Vocations
For inquiries, please email us at:
Who we are.
By grace, Holy Transfiguration Monastery is a monastery of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of the eparchy of Chicago. While small in our self-estimation, we are conscious both of the vital role of monasteries in the life of the Church and of the importance of our reality as an Eastern Catholic monastery in the Church universal.
Existentially, we are sinners seeking a life of repentance, in search of Salvation, and forming an imperfect monastic brotherhood. Forgive us and pray for us. Nevertheless, in His condescension our Lord Jesus Christ has deigned to call us unto Himself. A call to repentance. A call to salvation. A call to become like unto Christ, like unto God. A call to deification.
What you could expect.
If you are wondering about the possibility of discerning life at our monastery, the following are some essential aspects of what would constitute your regular monastic life, especially during the years of formation:
+ Singing daily the praises of our God who has created us, who in the economy of His Love has deigned to save us, and who intends nothing less than to deify us in the Body of His Incarnate Son, the Church. Begging forgiveness for our sins. Prostrating ourselves and repenting before Him. Thanking Him. Communing with Him. Glorifying Him. Such is our work in the Divine Office and the Divine Liturgy, the most important work that the Church entrusts to and expects from us as monastics. A work both divine and human. A work unto mercy, salvation and Life—for ourselves, for the Church, for humanity.
+ Receiving daily obediences (tasks) in service to our Lord and our brotherhood. And doing so in humility of spirit as disciples of Jesus Christ, seeking to know Him, to love Him, and to make oneself the servant of all for His sake.
+ Praying daily in one’s cell. Prostrating oneself before God in repentance and adoration, begging His forgiveness and mercy, asking His help, thanking Him, striving for living union with Him.
+ Meditating daily upon the Gospel of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. Reading daily the Word of God. Reading daily our holy Fathers, lives of the saints, contemporary elders, or other spiritual writings. And having frequent studies in monastic or Eastern Christian/Catholic formation.
+ Engaging in all of this in obedience, under the direction of the novice master. In our brotherhood, formation, while comprising basic elements common to all novices, is undertaken in a personalistic framework within our cenobitic life.
+ Living all of this within a cenobitic monastic community that has an engaged and demanding fraternal life, seeking foremost to live by our Lord’s double Commandment of Love. And doing so by a rather hidden monastic witness: for while hospitality is indeed an important dimension of the life of our monastery (we receive not a few guests and visitors), it is also constitutive aspect of our life that we have no apostolates outside the monastery, nor any apostolates within the monastery that would detract us from monastic living.
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The first step in considering whether to contact us for discernment should be prayer for the Lord’s guidance—and seeking sound spiritual guidance, if possible. The next step would be to reach out to us. After communication, it will be discerned whether our Lord is inviting you to make a come and see visit to our monastery.
The following are the basic stages of life at our monastery:
Observership: A period in which a man visits the monastery to see our life first-hand and to meet our community. Generally, at least two observership visits will be required for mutual discernment before a decision can be made about becoming a candidate.
Candidacy: At our monastery, usually around a six month to a year period for an initial experience of monastic living. It is a period of continued discernment. For those who are desirous of and suited for life at our monastery, this leads into novitiate.
Novitiate: When a man becomes a novice, he receives the monastic cassock (pidriasnik), skuphos (hat), and belt. At our monastery, this is a three year trial period in monastic life. It is a time of formation and growth in Christian, monastic living.
Rasophorate: The first degree of monasticism. If the novice becomes a monk, he enters the first degree of monastic life. He is tonsured, although at this point he makes no vows, but only affirms his commitment to persevere in monastic life. Along with a klobuk, he receives an outer-cassock (rason), thereby becoming a rasophore (or “robe-bearing”) monk.
Stavrophore: The second degree of monasticism. At our monastery, after one year in the rasophorate, the rasophore monk can accede to the Little Schema. At this point, he is tonsured and pronounces the monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, thereby becoming a professed monk. He receives a new monastic name, the symbol of second baptism. He receives a mandyas (mantle), along with a paraman (a small square cloth worn on the back and connected by ties to a cross worn over the chest, representing the yoke of Christ) becoming thereby a stavrophore (or “cross-bearing”) monk.
(Great or Angelic Schema: The third degree of monasticism. Our monastery currently has no monks of the great schema. This degree is only for the very few, and is entered into only by mature monks after years of cenobitic living, who have given consistent proof of their obedience, humility, dedication, and the quality of their spiritual life and ascesis.)*
* (Concerning the difference of degrees in monasticism, Eastern Catholic Church Law states: “What distinguishes one degree from the other are ascetical obligations and, as a consequence, also some limitations with regard to appointment to certain offices and activities.)
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Age Requirements: our minimum requirement is 20 years old; as a general rule, our maximum is about 30.
Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them,
“What are you seeking?” (John 1:38)