Thoughts on Enclosure

[Julia_Mae]

Thoughts on Enclosure is actually a blog post from one of my favorite blogs by a young Catholic woman who talks about her vocation.

She said this, in part:

I was reading a blog post by someone who had been to Mass and some of the Offices at St. Cecilia’s. They expressed pity for the nuns. They talked of the nuns being trapped and lacking in freedom. …

One of the first things I read in the enclosure was Verbi Sponsa: Instruction on the Contemplative Life and on the Enclosure of Nuns. It is one of the most beautiful texts I have ever read, and I thoroughly recommend it.

In watchful waiting for the Lord’s return, the cloister becomes a response to the absolute love of God for His creature and the fulfilment of His eternal desire to welcome the creature into the mystery of intimacy with the Word, who gave Himself as Bridegroom in the Eucharist and remains in the tabernacle as the heart of full communion with Him, drawing to Himself the entire life of the cloistered nun in order to offer it constantly to the Father. To the gift of Christ the Bridegroom, who on the Cross offered His body unreservedly, the nun responds in like terms with the gift of the “body”, offering herself with Jesus Christ to the Father and cooperating with Him in the work of redemption. Separation from the world thus gives a Eucharistic quality to the whole of cloistered life, since “besides its elements of sacrifice and expiation, [it assumes] the aspect of thanksgiving to the Father, by sharing in the thanksgiving of the beloved Son”. (Part 1, 3)

This isn’t in Vocations because it made me think of people who say we are prisoners of our Faith and the rules and requirements of the Church. But what if we take part of the text above and just change it a bit:

**To the gift of Christ the Bridegroom, who on the Cross offered His body unreservedly, the faithful respond in like terms with the gift of the “body”, offering themselves with Jesus Christ to the Father and cooperating with Him in the work of redemption. Separation from the world thus gives a Eucharistic quality to the whole of life…
**

I wonder if anyone else longs to be “cloistered?” Not physically, but spiritually. I wonder in the election days and the recession days and the “culture war,” if we are giving up the gift of being separated from the world and enclosed with Christ?

 

[grasscutter]

A very big part of me longs for that too (although it’s not possible and/or my vocation). Thank you for posting this and I look forward to reading other people’s perspective.