Why do not we set up a virtual convent?

[cecilia2019]

The internet has become more and more popular,

we can start to know each other even we are hundreds of kilometers away from each other.

The convent is made up of a group of people. But it is restricted by physical space rooms…

I mean, can we set up a virtual convent ?

Like a group of people on the internet , we can make a vow of poverty & chastity…

 

[RolandThompsonGunner]

There are some things that require physical proximity. The internet is not a substitute for actual human contact. Same reason confession can’t be done over Skype or FaceTime or whatever.

I mean, there’s no reason a group of people online can’t form some kind of prayer group or association, but it wouldn’t be a true convent.

 

[EricF]

Exactly. Virtual Mass has some good things, but it isn’t what was intended. The idea of a virtual convent would be similar in that regard.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

I think it would depend entirely upon the purpose/mission/charism of the community being formed. Cloistered nuns wouldn’t really make sense in a virtual convent. However, the apostolic institutes are often scattered from their motherhouse anyway as part of their ministry assignments.

 

[MNathaniel]

I’d say it depends what you mean.

My understanding is that from the beginning of consecrated life, one of the key benefits to joining a convent versus being a hermit, was both economic and spiritual.

That is, a hermit living physically isolated from physical community must constantly provide for his own material needs. He has to pay more attention to the co(name removed by moderator)urse, as it were, than most members of a convent apart from the accountant and superior. Most members of a convent, conversely, are freed from needing to manage their individual economic affairs, and can just live like the sparrows, going where they’re sent and doing what they’re assigned, and trusting that altogether one another’s material needs will be provided for.

Additionally, members of a convent are exposed to continual opportunities to physically serve each other and be humble and obedient to each other. Hermits might receive visitors, but in general have less opportunity to be ‘corrected’ by a superior than those in a physical convent do. There can actually be a spiritual risk to such isolation from physical community correction, and it’s my understanding that in the olden days a hermit was required to undergo formation in a monastery before being allowed to live alone as a hermit.

Just a couple thoughts for food.

I can see the idea of some kind of online network for mutual encouragement between hermits… but I struggle to see how it could properly be the equivalent of a convent.