HuffPost Interview with a Young Woman Who Is Becoming a Discalced Carmelite Nun

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This is an excellent read! Prayers for her and for all those who are discerning their vocation. 🙂
 
An interesting story. This young woman is called to the cloistered life and to prayer. It is not something most on the outside could appreciate. Not all nuns are cloistered. I have known sisters from a variety of orders and they are a joy to be around. I once had a beer with a nun when we were working a yard sale together on a hot day.
 
Most sisters I’ve been around (other than my teachers at school!) are lots of fun!

As for the cloistered life, it’s a very special call and for some of us, hard to understand. I’ve always been attracted to the cloistered life, esp. the Carmelites, but in reality, if I ever did have a vocation it would have been hard to discern back in the late '60s and early '70s. Back then, everyone was leaving the religious life!

Everything I’ve read or heard about cloistered nuns leads me to believe they’re very happy. In the photos in the article, this young woman’s face is beaming with joy and happiness!
 
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Read the life of St. Gemma, or St. Faustina, or St. Teresa, or St. Therese the Little Flower. Were they bitter and unhappy? Were they misguided souls?
“When I shrink from suffering, Jesus reproves me and tells me that He did not refuse to suffer. Then I say ‘Jesus, Your will and not mine’. At last I am convinced that only God can make me happy, and in Him I have placed all my hope…"
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Does this sound unhappy?

How could one be unhappy when they have the Perfect Spouse?
 
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Well, one might say the same about orders of cloistered monks, and yet they seem quite happy as well.

Edit: sorry, this was not a reply to TigerLily but to TrBe21!
 
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TrBe21 said:
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JimG:
I once had a beer with a nun when we were working a yard sale together on a hot day
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Yes, nuns are fun. I know one who makes a mean Harvey Wallbanger! That said, it seems like a young woman who wants to spend the rest of her life shut off from the world and locked in a routine of prayer and servitude is a sign of either a very misguided or wounded soul. My gosh, in 30 or 40 years what will she be able to reflect back upon that will bring her happiness–no family, no friends, no life adventures. With all due respect, you can live a life of prayer and contemplation without shutting and bolting the door. Why would you want to pack it all in and call it quits while still in your early 20’s? You are going to miss your life–but, this is just my opinion. I just hope she doesn’t end up sad, bitter and very disillusioned in her later years.
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🤨

You do understand she’s entering a convent, right? Like with other people?

I once went on a retreat at a monastery with monks who baked bread. It smelled heavenly—but that’s beside the point. Except for the monks who ran the retreat house they were all cloistered. They took turns running retreats and many often wished for the comradery of the cloister.

One of the guys told me it was like a life-long slumber party with your best friends doing your favorite thing for your entire life where you still feel, at 60, like you are “sneaking out” to do the office at 3am. He was sad when he had to remain “behind” in the retreat house.

And they do have a family. Considering how often I get to see my grandmother since I live far and she cannot travel, she may see her family more than the average “had to move 500 miles for a job SAHM with little kids”

Adventures?

She’s not locked in a prison cell.

I think your view is very limited and based around more guess work then reality.
 
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She’s a young woman of deep faith who is called to a life of prayer and contemplation and obedience. God is the single most important One in her life. Nuns and monks pray for the world, which desperately needs all of our prayers! IMO, there’s nothing wrong with anyone who makes this sacrifice. Also, she’s not a prisoner. She’ll spend a few years before taking final vows and can freely leave if this is not the vocation for her and I’m sure that if 20 years from now she wants to leave, no one will prevent her from doing so.

As for sad, bitter, disillusioned and “wasted” lives, none of us has to enter a monastery or convent for that to happen!

Anyway, most of us are not called to this life and it’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea!

God Bless!
 
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If that’s what she’s supposed to do, it’s what she’s supposed to do.
Many saints lived lives like that, sometimes much much much much more closed off.
 
I have the utmost admiration for her. What a massive commitment to make!
 
TrBe21 said:
That said, it seems like a young woman who wants to spend the rest of her life shut off from the world and locked in a routine of prayer and servitude is a sign of either a very misguided or wounded soul. My gosh, in 30 or 40 years what will she be able to reflect back upon that will bring her happiness–no family, no friends, no life adventures. With all due respect, you can live a life of prayer and contemplation without shutting and bolting the door. Why would you want to pack it all in and call it quits while still in your early 20’s? You are going to miss your life–but, this is just my opinion. I just hope she doesn’t end up sad, bitter and very disillusioned in her later years.
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Better call up St. Therese of Lisieux and tell her all that before she just throws her life away. And dozens of others. In fact, your post is the stuff of all books about nuns from Day 1. It’s like you copied it out of “In This House of Brede” or “The Nun’s Story” where the relatives of the young nuns, and the men who want to date them, are trying to talk them out of their decision.

I’m sure this girl, who seems to have been out in the world living her life at college, has thought about all of this and still feels called to make her choice. Also, if she’s working all day on a ranch with other nuns, she’s likely to have fellowship with them and plenty of “adventures” with the animals.

Bottom line is, it’s not your choice to make. If the young woman had chosen to be a lawyer, I could point to dozens of websites and posts and people I have met in daily life who will go on for paragraphs about how miserable the life of a lawyer is, how she will regret her choice and should choose a different career or be a SAHM. If she became an engineer, I could likewise find a bunch of speeches about how women who enter the engineering profession deal all day with sexism and are miserable. But these are not universal experiences any more than all young girls who become nuns end up miserable and regretting it.

Better to be positive and happy about people’s career choices if they themselves seem positive and happy. If the life turns out not to be for her, she will have time to rethink and leave before she gets to the point of final vows.
 
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No, I only say this because these are my sentiments as I am discerning cloistered religious life as well.
 
The Browns have as much a chance of winning a single game as they do the Super Bowl.
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if she will be living a more meaningful life than most other young people tbh.
 
I think it is very very sad that you think these things about the cloistered life.

Cloistered religious life is the oldest form of religious life and has been treasured for centuries. Many, if not most of the saints were cloistered away for most of their lives. This sort of cloistered religious life goes back to even the Old Testament! Moses was cloistered away and was considered so holy that his face would glow with the magnificence God would leave behind. Even Jesus was cloistered away in the desert for 40 days. Why? In order to prepare Himself for His public ministry. Cloistered religious do it in order to prepare for Heaven.

The Desert Fathers were the original religious (if I’m correct) and marked this way of living in history. They knew that the world is your enemy. The world has nothing to offer. But you can offer the world something: prayer.

As Jesus told St. Faustina,

“My daughter, I want to instruct you on how you are to rescue souls through sacrifice and prayer. You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone. I want to see you as a sacrifice of living love, which only then carries weight before Me."

One desires to become cloistered in order to hear the voice of God because you cannot hear God in the busyness of this world. One also desires to become cloistered so that they can cultivate a perfect relationship with God, so that through prayer, God gives them peace and happiness being with Him. It is much easier to reach the last Interior Castle by being a cloistered religious, which is the Mystical Marriage.
 
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