Dominican Nuns of Corpus Christi Monastery
As cloistered Dominican nuns, we proclaim Jesus Christ by our purely contemplative life of praise, prayer and sacrifice, for the salvation of souls. Our whole life is harmoniously ordered to preserve the continual remembrance of God. The pillars of our life are: Prayer (liturgical and private), Community life, Preaching through our vows, and Study of Sacred Truth.
We strive to have the same mind as Christ Jesus by the celebration of the Eucharist and the Divine Office, by reading and meditating on the Sacred Scriptures, by private prayer, vigils and intercessions.
In silence and stillness, we earnestly seek the face of the Lord and never cease making intercession with the God of our salvation that all men and women might be saved.
By our hidden life within the cloister, we proclaim prophetically that in Christ alone is true happiness to be found.
By our life of voluntary poverty, penance and self-sacrifice, we strive to have Christ, who was fastened to the cross for all, be fast-knit to our hearts.
We give thanks to God for His loving mercy and joyfully offer continual sacrifices, big and small, through giving ourselves to our daily work, fidelity to our regular observances, enclosure, silence, early rising and vigils, fasting, undertaking other penitential practices and more.
We keep adoration of the Blessed Sacrament as the Real Presence of Christ, and are especially devoted to His Incarnation, His Passion and His Holy Name. We have a special devotion to our Mother Mary, Queen of Preachers, to Her Holy Rosary, to our Holy Father Dominic, and the saints of our Order. And in our prayers for souls, we continuously remember the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
The Nuns of the Order of Preachers came into being when our holy father Saint Dominic gathered women converts to the Catholic faith in the monastery of Blessed Mary of Prouille in 1206. These women, free for God alone, he associated with his “holy preaching” by their prayer and penance. Our holy Father drew up a Rule to be followed and constantly showed a father’s love and care for these nuns and for others established later in the same way of life. In fact, “they had no other master to instruct them about the Order.” Finally, he entrusted them as part of the same Order to the fraternal concern of his sons.
Our monastery was founded in response to an invitation to bring perpetual adoration to the San Francisco Bay Area. Today, Corpus Christi Monastery sits in the middle of one of the most important and influential areas in the world - halfway between San Francisco and Silicon Valley, with Facebook and other tech giants in our "backyard". Despite the changes around us, our mission remains the same. We count it all joy to seek God's face for the salvation of souls, to joyfully offer Him praise, to intercede for the Church and our brothers and sisters in the Order, and to carry daily the weak, downtrodden and afflicted in our hearts before the tabernacle of our Lord.
Contact:
Vocation Directress
215 Oak Grove Avenue
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650-322-1801 x19
vocations@opnunsmenlo.org
www.OPNunsMenlo.org
Professed Members: 15
Year Founded: 1921
Federation: North American Association of Dominican Monasteries
Diocese: San Francisco, CA
Qualifications: Single woman; practicing Catholic; good physical and mental health; fidelity and love for the Church; ability to live in community and in solitude; an attraction to prayer and the things of God.
Formation: Aspirancy of one month live-in experience; Postulancy of 12 months; Novitiate of 2 years; Temporary vows of 5 years. During this time the novices will study the Rule of Saint Augustine, Christian Doctrine, the history of monasticism, of spirituality, of the Catholic Church, and of the Dominican Order, the Sacraments, the vows and religious consecration, and other subjects related to monastic life.
Age range/limit: 18-38
Belated vocations? Considered only in extraordinary circumstances for women in their late 30s to early 40s who have no other impediments.