Dear Janet:

Although it is possible, it is unlikely that at your age any Religious Order would accept you into profession. But, then again, there could be communities out there that are willing to take late vocations.

There are some experimental communities like ours (the Order of the Legion of St. Michael) that will accept late vocations. We do not have a residency for woman, however, but do have a program that leads to hermitage. Other communities such as the Brothers and Sisters of Charity may accept you into residency in their integrated monastery.

Short of that, you may live a life as a consecrated single person on your own by following a rule of life that you adopt and doing on your own the kinds of things that consecrated persons do -- such as the Divine Office, contemplation, etc. It is advisable to either do this through a community like ours or to have a local spiritual director to help and guide you. It may also be possible to seek formal hermit status from the Bishop in which case he will assign a spiritual director to you.

In any event, the consecrated life is not an escape from the world. If you choose to enter into consecrated life it needs to be because God is calling you to it. Life's problems may push us toward consecrated life, but to actually enter consecrated life we need to discern God's calling.

There are some resources to help you discern this at the website of the Institute on Religious Life. The section on their site called, "Is God Calling You?", can be very helpful.

If God is calling you then you ought to spend time in retreats at various monasteries to get a sense of consecrated life. If none of the monasteries take late vocations, these retreats are still valuable in giving you a monastic connection and some monastic experience. I am sure that the sisters at a convent will be glad to help you to discern and to develop a private consecrated life for yourself.

Then decide on a Rule of Life, such as Benedictine, Franciscan, etc. and begin to life that out as best you can according to your circumstances. Find a good spiritual director (maybe one of the sisters from a monastery you visited will do this for you), and/or join with a group that can help such as ours or Brothers and Sisters of Charity, or some other group. And/or you can also be an Oblate to a monastery which will give you religious direction and some monastic experience.

The first step is to check out the resources for discernment found on the website of the Institute for Religious Life and pray about what God is calling you to do.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary