Nancy Gucwa

"I'm really excited," she said. "I don't expect that it's going to be easy. I think my next year will also bring many challenges, but I'm really excited to be at this point in my journey and I'm grateful I made it this far (she laughs) with a lot of help from God and all the sisters here at Clyde and also from the support of my family and friends, who I know have been praying for me."

Gucwa, 49, was born and raised in Staten Island, N.Y., the second oldest of six children. Before God called her to Clyde, she worked in New York City and St. Louis in the banking and financial industry. Before that, Gucwa was in the first class of women admitted to the United States Military Academy and was in West Point's first graduating class with women in 1980. She served active duty for six years and said there are a lot of correlations between military life and monastic life.

"There is a common thread," Gucwa said. "Monastic life and military life, for one, is a life of service. In one, you're serving your country. Here, we're serving God, a higher authority I guess you could say.

"I think both ways of life require a certain kind of discipline and total dedication."

Gucwa said she worked with a trusted priest three years ago to discern how she was being called to serve. Her monastic journey actually started almost a year ago on the Feast of the Transfiguration in August, when she became a postulant. A lot has changed since then. She admitted the transition from a "traditional" lifestyle to a monastic lifestyle has been challenging.

"Giving away my stuff, my furniture, my car, those kinds of things that you don't need anymore, that was tough," Gucwa.

"Saying good-bye to a lot of friends that I no longer see on a regular basis, not seeing my family as frequently as I used to, being obedient to my superiors here at the monastery, giving up the freedom to come and go as I please, those were some of the challenges, I guess, of monastic life, but there's also so many graces and blessings, you know, the grace of prayer, the blessing of living with many other sisters called to the same path of serving God.

"It's amazing, the peace that comes with getting rid of things in your life that you don't really need and finding the one true thing, which is God."

While unusual, it is not uncommon for men or women to be called to religious life at a later age. "Women considering religious life are called in different ways from different backgrounds with different experiences," said Kelley Baldwin, the director of communications for the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde.

"However, each must undergo the same rigorous process that will help them decide if a life devoted to God is for her," Baldwin said. "For the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, that process involves an application that includes interviews, health and psychological examinations and writing an autobiography."

"I would encourage all people who feel they may have a call to religious life to explore it, especially people who are mid-career or have been out in the world," Gucwa said. "God works in mysterious ways.

"If you feel you have a constant desire to draw closer to God and if you feel as though, even though you may have business success or financial success, you're missing something very important, I would say to pray and ask God if he could possibly be leading you in this direction. Then, find a trusted priest or nun and talk to them about it and see what next step you might take.

"I never would have predicted this for myself, but I know in my heart it is exactly what God wanted me to do and I'm thrilled to be on this path."

Gucwa said her increasing desire to attend Mass and go on retreats got her thinking about religious life, but the actual "lightning bolt or moment of truth," as she called it, came in 2004. "I was on a retreat, talking to a priest there and I was telling him about my dreams and in the process, it prompted him to ask 'Have you ever considered a religious vocation?'" she said. "As soon as he said that, I knew that was exactly what I had been seeking and desiring. That's when it really gelled for me and I really started looking hard at religious life."

Still, that didn't make giving up the life and lifestyle she led for 40-plus years any easier.

"I had a good job, a good income. I had friends. I was just like anyone else I knew," she said with a laugh. "All I can say is it is a strange thing to do, but when you're called to serve God, somehow, getting rid of things actually feels good when you're done. It's hard to do when you're doing it, it's very painful, but when you're done, it just feels peaceful.

"You get the grace to do it, you really do."

Gucwa's life is in transition in more ways than one. One weekend a month, she trades her habit for military fatigues. She's still a lieutenant colonel in the reserves and will be for the next year, flying from Kansas City to St. Louis, then taking the Metro Link train to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. "I'm proud of my military career," she said. "I'm glad I served my country." However, her transition from midtown Manhattan to small-town Clyde is still a work in progress.

"It's one extreme to the other. I went from a life of intense busyness surrounded by millions of people to a life of quiet, solitude and prayer. Thankfully, it has been a gradual transition, I didn't have to make it all in one day," she said with a laugh. "I was fortunate the Lord took me in stages along this progression."

In a span of nearly 30 years, Gucwa has gone from military trailblazer to financial guru to servant of God. In two years, she looks forward to taking her final vows. There is no road map that could outline her trip to religious life.

"It has been a rather strange transition, but I've gotten used to it," she said.

Two other women at Clyde are furthering their commitment to monastic life. Clarisa Cutaia has been accepted as a postulant and will enter Aug. 3. Novice Sarah Miller will make her first monastic profession on Aug. 4. Both ceremonies will be held in the Adoration Chapel on the Clyde campus.

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