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Interviewer: Can I ask you to talk about the formation process, or, as it is sometimes called, the integration process? Julie Vieira, IHM Julie was a first professed sister at the time of this interview. Her final profession took place in February 2006.
For example, Ellen and I went through one year of novitiate together which was a specific kind of program and there were things we had to do that were part of formation. In the midst of that process, sometimes because of that process and sometimes in spirit of that process, there was this other process going on where we discovered ourselves. We saw the best and the worst of ourselves. That process of self-discovery was the heart of this organic process of integration. That is specific to formation, but I would say, generally speaking I have come to know the community through people. Not through someone saying "become an IHM, sign up today," but because I see women living their lives and flourishing, and I catch on to that energy. That excites me. It triggers my own passions in a way I can hardly articulate and overwhelms me at times because I know I am experiencing the living God. There is a thread throughout my six years in the community - a thread I would probably describe as a process of integration, of becoming part of others' lives, of knitting ourselves to one another. The structure of the program and the steps that we go through for formation facilitates our unity with one another, and with God and with our world. (Photo by Becca Gay) Julie has a popular blog, to visit it click on her photo.
Read more about vowed life. Mary Bea Keeley, IHM Phone: 734-240-9820 |
Excerpted from "Conversations About Religious Life" interviews in 2003 with several women going through the process to become vowed members of the IHM.
