Are Contemplative Religious Orders a thing of the past?

[JamalChristophr]

What I mean to say is, are they slowly becoming extinct in the U.S. and other countries??
Are they no longer relevant to what we term the New Evangelization?
I’m not very well read at all on this subject but I’m curious to know more about it. I’ve always had great respect for contemplative orders like the Carmelites, for example, but how would you characterize their state of being in todays world? It sort of seems like they are barely breathing from my limited perspective. I hope I’m quite wrong. Thoughts? Forecasts? Relevant outside reading? All are welcome.

 

[eamonnroma]

I think that contemplative orders are more relevant than they ever were. If the numbers in these orders are decreasing, I am sure that that is due to general spiritual malaise in the population in general.

I was, for many years, a tourist guide. Once, one of my guests told me that he did not believe that Catholics really believe what they say they believe. The reason? He said that if they really believed (he was talking about the Blessed Sacrament), they would spend every minute of their free time in awe of the presence of God in the tabernacle. Up to a certain degree he had a point.

The contemplative tries to find pure prayer, communion with God. That is in silence. I feel that the only words needed in prayer are ‘God, your will be done’. The Our Father. We should then sit in silence and trust with God - sure in his divine will.

 

[TimothyH]

Most Christians where I am from are are ignorant of contemplatives.

There is a Cistercian monastery in suburban Atlanta and people are like, “Wow! Really? I never knew that?” I was reading a book on Christian Mysticism and some ladies at Mass were like, “Oh, you are so spiritual!” and now they think I’m some kind of guru or swami or something.

There is a disproportionate focus today on philosophy and reason - trying to think your way to God. I hear people say things like, “Philosophy is the entire basis for our faith” and similar. Apologetics has replaced Christian witness. “Five non-negotiables” is the hight of faith formation today.

Meanwhile people have the attitude that contemplation is only for a select few. I hope there will be an awakening and a return here in the US and hope that it is different elsewhere.

-Tim-

 

[Cricket2]

What I mean to say is, are they slowly becoming extinct in the U.S. and other countries??
Are they no longer relevant to what we term the New Evangelization?
I’m not very well read at all on this subject but I’m curious to know more about it. I’ve always had great respect for contemplative orders like the Carmelites, for example, but how would you characterize their state of being in todays world? It sort of seems like they are barely breathing from my limited perspective. I hope I’m quite wrong. Thoughts? Forecasts? Relevant outside reading? All are welcome.

The Carmelites I met are doing fine and gaining members, same with the Benedictine orders. We need them now, more than ever in my opinion. I think they will continue to do well, though they may be more prevalent in some regions of the world than others.

They are some of the few remaining orders that still wear a habit and I think that is a plus. I hear over and over from people who think it is the worst thing that ever happened to have nuns not wear habits as they used to. Habits are an outward sign of their commitment to God and people miss that.

People need to remember that prayer is vital to a solid Christian life and that those who enter cloistered communities are there to pray for all of us. They are dedicated to focusing on God and the spiritual needs of the world and what they do is as vital as anything that can be done toward forming a healthy Christian world.

I suggest you read about St Therese, St Walburga and others who have lived cloistered lives. We tend to think that a person has to do “large” things to make a difference in this world. We are wrong.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

You ask, “Are they no longer relevant to what we term the New Evangelization?”

To say that contemplatives are not relevant to any activity is to say that prayer is not relevant. If you believe in the power of prayer, then it’s relevant to supporting evangelization and any other activity. St. Therese of Lisieux is the patron saint of missionaries despite the fact that she was a cloistered nun and didn’t set foot in missions herself.

I remember the comment of a friend of mine when I took him to visit the monastery where I’m an oblate. “I never realized there were people who were simply praying for the world. And we need them so much.”

 

[Gertabelle]

Meanwhile people have the attitude that contemplation is only for a select few. I hope there will be an awakening and a return here in the US and hope that it is different elsewhere.

-Tim-

You make a great point here – contemplation is for each and every one of us! While there are those who are called to a lifelong vocation of contemplation as a religious, each of us must, on a daily basis, imitate out Blessed Mother who “kept all these things in her heart;” and St. Mary who sat at the feet of Our Lord, choosing the better part, the one thing needful.

Regarding the contemplative religious communities, they are doing very well these days. They live a hidden life, so unless you are related to a young woman or man entering a monastery, you may not even know they exist. There is a family in our parish that has a son in the Carmelites in Wyoming, and a daughter in the Carmelites in the southeast US (can’t remember where). Another young woman from our parish tried her vocation with the Carmelites in the midwest US, but knew after a couple months that it wasn’t her vocation.

I myself was a postulant and novice with the Benedictines of St. Walburga (back in the 1980s – goodness, I’m getting old!) – they are still going strong in northern Colorado.

Meanwhile, there are faithful communities of men and women who live active contemplative lives. That is, they have active apostolates, grounded in spiritual lives of contemplation. The Missionaries of Charity, the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles, the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist, just to name a few – are active communities of women who live lives of contemplation.

And thanks be to God for the men and women who are called to these lives and their faithfulness!

God bless you!

Gertie

 

[Bookcat]

No.

Here is my favorite: The Carthusian Order chartreux.org/en/

chartreux.org/en/monastic-setting.php

chartreux.org/en/monks/carthusian-day.php

etc

chartreux.org/en/carthusian-way.php

vocatiochartreux.org/THE%20JOY%20OF%20BEING%20A%20CARTHUSIAN%20MONK.html

And my family just visited with permission another community that is contemplative - and who look to St. Bruno (of the Carthusians) -and they had 15 sisters there. Just one monastery of many throughout the world. “The Monastic Community Bethlehem, of the Assumption, and St. Bruno.” english.bethleem.org/ (my second favorite…)

 

[CB_Catholic]

The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration–Mother Angelica’s order-- are alive and well and gaining membership

 

[JamalChristophr]

Thanks!! to all who have chimed in so far.

I do believe contemplative orders are absolutely essential to the New Evangelization, but it seems like they are spoken of but seldom and almost never when the New Evangelization comes up as a topic of discussion. Contemplatives lead a hidden life and keep a very low profile but I shudder to think what woiuld happen to the world if they all stopped praying tomorrow.

What St. Monica’s prayer was to St. Augustine’s conversion, are contemplatives orders not also that same leaven to the world at large?

St. Therese, Little Flower, Pray for us!
:nun1:

 

[TimothyH]

Thanks!! to all who have chimed in so far.

I do believe contemplative orders are absolutely essential to the New Evangelization, but it seems like they are spoken of but seldom and almost never when the New Evangelization comes up as a topic of discussion. Contemplatives lead a hidden life and keep a very low profile but I shudder to think what woiuld happen to the world if they all stopped praying tomorrow.

What St. Monica’s prayer was to St. Augustine’s conversion, are contemplatives orders not also that same leaven to the world at large?

St. Therese, Little Flower, Pray for us!
:nun1:

This is a great point. We will never know the wars they have prevented and the disasters which have been averted through their prayers.

-Tim-

 

[adawgj]

In my diocese we have a Benedictine monastery and a Franciscan Friary.

 

[Psalitte]

…but it seems like they are spoken of but seldom… Contemplatives lead a hidden life and keep a very low profile…

Funnily enough they’d probably like to keep that way.

 

[TimothyH]

The Franciscans really are not a contemplative order. It doesn’t mean that they don’t pray that way or that there are not contemplative Franciscans but that its not their purpose. For a contemplative, life is dedicated to prayer. Prayer is the reason they exist.

-Tim-

 

[Gertabelle]

The Franciscans really are not a contemplative order. It doesn’t mean that they don’t pray that way or that there are not contemplative Franciscans but that its not their purpose. For a contemplative, life is dedicated to prayer. Prayer is the reason they exist.

-Tim-

The Poor Clares (Franciscans) are most definitely a contemplative order. There have been and continue to be congregations of Franciscan women who are active in the world, but the original Franciscan order of women founded by St. Clare are contemplative

Gertie

 

[TimothyH]

The Poor Clares (Franciscans) are most definitely a contemplative order. There have been and continue to be congregations of Franciscan women who are active in the world, but the original Franciscan order of women founded by St. Clare are contemplative

Gertie

Yes, you are correct. I should have clarified. The response was to someone who mentioned a Franciscan Friary specifically.

-Tim-

 

[godisgood77]

I would think that a simple life of prayer removed from the ‘noise’ and pressures of society would be desirable by a great many… seems like a much easier path to pursue than having to deal with the world.

The thing I never understood (maybe someone can help me with) is do the contemplative orders do any service besides prayer? Jesus obviously practiced deep contemplative prayer, but he was also a man of tremendous action. A life turned inside only seems quite different than that… seems related to James 2:14-26… 14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

… I’ll pray for you, but won’t take any ‘action’ so to speak… I understand that prayer is an action, but it is an internal action.

Personally, I would be drawn to the security of the cloistered life, but don’t think prayer is enough…

 

[TimothyH]

I would think that a simple life of prayer removed from the ‘noise’ and pressures of society would be desirable by a great many… seems like a much easier path to pursue than having to deal with the world.

The thing I never understood (maybe someone can help me with) is do the contemplative orders do any service besides prayer? Jesus obviously practiced deep contemplative prayer, but he was also a man of tremendous action. A life turned inside only seems quite different than that… seems related to James 2:14-26… 14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

… I’ll pray for you, but won’t take any ‘action’ so to speak… I understand that prayer is an action, but it is an internal action.

Personally, I would be drawn to the security of the cloistered life, but don’t think prayer is enough…

Value comes not from what we do but who we are. Christ teaches that the least and lowest are the most valuable. The person lying in a coma or an infant in the womb is more valuable than the President of the United States. Being vs Doing. The world tells us that our value lies only in what we do. God tells us that our value lies in being who he created us to be. Value lies not in what we do but who we are.

When a monk or nun follows God’s call to become a monk or nun they are doing exactly what God wants them to do. By following God’s call they save their soul and sanctify the world.

And they do service, sometimes heroic. We don’t often see it. The cloister itself is a school of love. They do dishes, laundry, clean toilets, work in factories on the monastery grounds, dig graves for their brothers, cook, clean, work in the gift shop, form novices, play the organ, celebrate Mass, hear confession, keep the books, greet everyone who comes through the door as if they are Christ and pray.

An 85 year old monk asked to go with the group who were starting a new monastery. The Abbot asked, “What can you do?” He replied, “I can start the graveyard.”

Anyone who really wants to understand what monastics are about should read “The Cistercian Way” by Andre Louf.

bks8.books.google.com/books?id=FGnZAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&imgtk=AFLRE71UO1ymMT_tkdDh_bG33oCuL8EPkZkuRPe0wTCffRLUK5SUaVOX87QIc5ZroARxT13M62LLgsQRlx2F-zWKFCwfw-rKP31GShfWFCP7AGGK7883QUK1tGo6Ojztt_xuu5fQ5Cf_

This is a most excellent book.

-Tim-

 

[commenter]

There is a disproportionate focus today on philosophy and reason - trying to think your way to God. I hear people say things like, “Philosophy is the entire basis for our faith” and similar. Apologetics has replaced Christian witness. “Five non-negotiables” is the hight of faith formation today.

-Tim-

In the USA or other Western countries there was a decline, not a focus on philosophy and reason. Secular educators have all but abandoned them, along with maybe half the Catholic and Protestant educators, certainly in “Catholic” colleges. Where philosophy and reason flourish, genuine Christian mysticism flourishes too. Those who are trying to think, and pray, their way to God are the same people. Those who want to downplay dogmas and the Magisterium, and those who want to eliminate crucifixes and the Stations of the Cross, are also the same people. Ever read Thomas Aquinas? Orthodox dogma is not sufficient in itself, but a necessary complement to meditation. The reverse is also true.

With the abandonment, even attack on doctrinal orthodoxy by parts of Western Christianity, we saw a worship of Spirituality, rather than God. During the doctrinal drought from about the late 60s to roughly the 1990s when Apologetics was dead, we saw the New Age Movement and the worship of Self, and Community, with the elimination of crucifixes, and often the Blessed Sacrament. As doctrinal orthodoxy has partially resumed since the 90s, the false spiritualities have lessened. In my diocese Christian mysticism and devotion is making a comeback - at the same time as Apologetics, especially because of EWTN.

In Asia and Africa, the Catholic Church never lost doctrinal orthodoxy in the last 50 years, and, as a result, Christian mysticism flourished throughout that period. The mystic is not the opposite of the philosopher or apologist, they are often the same person, or at least, talking to one another. For every genuine St. Faustina, guided carefully by philosophically trained,highly logical confessors, there are 999 other mystics going off in weird directions, some of which lead to cults, all of which feed into spiritual pride. Is there anyone in modern times who was more philosophical, more apologetic - and - more mystical than the priest/bishop/pope/saint who supported her cause?

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

I would think that a simple life of prayer removed from the ‘noise’ and pressures of society would be desirable by a great many… seems like a much easier path to pursue than having to deal with the world.

The thing I never understood (maybe someone can help me with) is do the contemplative orders do any service besides prayer? Jesus obviously practiced deep contemplative prayer, but he was also a man of tremendous action. A life turned inside only seems quite different than that… seems related to James 2:14-26… 14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

… I’ll pray for you, but won’t take any ‘action’ so to speak… I understand that prayer is an action, but it is an internal action.

Personally, I would be drawn to the security of the cloistered life, but don’t think prayer is enough…

I think those who live in community, either active or contemplative, would tell you that community life is not an escape from the world, but carries its own challenges. And for those who follow the Rule of St. Benedict, there’s a vow of stability. You can’t hope that the annoying person will move on; the two of you will have to accommodate each other until one of you dies.

Benedict was firm that monasteries have to be self supporting. You’ll find Benedictines, Trappists, and Cistercians selling various foods, running schools, offering retreats, and other activities. The key is to have something that fits into a life of prayer since that is their main occupation.

I can only suggest that you consider Martha and Mary and remember which one Jesus said took the better part.

 

[hope19]

What I mean to say is, are they slowly becoming extinct in the U.S. and other countries??
Are they no longer relevant to what we term the New Evangelization?
I’m not very well read at all on this subject but I’m curious to know more about it. I’ve always had great respect for contemplative orders like the Carmelites, for example, but how would you characterize their state of being in todays world? It sort of seems like they are barely breathing from my limited perspective. I hope I’m quite wrong. Thoughts? Forecasts? Relevant outside reading? All are welcome.

Hello,

I think it will continue to decrease because we need to go outside in the World to evangelize.

hope19