Introducing Jeannette Doran

Enter into the Stillness

   When  world chaos and noise leave me in turmoil I know it is time to return to my center. I find help in entering into the stillness.  November a time of dying, when the bare land enters into sleep and a quietness settles in,  I begin to long for solitude and stretches of time to enter deep with in my soul. 

     The spring and summer beauty having given way to autumn splendor has begun to diminish. The days have grow shorter and the cool wind blows . Leaves have scattered leaving their multitude  blanket of color, reds, browns, orange and yellow. I find a new loveliness in twisted bare branches. After the rains and the dying of nature we will awake one morning to a soft covering of snow over the rich Iowa farmland. It's a time when all of earth seems to enter into a long slumber. Newly buried seeds or old ones need a resting time; it's the cycle of life. So, too I think we all need a time of leisure, of entering into the stillness to listen in silence to the voice of God. All things of beauty are created in silence someone once expressed. This symbolizes a need to take time in solitude to be Alone with God Alone.

    Reflecting on the reality that the creator of our universe dwells within our very being helps me to realize how unconditional is God's love for each of us. After time I begin to see my God working within my very being accomplishing what I have been unable to do for such a long time. This stirs up a grateful heart for all of God's gifts. My trust and faith seem to expand and I enter into the stillness in silent praise for my Creator's bondless love.

About Jeannette

After graduation I had the joy of living life in the Chiapas jungle, the land which helped to form Karena Shields into the enriching person we knew at U.S.D..This plantation was her inheritance where she arrived strapped on the back of a Mayan Indian. She grew up in this land of Maya, loving the people and their heritage. Most summers students would accompany her as a learning experience... Since I hoped to enter Carmel I felt this time in the jungle would be a space of solitude in the vast beauty of the jungle. Where I would also learn to adapt to another way of life I would need in Carmel. While I pursued my goal of seeking Carmel, I taught school. In June of 1965, I entered Carmel in Boston and went the following year on the foundation to South Dartmouth, MA. A coastland, where the waves splashed against the rugged rocky shore, was a place of splendor conducive for a contemplative life of prayer. Several reasons brought us to the difficult decision to close the Monastery in 1987. My journey brought me to Montreal for a four year study sabbatical. In 1992 I came to Iowa .and in 1994 I lived with a community of Carmelite Hermits in Minnesota for five years and returned to Iowa. Recently to our surprise when Oda Scheer visited her sister in our community we realized we roomed in the same dorm and graduated together. What a wonderful gift!