What is it like?

[TaylorSSYM]

A simple question for all the nuns out there. Whats it like to be a nun and to be with Jesus and God 24/7? I mean I know I have God 24/7 but it sounds so awesome to be able to just be able to pray with Him all the time. Is it like that? Just curious what nun’s like with being nun’s. I’m in discernment at the moment and posted earlier about how I should go about it but I’m just curious what you guys like/dislike about being nuns and living under a holy order.

I’d love to hear any stories or comments about it. Just really curious.

Thanks

Taylor.

 

[Gertabelle]

Hi, Taylor!

I am not now a nun, but I was a postulant and novice in a contemplative Benedictine monastery for just over two years. I entered when I was 19 (having just completed my second year of college) and left when I was 21.

So, being a nun was not exactly like being with God 24/7. I mean, it wasn’t like stepping into the cloister knocked down the wall between us and heaven. For the most part, being in the cloister was like being in a big, extended family. There was the prioress who was very much the mom of the community. There were nuns like sisters, like aunts, like cousins… Tons of love and support, but we also drove each other crazy with our bad habits, our quirks, and just our own differences in personality.

Being in a cloister, we spent about six hours a day in community prayer in the chapel. Most of our work was done in silence, and in that silence we sought union with Christ through our work for Him. And our work was abundant Providing for a house of 20 women, plus guests (anywhere from a couple to over 40) took much constant work. Along with the cooking and cleaning (cleaning guest rooms, the chapel, the kitchen, the cloister halls, the novitiate, the refectory, the recreation room, doing the laundry, doing the dishes…), there was also work on the grounds – tending the animals, cleaning their pens/sheds, tending the flower and vegetable gardens, mowing the lawns, fixing the fences, raking the leaves, gathering the apples and other tree fruit…

If you can find God in mundane, physical tasks, then the cloister could indeed be like being with God 24/7.

Shortly before I discerned that God wanted me to leave the cloister, I had a moment in which I realized that doing my work with the intention of union with Christ had actually transformed every moment of my day. My experience of God was no longer just in the chapel. He was everywhere, in every breath, in every chore, in every step. In other words, after two years in the cloister, I was finally able to just pray with Him all the time – because my work had become my prayer.

As for living under a rule, well, truthfully, I wasn’t very good at it. That’s one indication that I did not have a vocation to be a consecrated religious. The Rule of St. Benedict is truly beautiful, and I appreciate it now much better than when I was a teenager. I’m also much better at following rules

God bless you in your discernment. I’ll be praying for you!

Gertie

 

[Joannm]

We are all called to “be with God 24/7” no matter what our vocation. The only difference is the way we live that call.

 

[Rising_Suns]

Dear Taylor,
May the peace of Our Lord reign in your heart.

Although I am male, I was a novice in a semi-contemplative community, and I can tell you that the religious life is the most rewarding life that one can live.
If you have the right disposition of heart, Our Lord will take your soul and mold it into its most perfected form that it can attain here on earth. There is a reason why the consecrated life is considered a higher calling than marriage. It is the surest path to sainthood. This is why the religious life exists; to generate saints to sanctify the world. As Saint Faustina said, anyone can become a saint. It is only up to us not to hinder the grace of God.

**St. Teresa of the Andes upon entering religious life (at age 15);
**“Your charity has been stripped of the world’s robes, and your sister will soon have that happiness. We won’t belong to the worldly spirit any longer, for Jesus will have taken from us the spirit of the world in order to clothe us with His Divine Spirit. And what is that Spirit…? The spirit of the cross, the renunciation of our selfish impulses and the demands of the flesh. The denial of our appetites and tastes, comforts, etc. We no longer belong to the world. Jesus has taken us from the world, that we may follow Him more closely, and He says to us; “If anyone would come after me, let him take up his cross and follow Me.” And so, Sister, let’s walk after Him. Love demands this, since He has chosen us to make us entirely His own. And when the weight of the cross weighs us down, let us call upon Jesus to help us. …In this same way, then we are Carmelites, and so, co-redeemers of the world.”

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