New discernment house to help women consider religious vocations

For the past year, Sara Hofflander has been reaching out to young women who might consider a vocation in Catholic religious life.

And they’ve been reaching back.

“It’s really beautiful. Sioux Falls is a great place. There’s just a beautiful Catholic subculture and a lot of young people who are very, very open to what God is doing,” said Hofflander, a Sioux Falls mother of five, who said the idea of helping young women discerning their path came to her in prayer.

Since then, she has encountered young women inviting other young women to learn from Catholic nuns and others in the church who are helping them explore vocational life.

“That led to a group of high school students at O’Gorman who have been meeting with some sisters regularly, and we have a digital group for college students and others who have joined in central South Dakota and a smaller group for young adult women.”

All have been in their teens and 20s, and some are beginning to take more concrete steps toward potentially joining an order of nuns.

“There’s one young woman who just went to spend a month with an order, and another who is planning to take a year and do mission work and others who are actively visiting,” Hofflander said.

The theme that continually has come up, though, is having a physical home in Sioux Falls to live while considering a religious vocation.

At Bishop Donald DeGrood’s suggestion, the group plans to find that home at Christ the King church in central Sioux Falls, where a small convent used to be a home for Benedictine sisters living in Sioux Falls.

While young men have a fairly clearly defined path through seminary to priesthood, “for girls, it can be hard to start discerning,” Hofflander said. “You don’t know where to look or how to do it, and it’s hard to do something so big yourself.”

She’s modeling Immaculata House, the future discernment house in Sioux Falls, after Bethany House in the Twin Cities. As it happened, the Sisters of Pro Ecclesia Sancta, who have experience supporting such programs, recently began a convent in Sioux Falls and are helping with Immaculata House.

Women age 20 to 30 are able to apply to live there with an expected commitment of nine to 12 months.

“They are committing to a shared life with each other,” Hofflander said, while adding, “To a nonreligious person, it might look kind of intense.”

Times are set aside for prayer in the morning and at night, daily Mass and three dinners per week with the other women living in the home.

A chapel is connected to the home, and there are 11 furnished rooms. Rent is $400 per month plus a share of food expenses. Women are expected to work or go to school full time, and while there’s intentional time spent together, they’re not restricted from spending time with family and friends.

Some applications have been submitted already, along with a lot of inquiries, Hofflander said.

“Really, it’s about wanting to make space for the Lord. I think that the goal isn’t so much to make people become nuns,” she said.

“The goal of the house is so that young people can be capable of that receptivity to follow what God wants, and for all of us in the modern time we live in, we’re inundated by media and so much going on that the capacity for silence isn’t there, and that’s hard when you’re trying to figure out what to do with your life.”

The women at Immaculata House will have consistent support from Catholic sisters and each will have her own spiritual director.

“A life like this is really about young women saying, Lord, I just want to make space to love, to receive your love and grow in that love and share that with sisters and be with friends and live in community,” Hofflander said. “It’s living in a beautiful and fruitful and intentional way that sets aside time to grow.”

The deadline to apply for the home’s first year is May 4. To learn more, click here.