Two Questions on the Religious LIfe

[JMJ_coder]

Hello,

I have two questions on the religious life, particularly monasticism.

1. How to respond to the objections that entering religious life, particularly a contemplative or cloistered life, is turning one’s back on one’s talents and gifts and is hiding one’s light under a basket? This is akin to the common objection of monks and nuns hiding from the world.
2. How to respond to the objection that entering religious life, particularly a contemplative or cloistered life, is wrong since it is ripping one away from one’s family – assuming the family is a good Catholic family and not against one just being a Catholic? How to answer the charge that cutting off the family and entering a monastery is wrong?

 

[DihydrogenOxide]

Here are some quotes from the catechism that might help you:

2013 “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity.” All are called to holiness: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

In order to reach this perfection the faithful should use the strength dealt out to them by Christ’s gift, so that . . . doing the will of the Father in everything, they may wholeheartedly devote themselves to the glory of God and to the service of their neighbor. Thus the holiness of the People of God will grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly shown in the history of the Church through the lives of so many saints.

2015 The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes:
He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows.

1344 Thus from celebration to celebration, as they proclaim the Paschal mystery of Jesus “until he comes,” the pilgrim People of God advances, “following the narrow way of the cross,” toward the heavenly banquet, when all the elect will be seated at the table of the kingdom.

1435 Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the exercise and defense of justice and right, by the admission of faults to one’s brethren, fraternal correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one’s cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance.

2826 By prayer we can discern “what is the will of God” and obtain the endurance to do it. Jesus teaches us that one enters the kingdom of heaven not by speaking words, but by doing “the will of my Father in heaven.”

898 “By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will. . . . It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and maybe to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer.”

2232 Family ties are important but not absolute. Just as the child grows to maturity and human and spiritual autonomy, so his unique vocation which comes from God asserts itself more clearly and forcefully. Parents should respect this call and encourage their children to follow it. They must be convinced that the first vocation of the Christian is to follow Jesus: “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

 

[Sister_Rose]

1. How to respond to the objections that entering religious life, particularly a contemplative or cloistered life, is turning one’s back on one’s talents and gifts and is hiding one’s light under a basket? This is akin to the common objection of monks and nuns hiding from the world.

Personally, I have found that our gifts and talents are put to good use in the convent. In fact we are often pushed beyond them. Although, in the cloister the world may not see you personally, the light of your witness (what you sacrifice by living religious life) shines brightly in the world. When people see the monastery, they wonder what could make a person want to live like that.

1. How to respond to the objection that entering religious life, particularly a contemplative or cloistered life, is wrong since it is ripping one away from one’s family – assuming the family is a good Catholic family and not against one just being a Catholic? How to answer the charge that cutting off the family and entering a monastery is wrong?

MK 10:29-30
Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.

MT 10:37-38
"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

 

[vee8]

In explaining cloistered life to people Ill give you some examples and you can see which ones might suit the person you are talking to. We are all called to imitate some part of Jesus life and have to remember that besides feeding the hungry etc he also spent lots of time praying alone so someone who is cloistered is simply imitating the hidden and prayerful life of Christ. Also out of the disciples Jesus called just a few to be with him quietly and pray with him.
I think it was Fr Mitch Pacwa who said this but whoever it was was explaining religious life to their parents and said cloistered monks and nuns are like a car battery because while you cant see whats going on inside it doesnt mean its not doing anything.
Another way of putting it, and I completely forget who said this, is that some religious talk to people about God while others talk to God about people.
Finally Raymond Arroyo has said that when people ask him what it is Mother Angelica and the nuns do all the time and shouldnt they be out there helping people he replies you know when you cross the street and that car doesnt hit you? Thats what they do.

Two sources for better understanding as suggested to me by a Prioress are Verbi Sponsa
vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccscrlife/documents/rc_con_ccscrlife_doc_13051999_verbi-sponsa_en.html

and a book thats available on Amazon, or if you`re lucky yoru library, with a fair amount free to read on google books is Walled About With God.
tinyurl.com/ybjuga3

 

[Miserys_Fence]

Personally, I have found that our gifts and talents are put to good use in the convent. In fact we are often pushed beyond them. Although, in the cloister the world may not see you personally, the light of your witness (what you sacrifice by living religious life) shines brightly in the world. When people see the monastery, they wonder what could make a person want to live like that.

MK 10:29-30
Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.

MT 10:37-38
"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

Beautifully said, Sister! I’m so weary of my worldly life; I feel a call to the religious life and would love to live in a manner where prayer is the center, instead of trying to squeeze in spirituality between job and errands and everything else.

But for now, my calling is to raise my children and pets. I’m doing all I can at this point to prepare for the day when my children are self-sufficient and I can follow my calling.

Miz

 

[Joshua_P]

1. How to respond to the objections that entering religious life, particularly a contemplative or cloistered life, is turning one’s back on one’s talents and gifts and is hiding one’s light under a basket? This is akin to the common objection of monks and nuns hiding from the world.

What great light the cloistered monks and nuns provide! Consider the overwhelming witness that these men and women give to the faith. They sacrifice all for the sake of an intimate relationship with God…even mere worldly talents. What could be more Christ-like than humbly living a life of self-sacrifice in perceived obscurity? Christ, being God incarnate, humbled Himself and became one of us only to be sacrificed for our sake!

Trust in God and follow His will for you. Eremitic life has been a fruitful and enduring practice throughout Christian history. Its misapprehension in contemporary life actually says more about contemporary life than it does about contemplative life.

And keep in mind the words that Pope John Paul II wrote to the Carthusian Order on the 900th anniversary of the death of their founder St Bruno:

The cloistered life as an outward expression of the offering up of one’s whole life in union with Christ’s, shows the fleetingness of our existence and teaches us to count only on God. It increases the thirst for graces given in meditation of the Word of God. It also is " the place for spiritual communion with God and our brothers and sisters, where the restricted character both of space and of contacts favors an interiorization of Gospel values "

transfiguration.chartreux.org/JPII-Message2001.htm