I thought I would cross post this from another group I belong to. The nuns have a lovely habit and live a very simple, cloistered life of prayer. They are new but growing fast.....

The Norbertine Sisters of the Bethlehem Priory of St Joseph in Tehachapi, California -- newspaper and photos

travel webshot slides

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Norbertine Sisters of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph in Tehachapi, California


The Norbertine Sisters were founded in 1996 and are affiliated with the Norbertine Fathers of St. Michael's Abbey. There are currently 17 sisters, representing nearly all the continents of the world. The sisters live the Monastic life focusing on the three observances of charity: love of God, love self and love of neighbor, which are enfleshed in traditional monastic architecture. They also have a "guest cloister" where the Sisters exercise hospitality to those seeking a more intense period of prayer.

They take on an intense responsibility of prayer and worship within the Division of Labor in the Mystical Body. As such… If a missionary has to speak for one hour to men, he wishes first to speak two hours to God about himself and about those to whom his is going to speak. But since this is often impossible, we can make a "division of labor" also in the spiritual realm, so that those who have otherwise no connection with mission work, pray, figuratively speaking, with uplifted arms to God (like Moses) while the missionary is fighting the battles of the Lord. The division of labor in the spiritual realm and the part assigned to the contemplative is a "life of prayer." The contemplative's union with God will infuse blood (charity and divine life) generously into all the members of Christ's Mystical Body. -cf. Missionary Rev. Bernard Huss, C.M.M.

For more information, contact them at
Mother Mary Augustine
17831-A Water Canyon Road, Tehachapi, CA 93561-7686 or (661) 823-1066

I've seen their slide show a few times, aren't they beautiful? I've thought of visiting, if/when the time came to do so again. . .I like their simplicity.

That travel webshot picture set. . .those don't look like the same sisters. . .well, their veils are different anyway. Maybe' they're postulants, since there's no wimple? I don't know.

Those were some other kind of Norbertines. You never see the Canonesses out of their cloister. The postulants wear a black skirt suit with veil and a cross on the lapel.

Blessings,
Gemma

We are friends with this community and the mother of one of the sisters is a good friend of ours. The Norbertines have made 2 beautiful vestments for us as a gift from this friend.

The "travel" shots are probably norbertines from Europe because it says in the caption that they are here learning English. Similiar to Dominican nuns not all the Norbertines wear the same coif.

The Norbertines in CA do go out for certain meetings and events dealing with the Norbertine Order. They just went to their General Chapter.

Pray for them because the bishop is holding back on giving them permission to becoming fully professed Norbertine Nuns. Don't know why.

Also, any contribution you can make to their building fund they would be most grateful. Right now, they live in very cramped quarters.

Beautiful pictures of this lovely Community........ Thanks for sharing.

Don't they, if given the funds to do so, want to build a larger monastery, with a retreat house?

It always wonderful to see other communities

Jessica
http://www.xanga.com/ADiscerningSoul
http://blog.myspace.com/147329732

I wrote to them for info once and they sent me a stack of newsletters. Their newsletters are really informative and have lots of pictures, so it was really fun to go through them