“Do not think I am sitting here to pass the time away telling you that
religious life is poetry. It is the roughest kind of prose.”
- Mother Justina Reilly, IHM (b. 1848)
Tis the season to be romantic — an awesome thing to behold! Just a few letters away however, is the word romanticize — and that can be anything BUT awesome.
Let me start with my unabashed biases:
- I love religious life.
- I love being a Catholic sister in community with my nuns.
- I never lived pre-Vatican II religious life having been born after the fact.
- I love all things “nun” — from old-school nun stories, finding a beloved copy of Bernie Becomes a Nun, bumping giddily into nuns at the airport, meeting corporate board room sisters, and more!
…. I honestly can’t help myself!
Given #3 above, I have spent a lot of time reading and asking questions and learning about religious life not only in my Sitz im Leben but religious life throughout the years, across the globe, and spanning theologies and cultures. I’m no expert, but my explorations have been enough to give me a good flavor of religious life as a whole and to see myself situated within it.
One of the challenges in not having experiencing religious life before the second Vatican Council is that we can sometimes romanticize what it was like — nuns in their flowing habits, serenity and silence, compliance both within and outside of the convent, blissful singing and playing of guitar, etc. Aspects of these things were and continue to be accurate and beautiful! Yet it gets a little dicey when we begin to imagine that that is all it was or when we focus only on the poetry of religious life and forget the rugged prose.
In addition to the sisters and nuns whom I know, there are many great resources to check out in terms of seeing what religious life was and is really like. For historical scholarship I always turn to Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson, the leading expert on the history of Catholic sisters and nuns in the United States. Here are some links for Dr. Thompson:
- Guest appearance on In Good Faith – an hour-long show including a section where Dr. Thompson discusses what “the “good old days” of religious life was actually like.
- An 18-lecture series on The History of Women Religious in the United States, produced by Now You Know Media,
- Concentric Circles of Sisterhood – an essay that appears in the book Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Monroe, Michigan (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997)
- Faculty and publications information at her page on Maxwell School of Syracuse University
For theological and scriptural scholarship I turn to my own nun, Sister Sandra Schneiders.
- Guest appearance on our very first episode of In Good Faith
- Another guest appearance for our A Nun’s Life fundraiser where Sister Sandra talked about saints, saints, and more saints! Father James Martin, SJ, is also featured on this podcast — he’s got some great stuff on religious life and vocations as well!
- A series of essays on religious life initially published by National Catholic Reporter and now gathered in the book Prophets in Their Own Country
- Books on religious life by Sandra Schneiders
This is only a smattering of what is out there, but very good places to begin!
So let’s talk about past and present religious life? What are “romanticizations” that you’ve encountered? What questions do you have about “the good old days” and today?
P.S. Check out the last night’s Ask Sister where we tangled with this topic as well.
Archived Comments
- February 17, 2012 at 11:48 am
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I recently read Sister Jackowski’s “Forever and Ever Amen” … now reading “With Love and Laughter: Reflections of a Dominican Nun” by Sister Maryanna. I guess I too have had romantic notions of what a nun is…. or was. Sister Jackowski certainly tells it straight up… I wish she would do a memoir of her life since Vatican II! Sister Maryanna’s book was published in the early 60′s. A sweet and positive book about her life. MInd you, I’m not finished reading it yet.
And then there are all the mystery novels that have nuns solving the cases… Probably not all that accurate! (except the one series that was actually written by a sister… but I can’t recall her name anymore). Did you ever hear back from the author who was writing a book about a nun? Thank you for sharing your lifes with us through your lively and inspiring… and of course humourous… podcasts.
- February 18, 2012 at 1:52 pm
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Karen, Sister Karol Jackowski did write another book called Divine Madness: Why I am Still a Nun. It’s really very good. And it really has a bearing on what we are talking about here – the real as opposed to the romanticized idealized version of religious life.
- February 17, 2012 at 11:50 am
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P.S. I am going to look up “Bernie Becomes a Nun”. Any other suggestions?
- February 17, 2012 at 1:19 pm
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Sister Julie, I love your ‘romantic’ insights about religious life. I did live as a religious sister before Vatican II and also am living today after Vatican II. I learned a lot in each era. But I love the ‘now’ time with its profound choosings and accountability. I remember once saying to my Novice Directress that I loved being a Nun and liked the idea of obedience because I didn’t have to think about what to do. If I just obey the rule and the superior, I would be pleasing God. It was so clear how to be a good religious. My wise Directress said, “Oh dear sister, you have so much to learn. It is not as simple as that.”
After Vatican II obedience took a lot longer to figure out. So much prayer and reflection and discernment is required to know God’s will and how to listen to the ‘signs’ of the time that are calling me to be prophetic, and what it means to have a ‘preferential option for the poor’, etc. The exciting part is that obedience or responding to the Word of God is unfolding each day in new and creative ways. I hope to keep ‘tuning in’.
- February 17, 2012 at 2:10 pm
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One of the romantic ideas I keep hearing is about cloistered sisters, who are “away from the world, and totally happy all the time.” They pray for the problems and happiness in the world, and are human. They’ve got to have tough days like the rest of us!
- February 17, 2012 at 9:20 pm
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Like Joyce, I’ve lived in both times, first as a cloistered nun and then as a diocesan contemplative Sister here. Each stage of the journey had it’s own blessings and challenges, and they continue.
JE, I can confirm that cloistered nuns are the same in that they are all human! Each community has it’s own “flavour” tho, so each community is different.. But no matter where we go, we take ourselves with all our virtues and faults.
This thread brought back the memory of my novitiate (1959) when my Novice Mistress decided that since I played the trumpet in my High School marching band (like four or five years earlier) I could obviously play the organ (2 keyboards plus pedals!). And so I did – after a fashion!
- February 19, 2012 at 11:26 am
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Joyceelaine, that image of being “away from the world and totally happy all the time” is something that is totally foreign to the monastic tradition. The tradition says that monastic life is a battle. Battles are messy and go on until the final victory of eternal life.
I think nuns are a happy bunch as a whole because our life is focused on the search for God. We become unhappy when we lose sight of the journey to him.
We have tough days, tough months and even tough years. We don’t always feel wonderful and at times wonder if this community God has called me to isn’t the craziest bunch on the planet!
Obedience is hard and it doesn’t get easier as you get older because you have more responsibility and more accountability.
Obedience in practice means a constant surrender to God through your sisters’ needs and wants. It’s the community; not me. And when we let the community use me and form me and demand of me and trust me and love me we find a joy that is deep and peaceful and true. There is no doubt about it, community life is one of the most demanding aspects of our life.
It’s worth it!
- February 17, 2012 at 3:13 pm
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Just want to say that as I visit here at the IHM Motherhouse this month, I am finding a group of women who have been there, done that, and become something amazing. One of them was talking with me in a small group yesterday about how formation was in the “old days” compared to now – Sister said, we just thought of it as “boot camp” and got through it. Sure no romantic decorations on that statement. As I hear their stories, I am becoming aware of how deep and true those vows have become for them as they’ve changed their own definitions and had to come up with new ones by living through the process of change.
- February 18, 2012 at 7:58 am
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Joyceelaine, your comment is right on the mark. So sorry I had to miss the podcast in which this topic was discussed. I hear a great deal of that kind of romanticism about cloistered contemplative life from those who make inquiry with our community regarding vocation discernment. I hear it from young and old. Most , very unfortunately, have not explored their call with a good spiritual director and most have never visited a monastery! There are two huge misconceptions. First is the idea that they can come to a monastery and pray all day. Yes, we do pray a great deal both together and in private but we must also engage in all the necessary household tasks and work to support ourselves in some remunerative work. These aspects of the life require the community interaction component. The second misconception is that the sa sacrifice that they will be making will be constituted by their withdrawal from secular society and all the devotional practices in which they will be free to engage (Liturgy of the Hours, Mass, Adoration, Rosary, etc., etc.). Underlying this is the assumption that the reelt will be bliss. In reality the greatest sacrifice that is being asked of them will come in the necessary surrender of the ego required in a way of life in which personal autonomy is narrowed and the needs, desires, preferences, and ways of doing things in OTHERS must be taken into consideration at all times. Community life is where the ‘rubber hits the road’. I have met a few of those young happy faces in some cloistered communities. In some I read pressure, nervousness, and stress. In any close human community the interpersonal life is intense and demanding. This is not to say that this process is not good or not transformative or nor a necessary part of our personal conversion process. All of that is real true put most do not seem to see it that way at the beginning.
- February 20, 2012 at 11:17 am
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All good thoughts In some ways, I think we are a product of the culture and society in which we live. Religous life in the Middle Ages was very different than religious life today. So as I look at how religous life has “evolved” over the years, it is both a little saddening to see some of the old tradtions pass away but also inspiring to see how new traditions are created and utilized in this ever changing world. Even communities who still embrace many of the older ways still know and respond to the present world. Who knows were it/we will end up in the years to come?
@ Karen B: The author you’re speaking of is Sr. Carol Anne O’Marie
