Cloister Outreach

new blog

2011-09-09T15:21:00.000-07:00

http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/cloister_outreach_newsticker/

blessings,

gemma

February 2 -- International Day of Prayer for the Cloisters

2011-01-25T04:14:00.001-08:00

Please remember the cloisters around the world in prayer on February 2. Thank you.

UK Monastic Updates

2010-12-10T06:38:00.001-08:00

Poor Clares:

Neath closed, and the nuns moved to the monastery of Bothwell, Scotland.

Darlington closed. The nuns joined their sisters at Much Birch.

Southampton closed, the nuns moving to the Poor Clare monastery at Dublin, Ireland.

Carmels:

Darlington lost their Discalced Carmelites, also.

The nuns of the Golders Green Carmel moved to that of Preston.

Redemptoristines:

The Liverpool community has unpublished their website. We have not been able to find another webpresence.

Benedictines:

Stanbrook Abbey moved into their new monastery:
http://www.stanbrookabbeyfriends.org/

Visitation:

A new website for the Visitandines:
http://www.visitationmonastery.co.uk/index.html

Thanks to the discerners from our Catholic Vocations UK/Europe group for the above information. They are also helping us with the contents of the website by the same name:
http://cloisters.tripod.com/vocations_UK/

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Coordinator has Returned

2010-06-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

Gemma is slowly getting back into the swing of things.

We have discerners on retreat at present. One is on retreat until the end of August with the Redemptoristines of Australia. Another is about to make a three-month live-in with the Benedictine nuns of Shaw Island, Washington.

Not counting the Cloisterite Hermits, we have five emerging Lay Associations of the Faithful. From these, we plan to found new apostolic religious communities. Those founding the communities gain more independence from us as they become more immersed in their work.

http://cloisters.tripod.com/conf/ Please see the "lay associations" page.

The members of the Gilbertines yahoo group are also forming a lay association. On the yahoo group we have priests, religious, and laity from all over the world. One female religious of the Traditional Anglican Church (the group about to be received en masse by Rome) has discerned that she will renew the Gilbertine nuns. Once the lay association is founded, and the nuns are renewed, we will consider Gilbertine spirituality as being renewed. Group member Fr. Carlos has founded the Confraternity of St. Gilbert for men in Brazil.

http://cloisters.tripod.com/gilbertinerenewal/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gilbertines/

Eremitical charisms are emerging, also. The Anchorites of Reparation, nicknamed the "White Caps" due to their future white Capuchin habits, are meant to imitate St. Colette of Corbie in her reclusive life in the anchorhold of her parish church. The White Caps plan to be attached to churches, as well. http://cloisters.tripod.com/anchorites/ They will wear purple cappas and make reparation in particular for the sin of Greed.

The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, formerly of Portsmouth, Ohio, have found a new home in Charlotte, NC. Their website is: http://www.stjosephmonastery.com/

Blessings,
Gemma

Coordinator on Sick Leave

2010-04-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

Gemma, Cloister Outreach Coordinator, will be on sick leave until the end of May. She is currently recouperating from surgery.

Cloister Outreach Responds to Hypercriticism

2010-03-09T08:48:00.000-08:00

Cloister Outreach is a private association of the faithful with international cooperators. The Coordinator, Gemma, is physically located in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina. Cloister Outreach's main purpose is the support of religious vocations, particularly to the cloister, and to emerging charisms and their founders/promoters. Under canon law, we have a right to exist. Indeed, we are compelled to action by Christian charity, which is actually encouraged under canon law.

We have recently come under fire regarding one of our projects, the Cloisterite Hermits. We stand with the vocations attracted to that charism--which is an entity separate from Cloister Outreach--and are working to correct a situation brought to our attention by our critics. Please see the Reparatrix Anchoresses' blog for an explanation of said situation.

http://reparatrixanchoresses.blogspot.com/

We Must be Doing Something Right

2009-10-04T15:49:00.000-07:00

Cloistered vocations steadily on the rise (scroll down to fourth paragraph):

http://www.cloisteredlife.com/

Spanish Monastery has to relocate due to overflowing novitiate (now has 140 nuns):

http://blogs.periodistadigital.com/religiondigital.php/2009/05/24/la-abadesa-del-milagro

Keep praying!

Blessings,
Gemma

Our Thoughts on the Apostolic Visitation

2009-09-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

Since Cloister Outreach has as one of its purposes in life making reparation for the misinterpretation of the Second Vatican Council in regards to the religious life, I have sensed our patrons wanting to know our opinion on the Apostolic Visitation.

For those who are not familiar with the terminology, the Apostolic Visitation is Rome's way of checking into the functionality (or dysfunctionality) of U.S. convents. Many of our readers who are not Catholic may remember that our nuns did a "now you see us, now you don't" number on the world back in the 1960s. That's part of the reason for the Apostolic Visitation. For further backstory, I would invite one to read "Sisters in Crisis" by Ann Carey. Along with the habit disappearing, there was a whole lot more naughtiness going on. Ms. Carey's book will explain.

I can comment on the A.V. from a variety of perspectives, but I'll choose three: vocational discerner; vocational facilitator; and religious community foundress.

I grew up in a state which had four motherhouses. Out of charity, I shall not say which orders they are. I will say that I was very drawn to the one outside of my hometown, and almost cooed one day when I saw them. I was a mere child of perhaps 5 at the time. A number of months later, two sisters walked into our store wearing "civies," and my dad asked where their habits were. "We don't have to wear those costumes anymore!" said one sister who wore a bright pink polyester pantsuit. I was a Baptist at the time, but was filled with mortal dread when I heard her say that. For whatever reason, I thought it very disrespective of Jesus.

Once grown, and trying to find my own vocation after becoming Catholic, I was attracted to the cloisters because they had retained the habit. I could not believe how the active sisters had all not only dumped the habit, but became almost vicious when anyone asked about wearing one. (I only wish someone had told me about the Order of Hermits which had been resurrected with the promulgation of the new Code of Canon Law in 1983). I was also appalled at some of the active sisters' "religious practices." Some other discerners had dubbed such communities as "wild." We were talking then about how what they were doing disqualified them from being called "Catholic," but I will discuss that as a foundress.

Fast forward to 1988 when Cloister Outreach was founded. I had met other cloister discerners at the Jesu Caritas retreat at the St. Cecilia Dominican Motherhouse, the one orthodox community I had been able to find. Another fast forward to the present, and we now have a yahoo group for ex-nuns. A majority of them left after the changes of the Second Vatican Council.

I'll just tell their circumstances, and you can decide.

One woman came to our yahoo group stating a friend's name for the sake of our Cloisterite Hermits' prayers. The friend had been very messed up by her convent--"women's spirituality" which is euphemism for neo-paganism with feminism/lesbianism thrown in for bad measure. I told our hermits that in such cases, they are a spiritual coast guard, and this soul was out there clinging to the driftwood from the VatII misinterpretation disaster. Go out and get her.

I had also given the yahoo group a prompt: There you were wearing your habit, praying in Latin, and then. . ."

One said she was called up to the superior's table during dinner, and was asked to open a package. Girly jammies.

Another said she was confronted by her superior about which name she was going to go by--the one she had or her baptismal name. (The latter was the new trend). She chose her religious name, and the superior made her life a living $%^.

Yet another said she was sent to one of their South American convents where she fell ill. They put her under a pyramid, and performed ancient pagan rituals.

Then there's "Tsunami Carl" as we've come to call the experience because it literally wiped a convent and college off the map. Anyone remember the IHMs of California? I believe I have this correct when I say that the book, "Lesbian Nuns" recounts their demise.

Charisms have gone extinct due to the changes. This should be a clue that the wrong thing had been done, and the "reform of the reform" was long overdue. How many Franciscan Congregations were in existence at the time of the council? How many have had to merge with others these days due to lack of vocations? The number is actually very staggering.

One of the major reasons why we have a healthcare crisis is due to the massive exodus of religious sisters who once served the poor. A 500 bed hospital in downtown St Louis now stands empty--except one small wing being used as a nursing home. The infirmary which was once conducted by the Sisters of St. Mary of St. Louis is standing empty, also. And that's just St Louis.

One "updated" monastery which has not had any vocations asked for us to promote them. I asked them whether or not a postulant/novice would be badly treated if they asked to wear a veil. I have not heard from them.

Along the same lines are the elderly sisters who have written a priest-psychologist asking for help because their rights were being violated by the "updated" sisters.

IMHO, the Apostolic Visitation should have taken place 40 years ago. I think there was a classic breakdown of communication between males (the Vatican) and females (the nuns). Men read in headlines, women read in details. The conciliar documents were the headlines; the A.V. would have supplied the details. A sister in modified habit, letting the nuns know what was expected, should have been conducted. Instead, charlatans who fancied themselves as the rightful interpreters of the conciliar documents injected their own agendas into the mix. Look where we are now.

As a foundress, I think there are some insights I can lend. I had mentioned previously that some convents need to have "Catholic" yanked from their name. This would be necessary because our emerging charisms can't be called "Catholic" until we pass muster with our local bishop.

"Go back to the ideas of your founders" said the council. Okay, so the sisters did. And they argue that the founders wore civies.

I notice that of the 50 or so founders on our founders' yahoo groups, that everyone starts in plain clothes. There are stages that new foundations have to go through, and that's part of it--working in the apostolate in plain clothes. This is known as a lay association of the faithful. Everyone lives in their own homes, too, while the rule is being discerned. Had the sisters read further, they would have seen that that was only the beginning, and that everything evolved. Charisms evolve. Going back to the original intentions of the founders had nothing to do with neo-paganism and feminism/lesbianism or dumping the habit.

So, when Cardinal Suenens (sp?) suggested in "The Nun in the World" that the sisters go live on their own, it makes me wonder as to his motivation. Why did he say that?

Then we have the 40 year-old argument that the veil was a sign of male domination. Bunk. Women cover their heads to honor the angels. I know I do. It's called "covering" and it's making a comeback. Covering can actually save a woman from rape/attack. I know because I've been there.

Now that the chips are down, and the Visitation is knocking at their doors, the "wiggy" sisters are saying, "We were only following orders!" Careful, ladies, the SS guards said the same thing at the Neuremburg Trials. They weren't excused on those grounds, either. Either shape up or take exclaustration. May the Holy Ghost be your guide.

Blessings, Gemma

Activities on hold

2009-07-31T04:12:00.001-07:00

My personal blog will explain.

Blessings,
Gemma

Pro-Lifers Appalled by Tiller Murder

2009-06-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

Cloister Outreach does not condone, in any fashion, the murder of those involved in the abortion industry. We pray for the Tiller family, that they may be more Christian about this than the murderer was.

Violence never resolves differences. Only prayer, and the graces given by Mary, the Mediatrix of Graces, will convert the pro-death faction to Life. We must appeal to consciences. That is the only recourse we have.

Blessings,
Gemma

Italian Poor Clare Abbess Killed in Quake

2009-04-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.ncregister.com/daily/abbess_dies_in_quake/

Blessings,
Gemma

Blog Will Not Be Updated Until Mid-February

2009-01-24T05:16:00.000-08:00

Due to the Coordinator's husband having back surgery on Monday, January 26, the blogs will not be updated until mid-February.

Blessings,
Gemma

Vocations Awareness Week

2009-01-12T05:39:00.001-08:00

January 12-17 is Vocations Awareness Week. Only Divine Providence could arrange the entrance of a long-time Cloister Outreach discerner into her new-found home in her native land during this week.

HM came to us just after we published our website in 2002. She was a member of the "Tiber Swim Team," I forget the precise year. She had tried her vocation in an Anglican order before she 'swam the Tiber,' and still felt she had a calling as a Catholic. My first impression was Benedictine, but she said she absolutely did not feel called to that, and was pulled to Carmel.

Footnote for another post at another time--converts are often pulled to Carmel 'right off the bat.'

She had looked at our proposed Cloisterites, and was even counted among the aspirants for a time. However, when we tried to arrange flights for her to the U.S., we both started feeling like lead balloons were around our necks. I told her that that was a sign in and of itself, and to discern further.

The spiritual state of her nation--the U.K.--had always distressed her, and she was feeling led to become a victim soul for the country, which is also known as Mary's Dowry. My Salesian training came out, and I told her not to go looking for the cross, that it would find her. Then she said that if she was going to pray for her country, she needed to be IN her country. That helped focus the discernment greatly. She was also a member of our Cloister Outreach Vocations Incubator (COVI) yahoo group, and had the prayerful support of others in her situation.

How she came upon the monastery she entered is beyond me. I know she spent a lot of time on the internet with her searching. A lot of the links we have on the Cloister Outreach website's "International Cloisters" page for the U.K. are a result of her research. (Thanks, HM)!

She told me that when she did find the website, she felt like she didn't need to search any further. She shared with us on COVI that she felt like running through the monastery when she finally arrived. I wrote back and told her I could imagine her doing that with her arms extended in front of her. She responded that that was exactly what she had wanted to do!

So, now, after years of discernment, she seems to have finally arrived where God wants her. The monastery is down to three nuns, but there has been renewed interest in their balanced way of life, so there is always hope.

http://cloisters.tripod.com/uk_osb_oulton/

Blessings,
Gemma

Some Topics Which Have Been Discussed Lately

2009-01-06T08:48:00.000-08:00

By the title, I'm talking mostly about our yahoo groups. I have had some email interactions with discerners, also.

Delayed vocations--still at the top of the list. The only "advice" we ever offer is to get oneself a spiritual director; frequent the Sacraments; adoration; and making novenas for vocational assistance. Also, start listening to oneself. I've been really struggling with some older women who say that a convent has to have this, that, and the other thing before they'll consider it. To that I say, get quiet, get to listening. The Holy Ghost may not be leading one in that direction. He works on attraction, and grace builds on nature. Don't tell God what to do.

The stickiest of subjects has also arisen--Same-Sex Attraction (SSA). From my own personal experience with the subject, I feel that I can share some insights into this frame of mind.

First and foremost, do not go declaring oneself as having same-sex attraction if it has not led one to actual physical interaction with the same sex.

In this day and age where we have a great lack of spiritual directors--and not hearing about such things as "temptation" from the pulpit anymore (or so it seems)--those who are suffering from temptations toward the same sex seem to think themselves doomed to such a lifestyle.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Get a Green Scapular and a St. Benedict medal (such a medal being part of a rosary is greatly preferred), and get to praying. Go to Confession, tell the confessor that you're being tempted, and that you need the grace to get over it.

Another aspect of same-sex attraction: 99.9 percent of the time it happens to those who have been sexually abused--usually during childhood. This is why, in our membership requirements for our Cloisterite Hermits, we ban "homosexuals," and ask them to write their autobiography.

When I was dealing with SSA, I knew that what I was feeling was wrong. So, what did I do? I PRAYED!!! I asked the Holy Ghost to let me know why I was experiencing SSA, and one of the first things He pointed out to me was that it was a form of self-comfort. Secondly, it was acting out what was performed--children perform that which they are taught, do they not? Thirdly, Satan was exploiting the situation and was trying to make me sin. The Bible taught that it was a sin; the Church teaches it's a sin; and my father's name would be made rubbish if I acted on these tempations. I simply could not do that to my dad.

I told my spiritual director that I was having flashbacks (and I was), and he said, "Get help now!"

To this day, I am grateful I never acted on SSA. I refused to follow the path that my perp put me on. He wanted me to be hurt, but I refused to let him hurt me anymore. When psychologists tell those with SSA that it's okay to act on their temptations, they are perps themselves--they are not healers. Being totally cured of SSA means having meaninful relationships with the opposite sex--and I don't necessarily mean marriage, either.

And please pardon the next paragraph--it is quite blunt.

SSA came up again when my son and I were in the grocery the other day, and a notoriously SSA fellow student was there at the same time. I could tell by the way he walked that he had been sodomized. Once we were in the car, I had to give my son a checklist of things to be wary of when it came to SSAs making more of their own: Rape; fondling the front; or grabbing the rear. My son was reeling. I told him, "If you're feeling sick, how do you think God feels?"

I will always believe that anyone who encourages the SSA lifestyle is a perpetrator. We have no idea how the SSA person got that way, but we have a responsibility to help them recover their memories and put their perps behind bars (or liberate them from their memories). When I revisited the house in my hometown where the abuse happened, I heard within my soul, "I AM A HURT CHILD." I related this to my mom, and she contacted the perp's daughter (who disowned him legally, I might add). Upon her investigation, I was correct. He had been horribly abused as a child, and perpetuated not only undifferentiated pedophilia (boys and girls both), but adultery, as well.

We were put on this Earth to do a job that only we can do. We were born with the sex that we're supposed to be. Anything else is falsehood. Because of the abuse that I suffered, I wanted a sex change at one time. I read a magazine article a few years ago about transgender teens. Good God, my heart bled for them.

Just because perps do it to the victim does not mean that the victim has to follow that way of life. Period. I say take back your life from the one who stole it from you.

So, in a roundabout way, I am saying that those persons who are discerning a vocation, but also have experienced SSA, or are currently under such demonic assault, need to get their Sacraments and sacramentals in line. Humbling oneself before God, and presenting the injured inner child to Jesus for healing also works. That's what I did. (My psychologist was Jewish, too, so that went over like a lead balloon in session).

After one has reconciled their memories, then they should continue their discernment into religious life. Any convent (or path to eremitism under c.603) will require a psychological evaluation, so go ahead and do it now.

Blessings,
Gemma

Our Yahoo Groups

2008-12-15T07:39:00.000-08:00

Cloister Outreach sponsors several yahoo groups, and they're not just for discerners. We have vocational discerners; those who support such a group; and those just interested in learning more about Catholicism.

The first one we took over--Women in Discernment--is open primarily to women discerning religious vocations. When I say we took it over, the owner had planned to enter a monastery, and we took it over for her.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/womenindiscernment/

I don't recall which ones came after that. We open them according to discerners' needs. Here are the others:

Young Vocations (for those 17 and younger):

http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/young_vocations/

Delayed Vocations (ages 30 and older):

http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/delayed_vocations/

Ecclesia Dei Vocations (those attracted to the Extraordinary Form of the Latin Rite/Latin Mass):

http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/Ecclesia_Dei_Vocations/

Nearly Nun Club (for women who were in religious life, but had to leave for one reason or another):

http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/nearly_nun_club/

Catholic Vocations Asia (for those discerners in that part of the world):
http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/catholic_vocations_asia/

Pardon the spacing there. The system has done something weird.

Other yahoo groups owned by Cloister Outreach:

Our own group: http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/cloister_outreach/

The Religious Habit: http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/thereligioushabit/

Gilbertines (extinct English order): http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/gilbertines/

Cloister Outreach Vocations Incubator (COVI): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/COVI/

COVI is for those who have been in discernment for a number of years. The "incubator" is dedicated to the Holy Ghost.

For Founders:

Private/by-invitation-only: http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/founders_forum/

Accessible to the public: http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/founders_and_friends/

For those embracing lay eremitism/monasticism: http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/cloisteroftheheart/

The only consecrated eremitics permitted on the "cloister of the heart" group are those who support lay eremitism/monasticism.

Then, there are the groups just for Cloister Outreach's projects:

Reparatrices of Charity of the Immaculate Conception

Homepage: http://cloisters.tripod.com/charity/

Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/RCIC_Vocations/

Reparatrix Anchoresses of Our Lady of the Cloister:

Homepage: http://cloisters.tripod.com/cloisterites/

Blog: http://reparatrixanchoresses.blogspot.com/

We do not publish the address for the hermits' yahoo group.

If anyone is interested in starting a seminarians' cyberlounge group, please let us know. If there is an active one already in existence, please let us know that one also, and we'll link to it.

Blessings,
Gemma

Cloisterite Hermits begin formation

2008-11-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

Albeit online, the Cloisterite Hermits have begun their formation.

We are going slowly, and have other hermits assisting us.

The hermits' blog is available at: http://reparatrixanchoresses.blogspot.com/

Before familial circumstances beyond my control popped up, we had been planning for the formation to take 2 years. Now, it may take 3. However, that being said, I would rather take things slowly than to rush into something that takes 10 years to undo. That is also the advice of someone who had been in a new foundation elsewhere.

Blessings,
Gemma

Pro Orantibus this Friday, Nov. 21

2008-11-17T15:07:00.000-08:00

"Pro Orantibus Day" ('For those who pray') is this Friday, November 21.

Please remember your favorite cloistered religious orders and their vocations on this day.

We will also be starting the Cloisterite Hermits' foundation in earnest. There will be more information on the foundations' blog: http://reparatrixanchoresses.blogspot.com/

Blessings,
Gemma

British monasteries & American women

2008-11-12T14:20:00.000-08:00

British monasteries have a lot to offer older women, but those who have grown up in warmer climates need to discern these monasteries a bit further.

An older vocation from South America, whom I just debriefed after her British "nun run," said that she would suggest those from colder climates look into the British monasteries. British heating systems are different from those in the U.S., also.

The situation in the UK is getting dire where vocations are concerned. There will be a few Discalced Carmelite monasteries who follow the 1991 Constitutions merging due to this shortage.

Cloister Outreach built an "unofficial" site for the Benedictines of the Immaculate Conception at Oulton Abbey, where a discerner we've been working with for several years has discerned as being her possible "True Home." Here's the link: http://cloisters.tripod.com/uk_osb_oulton/

Blessings,
Gemma