http://www.cloisteredlife.com/

Looks like a great page (put together through the IRL)!

Just thought I'd share... God Bless you all abundantly!

I saw this in the newsletter, also! It does look great! (I plan to blog about it tomorrow.)

It's finally up! It's been in the works for almost a year!

I am checking it out know, it looks pretty neat-o.!

That's very exciting!! Hopefully they'll had pages about different communities too. It's hard enough trying to find out about active communities, esp. when you don't live near them; it's even harder to find out about cloistered communities, particularly ones that aren't plugged into the Internet.

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Great! Thanks for the post!

This looks an interesting site ,which hopefully ,will be expanded . Thanks for sharing.

That has the potential to be a wonderful site. I hope they put up meditations on the cloistered life and also some vocational material.

Yeah, this is great, because a lot of times I feel the cloisted vocation is not understood or encouraged by many, including many Catholics, who see it as rather a selfish thing - that they should be going out in the world helping people. A woman I work with was asking me about this. But their's is a hidden apostolate, not seen by the world. It is great to have a site by a solid organization, the IRL, to support and make this known. I'm sure it will keep getting better, with pages on different communities.

I like this intro, however it does not say anything on their hidden apostolate, of praying for the salvation of souls, and for many things, like priests and bishops - how their union with God is also drawing down graces for the whole world. I really think it is important to say this right away in an introduction like this ...

I agree! But Benedictines, for example, would not put an emphasis on the apostolic dimension as part of why they have enclosure.

Our constitutions say," By withdrawal from the world, in fact and in spirit, the nuns, like prudent virgins waiting for their Lord, are freed from worldly affairs so that they may ahve the leisure to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the kingdom of God. This hidden life should open their minds to the breath and height and depth of the love of God who sent his Son so that the whole world might be saved through him....

I just emailed the IRL on this, but either way, the site is great! :j

Not that you are an expert on Benedictines, but why would they not emphasize it?

Well, I "grew up" Benedictine so I'm quite familiar with Benedictine Spirituality. The Benedictine Abbey down the road from my family is my 2nd family and was our parish.

Benedictines (contemplatives, I mean) withdraw from the world to search for God, to save their souls, to give God primacy and to glorify and praise God---as do all contemplatives. Praying for others as part of their charism is sort of "extra". It's not part of their charism as is say, the Poor Clares, Dominicans or even Carmelites.

Dont take this the wrong way Sister, but I cant IMAGINE you being Benedictine. Franciscan maybe, but DOMINICAN Definitely.

Ahh, okay. I thought that was probably the right answer. Though I know the Discalced Carmelites give a great importance to their apostolic mission, not just from St. Therese being in the heart of the Church & patroness of the missions, but when St. Teresa founded them she said many things like the purpose of their (the nuns) being there was to pray for priests and bishops, and for the whole Church. It was in her time that the Lutherans were gaining a lot of ground among the faithful, and St. Teresa felt helpless, as a poor woman (she said something like that) but decided the faithful living out of the Evangelical Counsels would be the greatest weapon for these attacks against the Church.

In the document Verbi Sponsa there are a lot of great lines on the apostolic mission of all cloistered contemplative nuns. Next time I have the time, I will post a few of these on here.

But of course, the Discalced Carmelites' first focus is what Sr. Mary Catherine said. But in striving for this goal, the whole Church is draw with them, through God's grace, if that's the right way to say it. But yeah, some orders like the Benedictines, don't have as much focus on the apostolic part than others.


"For their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth." (Jn 17: 19)

Franciscan? Never even thought about it!
Benedictines and Dominican Nuns are "closer" in charism, actually because we are monastic and because of our emphasis on the liturgy.

Happy Feast of the Presentation of Mary and Pro Orantibus Day - A Day of Support for the Cloistered Life!

New pages added to this site - http://cloisteredlife.com/daywithinthewalls.htm