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NNR004 Nun News Roundup
Sister Maxine and I are working on the featured stories for today’s Nun News Roundup podcast. I must say I was intrigued by the number of articles this week about Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Couldn’t figure out what it was — it’s not her feast day yet (but October 1 is not far off) and there’ve been no new miracles attributed to her. So why the fascination? Using my amazing powers of reason and deduction, I discovered that the articles are all coming from one place — ENGLAND! Why England you may ask? What is happening there in regards to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux? Well you could Google to find the answer but it would be much more profitable for your soul to join us at noon to find out and to join in the discussion with Sister Maxine and myself!
Here’s what we’re working on …
- Saint Thérèse of Lisieux – the story of a French soul in England (be sure to check out PRI’s The World and CASE’s Little Way Week)
- A nun survey from U.S. Catholic inviting sisters and nuns to speak for themselves
- Reporting on Nuns: A case study of what NOT to do
- Dominican Sister and Professor of New Testament Studies Barbara Reid, OP, installed as dean at Catholic Theological Union
- Calling all Nun Movie Aficionados!
And … at the end of today’s podcast, we’re going to open the floor to your questions. So not only are you invited to comment via the chat room through out the podcast, but we’ll take your questions at the end on anything related to a nun’s life!
Visit ANunsLife.org/live
Today
12 p.m. Central Time / UTC-5
You can join in on the conversation during the live broadcast by listening and chatting in our chat room. We’ll include your questions and comments from the chat room on air. We’ll have links here to all the stories and the podcast itself after the broadcast.
POST-SHOW UPDATE: Listen to the recording of this show by clicking the “play” button below.
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I have yet to see The Trouble With Angels as well! It’s the next on my list. My favorite nun movie is The Assisi Underground. It takes place in WWII and is about the Franciscans and Poor Clares in Assisi who were very influential in saving the lives of many Jews.
JMJ+
~Betsy
Totus tuus Maria!
I am curious are the highlighted words./terns supposed to go to the articles or just to catch attention? I tried to see if there was the article connected…but, none came up.,…
Hi Kelly, Thanks for the heads up. I entered those links incorrectly and so they went nowhere fast. I have corrected the problem and now the links are active. Thanks again. SJ
Ohh nun movies! How fun.
I’m going to vote for Brides of Christ as #1 – I don’t think that series could have been more beautifully done, while dealing with serious and often difficult issues. I really liked how it managed to show both those who were at the front of the changes in Vatican II, as well as those who resisted change and really had a very difficult time adjusting to life after Vatican II. I think it’s too bad this series wasn’t watched much outside of Australia.
My favourite nun TV show is the Father Dowling Mysteries, which aired from 1987-1991. It was a mystery show taking place in Chicago which feature a priest (Fr. Dowling) and a nun (Sr. Stephanie) who solved crimes. Aside from the crime-solving aspect though, it had a lot about parish life and I think it really tried to break the media stereotypes of nuns.
Since writing last on the blog there are so many “points of reference” to which I would love to refer.
I listened to the podcast last night and found it fascinating for many reasons. I did not know that “Brides of Christ” had been shown overseas. I thought it very authentic about the times of the post conciliar religious life in Australia. We were additionally interested as many of the indoor and garden scenes were filmed in our Secondary College, “Santa Sabina” in Sydney, though the Sisters are not Dominican.
Earlier there was a comment that religious life in Australia seemed more like that in the USA than in Canada. I went to the OP Canadian site …. http://www.dominicains.ca/index1.htm …. which is the site of the Dominican Fathers’ Province with a very good description of the Order and its constituent parts. I discovered that there were only two Congregations of Sisters, one of which has a web site. My only other knowledge of Canadian Dominicans is of a newly founded monastery of Nuns, that is Second Order women who take Solemn Vows. One of our Sisters has joined this community and has just recently taken her first vows after a novitiate year in Detroit.
In an Order of 800 years which we are celebrating we have a variety of lifestyles and mottoes. One of these is Contemplate and give to others the fruits of that Contemplation. I am reminded of this when I read of people seeing Catherine of Siena as a model. What is perhaps more interesting is that Catherine did that so effectively all over Europe while never being what we describe as a Sister or a Nun. She was a member of the lay Dominicans who lived in their own homes. When she talks of leaving her cell, she means either the small room in her family home or the Cell of Self Knowledge about which she writes so eloquently.
We have just published, or had published by Paulist Press, our history as a Congregation in Australia entitled “Ancient Tradition – New World”. 1867 – 1958. My copy came by post only yesterday. I went straight to the section, “The Status Controversy” because it had been maintained by some that we were Nuns because we were enclosed and said the Hours of the Office, though that was recent. The final decision is that we are Apostolic Sisters, sometimes called Third Order Conventual and we take Simple Vows, though they are just as much for life as the Nuns. Incidentally we vow only Obedience though we have previously attested to understanding that this includes Poverty and Chastity.
Another recent section of the blog talks of the Australian Sisters of St. Joseph. I went to Primary School (Parochial School in USA I think) and I remember in 6th Grade thinking that I would be a Sister one day. One of our OP Sisters painted the picture of Blessed Mary McKillop which is hung in all Josephite schools in Australia.
Only one other comment to make about recent comments on the podcast. Did you know that Therese of Liseux’s writings were heavily censored until recently? Two facts we learned when the unexpurgated writings were unearthed was that she was not impressed by Rome and that she thought her real vocation was to the priesthood. What would she be saying today, I wonder?
This is more than long enough for now I think, but please do keep the conversation going. It is most stimulating.
Sister Joan –
What a fun post from you! A bit of a smorgasbord (sp?)!
I appreciate your reminder that Catherine of Siena was **not** a nun but was instead a Mantellate, a laywoman. I know that about her, yet tend to forget it. I am interested in your comment today especially because – in the way of discernment – I have just crashed into a series of questions about 21st century American religious life and privilege:
- about how “accompaniment” in the context of 21st century American life might be impacted by one’s status as nun vs “everyday Jill churchwoman”;
- about the discernment process with communities and what modern vs older processes might suggest about a very modern privilege: both sides asking, “can I be at home with them and can they be at home with me” (this is raising interesting questions for me about God’s location and role and influence and centrality in the bare bones facts of both sides of that process and the life that results from it and what that suggests about will and privilege, again on both sides of the equation);
- about the complexities and challenges and value and integrity of that non-convent Cell of Catherine’s (though she did live significant periods of time in convents, didn’t she, during her years away from Siena?)
I am struggling mightily with a concern that 21st century American religious life may place many of its new or younger entrants (post-1990s, say, and I did just pull that out of my hat) in a tremendously privileged life and socioeconomic/cultural class in this society. That the matter of who legally owns the resources can be, in real terms, very much “semantics”, placing many religious and communities well and even deep within the ranks of the “non-poor” in terms of both concrete resources and the stew of privilege (or not) that is “class”, a powerful possibility in this society.
It is, at this moment in my journey, a rich bit of Catherine’s story that she was not a nun…
Sister Joan, I always love to read you.
Jean
Sister Joan — Can’t remember how I first bumped into the Brides of Christ series. Initially, I was skeptical but saw the first one via Netflix and was absolutely wowed by it. Now we have it in our library. Loved the appearance by a very young Russell Crowe!
That is a cool motto: “Contemplate and give to others the fruits of that Contemplation.”
Did not know that about Saint Therese. It seems to happen that many saintly writers go through periods of censorship. I wonder if that is because time is often needed to assess the authenticity of the person’s experience and to see if there is indeed a universal message within that person’s experience for the whole church and world.
Jean — Some very good questions indeed. Was going to respond more here but felt that the questions you raised were ones that others have too. I took a chunk of your comment and put it in the post Living the Vow of Poverty in a Privileged Society.
Joan, the second/third order controversy was also a factor in the US with the Dominican sisters–Sr. Cecilia Murray, OP (Newburgh, NY) wrote her dissertation on the subject, and you might find it interesting to read sometime. There’s also been similar work on the Benedictines, most notably by Judith Sutera and Ephraim Hollermann (both OSB), on the fact that the OSBs were forced into an apostolic mold for much of their early history in the US–and (in most communities) even had to take the traditional apostolic, rather than monastic, vows! Both Judy and Ephraim have published books on this subject, which shouldn’t be too hard to find….