that a 40 year old woman who wants to devote the rest of her life to Christ is somehow unacceptable? that makes no sense to me.

cheers,
gideon123

gideon123 said:

...are they saying that a 40 year old woman who wants to devote the rest of her life to Christ is somehow unacceptable? that makes no sense to me.

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Possibly they feel that older women are less likely to fit into their social structure (particularly in terms of taking orders)? You'd have to ask them. Not all convents have that restriction.

I also note that this is a Catholic order of nuns. Is the OP a Catholic?

Agreeing with what Vespasia stated!

I would also add, there are different orders for nuns--check them out...
I know some of them can be pretty rigid but there are other orders
who don't have such rules.

Another thing, you can be a "nun" for the Lord without joining any order...
you can live a life consecrated to Him.

holythemholyme said:

But the woman is still living at home and still in the world while she's preparing herself, leaving room for worldly things to happen or Satan sending people to oppress her.

Let me cite an example, my cousin was a religious woman who wanted to advanced in the world of Jesus Christ and the church but one day she met a christian man who married her, after the wedding had been consummated this man revealed his real nature by making a shocking revelation, that he wasn't in any way a christian and he had been pretending this whole time to get her "to be with him" that means this man had never been in church before or cared in any remote way about the teaching of Jesus, that his only intention was to get in her pants and then dump her, which he did, he cheated on her and called her an idiot for being innocent and "jesus like"

This is how she got tricked and left her religious career behind with 3 kids from 2 different guys, very sad indeed. The waiting is good when is done under supervision or already living in a convent or monastery, otherwise it feels like going and coming back from school with plenty of free time to get distracted, something is off with this picture if you allow me to say...

Click to expand...

*Your cousin made the decision to marry a man, she choose to do that over becoming a nun.
We have to decide to either serve God or serve our flesh...this matter is before all believers...
which one will we serve?

Temptation or being tempted...flee from it or not.
Being tempted happens whether you have a "chaperone" or "covering" of the church...need I remind folks of the nuns who fell in love with priests etc.-- got pregnant within their convent...their babies were either born and adopted out or aborted. (60 Minutes did a feature story on this many years ago.)

It is a personal decision to get married or engage in sex outside of marriage, there is a risk things won't go well.
My first marriage didn't go well either, my first husband did his own thing and I was also mistreated, lied to, etc. I didn't treat him the way he treated me and our marriage vows...the vows were a joke to him, not to me.
He had affairs, ripped people off, ridiculed me publicly etc.
This type of treatment from him went on through our near 7 yrs. of married life...he finally left/divorced me and married one of his "women."

I learned a lot from that experience and most of all I learned what it really means to totally rely on the Lord and trust Him to provide for all my needs.
My ex left me with nothing but a mountain size debt load...God opened doors for me to pay off all that debt and become debt-free within two year's time!
I forgave my ex-husband and when he and his wife became homeless
I provided a place for them to live in...I didn't mock them or gloat, I showed compassion and helped them just like I would of helped anyone who had fallen on hard times.

I serve an awesome God who has showed me much grace and blessings...thank you my Lord and Savior for being so
wonderful to your servant.

*Again I will add, a woman can be a nun without joining an Order,
she can consecrate herself to the Lord and be about doing His work.

Everything depends on the order. There's some where their mission involves lots of physical labor, and they won't accept anyone into the postulancy after age 30. Then again, if I recall correctly, it can take 7-11 years before professing final vows in this same order.

But honestly, what's a few years if you're prepared to do something for the rest of your life?