Pictures of HiddeninHisHeart's Entrance

[franciscanheart]

oh wow

[Birgitta Noel]

Ed, in the photos of both of them together Sr. Lauren is on the left and Sr. Katie on the right.

It's my understanding that an extern sister lives outside of the cloister and interacts with the public, as opposed to those who are cloistered and remain behind the enclosure (and of course use the grill when receiving visitors) except for necessary things, i.e. surgery, limited travel, etc.

Perhaps OLAMDad could elaborate further, or offer corrections!

[passionheart]

Ed,
Since I will be an extern sister in the monastery I will be entering I can give you my two cents. It is like as The Little Way commented earlier. Extern sisters are contemplative and share in the contemplative life of the cloister but they are not bound papal enclosure. Their vocation is to be the visible sign of the community to the larger community.

Now depending on the community, the extern sisters may have a cell in the cloister with the other sisters of may have a separate area to themselves. The Dominician monastery in Buffalo used to have a separate area but now the externs live in the cloister.

When the good nuns mentioned to me about being an extern, I thought the suggestion was because they didn't think I could handle the cloister. I had this idea in my head that being in an extern in a cloister was less. Now I understand that what I was thinking was nonsense and the reason why the sisters asked was because they thought I would be a good extern sister. I think they are right but I think these nuns are mad to have me being their face in the community :

I hope this helps and now let us return to purpose of this thread

[msahara]

What wonderful pictures of 2 beautiful and happy sisters!

Edited July 20, 2006 by msahara

[brendan1104]

3 externs for Buffalo, now? Wow.

[quote name='passionheart' post='1027370' date='Jul 19 2006, 07:54 PM']
Ed,
Since I will be an extern sister in the monastery I will be entering I can give you my two cents. It is like as The Little Way commented earlier. Extern sisters are contemplative and share in the contemplative life of the cloister but they are not bound papal enclosure. Their vocation is to be the visible sign of the community to the larger community.

Now depending on the community, the extern sisters may have a cell in the cloister with the other sisters of may have a separate area to themselves. The Dominician monastery in Buffalo used to have a separate area but now the externs live in the cloister.

When the good nuns mentioned to me about being an extern, I thought the suggestion was because they didn't think I could handle the cloister. I had this idea in my head that being in an extern in a cloister was less. Now I understand that what I was thinking was nonsense and the reason why the sisters asked was because they thought I would be a good extern sister. I think they are right but I think these nuns are mad to have me being their face in the community :

I hope this helps and now let us return to purpose of this thread
[/quote]

[OLAM Dad]

[quote name='The Little Way' post='1027344' date='Jul 19 2006, 06:06 PM']
Ed, in the photos of both of them together Sr. Lauren is on the left and Sr. Katie on the right.

It's my understanding that an extern sister lives outside of the cloister and interacts with the public, as opposed to those who are cloistered and remain behind the enclosure (and of course use the grill when receiving visitors) except for necessary things, i.e. surgery, limited travel, etc.

Perhaps OLAMDad could elaborate further, or offer corrections!
[/quote]
My experience is limited to OLAM so don't take what I'm saying as necessarily applying to all externs.

TLT, you hit the nail on the head, no corrections needed at all. To expand just a little bit though, externs live in the monastery but they are separate from the cloister. They have access to the cloister and go into the cloister all the time, they just don't live there. They live in separate quarters to foster a sense of family. The extern charism is different from that of the cloistered sisters is some ways. Mostly though, there is no difference. For example, the externs and the cloister [url="http://www.olamshrine.com/olam/nun_schedule.htm"]follow the same schedule[/url], they pray together, attend Mass together, and often dine together.

[uruviel]

[quote]extern charism is different from that of the cloistered sisters is some ways[/quote]

Exactly. Some people I've spoken to, never know that the extern is practically a separate calling, there are some people called for the externs, and some for the cloister. They are very different, however following same schedule's as the cloister.