A Day In The Life

[MonjaFutura]

Anyone know what a day in the life of an active-contemplative nun would be? In case you don't know, these are nuns that are something in between cloistered and active nuns. Thanks for your input :)!

[Spem in alium]

I think it would depend specifically on the order, their charism and their apostolate. The order I have applied to is contemplative-active, and the structure is something like this:

Mon-Fri looks something like this: Morning Prayer is at 7AM, followed by Mass at 7:30. At 8AM, the Sisters meet for breakfast and afterwards all move to their individual ministries (hospitals, universities, childcare, parishes). They stay there most of the day. At 12PM, they pray the Angelus wherever they are. They meet again at the convent for evening prayer and the Rosary around 5PM, and afterwards have dinner and time for relaxation. Throughout the day, they are also expected to spend at least half an hour before the Blessed Sacrament.

 

Saturday is a free day for the Sisters. They can go to Mass as a group, but they pray Office individually and privately. Some Sisters will still do work on Saturdays, while others take more time to be in the garden, catch up on housework or do some relaxing activity. They take breakfast together usually, but have lunch and dinner whenever they need it.

 

Sunday begins with Morning Prayer at 7:30 and Mass around 9AM, and the Sisters again have the day mostly to themselves. I think they pray Evening Prayer in their own time.

 

Hope this is helpful. :)

[hoosieranna]

Many communities have their horarium on their community site.  It's often called something like "horarium" or "a typical day."  I'd visit the sites of the communities you're interested and see if you can find it.  There is a lot of variation-some lean more contemplative while others are more active.

Edited September 10, 2014 by Nadezhda

[Strictlyinkblot]

Both the DSMMEs and the Nashville Dominicans have a very detailed horarium on their websites

[IgnatiusofLoyola]

I'm showing my ignorance and lack of real-life first-hand experience. I'm not sure exactly how an "active-contemplative" Order/Community differs from an "active" community.

 

If most members of a Community spend most of the day, five days a week in a ministry outside the monastery, I think of that as an "active" community. So, I think of well-known Communities such as the Nashville Dominicans and the DSMMEs as "active" commmunities.

 

BTW--I make no distinction in terms of holiness or truly giving their lives to God between members of active Communities and cloistered contemplative Communities. I don't think either one is "better," other than one type of calling being better for an individual religious Sister/nun, because it best suits her gifts and temperament, and most importantly, because that is where God has called her.

 

So, how does an "active-contemplative" community differ from an "active" Community? Or a "contemplative" one?

 

Thanks in advance for clearing this up for me. After more than four years on Phatmass, I should know this by now.

[krissylou]

I think officially there are two categories: active and contemplative.  Those which describe themselves as "active/contemplative" are officially active.

 

That having been said, different communities can have different emphases.  Some will understand their religious lives as first and foremost lives of prayer and their active ministry flows out of that prayer.  Others put more emphasis on finding God through serving God and God's people in the apostolate and their prayer flows out of their work.

 

This doesn't mean that the second ones don't have a regular prayer schedule or don't think that prayer is really important, they're just slightly different in how they frame things.  And obviously the line is pretty squishy.  But the communities that see work-as-flowing-out-of-prayer more than prayer-flowing-out-of-work are more likely to describe themselves as "active/contemplative."

[marigold]

I've also seen mention on here that if they describe themselves as 'active-contemplative' then they are more active; if they say 'contemplative-active' then they are more contemplative. If it's an important distinction to those communities then maybe it's worth talking about if you're interested in them?

[truthfinder]

Pre-Vatican II semi-contemplative was an actual category, but it got suppressed (along with lay sisters). At that time, it meant that sisters were typically cloistered to a greater extent than active sisters.  This meant they may run schools but the school was within the cloister, etc.  

 

One of the best active/contemplative communities that I'm aware of (and I don't mean in terms of quality, I'm not implying that, I mean in the distribution of their hours), is the Children of Mary.  They have very set times where they go out and "do" things, but still have a very heavy contemplative prayer schedule.  

[maximillion]

I have to say that for me any community that has an apostolate that carries them out of the convent for hours at a time or for most of the day is not contemplative and I further have personal difficulty with the notion of being semi contemplative. The needs of the apostolate and the needs of contemplation are different.

 

Different in focus, different in horarium and lifestyle requirements and a different form of relationship with God. I am not saying that one is better than the other.  Praise God we have both forms. But a sort of hybrid.......I have my doubts, and without wishing to spark debate, IMO any community that says they are semi contemplative or active-contemplative is in reality active.

 

I just don't see how you can give the time to prayer, silence, adoration, the LOTH  and community life that I think being contemplative demands in order for it to really mean something, as well as spend 4-6 hours five days a week teaching, nursing or whatever.

 

As noted above, the Children of Mary, thier horarium reads like that of any monastic community, the only difference that I can see is that they are not enclosed and so some of their stated work periods take place outside of the convent.

[petitpèlerin]

The Apostolic Sisters of Saint John. This is a typical weekday in a house of formation, since I can't find one posted of an apostolic priory. But since I know them, and their brothers who live the same life, I can say that their prayer life takes priority over their apostolate. They only take on apostolic work after careful and prayerful consideration of whether it or not it would interfere with their prayer life, which is uniform in the community throughout the world and not subject to interpretation or compromise: liturgy of the hours 4 times a day, ~2 hours of silent prayer/adoration, and mass, at minimum. Lectio divina throughout the week as well, other spiritual reading, and whatever personal devotions a person chooses. The whole community has one "desert day" a week: a day reserved for solitude and prayer. (I love that about them and I've found other communities that have a "day off for prayer" on a monthly basis, none on a weekly one.) Even the contemplative sisters (who have no apostolate, only work within the monastery) have a weekly desert day! This community is serious about keeping its members grounded in prayer.

http://www.communityofstjohn.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=66%3Aapostolic-sisters&catid=38%3Athe-community&Itemid=27&limitstart=7

Edited September 13, 2014 by petitpèlerin