Cloistered Conversations

[puellapaschalis]

Hello All (yes, I'm on a bit of a posting frenzy today),

I came across [url="http://www.dappledthings.org/lent06/fiction05.php"]this piece[/url] today. What do you all think of it?

Love and prayers,

PP

[benedictaj]

It's quite interesting.... they don't have recreation, but then again, it is a piece of fiction, and they may of some Benedictine reform type thing...

[HisChild]

Or it just wasn't mentioned. Who knows? But It was lovely. Thank you for sharing.

[magnificat]

Hmm..intersting...I don't really know what to make of it.

[Domine ut Videam]

[quote]"It’s not that I’m particularly ashamed, Father, but that I don’t know how to move on. I want to confess my sins and leave here cleansed, but I fear that my imperfections will remain, staining my soul as soon as I leave this safe chamber.” My mind is filled with the image of burrs coating my habit like the sins clinging to my soul.

“Do not make the mistake of assuming control of your own heart. No sin is too great for our Lord, the healer of souls. To cling so tightly to your failings is to doubt the goodness of our God.” [/quote]

This sounds a lot like me and that priest sounds a lot like my chaplain who is like my spiritual father/ director (i say father first because he is a father to me before he is a director to me) This is something i struggle a lot with and reading it was sort of good....like a burden being lifted, even though it was fictional, i felt like i wasn't alone. Her revalations at the end were quite beautiful reminded me a lot of mine. I am still struggling but with God's grace every day i move forward....

-Yours in Christ
Lauren

[puellapaschalis]

I'm not sure what to make of it either. I mean, I can't really empathise with an attachment to a physical place that's so strong that it would throw me for six. Perhaps that's just a PP thing - I've emigrated twice so I'm a little used to upping and leaving when I had to.

I wonder about the background of the author, though: perhaps she has personal experience. If that's so then I think it's pretty brave of her to share those, however fictionalised, in this piece.

Love and prayers,

PP

[uruviel]

I found this "interesting" as did everyone else. I can see how she could have become attached to a worldy place, for so I have done before. Yet, I dont see a sister doing it. Her life is devoted, her concentration is God, and heaven. Her thoughts lie in the realm of His home and she dreams of dieing and going to heaven. The silence, the mental prayer, the adoration, you would think, help her grow spiritually imensly. And draw her SO ever close to Jesus's heart. You would think that she would be content. St. Therese was tempted and tried to many times through her life, her life was a trial. Yet she had an inner peace that could not be darkened. I would say that that sister was tempted, for a long period of time, yet I can't see why she couldn't be content. Being that close to God in silence. Anyways, thank you for sharing this with us, God bless!
+ Lori +

[HisChild]

Oh yes, one would think a sister wouldn't be attached to a place. . .but even so. . .Carmelites switch cells ever so often in order not to be too attached even to their cell.

[alicemary]

Ahh, yes, one can become quite attached to a building. Very attached. I grew up several blocks from the Dominican Nuns in Camden(sorry for those who have heard me speak of this). The monastery is quite old but very, very beautiful. Lovely grey stone with wonderful stained glass. I used to help the extern sisters clean the chapel, spent many many nights with them. When I became a nurse I actually worked inside the enclosure caring for a sick nun. I would go in each morning for several hours and work inside(now this requires a special dispensation from the bishop, I was considered a 'workman'.)
My heart will always be entrenched in that beloved building. When I now go visit there, I feel like I am home. I spent so many hours of my youth there, I feel as though I can trace my life in the stone. The chapel is wonderful, I can close my eyes and be transported there.
Attached to a building, oh very much so. And for Denise who will soon enter the cloister, you will soon know this.
Thank you for reminding me!!!!!

[HisChild]

Well, God willing, Alicemary. . .we are trying to build another monastery (see the link on the website), so as soon as I would be 'attached' to where I'm living or will be living, I will soon move on to another property/building. :

[puellapaschalis]

Perhaps the main reason I've not felt really clingy to a building is that I've not really lived in any jaw-droppingly lovely ones!

Oh wait, I have actually. It was my first year as an undergrad and I was in living in Hall - a glorious building whose architcture was based upon that of a stunningly beautiful chateau in France (and the Chapel was breath-taking). But living there definitely had its downsides too. I can't imagine that religious life would be so utterly glorious [i]all the time[/i] that you wouldn't notice the leaks, the blocked drains or the creaky doors that never seem to fit their frames properly

Love and prayers,

PP

[AlterDominicus]

Wowowowowowowow

WOW!

I just finished reaidng it 10 seconds ago. WOW.

[uruviel]

[quote name='alicemary' date='Apr 10 2006, 12:51 PM']Ahh, yes, one can become quite attached to a building. Very attached. I grew up several blocks from the Dominican Nuns in Camden(sorry for those who have heard me speak of this). The monastery is quite old but very, very beautiful. Lovely grey stone with wonderful stained glass. I used to help the extern sisters clean the chapel, spent many many nights with them. When I became a nurse I actually worked inside the enclosure caring for a sick nun. I would go in each morning for several hours and work inside(now this requires a special dispensation from the bishop, I was considered a 'workman'.)
My heart will always be entrenched in that beloved building. When I now go visit there, I feel like I am home. I spent so many hours of my youth there, I feel as though I can trace my life in the stone. The chapel is wonderful, I can close my eyes and be transported there.
Attached to a building, oh very much so. And for Denise who will soon enter the cloister, you will soon know this.
Thank you for reminding me!!!!!
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[/quote]

I know exactly what you mean. I grew up in the country. I wish I was still growing up there, but I have to finish my growing in the city. I was so attached to the animals, the invirenment, the [i]country[/i] basically, and moving away from everything I knew really taught me how to let go, and unattach oneself from earthly places and things, even if I didn't know how hard it would be when we moved. Anyways, I know the move was for the better, and I can relate to what your saying, I can close my eyes and it feels like I'm there again, if I go outside in the hot sun and sweet smell of fresh air, ok! I'm babbling on, lol! I think that they do get somewhat fond of their cells, the places you've been through everything in, it's where you pray night, where you and Jesus can be one together, your in it through pain and hard times, it becomes your little house. And I'm sure it's important to keep oneself unattached to the cell one is asigned to. Anyways again, God Bless,
Lori

[uruviel]

[quote name='puellapaschalis' date='Apr 10 2006, 01:24 PM']Perhaps the main reason I've not felt really clingy to a building is that I've not really lived in any jaw-droppingly lovely ones!

Oh wait, I have actually. It was my first year as an undergrad and I was in living in Hall - a glorious building whose architcture was based upon that of a stunningly beautiful chateau in France (and the Chapel was breath-taking). But living there definitely had its downsides too. I can't imagine that religious life would be so utterly glorious [i]all the time[/i] that you wouldn't notice the leaks, the blocked drains or the creaky doors that never seem to fit their frames properly

Love and prayers,

PP
[right][snapback]942369[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

Well you see you don't have to have a place where it's magnifient and something to be set in your memory. All it has to be is a place where, as I explained earlier, you grow. It becomes apart of your life, your little house no matter what kind it is. And yes all though you notice leaks and blocked drains, it's still your place where you go through everything and the place where you learn and grow, you grow fond of it.

[brandelynmarie]

Thanks for the story PP! I just read the short story...very simple really...the story, I mean...but I often wonder...I have moved out of this town several times & have returned like a homing pigeon each time...Even after being away for awhile...I KNOW in my heart that I am coming HOME...the place where there are so many memories & friends & family...my church...Even the sight of the tree-lined streets makes my heart skip a beat...& yet I know I will have to let go of this place to go to a cloistered monastery...Detachment is difficult...like when I lost my favorite rosary...I wasn't even aware of how attached to it I was until it was gone! Now I trust someone has it who really needs it...plus I have several other rosaries anyway! Humans are very funny & silly...

[salveregina]

I thought it was beautiful.

And of course nuns can get attached to a building...

Hello? Anyone seen "Bells of St. Mary's???"

Although Sister Mary Benedict (Ingrid Bergman)'s prayer is pretty awesome in the end, there. At least, I think so. (I'm biased though, it's probably my favorite movie ever)

[puellapaschalis]

Detachment is a many-faceted thing, isn't it? And then there's the balance we have to achieve - not too attached to things on one side, and on the other, not too distant or aloof. Especially for those called to the active religious life, showing compassion to people in the most desperate of situations, and yet not becoming emotionally attached.

Thank goodness for the "He equips the called; He doesn't call the equipped" bit

Love and prayers,

PP

[TheresaMF]

"Interesting . . . " so I agree with the consensus. I am skeptical, especially right now, about reading fictional accounts of religious life. It is too easy to dive off into fantasy never-never land with a romanticized idea about the life, or an over-analyzation or romanticization of my own joys and trials of discerning. Bleck, lol.

The story was a good reminder of how very AWESOME the psalms are, the psalms of the Office. Talk about stability and security--always moving in their rhythm, always bringing back to God, the familiar words fitting perfectly in the groove of memory, each time like the ever-coming waves on the beach rooting the things of God more and more deeply into your soul.

Yep.

I also understand the attachment thing. Often for me "change = bad, same = good." Somehow the crisis of the story didn't grab me very seriously, though--the psalm itself made the most impact.

And finally, it would be weird to live without recreation. Living with people for years and never speaking together except the vocal prayers of the community? (Hehe, it reminds me of the one uber-strict monastic order that let the monks speak only two words every ten years. A new monk entered. After the first ten years, he spoke his two words to the abbot: "Bed hard!" After the next ten years: "Food bad!" Finally, after the next ten years: "I quit!" The abbot replied, "I am not surprised. You have done nothing but complain ever since you got here!") On a more serious note, perhaps there is communion deeper than words. Br. Dominic Mary Legge, O.P. has an article on p. 4 of the Dominican Review (the Eastern Province Student Brothers new quarterly publication [url="http://www.op-stjoseph.org/Students/preaching/dominicanreview/dominicanreviewvol1no2.pdf"][pdf file[/url]]) that discusses friendship and the Eucharist. "We spent little time together outside the chapel. But the Lord was forging an invisible bond of friendship rooted not in some worldly interest but in Him who is the source of life and fraternal charity."

[brandelynmarie]

That joke...Oh my goodness!!!