The following comes from the Dec. 12 issue of Catholic San Francisco.

Anchorage attorney and convert to Catholicism Tara Clemens has finally been able to enter the Corpus Christi Monastery, a Dominican religious cloister in Menlo Park. The mission of the cloistered Dominican nuns is to honor and promote devotion to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Writing in the Anchorage Holy Family Cathedral’s November issue of the Glad Tidings newsletter, Clemens said: “This summer, with the prayers and generous support of The Labouré Society and friends to resolve my student loans, I am now free to enter formation with the Dominican nuns at Corpus Christi.”

On her blog “Truth in Love: My Journey to Becoming a Dominican Contemplative Nun,” Clemens wrote Oct. 31, the day before she was to enter the monastery Nov. 1. “My heart is full of peace and joy, so much so that this post will be relatively short – some things cannot be expressed in words. After this post, I will not be able to update or check comments to this blog for a long time, if ever.”

Clemens had long felt called to the religious life but the order could not accept her with her outstanding student debt. Over the past several years she worked to pay down the debt and coordinated with the Labouré Society, a nonprofit organization that assists aspirants in resolving educational debt so they are free to enter the priesthood or religious life.

Clemens’ recent entrance into the monastery in November is the start of an eight-year discernment process toward taking final, lifelong vows.

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