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James Martin, SJ, on “cloistered” and “apostolic” distinctions
SMX: Good morning, Fr. James, I read chapter 4 — thanks for putting it online! My question is about “classifications” of religious orders. Thomas Merton belonged to a cloistered order, yet he was a world traveler. Today there are a number of cloistered religious who are electronic world travelers, in that they have websites and other ways of directly connecting with the outside world. I don’t have any opinions about that one way or another. But I’m wondering if the traditional categories of “cloistered nuns” and “aposotolic sisters” are still useful?
Father Martin: Well I should say to begin with–just to clarify things a little bit–that Thomas Merton really was only given permission to travel at the very end of his life. Like the vast majority of cloistered monks and nuns, he remained within the walls of one monastery for his entire religious life, venturing out only rarely. But you are absolutely right in saying that these days many cloistered religious have much more connection with the “outside world,” which is a wonderful way of enabling them to better know for whom, and for what, they might pray. But those distinctions (cloistered and apostolic) are really still useful, because the cloistered person finds God mainly through prayer and community, and the apostolic person, mainly through prayer and work. Of course cloistered persons work (and have the “apostolate” of prayer), and apostolic persons pray and live in community. But those general distinctions are still helpful in describing the outlines of their religious lives, and describing their different charisms.
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