What is Cloistered Life?

Oldest Building in Western World Is Former Cistercian Monastery

Did you know that the alleged oldest building in the Western Hemisphere dates from 1133 A.D., and is located in Miami? The Spanish Monastery Cloisters were first erected in Segovia, Spain as a Cistercian monastery. Centuries later, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst purchased and brought them to America in pieces. The carefully numbered stones were quarantined for years until they were finally reassembled on the present site in 1954.

Visit www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bernard_de_Clairvaux_Church for more information and photos.

A “Novel” Approach to the Cloistered Life

Sr. Mary Catharine Perry, O.P., a Dominican nun of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, New Jersey, has taken a unique approach to providing others a glimpse into the cloistered life. A talented writer, she penned a novel, “Amata Means Beloved,” the story of Sister Maria Amata–the former Emily Barone–who enters newly–established Mater Christi Monastery. Eager to become a spouse of Christ, Sister Maria Amata finds that living in the monastery with the other nuns radically confronts her understanding of the life itself and her own motives. The author says that portraying a positive, real picture of cloistered nuns was one of the reasons that she began writing the novel. She also wanted to share with the reader the profound and essential truth of the joy and freedom that comes from responding to God’s grace.

To order a copy of “Amata Means Beloved,” visit http:/nunsopsummit.org/shop/amata-means-beloved/.

Monastic Vocations on the Rise Worldwide

In the Western world, we see continuous and progressive changes, all of which weigh heavily on religious vocations. And although there has been a general decrease in the number of vocations to the consecrated life in the last few decades, vocations to the contemplative life of women are increasing in comparison with those of active communities. In places such as Africa, Asia and in many countries in Latin America monastic and cloistered life of women religious is flourishing in such a way that they continue to open up new convents and send out vocations to replenish dwindling monasteries elsewhere.

Here are some numbers offering a more precise idea of the monastic presence in the Church. According to recent Vatican statistics, there are 12,876 monks residing in 105 monasteries worldwide. In addition to these, there are 48,493 nuns living in 3,520 monasteries of which 2 out of 3 are in Europe.

Pro Orantibus Day (For Those Who Pray) — Nov. 21

Nov. 21, the Feast of the Presentation of Mary, is the Church’s annual Pro Orantibus Day, a day of support for cloistered life throughout the world. Cloistered vocations are “an indispensable presence in the Church and in the world,” said Benedict XVI after his Angelus message on Nov. 16, 2008.

In 1997 Pope John Paul II asked that this ecclesial event be observed worldwide, asking it to be a special day to thank those in the cloistered and monastic life for serving as “a leaven of renewal and of the presence of the spirit of Christ in the world.” The Holy Father also intended it to remind others of the need to provide spiritual and material support “for those who pray.”

As Benedict XVI noted in a message marking last year’s occasion, “Let us thank the Lord for the sisters and brothers who have embraced this mission, dedicating themselves entirely to prayer and living on what they receive from Providence. Let us pray in our turn for them and for new vocations, and let us work to support monasteries in their material needs.”

The nationwide effort to publicize Pro Orantibus Day is coordinated by the Institute on Religious Life, a national organization based in Chicago.

For instruction and aids to celebrate the day please see our FREE resources.

A Reflection on the Contemplative Life