How to Discern If God Calls You to Monastery Life

About the Book

The author thought that she would become a nun, spending many times in prayers in front of the Blessed Sacrament and asking spiritual directors and professed nuns and ordained priests what God had in store for her. She went to medical, dental, and eye exams to prepare herself. She lived inside the monastery for three years and three months. After which, she had to leave the enclosure of the monastery walls to take care of a beloved mother in her illness. She went to hibernation for several months, asking God what to do in her life. She had been a teacher for more than thirty-three years and had retired early to discern if God was calling her to the religious life. A priest said, “If God is calling you to become a nun, go and enter the monastery, and if it did not work, at least you tried.” A confessor said, “Pack up and go if they let you go.”

About the Author

Miss Juanita de Guzman Gutierrez, BSED, MSED, Fordham University, New York City, New York, USA entered the monastery in December 1, 2010. The Year 2010 was the 150th Year Foundation Anniversary of the congregation of the Visitation of Holy Mary, where she entered the monastery to discern or know if GOD is calling her to become a nun. She filed an early retirement after teaching for thirty-three years . And from the City of New York Public Schools as a schoolteacher, Miss Gutierrez enplaned alone with her luggage bag to etch a new life as a woman religious. She made a great leap of faith. She left her high-paying job, comfort and freedom for the LOVE OF JESUS. Where she used to be called Miss Gutierrez, now inside the monastery, she will be called by her first name only, Sister Juanita. Inside the monastery, she led the sisters in her sacred role as an Officiant or song leader of the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours. Miss Gutierrez rang the Angelus bells, garden, crochet, clean chapel floors, was assistant to the Dispenser. She prayed and meditated in the quiet cloisters and contemplative countryside monastery life situated on a hill of several acres of lands away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Previous to monastery entrance, Miss Gutierrez was a Eucharistic Minister to the elderly homebound. She brought the Eucharist to those who cannot go to the Holy Mass in Church. She joined the Legion of Mary and was consecrated and blessed by a priest to wear the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. She spent so many times in front of the Blessed Sacrament to pray and meditate for GOD’s calling. Miss Gutierrez graduated with a Master of Science of Education graduate studies degree from the Jesuit University of New York, Fordham University in New York City, New York, USA. From the Philippines where she was born and raised, she graduated her Bachelor of Science in Eduction degree from the University of the East in Manila, Philippines. She was an English and Journalism Teacher and a School Paper Adviser in the City Schools of Manila and the Provincial Schools of Quezon. At the Guinayangan Barangay High School, where she first taught, Miss Gutierrez ‘ father was the Barangay Captain or town mayor of her hometown. Her mother was the first-woman councilor of the town and did not even campaign for it. The townspeople asked her to join. She said she did not have time because she wanted to focus in taking care of eight children. The townspeople said they will be the one to campaign for her. She won handily in a landslide just like her father who had been a Barangay Captain or town mayor for two terms before he stepped down to focus his remaining life with his family and fishing business with his yacht named Saint Anthony, a patron saint of his wife, the author’s mother. Miss Gutierrez had received Outstanding Teaching Performances, awards and grants. She also was a teacher-trainor of Teachers’ Institutes and Professional Developments. She was a president of teacher associations and received exemplary awards in bulletin boards presentations. She now spends her time in travels, worship, and as a cashier of a nonprofit organization for the needy.