Happy nuns?

[28yrolddiscerner]

Which convent or Monastery you have visited has the most positive and cheerful women?

thank you!

[shieldmaiden19]

The communities I'm most familiar with are the Daughters of St. Paul, the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth and the Colettine Poor Clares, and every woman I've encountered in any of these orders is cheerful as anything.

[Nunsuch]

I think sisters are like anyone else; they are human. Everyone has a bad day every once in awhile. But most of the sisters I know--and I know people in literally dozens of congregations--are generally joy-filled.  That, of course, is different from "cheerful," but it is also, I think, more important. And a lot are, of course, cheerful, good-humored, and so on. They are almost always happy--otherwise, why would they have stayed?

[Dymphna]

Well, technically they don't live in convents, but the Medical Mission Sisters (MMS) I met impressed me with their positive attitude while being very "down to earth" a the same time. That may be part of their charism.

I wouldn't use this as sole criterion for discernment, and certainly each community has members who are prone to a somewhat more gloomy outlook on life - as nunsuch said, they are human, which means that some of them will be Eeyore . But I know there are sisters who stay in their community mostly because they feel they have no alternative - eg. they are older and don't dare to start a new life outside. In my eyes, this doesn't necessarily mean that they are not living their vocation - but it doesn't make a cheerful nun. And if there are too many sisters with such problems in a community, then it can affect the dynamics of the whole group and have a negative influence on the work of the community as well as the mental state of all the sisters. So for me, cheerfulness does matter, a bit.

[nikita92]

22 hours ago, Nunsuch said:

I think sisters are like anyone else; they are human. Everyone has a bad day every once in awhile. But most of the sisters I know--and I know people in literally dozens of congregations--are generally joy-filled.  That, of course, is different from "cheerful," but it is also, I think, more important. And a lot are, of course, cheerful, good-humored, and so on. They are almost always happy--otherwise, why would they have stayed?

What tops your list as the MOST cheerful?? 

[Nunsuch]

2 hours ago, nikita92 said:

What tops your list as the MOST cheerful?? 

I think this is not a particularly helpful question, and I think virtually all the sisters I know would agree with me. It is rather superficial, as I tried to indicate in my initial response. Giddiness is not necessarily a positive quality.

[Sister Leticia]

In the Fourth Week of the Spiritual Exercises the retreatant prays with the Resurrection and Jesus' appearances, and encouraged to pray constantly for the grace of joy. This doesn't mean a skipping, singing, bouncy, cheery sort of emotion, but what Michael Ivens SJ describes as: "the joy which springs from a still-more fundamental grace, that of the faith and love that make the risen Christ, though invisible, the very core of the believer's existence."

This is a quiet, deep joy which can act as a leaven, permeating us even in times of trial, setbacks or difficulty - a joy which is a true God-given grace. And this is the kind of joy religious are called to radiate: not some kind of Pollyanna positivity or cheer, but something deeper, and more unshakeable, even if the person is having a bad time, or is naturally Eeyore. It's an amazing grace I have experienced for myself.

And it's what Pope Francis encouraged and affirmed us in during the Year of Consecrated Life, when he wrote:

What in particular do I expect from this Year of grace for consecrated life?

1. That the old saying will always be true: “Where there are religious, there is joy”. We are called to know and show that God is able to fill our hearts to the brim with happiness; that we need not seek our happiness elsewhere; that the authentic fraternity found in our communities increases our joy; and that our total self-giving in service to the Church, to families and young people, to the elderly and the poor, brings us life-long personal fulfilment.

None of us should be dour, discontented and dissatisfied, for “a gloomy disciple is a disciple of gloom”. Like everyone else, we have our troubles, our dark nights of the soul, our disappointments and infirmities, our experience of slowing down as we grow older. But in all these things we should be able to discover “perfect joy”. For it is here that we learn to recognize the face of Christ, who became like us in all things, and to rejoice in the knowledge that we are being conformed to him who, out of love of us, did not refuse the sufferings of the cross.

[A_Quieter_Love]

Trappistines!! OCSO