Today we have a special guest post by our friend Moira Urich. If you like to travel and enjoy hanging with nuns and monks, this book may be for you!

Good Night and God Bless: A Guide to Convent & Monastery Accommodation in Europe: Austria, Czech Republic, Italy
By Trish Clark

If you’re expecting hair shirts and barren cells, this book will surprise you with entries describing modern guestrooms, occasional three-star-hotel-caliber amenities, and even thermal spring health spas run by sisters in Austria. Readers seeking solely spiritual sanctuary can limit themselves to the Spiritual Retreat entries. But the vast majority of lodgings are categorized as Open Houses, meaning open to tourists looking for simple but good quality accommodations at lower cost.

For those who want to see photos before booking, most if not all of the convents and monasteries either have their own web presence or are featured on travel sites. Good Night & God Bless is a good bet whether it’s your sole source of travel information or it’s a valuable starting point for those wanting to find out more online (for instance, more detailed maps). The book also offers information not easily found–or simply not found–on other websites.

The entries routinely provide information about:

• Contemplative or spiritual destinations in the vicinity, as well as pilgrimage sites
• Notable artworks in or near your lodging
• Off-the-beaten-path activities such as truffle-hunting excursions, outdoor markets, and day-long cooking classes
• Shops that feature hand-crafted goods
• Restaurants and cafes, in the Food and Drink section accompanying each entry

What other book about monastery lodgings would tell you where to find a great beer-bath spa in the Czech Republic? Or where to find an organic buffalo farm for tasting fresh Italian buffalo mozzarella? This book’s helpful tidbits of information, too numerable to categorize here, make it well worth your while.

Book review by Moira Urich

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?

I have the wonderful pleasure of being with my family for Thanksgiving. Back in September I had taken a flight to Philadelphia for a nun meeting and got delayed for 7 hours on the flight out. A hydraulic pump or something needed to be replaced. For 7 hours I watched a mechanic standing on the ground working in the belly of the plane. It was actually fascinating, though 7 hours was a bit much. Anywho, I received an apology from the airline in the form of a $200 voucher — which was perfect for a $198 flight home. This is the first time I’ve been with my family for Thanksgiving in ages. I usually try to get home for Christmas (nothin’ like being with my little nephews at Christmas) but not Thanksgiving, especially now that I live in Chicago it’s a bit of a hike to get home. So I’m feeling quite blessed to be home.

One of my favorite things to do when I’m home is to catch a hockey game. Last night we went to see the Amerks — our hometown AHL hockey team. Their official team name is the Rochester Americans, but we know and love them as the Amerks. They sneaked by the Lake Erie Monsters last night by 1 goal. I cheered a bit for the Monsters just because they have a great name (my nephews referred to them as the Munsters) and because they played well. I’m certainly partial to my team, but will cheer good plays on either side. I’m no fan of booing.

Today we are out and about and will probably catch a movie — Disney’s Enchanted – and then my nephews and I are going to have a fun evening together. I’ll probably take them out to dinner of their choice, come home and play games (I rock at video games) or draw, and then take out the ice cream maker and make custom sundaes. What’s not to love??

Gotta run … have a good weekend. Sister J