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Nuns on the Move
I have often heard Catholic sisters and nuns say, “Join the convent, see the world” because many of us do travel quite a bit for ministry and mission. Along with that comes the always pleasant task of actually moving. You know what I mean — boxes, tape, clutter, dust, lifting, moving, renting, changing, bubble wrap, exhaustion!
Moving also gives one the opportunity for self-reflection, to think about what one is attached to, how simply one lives, what facilitates community and mission, etc.
As you might suspect, I am in the process of moving — like right at this moment. My computer is the last to go. In an hour I will be picking up our 17′ rental truck (the experience of driving that thing in Chicago will probably make for an interesting blog post!) in order to move out of my current abode and to a new house with another IHM sister where we can live and offer hospitality to our IHM sisters and others.
Chloe the Convent Cat is coming along with us, and as you can see, she’s a bit self-reflective too.
We’ve done a great job at sorting and donating stuff. It’s so easy to accumulate “stuff” so I’m hoping to keep things simple. I feel better when I have less clutter, less stuff to be distracted by. After traveling so much, I realize that most of what I need I can toss in a backpack.
What have been your experiences of “move”? What does living simply mean for you?
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Here I go copying you again!
I have been living at my family home ministering as caregiver for my mother and oldest sister. Well, we are only allowed to live outside of community to care for our parents, so my sisters have asked me to move back to our (current) motherhouse in New Mexico. (We are reconfiguring our 8 North American provinces into one, and the new provincial home will be just northof Pittsburgh, PA.)
Anyway, I have already taken a trunkload of clothing to the local thrift store. I have sent one pick-up truck full of craft clutter, books, and clothes that don’t quite fit yet. Being 13 yrs in one place and 25 years in the same state where you don’t have to ship things when you move to your next assignment, I have acquired soooooooo many things. I think I will have a raffle with my 4th grade Bible class to get rid of the religious trinkets.
My new assignment has me so jazzed. I was asked to be the Archivist! Whoo-HOOT! I had a taste of archive work when I wrote the history portion of my province’s memory book for our golden jubilee 5 yrs ago. I loved crawling through all those treasured photos and documents. I am so excited!
Happy moving, Sister Julie. Yes, I use that “Join the convent, see the world” line myself. I have another slogan: Religious life is a great adventure!
Oh my goodness! Chloe the Convent Cat is adorable!
I’ve never actually moved, but I have been through putting a house on the market and helped others move. Not very fun at all, but it was interesting to see exactly how much stuff I and others didn’t need! And a lot of it was on accident and never taking the time to throw away or give away things. And also moving takes a lot of tears too. Leaving something that has become such a large part of your life is never exactly easy to do.
As for the living simply, I am no master at that! But I believe that through living simply, we clear the clutter of our lives to just focus on God once in a while. We focus on what the real value of life is and what true happiness is. How people can live simply? I think the best way that I live simply is through just stopping throughout the day and remember God. He kinda tends to put me on track on what I need to be doing throughout the day.
Oh, and a common used phrase I heard a nun say was, “Religious life is the greatest drama, the greatest adventure, and the greatest romance.” I really like that saying.
But I also believe that the “Join the convent, see the world” phrase has a deeper meaning than just talking about a nun’s travels. I’ve heard it before, but recently I had just looked into what it really said. Exactly why do people want to see the world? To discover themselves as a person. So I believe that “see the world” is another way of saying “discover yourself through God.” The world is a metaphor for yourself. If you search, discover, and dig up who you really are as a person, you become a little closer to God because you, youself, are a mirror of God’s presence. When you discover God’s presence within you, you are then able to see God’s presence in others. So, when you answer God’s call to become a religious, you discover even more about yourself when answering his call and can then become your fulfilled self God wanted you to be. With that new-found gift, you can see God’s presence in everything.
I probably over-analyzed that, but does that make sense?
‘Have nothing in your home,’ wrote William Morris, ‘that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.’
I’ve certainly found in the past that de-cluttering can be a spiritual experience, so I’m in awe of Sr Julie for shedding her belongings until she can fit most of what she needs into a backpack. What would be the most precious belongings in your backpack, I wonder, if that’s not too personal a question?
OK, I’ll be the weird one. In the last 22 years, I have lived in 8 cities in 5 states, never longer than 5 years at the same address, so I am well accustomed to moving. I can pack a box like nobody’s business, plus I excel at dumpster diving to find said boxes slightly used. I’m not a nun, but one of the things frequent moving does is force you to clean out all the junk, etc. I remember distinctly one day in the house I lived in longest when I had to clean something that I’d never remembered cleaning before. It was a while before I realized I had always moved out before I had to clean whatever it was (behind the stove or something).
My point is that the thought of packing again is so hard to think of, but reality is that we no longer live in a society where we can expect to stay in the same location for our whole lives. Even some of the sisters I know have had to move because of decline in their orders or a move to a new motherhouse. So it behooves us all to “pack lightly” for our life’s journey–something that is far easier said than done!
Sister,
Good luck on your move. My husband and I are decluttering the relatives home for the last 3 years and now I believe I will start on our own. Accumulation!!!
A wonderful blog…I almost became a Carmelite…ages ago…but always wonder if I took the right path after 5 children. Sometimes my heart aches for the peace of the convent.
Thank you .
Karen
Susan, your last line made me think of, “You can’t take it with you (when you die).” When we were picking out a coffin for Mom last year, we found that you CAN take it with you now. Coffins now come with a little drawer in the lid were you can put personal mementos, goodbye letters, whatever in them. In the display room I saw golf tees, cigars, a deck of cards, crochet hooks, reading glasses, military medals, poker chips and gum. Yessiree, everything I’d want for the afterlife!
@_@?
Sister Julie –
I hope the move goes well. As I packed up my apartment here in the south over the last weeks, I realized that I had used about one tenth of what I had brought from my home in NY two years ago when I came south for one year of disaster recovery work. And what I brought to
south with me was probably one twentieth or less of what I moved from my NY home into storage. The whole process has been eye-opening: for most of two of the years that I had that home full of art, books and beautiful old furniture and dishes, my cattledog and I really in a tent deep in the woods on a lakeshore, leaving only so that I go to my job in a trauma hospital every day. We went to the house only for my shower in the morning and my work clothes and to keep him out of the heat for the day. I truly needed almost nothing, even though I dressed in heels and feminine skirts and dresses and jewelry every day
I went to the hospital, which turned out to be almost every day because of the needs of my trauma patients and families. When I lost my campsite, I went back to living in my beautiful home, loving all the beautiful handmade works I had gathered around me but, still, I was conscious that I really only needed the shower, my bed, the shelter for my dog when I could not be with him, my work clothes and the same old digs I wear every day (I have a few sets of the exactly the same pants, shirts, sweaters and sandals and a great pair of hiking boots and that’s what I wear). When my 14 year old dog died, I lost the one “thing” I had long thought I could never live without. I have since learned what a friend told me the night my old dog died in my arms under the stars on our front porch: God graced with me that beautiful dogspirit for all those years, a dog who refused to let anyone ever take him from whatever spot he had last shared with me (he insisted on waiting, no matter what that spot was until I returned for him) so that I could slowly learn what matters to me in this life and what does not, and that is the spiritual life. By clarifying for me through his years of company what mattered to me, my cattledog herded me toward God, and he only left our space when I had learned that God was all I truly needed.
I wish now that I had parted with everything in that storage shed two years ago. But I was still terrified of the possibility of a vocation, and I think I had to assure myself of a “safe landing” if the ultimate word from God and from me was “no”. I have been making lists of who will get this or that painting, this or that set of old china, this old rocker or that ring, and I cannot wait to divest myself of all those attachments while carefully placing shared memories in the hands of family and friends through those objects. Even most of this small amount I have with me now – only as much as fits in the back of my Ford Ranger pick-up – has “a target on its head” for dispersal among family and friends. My goal is to get to the point that I never again ask for even the use of more than I needed during those two years my dog and I lived at the lake while I maintained a very active professional life in the world.
My hope, as I discern with religious communities, is to find one that is firm in not only clarifying that I may own nothing myself but also that I must support my sisters and congregation in owning and using as little as possible; that I must truly live a vow of poverty as a visible sign of God’s value; and that I not let myself be confused: I personally could own very little and still be very much a materialist, very much a participant in comsumerism, very much a person who communicates – by my use and what I use – that “stuff is of value (even the beautiful original artworks and one-of-a kind pieces of furniture and jewelry that I own and regardless of whether the ownership rests with me, a congregation or my community of friends, family and neighbors).
It brings me back to the question of what is countercultural about religious life. I want to be asked to need **and to use** no more than what fits in that “backpack”. I don’t want it to be a retreat exercise. I don’t want it to be a goal. I want it to be the life I am asked and expected to live *and to communicate* through my use of and engagement with “stuff” as a religious.
Very timely piece for me! I have to unload my truck here at my friends’ house so I can take it to the mechanic to be sure it is road worthy for a 1500 mile drive next week! I can start a new round of thinning right now! YAY!
I had an emergency move last summer…I’ve never liked moving under the best of circumstances, but when it’s forced, it’s just that much worse. Stability’s a good thing.
Moving can mean so many things to so many people. It can mean adaptability, flexibility, willingness to go forth into the unknown. It can mean rootlessness, lack of “centeredness,” lack of stability. It can trigger hope, terror, fear, resentment, desensitization, passion, enthusiasm, letting go – a little death.
To me, living simply means willingness to be.
i received a lump sum of money once, not a huge amount but right around $20,000. when i was waiting for it, i tried to plan out the best way to spend the money because i was not going to be allowed to save it (an insurance issue).
it surprised me because, while i’d always believed money would solve so many problems, i realized i didn’t really want for anything. i had my dogs, my house, my friends… there were very few material goods i longed for or flet pressed to buy.
it was interesting because, in being forced to spend the money rather than save it, and in finding i needed little, the money became a burden.
as for things… as long as my dogs are fine and i have transportation and a place to sleep at night, i need nothing, really. i accumulate junk, of course, but i purge myself of unnecessary belongings as regularly as i find time to do it. things are distractions.
i have a good friend–sr. mary dennis lentsch–who doesn’t even have heat in her homes (wherever she lives). i am not this good at doing without, but i am working on it.
A. Sr. Julie,
So your coffin can now be like a miniature time capsule! Do you suppose people will be digging us all up in 100 years to see what we buried with ourselves?
That is just too weird to contemplate.
dear sister julie ,by the time you recieve this ,you +pussycat will have moved ,happy moving ,you and all your nuns are in my prayers daily ,sister
thank you for praying for dave and i [caz],dave has had a ICDsfitted and in about 6 weeks dave has to have a double by pass ,GOD,truly has blessed us ,so many lovely peaple have prayed for dave ,i aleays say ,its my love and prayer life and also the last few lines of footprints that has kept us going .and i always say to the LORD we are nothing without YOUR LOVE ,GRACE,BLESSINGS ,AND your HOLY SPIRIT
and HOW MUCH I/WE LOVE HIM AND OUR FAITH IN GOD thank you sister THANKS TO THE LORD AND HIS GOODNESS ,DAVE IS ALIVE TODAY ,and thats all we can ask
ps please think of me 6/20/2009,i will been a CATHOLIC for TWO years AND ITS HAS BEEN A MARVELOUS AND EXICTING JOURNEY thank you sister julie GOD BLESS YOU AND ALL YOUR NUNS TODAY AND EVERYDAYcaz ,holyhead,anglesey north wales uk,happy moving ,we do hope every thing went well caz and dave x
DL – I love love love your reading of the words “come to the convent; see the world”. i know you are only 15 but i think you just identified a “dissertation topic” (my code for questions and ideas that have extraordinary potential for development). i may ask someday soon to borrow it for some writing I am doing.
marla – i also love your post. i would love to know more about your nunfriend who goes without heat and what the meaning is for her. Homeless shelters/systems often have what is called “cold weather policies” or “freeze policies”: an outside temperature at which all screening/intake processes are void and people are housed, period, until the temperature again rises above that temp, which is generally intended to be the temp below which sleeping outdoors represents an extreme health risk. I have seen that freeze temp range from 31 to as low as 20! that reality – lived by hundreds of thousands of US residents – provides a context for me in responding to your nunfriend’s no-heat-life and how we interpret and live “vow of poverty” and countercultural responses.
I am not suggesting that I want to pull the heating wires or natural gas pipes. I am simply struck by the potential clarity of a vow of poverty that leads to a decision to forego heating. It seems I could with integrity debate whether such a decision is a necessary response to a vow of poverty but it seems unlikely that I could with integrity debate about whether that response reflects the vow in its material aspect. It is interesting for me to consider where on the continuum the reflection/expression/living of the vow begins to be less clear and more ambiguous?
Again I would love to know more about your nunfriend’s life and spirituality and the heat question but my initial hit is that even that small fact you provided stands as a powerful challenge for me to explore the depths of what it means to make a vow of poverty in its material aspects.
Jean
Dear Sister Julie -
I have been living in the same house with my wife for 32 years. My kids are grown and out of the house. My only child at home now is Shelby, our golden retriever. I wanted to move many times, but, my wife says NO. We grew up poor, in small apartments, and we should be happy with the house we have. So, I can not relate to the process of moving. But, as a volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity, I never stop moving!
God bless!
jean,
mary dennis does many things in accordance with her vow of poverty that i could never dream of doing. the heat thing is uppermost; cold makes me miserable. mary dennis has gone to jail to be true to her vows and her baptismal promises, too, http://soaw.org/article.php?id=1269, and is a one-woman army for the homeless and marginalized. the woman is amazing.
she makes me nuts, though, sometimes. one christmas we sat in her freezing house–which was bad enough!–but then she refused to keep score as we played scrabble! have you ever had a triple word score on a bingo and have no place to put the numbers?! well, neither have i, but the possibility drove me nuts!
i love mary dennis madly and she introduced me to the world of activism many years ago, which changed my life dramatically and gave me something to believe in. nuns always seem to “get” the hardest principles with such ease. it has been my privilege to call her my friend.
To avoid the clutter of “stuff” in my life, I made a rule for myself — for everything I buy, I have to get rid of something. Besides stopping that natural tendency to acquire more than is needed, it saves me money. Many an impulse purchase has been resisted because I didn’t want to give up something I already had.
At the last minute, my mother has decided to travel with me, and is flying into a big city airport where I will pick her up tonight. I am rethinking my plans re: what to listen to on the long stretches across the plains (low and high) and in the mountains. My mother is into “this nun thing”, as I call it, as long as it is “not too churchy”, as she calls it.
And just yesterday a friend gave me the perfect thing: two live recordings of Thomas Merton at Gethsemani monastery. One talk is “Silence” and the other is “The Way of St Basil”. My mother loves Merton. The back of the Silence tape says, “Silence is our admission that we have broken communication with God. It has many human values but exists primarily to enable us to worship”. The back of the St Basil tape says, “Merton discusses St Basil’s examination of conscience and its rewards ons ide one; and the role of angels in our search for perfection on side two”.
(I can’t tell how old these copies are but it says, “call 18003337373 for a free catalog”)
My mother loves Merton and my favorite traveling music (ANYTHING anything anything by Bruce Cockburn) so I think we’ll be in good shape.
She said she’ll opt to ride on the roof of my truck if I play any religious music so, in the event of emergency need for a break from being (s)mothered, I have a very long version of the Divine Chaplet of Mercy….
(A joke). Well, sort of.
I am also practicing my knot-tying from my rockclimbing days.
And I do have a canoe rack on top of my truck.
I will most likely move before summer’s end, so I hope I do as well as Julie did. I will have time to sort, so that will help.