Wondering how God is calling you? Are you curious about how your job or set of relationships is really a vocation? Do you want some awesome discussions around faith in real-life and more? Think hanging out with Catholic sisters and a fun thoughtful, faith community is cool? Then you are in the right place! Welcome! Explore and be sure to visit with us every weekday at 6 pm CT in our chat room.
Our guest blogger today is our friend Sister Hildegard Pleva, OSsR. Sister Hildegard is a regular at evening prayer, appeared on an Ask Sister podcast, and has guest blogged before! You can find Sister Hildegard and the Redemptoristine nuns at the blog Contemplative Horizon.
“… Form ever follows function…”
~ Louis Sullivan, 1856-1924, Father of Modern American Architecture
Our contemplative monastic community has been searching for a new monastery. Our current home and its land is changing hands requiring us to move. In the process have had to explain over and over again the nature of our life and how radically it differs from service oriented apostolic religious life.
The mental image of a cloister is often limited to a dark monastery vestibule or parlor where the visitor glimpsed a heavily veiled nun behind metal grille appointed with spikes to remind that the encounter would not include a touch or kiss.
These images belong to the past and do not point to the real purpose of the cloister. The architecture of enclosure supports the life of prayer to which the nuns are dedicated. The enclosure ensures silence and solitude. It is a living space for the community set apart from space open to the public; that more private space for a community praying, working, eating and recreating together while managing a large household. It allows those activities to cluster around the center which is prayer and praise at the Eucharistic and the Liturgy of the Hours.
Within the enclosure all of the functions of the monastic household are carried out 24/7 within a fixed group of members. It must have room for everyone to do everything together most of the time. No members will be off to a ball game or have a late night at the office. No one will go out to work. No one can arrive home after a long hard day and announce their departure to take in dinner and movie with a friend. These realities determine architectural form.
In our search we visited large homes and former convents. Invariably we realized that each structure conformed to the “form follows function” rule. Private homes were built to be just what they were. Buildings designed for apostolic religious supported the kind of life they lead, a life with work outside the residence. No effort at remodeling would successfully transform them into suitable monastic structures. We had to face in-depth consideration of our monastic enterprise. “What is it we wish to protect; what is it we wish to nourish and pursue in the structure we envision?” “Form follows function”; not the other way around. In the end we recognized that no mere structure will guarantee dedicated contemplative life. Thoughtful design provides suitable space, an environment conducive to prayer, a place apart. The rest is the work of God’s grace in the desiring soul.
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Join the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer at 6 p.m. CT in the chat room today.
Our prayer leaders for this week are Audra of Awkward Catholic fame
and Regina who is engaged in Soul Composting!
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Welcome back today’s guest blogger — Sister Lynne Smith, OSB, a member of the inclusive Benedictine community, Benedictine Women of Madison, at Holy Wisdom Monastery in Madison, WI. Sister Lynne was our guest on a recent Ask Sister podcast so be sure to listen in!
Someone asked me recently if I felt I had to give up a lot to become a sister. Something in me resists thinking about religious life in terms of giving something up. The question might come from the image of monks “leaving the world” to live in the desert or from the image of religious life as made up of strict ascetical practices.
To be sure, one does give up some things to enter a community and there is asceticism involved in religious life. The practice of asceticism is different in each order. For Benedictines, living in community with our promises of stability, obedience and conversion of life is the asceticism. The rub of daily life and living patiently with our own and one another’s weaknesses is asceticism enough!
My aim of seeking God through Benedictine life leads me to make choices that might seem to others to be loss. For me, those choices help me be available to God and others. I find it helpful to think about entering religious life as a change of lifestyle just as marriage is a change of lifestyle. One exchanges one way of living for another. The change involves some loss as well as gain and it takes time to adjust to the new way of living.
Religious life is about pursuing your heart’s desire. It’s like falling in love. When you fall in love with someone and start spending more time with him or her, you give up some of the ways you used to spend your time. In the process, you gain the love of your life. Over time as you nurture your relationship, you discover you have gained much more than you ever gave up. So it is in religious life.
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For a taste of life in community, check out our Benedictine Sojourner experience for single Christian women. Live in an inclusive ecumenical community at Holy Wisdom Monastery for a year. Pray, play, work and learn with us.
For a shorter experience in the summer consider spending two weeks to a month with us as a Volunteer in Community.
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Join the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer at 6 p.m. CT in the chat room today.
Our prayer leader for this week are Audra of Awkward Catholic fame
and Regina who is engaged in Soul Composting!
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