Vow of Stability

One stepping stone to finding and living our monastic life is stability. The vow of stability allows each professed sister to put down roots. These roots are not buildings or a location, but the sisters that are part of Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand, Indiana.

Everything seems to be instant and very mobile. Our stability allows for the roots to grow and we do not need to be mobile or have everything be instant. We follow in the footsteps of everyone that has come before us. I think of the sisters that are buried in our cemetery and where would the community be had those sisters not been a part of it.

Chittister describes stability as “centeredness, commitment, and relationships.” I think about how I could be a teacher. I could pray the Liturgy of the Hours, and I could attend Mass without having professed the vow of stability. But I look at how this vow leads to living with a specific group of women and then the community helps build that centeredness, commitment, and relationships.

In order to help us move toward finding our buried treasure, stability needs perseverance and persistence. I need to stay with it in order to grow. In order to grow, plants need to put down roots. Stability, for this particular group of women, allows the roots to deepen and then I can grow. Stability helps us to know each other. We have taken a stop at obedience and stability. We have one more stepping stone to reach our buried treasure.