Association Of Catholic Bloggers

(From The Cloistered Heart)

How can a man or woman leave home, possessions, career, entertainment - and so many things the world considers important - in order to take up residence behind monastery walls?      For what reason would a person even consider such a thing? (click to continue)

As one striving to live 'cloistered in heart,' I look upon my life, even my body, as a 'monastery.' I can be a place where God is loved, served, lived for in the midst of the world. I do not stand out from people around me. I look like members of my family, dress like other women my age, talk like everyone else. No one passing me on the sidewalk would cry out 'why, look at that - there goes a walking monastery!' Yet my prayers and babysteps toward holiness happen, in large part, right in the midst of everyday life. Standing shoulder to shoulder with others, in the middle of the world all around me, I'm situated precisely where I need to be.... . (read the rest here...)

(from The Cloistered Heart)

(from The Cloistered Heart)

It's a bad time of year to be hurting.  Not that there is a good time for pain, of course, but the weeks around Christmas and New Year's can be particularly poignant for some. I suspect many of us have had such seasons. Times when we can't be with loved ones, or a relative or close friend has died, or we've suffered a miscarriage, or we're sick, or we've lost our job, or there is illness in the family.  Even the time of year can make us feel blue.  Here in the northern hemisphere, night falls early in these months of bleak midwinter. We may be struggling to adjust to the long, long, long dark. For anyone reading this who is sad, in pain, or maybe just wishing the holidays would be over and gone - know that you're not alone. In fact, you are so 'not alone' that I'm going to ask a favor of everyone reading this..... (continue)

Sometimes the activities of Advent and Christmas can feel like an intrusion. Day to day life is more or less put on hold by an urgent need to shop and wrap and plan. Chairs and tables are displaced by, of all things, a tree in the middle of our house.  There is no time to do ordinary things, as everyday life is seriously disrupted for weeks on end. It can seem like a major interruption.   A few years ago, the truth of it hit me. This is what Christmas has been since the instant of the Incarnation: an interruption. Please stay with me here, because our first reaction to the word “interruption” could be negative.  But interruptions are often quite positive, and this Interruption was the most positive of them all.... (continue...)

In the midst of a secular, godless, 'we're-doing-fine-by-ourselves' world, there appears in this one season a window of opportunity. There is a slot, a crack in the Everyday. A few short weeks during which the whisper of God might be heard through carol or card.... (continue)

'To eyes which know how to find it, there is in the  least luxuriant season of the year a beauty which is entirely sufficient.....' (continue..)

 (from The Cloistered Heart)

From The Cloistered Heart

(continue...)

'What does it mean to be saints? Who is called to be a saint? Often it is thought that holiness is a goal reserved for a few chosen ones. St. Paul, however, speaks of God's great plan... (continue)

'We know but too well that we deteriorate by our friction with the world.  Our clothes get worse for the wear, and so do our souls...' (continue)

(From The Cloistered Heart)

Without prayer,  nothing good is done......   continue

 (from The Cloistered Heart)

(from The Cloistered Heart)

Taking a block of time for prayer each day can be a life-changer. Yet keeping the commitment to do so is a struggle for me. I sometimes put it off until I'm ready to fall into bed, and then find myself omitting it entirely. I wonder what I might have missed on such days. What inspiration, guidance and insights did God have waiting for me? Were there special gifts? Was there a precious jewel that I left, ignored and unwrapped, while I ooohed and aaahed over the world's offerings of glitter and plastic? (continue...)

While our Sisters and Brothers in monasteries are chanting Vespers, we who live 'in the world' may well be in the busiest time of our day. The world, at Vespers-time, is right in the middle of rush hour. It is when many are leaving work, pouring into roads and trains to make the journey home. Some of us are preparing an evening meal, knowing that growling tummies will not be soothed if we hide away in prayer corners to sing and chant praise. So we do what must be done.... (click to continue)