Their life is a reminder to all
Christian people of the fundamental vocation of everyone
to come to God.
[4]
Cloistered nuns fulfill that mission
by dwelling in the missionary heart of the Church,
by means of constant prayer, the oblation of self and offering of the
sacrifice of praise. Their life thus becomes a mysterious source of
apostolic fruitfulness and blessing for the Christian community and far the
whole world. [7]
A Prophetic Life
A Life for the World
In a
spirit of freedom and hospitality, with the tenderness of Christ, nuns bear
in their hearts the suffering and anxieties of all those who seek their
help, and indeed of all men and women. Deeply attuned to the
experiences of the Church and of people today, they cooperate spiritually in
building the kingdom of Christ so that
"God may be everything to everyone."
1 Cor
15:28 [#8]
A Missionary Life
The pilgrim Church is by her very nature
missionary;
therefore mission is also essential to institutes
of contemplative life.
A Life for the Church
...Cloistered nuns are fully within
the communion
of the Church, becoming a unique sign of the entire
Christian community's
intimate union with God.
The contemplative life is the nuns
particular way of being the Church, of building the communion of the Church,
of fulfilling the mission for the good of the whole Church. Cloistered
cuntemplatives therefore are not asked to be involved in the new forms of
active presence, but to remain at the wellspring of Trinitarian communion,
dwelling at the very heart of the Church.
[6]
Through prayer, especially the
celebration of the liturgy, and their daily self-offering,
they intercede for the
whole people of God and unite themselves to Jesus Christ's
thanksgiving to the Father.
[6]
Their life is
entirely dedicated to God,
loved above all else, in a ceaseless straining towards the heavenly
Jerusalem....Their life is a foreshadowing of the goal towards which the
entire community of the Church journeys, in order to live forever as
the Bride of the Lamb.
[4]
A Life of Love
The contemplative nun fulfills
to the highest
degree the First Commandment of the
Lord. [#5]
Separation from the world...gives a Eucharistic quality to the
whole 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 Son. [#3]
A Marian Life
Cloistered nuns see themselves
especially in
the Virgin Mary, Bride
and Mother,
figure of the Church...[#1]
Nuns relive and perpetuate in the Church the presence and the
work of Mary. Welcoming the Word
in faith and adoring silence, they put themselves at the service of the
mystery of the
Incornation, and united to Jesus Christ in His offering of Himself to the
Father, they
became co-workers in the mystery of the Redemption. Just as in the
Upper Room, Mary in her heart, with her prayerful presence, watched over the
origins of the Chruch, so too now the Church's
journey is entrusted to the loving heart and prayerful hands of the
cloistered nuns. [#4]
A Eucharistic Life
The ancient spiritual tradition of the
Church, taken up by the Second Vatican Council,
explicitly connects the contemplative life
to the prayer of Jesus
"on the mountain," or a solitary place not
accessible
to all but only to those whom He calls to be with Him,
apart from the others.
[#3]
A Christocentric Life
Fixing their gaze upon Jesus Christ
...they wholly cleave to the Lord.
A Hidden Life
The solitary cell, the closed cloister,
are the place where the nun,
Bride of the Incarnate
Word,
lives wholly
consecrated with Christ in God.
A Life of Prayer
In their undivided attention to the
Father's word; "This is my beloved Son, with whom
I am well pleased" Mt
3:17,
and in their loving acceptance of that
word, cloistered nuns are always
"with Him on the holy mountain." 2
Pt 1:17-18 [#1]
The Meaning and Value of the Contemplative Life
Excerpts from "Verbi Sponsa" ("The Spouse of
the Word")
The Church's instruction on the Contemplative Life
and the Enclousure of Nuns.
The Life of a contemplative nun is. . . .
It is charity, poured into their
hearts by the Holy Spirit, which makes nuns co-workers of the truth,
participants in Christ's work of Rememption, and through their vital union
with other members of the
Mystical Body makes their lives fruitful, wholly directed to the pursuit of
charity, for the good of all.
[7]
