One Month

Dear friends,

I'm happy to share some exciting news - I have been officially accepted for Postulancy! That's the next step in formation, and would mean actually entering the Carmelite Sisters community. It's a really big step, and one I feel ready to take (If you're interested in the different stages of formation, you can read about them here).

However, my entrance is conditional -  I must be completely debt free by July 16th - the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

That's one month away.

I still need $14,000 to pay off the rest of my student loans, and $6,000 to cover the cost of health insurance during the 3 year novitiate. So, $20,000 dollars total.

Will you help me? Please consider a donation - even a small donation of $20 would help me towards my goal.

I trust God completely that if it is His will, I will find the money that I need to move forward.

I have more exciting news - my conversion story is going to be featured by the Coming Home Network in their July newsletter, and online. They are a wonderful organization behind "The Journey Home" on EWTN, featuring stories of people who have converted to Catholicism. I'll post a link to the story once it's been posted. I'm really excited to be able to share my story of conversion.  

God bless you all, I keep you always in prayer. Please let me know if you have any special intentions that I can be praying for.

With much gratitude,
Leah

The Fullness of Truth

This spring, a truly wonderful organization called Endow (Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women) did a little piece on my story in their newsletter.

I was involved with Endow for the last few years while I was living in Colorado, and they create amazing studies for Catholic women based on different documents of the Church that are especially related to women's issues. I met some truly incredible women through my Endow group that have become great friends of mine.

Endow is doing wonderful work in explaining the beauty and goodness of Catholic teaching, empowering women to grow into the strong, tenderly courageous and boldly feminine saints that God created them to become.

If you'd like to see what they wrote about me, see page 5 in their beautiful newsletter, found here.

You can find out more about Endow by visiting their website at www.endowonline.com.

Update - 5 Months in Carmel

It's almost impossible to put into words the graces and the ways that God has blessed me in the last five months, since I began Candidacy with the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles.  My life has changed so much, and there are still mornings when my alarm goes of at 4:35 and I think, "Wait, I live in a Convent - how did this happen?"

I am so blessed to live with the other Candidates - I learn so much from each of them. Our lives of prayer keep us centered in Christ, and I'm amazing by each of them, in the depth of their love for our Lord and their continual willingness to serve.  During our free nights, when we have recreation together, we will sometimes have praise and worship nights together; I play the cello, Cherilly plays the piano and Martha plays the guitar - and we all gather around and play and sing and worship together. In those moments I can hardly believe the joy that fills my heart.

Last weekend, Sister Pia of the Pierced Heart made her first profession of vows. We were fortunate to attend her Wedding day!  We had front row seats to witness her Total Consecration to Christ in  making vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience.  It was beautiful to see her joyful gift of self. 

I feel strongly that God is calling me to give myself to Him entirely. In order to move on in my formation to enter officially as a Postulant, I will need to pay of my Student Loans and be completely debt free in the next few months - that means raising a little over $20,000. 

Please consider supporting me financially, so that I am free to respond to Christ invitation to belong entirely to Him. I am so grateful for those who have already given to help me, and I am very encouraged by the support and prayers I have received!

If you are able to help me, please consider giving. I can receive payments through PayPal through the button on the right side of the page. 

Or, if you would prefer, I can also receive donations through mail here:

Leah DesGeorges

Candidates of the Heart of Mary

819 Buena Vista St.

Duarte, CA 91010

Please know how closely I hold you all in my heart and prayers! My God bless you abundantly!

Resting in His Most Sacred Heart,

Leah

Lessons in Carmel About Joy and Perfection

It's really hard to believe that it's been two months since I packed up what was left of my belongings (there was not much left) and drove from Colorado to California to begin Candidacy with the Carmelite Sisters here in Los Angeles. I have had such a beautiful time here with the other five young women that are here with me. When we aren't in prayer, we are usually laughing.

There is so much joy in religious life.  If you've ever met a Religious Sister, I hope that she expressed the joy that is found in simplicity and love.  The world looks to money, sex and power to find happiness; here, joy is found in poverty, chastity and obedience. The joy that pours out of the Sisters here is a powerful antidote to the world's prescription for happiness.  It is the living out of the Beatitudes; true blessedness is possessed only by the poor, the meek, and the pure of heart.

Entering Candidacy is a process which is very stretching - I have grown so much already in my time here. It is so challenging, and so good. Because whether we are called to religious life, or to marriage, or in any vocation in which God calls us, we are all called to give freely of ourselves; extravagantly. We are called to die to ourselves. It is a painful process, but it's a process full of joy, because there is freedom in abandoning yourself to God's will. If we seek just to find ourselves, we lose ourselves. If we seek to find God, we find Him and ourselves as well.

I also want to share something that one of the beautiful, young Sisters here shared with us about perfection: Perfection is a pencil stub, which has been chewed on and whose eraser has been completely used up. It is perfect because it has been completely spent fulfilling it's purpose; it has been utterly used up in it's destiny of pencil-hood. And perfection for us is found is the complete giving of ourselves, in self-sacrifice and charity.

"If anyone were to ask me the Secret of Happiness, 

I would say it is no longer to think of self..."

- Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

Greetings from Carmel!

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Thank you for visiting! I set up this website to explain why I have decided to enter formation with the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles, and to ask for some help as I move forward.

Since August of 2013, I have been a Candidate with the Carmelite Sisters, along with five other girls. The entire process to become a perpetually-professed sisters is 10 or 11 years (a long time...), and Candidacy is the first set in the process.  I have lots of time and formation to go! 

This year, as a Candidate, I live a life similar to the Sisters. I'm out of bed at 4:40 and shuffling down the hall for coffee so I can stay awake during prayers. We join the Sisters for Morning Prayer, meditation and Mass. During the day, I work full time in the Sisters' Advancement Office, and they keep me busy! We join the Sisters for Evening prayer and Night Prayer, as well. We live our lives as Candidates simply, without distractions, in order to be able to discern God's will for us. We are living in imitation of the Sisters, as much as possible, before actually entering the Community.

God willing, the next step of formation will be Postulancy, but before I can more forward I need to pay off $23,000 worth of student loans and have some money saved up as well for health insurance premiums during formation. I know that if it is God's will for me to move forward, He will provide for me.

Please consider helping if you are able to. I have been so touched by the support I've received from the people in my life as I've made this decision. I am asking for help now, so that I am free to follow Christ more closely. 

Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to discern God's will! You will most certainly be in my prayers as well! 

If you wish to donate, please visit my FundRazr site here: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/1bLI0/ab/61sdN2

If you would prefer to send me a check instead (or letters! I would love to hear from each of you!) in the mail, my address is:

Candidates of the Heart of Mary

Attn: Leah DesGeorges

819 Buena Vista Street

Duarte, CA 91010

God Reward You! I am so, so grateful to each of you!

Leah