Major Motion Picture: Of Gods and Men - Movie about the Trappist Monks in Algeria

"Cannes Film Festival grand-prize winner had 'monastic adviser' on set"

By Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- "Of Gods and Men," the Cannes Film Festival grand prize-winning feature now debuting across the country, had a "monastic adviser" on the set to help faithfully depict the lives of the French monks whose story is at the heart of the movie.

Henry Quinson, who lived for six years at a Cistercian monastery in France, knew two of the monks portrayed in the film.

The subject matter is not typical for a movie: the lives of seven Trappist monks in turmoil-ridden Algeria in the mid-1990s. All seven were kidnapped in 1996 and ultimately beheaded.

"It's very difficult for me to make a movie that would be cheap -- the kind of movie that would only be about blood," Quinson told Catholic News Service in a Feb. 18 telephone interview from Marseilles, France, where he lives. "It would be very far away from the spirit of the people I knew."

Xavier Beauvois, who directed and co-wrote "Of Gods and Men," approached Quinson after seeing his memoir on monastic life; Quinson had earlier translated into French an English-language book on the murdered monks.

Quinson said Beauvois e-mailed him asking, "I need someone to be with me on this movie. ... When it's written (in the script) 'the monks pray,' how are they dressed? What do they do? Do they sing? I need someone who knows the monastic life from the inside."

Quinson, who had been considering making a movie himself on the French Trappists, agreed to help Beauvois.

"My little job," Quinson said, "was to tell their story, ... be faithful to the brothers, and reach out to as many people as we can."

Quinson said Algeria in the mid-1990s was struggling through many of the same issues today roiling Muslim-majority nations in North Africa and the Middle East.

"The murder of the monks was a turning point in Algeria. That doesn't mean there's no violence in Algeria today. Things are shaking up in Algeria right now," he told CNS. "What is true is that no Christians were murdered after '96, and I think that Algerian people started to come to terms with the idea that violence is not going to beget any bright future and another way to solve the problems would not be terrorizing people, not only for their religious faith -- most people who were murdered in Algeria were Muslims themselves -- but questions were raised about who murders whom."

Quinson said, "For the two months when we shot the movie in Morocco, I was there every day. Beauvois would have me very close to him -- 'Henry, are you sure this is right?' -- to re-create the atmosphere of the monastery."

Then came the bombshell from Beauvois when it came to the chapel scenes: "Henry, for these parts you are the film director. I cannot direct something I know nothing about. What are they going to do? What are they going to think?"

"I found all the songs, and all the dialogue, which makes up about 15 percent of the movie. I rewrote one of the speeches about being a martyr, which was a very important part of the movie," Quinson told CNS. "We spent several days in a monastery" coaching the actors, working with Beauvois on the setting, and re-creating the monastery in Morocco for filming.

Quinson, the son of a banker, was born in New York City but has lived in Europe, primarily France and Belgium, since age 5.

"I'm not a real monk in the sense that I'm not a part of a monastic order. But I'm celibate, working within the church," said Quinson, who turns 50 March 8. "I worked as teacher here in Marseille. I managed to have part-time jobs so I would have a lot of time to help out the neighbors" in a Muslim enclave in Marseille with "a lot of educational help and now a lot of financial help. ... A lot of these kids were considered not very able to go far in their studies" for academic or financial reasons.

Quinson said that, before filming, he had gotten advice from "a big French film producer" he would not name that "this story with seven monks being killed is not going to sell." Cannes awards and international acclaim later, the producer's opinion is being debunked.

In his review of "Of Gods and Men," John Mulderig of CNS' Media Review Office called the movie "a restrained religious masterpiece and a memorable viewing experience."

The film received a classification of A-III -- adults -- for brief gory violence, some unsettling images and a single instance each of rough and crass language. But Mulderig said older teens could profit from seeing the movie.

Director Beauvois, according to Mulderig, "finds a path to the heart of the Gospel through simplicity, a compassionate sense of brotherhood and an atmosphere of prayer enriched by sacred music and potent silence."

Beyond the Silence - Carthusian Monks

"In Nairobi, cloistered Carmelites give themselves to God in prayer"

By Barb Fraze
Catholic News Service

Photo: Sister Bernadette is among 16 sisters in a contemplative community at Mount Carmel Convent in Nairobi. (CNS/Nancy Wiechec)

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- For several of the cloistered Carmelite Sisters at Mount Carmel Convent, their life of prayer began in their families, when they were children.

"My dad taught me to pray for others," said Sister Bernadette, one of the younger sisters. She said her father told her he knew sisters who prayed for everyone, and she asked if they could pray for her, too. She said she began corresponding with the sisters and was drawn to their life of prayer.

Sister Constanza, who professed her final vows in January, said she attended Mass each morning because she did not live far from the local church. Each evening, her family gathered to pray the rosary and other evening prayers.

"I decided to give myself to the Lord for myself and for the salvation of souls," and the best way seemed to be contemplative life, she said.

In an interview with Catholic News Service Feb. 16, several of the sisters talked about the path that led them to nearly continuous prayer each day.

"I never dreamed of becoming a nun," said Sister Monica, who now serves as novice mistress for the order. In college, she met some Catholic students who began praying the rosary together, then attending daily Mass. One of the students wanted to become a Franciscan priest, and as he talked more about the saints, her interest grew.

She said she was filled with "a desire to belong to Christ."

Sister Regina, a young nun who works with aspirants, said her family prayed the rosary and intercessions every day.

"I came from a praying family," she said with a smile. She said she felt called to pray, "especially for priests."

Not all of the sisters are from Kenya. Sister Agnes, from India, said a friend of her sister was becoming a Carmelite, and "somehow that mystique of Carmel drew me very strongly."

The cloister was founded by Carmelites from Dublin in the mid-20th century. When the archbishop of Nairobi visited Cleveland, he asked the Carmelites there for help, and seven nuns and three postulants flew to Kenya in 1951.

The three postulants -- Margaret, Jean and Annamae -- remain, now as some of the oldest members of the order.

Sister Margaret, originally from Pittsburgh, said when she was a teenager, she had visited the Carmelites in Cleveland, and they invited her to go with them to Kenya. They "took a chance" and took her along, she said. Since then, she has only traveled home to be with her mother when she died.

She and Sister Agnes spoke of how much the area around the cloister has changed. Today, it has been built up and surrounded by affluent homes. When they arrived, they were the only building on the hill, and they could see Mounts Kenya and Kilimanjaro in different directions. Now the city is too built up to see far, they said.

The two were there during the eight-year Mau Mau Uprising that started in 1952, and the Mau Mau, a tribal group, had a hideout in the valley. Sister Agnes said one of the local priests talked to the Mau Mau, who promised never to trouble the sisters, because they were holy.

Today, when young women apply to join the order, the sisters require that they finish high school and begin some other course work, Sister Monica said.

"It gives them time to mature a bit," she said.

Sister Regina, who works with the aspirants, said she checks to see if candidates are "determined to live the life."

"Does she feel called because she has other things she is afraid to face or does she feel called because God is calling her?" she said.

An aspirant will join the sisters for three months to see if a contemplative life is something she really wants. The day begins with the prayers of the morning office at 5:20 and ends around 10 or 10:30 p.m. Other than a couple of hours of recreation, the day is spent in prayer. While the sisters work -- sewing vestments and altar linens, printing greeting cards and making Communion hosts -- they meditate. Meals, cooked by the sisters, are eaten in silence while one nun reads -- to nourish the soul.

The sisters pray for their own intentions -- pregnant women and mothers, priests, events in the world -- as well as intentions of those who ask, including Muslims, Hindus and Protestants.

Sister Bernadette said they prayed for Americans before the 2008 elections "because we have our American sisters."

"It's not just like we are here for Kenya," added Sister Regina.

"Rays of Musical Light: Cloistered Nuns Share Record Label With Elton John"

From Catholic Online
By Sonja Corbitt

NASHVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) - "The whole world, compacted as it were together, was represented to [Benedict's] eyes in one ray of light" (The Life of Our Most Holy Father Saint Benedict, Pope Saint Gregory the Great).

It seems the cloistered, self-sufficient community of the Abbey of Our Lady of the Annunciation near Avignon, France, also sees the world through a Benedictine ray of light, and is about to diffuse a radiant love all over the world through the slow, soaring movements of their Gregorian chant.

Benedictine vows include Stability, Fidelity to the Monastic Life, and Obedience, and their communal life is centered around the eight canonical hours of the Divine Office. The Benedictine Divine Office is one of the most ancient daily observances of any kind anywhere in the world, and Gregorian chant is the oldest music ever written down.

Originating in the ancient Jewish prayer tradition, Benedictines continued the practice of daily singing of the psalms (meaning, songs) and have conducted the Divine Office for the 1500 years since St. Benedict first wrote and compiled his Rule. The Benedictine sisters at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Annunciation, following the Liturgy of the Hours, sing eight times a day.

Ora et Labora, Pray and Work

The mystery and poetry of Scripture at its earthly best, Benedictine prayer rolls on, as daily as parenting, washing dishes, and marriage. Its chant is a living, lived-in song, a relationship with God and Church revealed and expressed in ordinary, but sacred, words and music. It is benediction.

It is this blessing, this work of prayer at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Annunciation, France that attracted the attention of a talent scout for Decca Records. "When you hear them chanting, it's like an immediate escape from the stresses, noise and pace of modern living," he said of the prayer of Benedictine nuns cloistered there.

Decca Records is part of Universal Music, a British label which also produces albums by The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Amy Winehouse, U2 and Elton John. After chant first gained secular popularity through Enigma's chart successes in the 1990s, and the last Gregorian chant album released sold over a million albums, Decca Records went on a worldwide search for the finest female Gregorian chanters.

Their anxious ears finally came to rest on the lilting prayer of the Benedictine sisters in Avignon who were chosen over more than 70 other convents worldwide. Typically, prospective pop stars cannot garner enough publicity, but this group is slightly different.

Hidden Life

"We never sought this, it came looking for us," said the abbey's Reverend Mother in a statement released by Universal Music, and indeed, their seclusion posed some challenges for both the record label and the religious community.

"Before starting the recording we were a bit nervous," said English speaking Sister Raphael in an interview. She expressed the whole community's concern for the extraordinary project:

"We were a bit afraid of what was going to happen to our cloistered life, so we confided this to St. Joseph in our prayer: that if this was going to help people to pray, if it was going to help people find God, if it's going to help people find peace, [he should] make this go through."

And "go through" it did, presumably under his patronage and special protection. In accordance with St. Joseph's lifelong, heroic protection of the consecrated, Decca took exceptional measures to protect the isolation the nuns vow until death.

The album contract was passed to the sisters for their signature through the beautiful wood-worked partition that secludes them from the outside world, and recording engineers were only allowed into the convent when the nuns were in different parts of the abbey.

After setting up microphones in the chapel, they retreated to a separate room when the sisters sang, remotely directing the recording. To promote the album, the sisters filmed their own television commercial and photographed the album cover.

"We had to give the cameras to the nuns, because they had access to the more beautiful parts of the monastery," a Decca spokesperson remembered fondly, "so we had to actually hand everything over to them. And they were making their own TV advert, they were making their own CD cover, and it was a very interesting and different way of working."

A Ray of Musical Light

They have no access to newspapers, TV or radio, but the sisters are now on Facebook and YouTube, and their album, Voice: Chant from Avignon, will be released early this November. Remarkably, although the nuns never leave the convent, the whole world will feel the radiant peace of their singing.

"I think that our music appeals to a wider audience, secular and non-secular. The words have a very profound meaning that is coming from the Sacred Scripture. The singing in our daily lives is very important for us. It is our prayer," said Sister Raphael, conveying the heart of her community. It has been said that other than the Bible, the Benedictine Rule was the most influential book in the development of western civilization, a light in medieval darkness.

"It's not quite a question of how we feel when we sing, but who we are, and for whom we sing," the sisters confirm. Indeed, the chanted Office is a song of Love, and they consider this song as one way to contemplatively bring sacred, musical, Benedictine light to a dark, frantic, noisy world.

Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles groundbreaking on new convent

Kansas Catholic has a great post about the ground breaking for the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles new convent. Too many pictures and captions to copy here. Please take the time to visit and enjoy the post HERE.

"Religious Life in the Movies"

The following is the text from the Archdiocese of Washington blog, written by Msgr. Charles Pope about the above clip:

"This is a clip I posted at Gloria.tv from the 1958 Movie, “The Nun’s Story” starring Audrey Hepburn as a young woman named Gabriel Vandermal who becomes Sr. Luke of a fictional French Women’s Order. The movie, as you shall is stunningly beautiful and the liturgical scenes are carefully done. This movie is available for purchase at Amazon.com and I recommend it to your library. However the following should be noted. The movie presents a rather negative portrait of Religious Life by emphasizing its hardships and demands to the exclusion of its joys and benefits. It more than suggests that many aspects of Religious Life at that time were unreasonable and unnecessarily harsh. Perhaps they were at times. Some older Sisters I’ve talked with tell me that many aspects of this movie are accurate and things were tough in the old days. Still, the movie surely has a strong point of view that could have been more balanced. Further, Sr. Luke makes a decision in the movie that is problematic from the point of view of the vows she made. Nevertheless, with these cautions I strongly recommend the movie. It is beautiful, though controversial in some aspects. I post the clip here in the interest of seeing a brief look at Religious life in the wider culture and in the movies. Enjoy this beautiful video."

Poor Clares of Roswell Vocations Ad

What a great ad. Click on the pictures below to see them larger.

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Click HERE to visit the Poor Clares of Roswell website.

Hat tip to Rachel Gray at Infused Knowledge

Pope Benedict XVI Says Contemplatives Give Breath to World

From ZENIT

ROME, MARCH 9, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Contemplative communities are called to be a type of "spiritual lung" for the world, so that spiritual "respiration" is not strangled by the bustle of cities, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope said this today when he visited the Oblate Sisters of Santa Francesca Romana. He stopped at the convent after having visited the headquarters of Rome's civil authorities, where he addressed the mayor and other civil leaders.

Today is the feast day of St. Francesca (1384-1440), whom the Holy Father referred to as "the most Roman of saints."

After spending some time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and in veneration of the saint's body, the Pope addressed the sisters and students that reside at the center.

Referring to his spiritual exercises last week with the members of the Curia, the Holy Father said "he had felt once again how indispensable silence and prayer are."

He noted how the convent is located at the heart of the city, saying, "How can we not see in it the symbol of the need to return the spiritual dimension to the center of civil coexistence, to give full meaning to the multiple activities of the human being?"

The Bishop of Rome told the nuns: "Your community, together with the other communities of contemplative life, is called to be a sort of 'spiritual lung' of society, so that the performance, the activism of a city, is not devoid of spiritual 'respiration,' the reference to God and his plan of salvation. [...]

"A singular balance is lived here between religious and secular life, between the life of the world and outside of the world. A model that was not born in a laboratory, but in the concrete experience of a young Roman woman: written -- it could be said -- by God himself in Francesca's extraordinary existence.

"It is no accident that the walls of this environment are decorated with images of her life, demonstrating that the real building that God wishes to construct is the life of the saints."

In this context, the Pope stressed that also today "Rome needs women who are all for God and for their neighbor; women able to recollect themselves and give generous and discreet service; women who are able to obey their pastors, but also able to support and motivate them with their suggestions."

This vocation "is the gift of a maternity that is made one with religious oblation, modeled after Mary," the Pontiff reflected. "Mary's heart is the cloister where the Word continues to speak in silence, and at the same time is the furnace of a charity that leads to courageous gestures, and also to a persevering and hidden generosity."

Religious Victims of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Thanks to Fr. McNally, SS.CC. and "Zlatko" for letting me know who the religious community in the above photo are: the Religious Victims of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The following information about this community came from the Traditional Vocations blog.

"The Institue was founded in 1838 by Madam Julie-Adèle of Gérin-Ricard (1793-1865), who become Prioress under the name of Mother Mary, victim of Jesus Crucified. It's particular charism is to unite with the Divine Saviour in his victimhood and to imitate it in religion and charity.

The Community is dedicated to the perpetual adoration of most Holy Sacrament. Their motto is Una cum Christo hostia, Cor Unum. The Sisters make vows of Poverty, Chastity, Obedience and enclosure.

It is by love that Jesus Sacrifices himself; it is by love that it is necessary to follow Him in His Sacrifice, and the treasure of this love is contained in the Heart. It is this mark of the Sisters, indicated by their title "Victims of the Sacred Heart", that indicates their vocation is totally founded upon Love.

The Community consists of one monastery, and -- as of 2006 -- 20 Nuns and a few Novices. They are served by Priests of the Fraternity of St Peter, and others celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass according to the 1962 Missale Romanum."

Religieuses Victimes du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus /Victim Nuns of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Rev. Mother Superior

Monastère des Religieuses Victimes du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus

52 rue Lavat

13003 Marseille (south France)

FRANCETel.: + 33 4 91 50 29 21

"Sisters in Silence - Pueblo's Capuchin Poor Clares spend life in work, prayer"

I have no idea why "Ñ" appears throughout the article. And for some reason I am unable to post pictures with the article - it's causing my computer to lock up.

http://www.capuchinpoorclares.org/

From The Pueblo Chieftain
By Loretta Sword

Time has a different rhythm here, following the cadence of silence and prayer. Clocks exist only to signal the hours when sewing machines hum, and when it's time to eat and sleep.

The value and purpose of life for the Sisters of Poor Clare are measured primarily by the time they spend on their knees in the tiny chapel of their monastery in Pueblo's Grove neighborhood.

Alone and together, they pray. Every minute of every day.

"Our mission here is prayer for all the people of the world Ñ even if they don't know us," explained Sister Francis, abbess of the Monastery of Our Heavenly Father. Located near Mount Carmel Church, the monastery was established about seven years ago in a home next door to the old Mount Carmel School.

The seven nuns who live here are unaware of life outside the tiny monastery's walls, including the recovering alcoholics and addicts who meet day and night in the lower level of the old school.

The lone TV and radio at the monastery are silent except during the week after Christmas, when the nuns are allowed to indulge in religious programming. Members of this cloistered sect leave the monastery only for medical appointments and business with the Catholic diocese.

Sister Francis occasionally travels to a shop in Colorado Springs to buy the specialty fabrics for altar cloths, vestments for priests and other religious items that are made by the seven nuns who live here.

All such outings require permission from Bishop Arthur Tafoya, who says Mass for the nuns every Saturday. Other priests say Mass during the week.

Proceeds from sales of the items they make Ñ to churches throughout the region Ñ are the only compensation the nuns receive from the Pueblo diocese. They pay no rent, but are expected to buy their groceries, pay utilities and handle other expenses with that revenue "and what God provides to us," Sister Francis said.

"We work by our hands. The work dignifies our lives," she said.

Like most of the others here, Sister Francis was born in Mexico. One young postulant (the first step before entering the novitiate and receiving the habit) is from Peru.

The women spend most of their time in silence, although necessary conversation is allowed in the sewing room.

"Oh, we may talk during recreation. We even laugh," Sister Francis said with a smile.

The nuns arise at 5:30 a.m. for morning prayers Ñ the Liturgy of the Hours recited aloud, followed by an hour of silent prayer, and then Mass. They gather as a group again at midday, and in the evening.

During "work" hours, two at a time pray in the chapel, taking turns through the daylight hours. They rotate one-hour shifts through the night, Sister Francis said.

When women enter the Poor Clare order, she said, they can bring no personal belongings and agree not to accumulate any from that point on, except for their habits and personal hygiene items.

"When we make our vows, we renounce our families and any inheritance, as well," she said, adding that families can't even leave money to the order itself, or to a particular monastery.

When neighbors or other benefactors donate food or cash, "we accept it if we have a need. If we have no needs, we distribute it to other orders. We live by providence alone."

The nuns here range in age from 31 to 74, with tenure in the Order of Poor Clares ranging from one month to 54 years, said Sister Francis, 38.

She entered the order at a monastery in Amarillo, Texas, when she was 16. She said she knew when she was 4 that she wanted to dedicate her life to Jesus, and started applying to convents when she was 11.

She was turned down because of her age and was told she should at least have the experience of dating before deciding for sure that she didn't want to marry and have a family.

So, she "started a different life" in her tiny village near the Texas border. At 14, she said, she helped establish a medical clinic that was open on weekends in a rented, run-down, vacant building. She kept patient records and did all the other work of an administrator while volunteer nurses and doctors staffed it on a rotating basis, she said.

Today, that clinic occupies its own new building, has a full staff of paid doctors and nurses, as well as a psychiatrist, and is open throughout the week, offering mostly free care.

By the time she was 15, she was dating a young man who asked her to marry him. Before she said yes, she had a conversation with Jesus.

"I said, 'Jesus, I am waiting for you to tell me if you want me. I will wait one year. I want you to give me a sign. Knock on my door, call my name, and ask me if I will be a nun, or I will marry. I will wait one year.’Ê”

Then she told her boyfriend she would marry him unless Jesus answered her request before the wedding Ñ even if it was just hours before.

"The months began to pass and I was planning my life. Six months before the wedding, my fiance said we need to sign permits for the wedding. But I know in my heart something will happen before," she said.

The day she had agreed to take care of the licenses, she came down with chickenpox, and spent more than a month in bed. One afternoon, a young nephew told her someone was knocking on the door. She told him to answer it. He returned to her bedroom a few minutes later and said there was a strange woman asking for her by name.

"I went to the door and she said my name, and she asked me if wanted to join a religious order in Texas Ñ in Amarillo. I said yes."

The next day, she was on her way, despite her fiance's broken heart, and vehement protests from her parents.

Having always been a gregarious person, Sister Francis said she had envisioned being a missionary nun who would work with children and spread the word of the Lord in foreign lands as a teacher, perhaps.

"I was always talking and laughing. People in my village said I was more popular than the Coca-Cola," she said, her cheeks flushing with color and rounded by her smile.

Until she arrived at the monastery in Amarillo, she had no idea that she had agreed to join a cloistered order.

"I went in with my eyes closed. I panicked at first, but the next day, I saw the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament again Ñ just like the first time, the only other time I ever saw it when I was 4 and tears came to my eyes and I knew in my heart even then that I wanted to serve Jesus Ñ and I said to him, 'Jesus, you win. My life is yours.’Ê”

Even so, she said, the adjustment to silence was a difficult one and "for the first six months, I was always fighting inside of me. But then I understood that I could be a missionary in a different way."

That way is prayer.

Aside from the proscribed prayers that are a part of every day, the sisters pray for world leaders and the legions of anonymous individuals who suffer from illness or loss, or within the prisons of their own hearts because of greed, hatred and guilt.

Anyone may bring written prayer requests and deposit them in a box just inside the door of the monastery. Those who wish also may pray with the nuns each day between 9 a.m. and noon, and from 3:20 to 5 p.m. The nuns also will answer e-mail requests for prayer and intercession.

Despite her early doubts, Sister Francis said she can imagine no other life for herself now. On the rare occasions when she ventures into "the world out there" to buy fabric or conduct business at the diocesan headquarters Downtown, she said, "I come back and I am so tired. The world is too fast and too noisy. And here there is silence, and comfort and peace."

Radical Love: The Sisters of Summit New Jersey

I posted about this before, but this is the final version...

"Radical Love: The Sisters of Summit, NJ"

Click on the photo above to vist the Time website and view this beautiful slideshow.

H/t to Deacon Dan Gallaugher

and

Sr. Mary Catharine, O.P., Vocations Director for the Dominican Sister of Summit, NJ

Photo by Toni Greaves

"Cloister nuns reach out through world wide web"

From the Times of Malta

By Fiona Galea Debono

St Ursula's Monastery in Valletta may not be as cut off from the outside world as it would appear through the bars that block away the nuns beyond - it plans to move with the times, as far as possible, and its own website is testimony to that.

Although the cloister nuns do not have direct access to the feedback they receive, any e-mails are printed out and forwarded to them, while the seminarians handling the site reply on their behalf.

And computer-literate Sr Christine Vella, 28, who brought the first PC into the monastery with the money she received when she entered in 2002, has more IT-advanced ideas.

She is not excluding the possibility of introducing the internet into their midst, aware, however, that she may not have the time for it. Apart from being busy, the last time she had access to the internet, she became addicted to chatting.

More importantly though, it would not be readily accepted by the other nuns, in particular the more elderly, for whom "it is not a part of their lives as it is ours".

It is not surprising that one of the older nuns was bewildered when she received digital photos from her relatives in the US. She asked how they got there... and was shown the "magical" pen drive, the gadget Sr Christine passes back and forth through the metal mesh as a means of exchanging information. The mesmerised septuagenarian still cannot grasp how it works.

The nuns have, however, warmed up to the website, appreciating the response and the community promotion it is aimed at.

"It is still early for the internet but the fact that they have accepted the website is a major step," says Sr Christine.

And she does understand the concerns surrounding its infiltrating the monastery, whose inhabitants only leave it once a year - normally for health reasons.

"It is mainly the pornographic material and filth that is keeping the internet out. It takes nothing to press the wrong button and find a pornographic scene in front of your face," Sr Christine says.

The self-confessed addict to chat rooms would spend hours at it while she was at the University and even recalls the indecent advances she would receive from a "sex-saturated" cyberspace, openly listing the impertinent questions about her likes and dislikes, which often compelled her to log off.

Sr Christine is on a mission to attract more nuns to the cloistered community - and judging by her jolly demeanour and passion for life, cutting off from the world cannot be such a scary notion.
In fact, for Sr Christine, leaving the monastery is far scarier. "Even before I entered, I used to be unnerved. Now, I feel it even more. We all get a dizzy sensation when we walk out of the door and come back feeling faint."

Fifteen nuns, aged between 18 and 81, live in the monastery and two more entered over the last two years. But there are gaps when no one knocks on the door three times - as the entry ritual requires.

"The more, the merrier," she giggles through the grille, admitting that outside prayer time, it is a party inside and "we have such a good laugh together".

The cloister nuns are by no means a dying breed. In fact, they are the youngest community, she declares. But the reality is "it is never enough".

More nuns are also needed to carry out all the "obediences" - Sr Vella is responsible for looking after the sick but she is also helping out with the cooking these days.

"The safety of a nation depends on the number of contemplatives," she proudly quotes. The words had struck her and she explains that "our role is to build a closer union with God. The monastery's charisma is, after all, intercessory prayer".

The media-savvy nun is using any means to recruit more girls, reiterating that it was an interview in The Times on the monastery in 2001 that sealed the deal for her. She had been toying with the idea for six years but when she read it she knew where she wanted to go so she quit University.

God had used the journalist to accomplish His mission, she laughs, reassuring that it was not the latter's sole responsibility.

But it is probably her down-to-earth, no-frills approach that has the most magnetic pull - Sr Christine admits she only decided to spend her first weekend at the monastery to take a break from her studies... That experience grew from a weekend to a lifetime.

The website, www.orderofmalta-malta.org/stursula, offers information on the monthly meetings organised for girls aged 12 upwards.

Toward Contemplation

Toward Contemplation blog has a Great post on Carthusian Vocations with many wonderful pictures and information - Click HERE.

Religious Communities and Young Vocations

"A Monastic Kind of Life"
From SLATE
By Harold Fickett
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The Catholic Church has always seen the contemplative life as the "Air Force" in its spiritual struggle, as the Rev. David Toups of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops commented—a conduit of spiritual power. Though the number of young people entering monasteries, convents, and the priesthood has drastically dropped from the mid-20th century, some new approaches to religious vocations have inspired some young people in America to embrace this idea, replenishing several of the older religious orders and filling new ones. One such community with a young population, nestled in the Ozarks, is a place that could symbolize Catholicism's true hope for renewal in our time. Founded in 1999, the Clear Creek Monastery has grown from 13 to 30 monks who are intent on building a community that will "last for a thousand years." Clear Creek is also part of the "reform of the reform," a rethinking of Vatican II that has led a number of religious orders—such as the Dominican Sisters in Nashville, the Sisters for Life in New York, and Benedict Groeschel's Franciscan Friars of the Renewal—to rediscover their original mission and flourish.

The growth in these orders provides a striking contrast to the continuing decline in Catholic monastic and religious life generally. In 1965, there were twice as many religious priests and brothers as today. There are just one-third as many nuns. According to Sister Mary Bendyna, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, the average monk is in his early 70s, the average nun in her mid-70s. The mission of many orders has become simply caring for their aging populations as they sell properties and consolidate with others.

The Vatican II document dealing with monasticism, Perfectae caritatis, counseled both "a constant return to the sources" of the Christian life and "their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time." Issued in October 1965, this re-examination of the religious life came as the cultural revolution of the 1960s began its magical mystery tour. It was received with wild and contradictory enthusiasms by a restive population of monks and nuns. Many of the large Catholic families of the World War II generation sought spiritual favor—or simply status—by giving one of their children to the church. These donated priests, nuns, and monks often wanted to leave or instead sought to accommodate the religious life's demands to their personal ambitions. For a time, the life of Catholic religious orders became about social justice issues, psychological issues, peace studies, interreligious dialogue, the ecology movement—everything and anything, seemingly, except the central proposition: that one can know a loving God and be transformed.

The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles are the most famous example of the combustible combination of the times and the dissatisfaction of many religious. In 1966, humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers led a series of "encounter sessions" with the sisters, urging them to seek personal fulfillment. Within the next several years, the order nearly vanished. In many orders at the time, the vow of chastity was widely ignored.

Russell Hittinger, the Warren professor of Catholic studies at the University of Tulsa, admits that many of those who entered religious life before Vatican II simply did not have a calling. Those who truly have a call to monasticism—or other forms of the religious life—begin by falling in love with the pursuit of holiness, as did the monks of Clear Creek.

The Clear Creek story goes back to the University of Kansas. In the early 1970s, six young men who would become founding monks of Clear Creek were students in the Pearson College Integrated Humanities Program. Literally hundreds of Pearson's students became Catholic converts, inspired by professor John Senior, who conceived of a contemplative monastery close to the Lawrence campus. After he learned of a traditional Benedictine monastery in Fontgombault, France, he sent two young men off on a scouting mission with an instruction: "Bring back an abbot." These American students, and the others who soon followed, went to France thinking they would soon return to establish a monastery, bringing renewal to American Catholicism and society. But the demands of monastic life and obedience soon revealed this to be youthful presumption.

In 1999, a full 25 years after leaving for France, six of the original University of Kansas students, along with seven fellow monks, returned to America to start Clear Creek, establishing the first foundation for men of the Benedictine Congregation of Solesmes in America. On a 1,200-acre tract of land once owned by an infamous moonshiner, the Clear Creek monks use the old Latin rites both for Mass and the daily offices. Indeed, a return to traditional practices is a common element among those religious orders experiencing renewal. Many young nuns, for example, choose to wear a traditional habit even when their older religious sisters choose modest secular fashions.

Scores of families have purchased land nearby to raise their families in the shadow of the monastery, where they often join the monks in their liturgical celebrations. These families tend to be the crunchiest of the Crunchy Cons, into home schooling, the "local foods, local markets" movement, and sustainable farming. This growing community is one of the surest signs of Clear Creek's importance. This follows the classic spiritual pattern: Saints traipse off into the wilderness, and the world eventually follows, unbidden, as with the Cistercians, who turned the swamps and fens of Europe into arable land and saw communities spring up around them.

The emergence of Clear Creek and other growing monastic communities suggests there will always be young people who ask whether their devotion to God should take precedence over their own personal ambitions and even the natural desire for a family. (The A&E special God or the Girl was an insightful documentary about this.) Today's young people, who have grown up in a highly commercialized and manipulated landscape, are particularly eager to connect with a more authentic way of living. Far from being pressured into pursuing religious vocations, they find their families often protest, feeling they are losing their children to a life that's too isolated.

But after the first heady period of romance comes a long and difficult obedience, as every monk or nun eventually recognizes. Fidelity can result in humility, though, which is the deepest source of the beauty to be seen at Clear Creek and other monastic foundations. From its rich liturgical rites to the pastoral details of its life as a working farm, as the monks raise sheep, make furniture, tend their orchard, and care for a huge vegetable garden, Clear Creek is what a monastery is meant to be—a sign of paradise.

Father Anderson says, "We were only a bunch of bums, but by becoming nothing, you can be a part of something great."

Harold Fickett is an associate editor of GodSpy.com and the author of The Living Christ and other books.

"Fairwell to Paulina Hiegert"

The post below is from "The America Needs Fatima Blog" and was originally posted on December 31, 2008:

"Today members of the America Needs Fatima office in Kansas said a fond farewell to a dedicated veteran employee, Miss Paulina Hiegert.

Her departure is bitter sweet for us. You see, she is leaving our office to enter the Carmelite Convent of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Valparaiso, Nebraska. Just about one year ago her older sister left our office also to join the same convent. We certainly will miss Paulina and all of her dedication to the cause of Our Lady. We will now rely upon her prayers for the success of our apostolate.

Paulina is the fourth member of our office to have entered a convent. Two entered Benedictine convents and Paulina will be the second to enter the Carmelite convent after her sister.

The example of these young ladies is indicative of the dedication that our employees have for the Catholic Church and for the cause of Our Lady.

We wish Paulina well and offer her our prayers that her vocation will bear much fruit."

Cistercian Monks from Vietnam Found New Monastery

"'There is God in this deserted place' -- Vietnamese monks live in remote Lucerne Valley monastery"

From San Bernadino County News

By DAVID OLSON
The Press-Enterprise

Long before dawn in the remote desert south of Barstow, the only light for miles around is a faint glow from a triple-wide trailer.

Inside, several monks chant in Vietnamese. Then there is silence.

The trailer is home to the first cloistered Catholic monastery in the Inland area. The white-robed monks pray and chant together seven times a day and silently meditate twice. Here in Lucerne Valley, off a dirt road and at the foot of barren mountains, there is little to disturb them.
"There is God in this deserted place," said Brother Matthew Nguyen. "There are not many people here, but God is here."

San Bernardino Diocese Bishop Gerald Barnes celebrated the opening of St. Joseph Monastery on Aug. 17, but for now, the two cream-colored trailers, a water pump and solar panels are all that sit on the 80-acre site.

The monks hope to one day erect permanent buildings to house a chapel, retreat center and living quarters.

St. Joseph is the second U.S. outpost of a Vietnamese congregation of Cistercian-order monks, who seclude themselves in monasteries to devote their lives to contemplation. The other opened in June near Sacramento.

There are nearly 7,000 Cistercian monks and nuns worldwide. Most sites are open to the Catholic faithful for retreats, as St. Joseph's visitors trailer will be in a few months.

The monks and nuns in Cistercian monasteries typically spend little time outside them, except for shopping for groceries and other necessities, and for special events such as ordinations.

Although the number of monks and nuns in U.S. monasteries has declined over the past few decades, experts say the drop has not been as steep as the fall in nonmonastic priests and nuns.

Proportionately more people choose a monastic life than before as a reaction to secularism and an increasingly fast-paced U.S. lifestyle, said Sister Patricia Wittberg, a professor of sociology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

There are about 200 Catholic monasteries in the United States, but there is no reliable count of how many people live inside them.

Like the parish priests who minister to their congregants and the nuns who serve the poor and sick, Cistercians and their devotion to intensely contemplative lives form a vital part of the Catholic church, said the Rev. Thomas Rausch, a professor of Catholic theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

"It's a special vocation," Rausch said. "The church needs people who energize it from within with their prayer."

Prayer and Meditation

The monks of St. Joseph rise each morning at precisely 3:55 a.m.

Twenty minutes later, they gather in the dim light of the trailer's chapel to chant for a half-hour. Then comes 30 minutes of meditation broken by the ringing of a bell announcing daily Mass.

The rest of the day is dedicated to prayer, meditation, singing, Bible-reading, study and work. They speak to each other as little as possible, said the Rev. Anthony Pham, the monastery's superior.

"Most of our time is for God," Pham said, as he ate a breakfast of fried eggs topped with soy sauce.

Pham said that, while he is meditating, he reflects upon God's love and the meaning of his calling as a monk. Work is an integral part of monastic life. As much of it as possible is manual labor, to leave the monks' minds free for contemplation.

The monks are now clearing brush, digging trenches for pipes, grading land and performing other tasks to build and adorn their monastery.

Like other monasteries, St. Joseph must be self-supporting, so the monks are discussing possible business ventures.

Other monasteries make products such as beer, fruitcake or cheese, and one in Wisconsin sells toner cartridges under the name Lasermonks.

The St. Joseph monks are thinking of opening an on-site gift shop featuring Vietnamese religious articles that they would also sell online. Or perhaps they'll make tofu for Vietnamese markets.

Spiritual Retreat

The 12-bed retreat center that will open in several months is why the monastery exists. A Vietnamese priest from Santa Ana, who attended a Cistercian boarding school as a boy, contacted the Cistercian order to convey the need for a retreat house geared toward Vietnamese immigrants, Pham said.

Many older Vietnamese Catholics do not speak English and would not feel at home or get the spiritual nourishment they seek if they were to attend a retreat at an English-speaking monastery, he said.

They and many other Catholics yearn for a place to recharge, to take a break from their busy lives to focus on their relationship with God, Pham said.

The retreat guests -- visitors who are not Vietnamese will be welcome as well -- will participate in the same prayers, singing, meditation and other devotions as the monks, Pham said.

If asked, the monks will guide them, suggesting which Biblical verses to read. But much of the benefit of a retreat will be the example the monks set, Pham said.

"The way we live has a special effect and impact on other people, in the way that we get closer to God," Pham said. "When we are closer to God, we love God more."

Even more than parish priests, the monks forgo worldly goods. Because they rarely leave the monastery, they have few material needs. They do not eat meat, as a way of sacrificing for God.

"If we put too many things in ourselves, we cannot serve other people," Pham said. "If you're willing to throw things like the good car, like status in the community away, you come back to only being a human being, nothing more. We try to empty ourselves, so God can pour his graces into us."

Building A Monastery

When a permanent monastery is complete, Pham will spend almost all his time there.

Until then, Pham is busier than he would sometimes like. He regularly interrupts the contemplative life of Lucerne Valley to drive to Victorville. There, he fills out forms, applies for permits and talks with county bureaucrats. Even monks can't avoid San Bernardino County land-use and building codes.

He has a studded ring on his right hand that he rubs while driving, so he can pray the Rosary while on the road.

All six monks who live at the monastery spent at least six months at a Benedictine monastery in Pennsylvania to improve their English and acculturate themselves, Pham said.

Two more monks are now in Pennsylvania, preparing to move to St. Joseph. The goal is to have 13 monks by the end of 2009.

The monks receive several-thousand dollars a month to support themselves and the monastery. Most money comes from Vietnamese immigrants in Orange County. Further donations, along with revenue from the monks' forthcoming business, will fund the construction of the permanent monastery.

The trailer chapel where the monks now spend much of their time is spare. The monks sit on white plastic chairs or kneel on a blue-and-white carpet before a crucifix and a wooden altar carved in Orange County by a Vietnamese craftsman. Statues of St. Joseph and Our Lady of La Vang -- an apparition of the Virgin Mary in 18th century Vietnam -- stand near a plaque commemorating Bishop Barnes' visit.

Outside, there is little but sand and desert brush.

Taking A Risk

Lucerne Valley was chosen for the monastery because it is remote enough to foster contemplation but within driving distance of the huge Vietnamese community in Orange County.
The land cost $80,000. Pham started paying for it with his $200 monthly stipend, along with donations from Vietnamese families.

It was a risk. Pham knew the money wasn't enough to pay the entire cost of the land. But he trusted in God.

Then a Vietnamese family took him to Florida with them on vacation. By chance, he met a wealthy Vietnamese Catholic there. Pham mentioned the monastery he was building. He didn't ask the man for money. But by the time he left Florida, the man offered to pay the remaining cost of the land.

"I didn't know this person, and I didn't have the money to pay for the land," Pham said.

"But everything comes together with God."

"The Pink Sisters"

Holy Spirit Adoration Nuns Mark Centenary of Founder’s Death
From The National Catholic Register
By Kimberly Jansen

My three-year-old daughter loves to visit the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters’ Eucharistic chapel of Christ the King here in our hometown of Lincoln, Neb.

After all, these cloistered contemplatives don a little girl’s favorite color — pink! Their rose-colored habit has even earned them the affectionate nickname “The Pink Sisters.”

I still remember getting lost on one of my first visits to their chapel several years ago. I drove up and down the snowy street looking for a steeple. Little did I know that from the outside the sisters’ convent looks like just another mansion in the upscale midtown neighborhood.

I later learned that the property was once the bishop’s residence, but Bishop Glennon Flavin — who preferred simpler quarters — gave it to the sisters upon their arrival in 1973.

Several years ago, I was blessed to regularly visit the adoration chapel, thanks to a “Holy Hour swap” with a friend of mine.

Each week I would drop my children off at her house and head over to “The Pinks.” When I got back, she took her turn. Play time for the kids and prayer time for the moms — talk about a win-win situation!

It comes as no surprise, then, that my favorite part about the sisters’ chapel is the silence. The peace and warmth I find here have been especially welcome in the midst of the hectic seasons of Advent and Christmas.

As I visit, all I can see, at first, are large panels of colored glass windows off to the left. Instead of a smooth, seamless look like stained glass, these broken pieces resemble a large puzzle shining forth bold hues of blue, red and yellow.

Upon further inspection, I notice an image of the Magi’s visit to the Holy Family and other scenes from Christ’s life.

At certain times of day, I can hear soft voices singing the Divine Office on the other side of a high wall to my right.

During the daytime hours, lay adorers often volunteer to keep Christ company while the sisters attend to cooking, sewing, cleaning and other duties. Sometimes, if we’re lucky, though, one of the sisters will be praying in the sanctuary — in clear view just on the other side of the wooden grille.

The small chapel affords each visitor a clear view of the high altar, built in throne-like fashion to house the exposed Blessed Sacrament.

As I round the corner, my eyes are drawn upward to the monstrance. It sits under a golden half-arch about 10 feet off the ground. Ruby-colored stones stud a crown in the center and the tips of each finial.

On either side of the throne, slanted lines like the sun’s rays draw further attention to the Blessed Sacrament in the center. I learned that they were sandblasted into the pink-tinted Kasota marble.

The sisters’ collection of exquisite monstrances also sparks my interest. My favorite displays a pale blue band with large white stars surrounding the host. It reminds me of the Blessed Mother, the Ark of the Covenant and Spouse of the Holy Spirit. I can’t help but reflect on Mary’s humility in never drawing attention to herself, but only joyfully bringing us to her Son.

It was this joyful devotion to the Holy Spirit that inspired the German priest Arnold Janssen (canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2003) to found the sisters as the last of three religious orders at the end of the 19th century.

This month, Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters in 10 countries worldwide (four in the United States) will celebrate the 100th anniversary of their founder’s death.

St. Arnold possessed a great concern and zeal for foreign missions that led him to open a seminary for future missionaries in Steyl, Holland, in 1875. Four years later, his newly founded Society of the Divine Word sent its first priests to China.

St. Arnold’s dream also included active and cloistered communities for women. He compared them to Martha and Mary and spoke often of the important relationship between the two.

Although one spent her energy in service and one sat at Jesus’ feet, he emphasized their complementarity by dedicating both groups of sisters to the third person of the Holy Trinity, the source of the Church’s missionary dynamism.

Furthermore, he gave the cloistered branch a pink habit (pink being a sign of joy and a sign of their consecration to the Holy Spirit) and instructed them to perpetually adore the Blessed Sacrament.

Even today, the sisters continue the traditions of their founder. Not only do they offer frequent Monday Masses in honor of the Holy Spirit (a habit St. Arnold’s father practiced for many years), but every 15 minutes, they pause to unite themselves with the Holy Spirit in the brief “quarter-hour prayer” that their founder wrote.

Although St. Arnold designated the sisters to primarily pray for missionary priests, The Pink Sisters run an impressive apostolate answering hundreds of spiritual bouquet requests by mail, phone and in person.

I still remember the power of their intercession when complications arose during the birth of my first child six years ago. A friend of ours hurried over to the convent and slipped an urgent prayer request through the grille. On our way home from the hospital several days later, we stopped by the chapel with our newborn son to offer prayers of thanksgiving for his safe delivery.

Although my married vocation more closely resembles Martha than Mary, I am greatly inspired by The Pink Sisters’ witness. Following their example, I pray that I may more fervently strive after holiness in the “cloister” of my home in order to bring the souls of myself and my family safely to heaven.

Kimberly Jansen is based in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters
1040 S. Cotner Blvd.
Lincoln, NE 68510
(402) 489-0765

HolySpiritAdorationSisters.org

Planning your visit:

The chapel is open to the public Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Mass is at 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday.

Compline and Benediction are held daily at 8 p.m.

The Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters also have convents in Philadelphia and St. Louis.

"In Italy, convents are emptying"

From St. Louis Today
By Christine Spolar
MCT
11/27/2008

BOLOGNA, Italy — This city of red brick towers and delicately painted porticoes once boasted the most convents of any city in Italy: Nearly 100 sanctuaries sprang up in the 16th century for women committed to teaching, caring for the ill and giving their lives to God.

These days, the nuns of Bologna are part of an uncomfortable countdown in Italy and the rest of the Roman Catholic world. Every week, it seems, there are fewer nuns, fewer convents with full houses and almost no Italians who care to make the commitment to a wholly religious life.

Schools and hospitals, in particular, have seen a loyal work force wane. Nuns from the order of Serve di Maria Addolorata di Chioggia left their convent in the Villa Erbosa private hospital in the last week of October. There were four sisters left of the dozens who used to cater to the physical and spiritual needs of the sick.

Across town at Ospedale Sant’Orsola, 40 nuns were among the caregivers. Now there are six, and they are mostly too old to work hard or long. Sister Superior Maria, 79, admits no one else is knocking at the door.

Schools in this renowned university town long ago gave up relying on Italian nuns as educators. The drop in nurses parallels work trends across Italy. The most fresh-faced nuns and novices taking up the hard chores in Bologna now hail from Africa and India.

The most populous convent — with 300 nuns — is home to mostly African and Indian women. It is a cultural leap in conservative Italy, where immigration itself is relatively new. As one nun explained: "Our culture is a European culture and theirs is completely different. ... Sometimes the Italians misunderstand them and sometimes they misunderstand the Italians. It’s not constant, but no doubt there are difficulties."

But the new novices also bear some things in common to their Italian elders. They do not come from wealth or have expectations that, as Sister Maria explained, can overshadow their religious prospects.

"The young in Italy have TV. They have cell phones. They have these laptops they carry around," the nun said quietly, her slight voice echoing across the wide hallway of the convent. "When you are going to discos, how can you expect to hear the word of God? You need silence to hear God."

The vanishing of Italian nuns reflects a decades-long trend within the Roman Catholic Church, as gender barriers in education and jobs fell in Western countries.

Changing demographics also played a role. Smaller families — Italy has one of the lowest birthrates in Europe — meant fewer parents were seeking help from the church.

When families were larger, they were more likely to send a girl to a convent, said 80-year-old Sister Domenica Cremonini, who first walked into Visitandine dell’Immacolata when she was 11. Sister Domenica, a tiny, bright-eyed keeper of the faith, is also the keeper of records inside the vast monastery walls.

The oldest nun among the seven sisters of the Visitandine is 94, she said. The last novice who came under Sister Domenica’s watch is now 70. Still, this convent is doing well compared to its neighbors. Down the street, at Figlie del Sacro Cuore di Gesu, the number of nuns has slipped to two — one below the standard that designates a religious community.

Sister Enrica Martignoni, who directs novice schools in Bologna, said the number of nuns has dropped by more than a third in Italy since the 1990s. Recent years add little hope: In 2007 there were 856 nuns. In 2008 the figure fell to 808.

"When I joined, you’d have 25 novices in a class. Now you might have one," Sister Enrica said. "And yes, of course, we worry. There are a lot of people who pray over this."

Sister Domenica said she believes young religious women working in the community are an important spiritual component to well-being.

"We nuns add something. In the hospital, they tell me we are like good health — and when we are not around, you fall sick. I am not saying the doctors or nurses are not good, but nuns bring another kind of spirit."

The Vatican has reported in statistical surveys that the number of Catholics in religious orders around the world has declined. The latest worldwide data from 2006 found 993,171 active and cloistered nuns — a drop of 7,887 from 2005. The biggest drop was seen among active community-based nuns, with 753,400 in 2006, down from 760,529. Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate focused on the U.S. nun population since 1965, when there were 173,865 religious women. By 2000 the U.S. nun population had dropped to 80,000, records show.

Native-born Italians who come to convents now tend to be older, more educated and much more weary of the worldly life they have been leading. All the nuns interviewed said they see a spurt in the proportion of nuns seeking the cloistered life.

"There’s a lack of nuns," Sister Enrica said. "But if someone wants to become a nun, more and more, she wants to be in a cloister.

"Perhaps when you face so much superficiality in life, people want to pull away from it all," she said. "They feel a need for an interior life. Because society doesn’t offer that much anymore."

"Pope Thanks Contemplative Religious"

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 16, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is inviting the faithful to support religious communities of men and women who dedicate themselves exclusively to prayer.

The Pope launched his appeal after praying today's midday Angelus in St. Peter's Square. He noted that Nov. 21, the feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, is also the day "pro orantibus," that is, "for those who pray," in particular cloistered religious communities.

"Let us thank the Lord for the sisters and brothers who have embraced this mission, dedicating themselves completely to prayer and living off what Providence gives them," the Pontiff said. "Let us also pray for them and for new vocations and let us commit ourselves to supporting monasteries in their material needs."

The Pope then addressed himself to men and women contemplatives to tell them that their "presence in the Church and the world is indispensable."

"We are with you," he concluded, "and we bless you with great affection!"

Beautiful Slideshow about Cloistered Nuns

Go to the website of photographer Toni Greaves and click the link for "Radical Love". The multimedia slideshow is about 6 minutes long, but it is worth the download time.

H/t to the Anchoress