Extern Sisters

[Sister Leticia]

Crucesignata - I'm wondering whether your question arose from feeling a strong attraction to Carmelite spirituality, but not to enclosure? If so, then there are some non-enclosed/semi-enclosed Carmelite communities. I don't personally know any of them, I only know about them, so I couldn't tell you more about how they live the Carmelite charism "in the world". One that I've heard of has 3 communities here in England, and one in the US, but is mainly in the Caribbean http://ocarm.org/en/content/corpus-christi-carmelites

But if that wasn't the reason for your query, and you simply feel a call to be an extern, then you'd better say so quickly, before other helpful people fill this thread with suggestions of non-enclosed Carmelites!

[Crucesignata]

Wow!  SO many posts!  Thank you so much for all the info!    

Yes, Sister Leticia, I am indeed discerning specifically the extern Carmelite vocation; thanks for calling for clarification!   I'll respond to the other posts tonight... when I get more time to sift through them, lol.  ^_^

In Corde Matris,

 

Crucesignata

[Crucesignata]

On 10/15/2018 at 5:11 PM, JHFamily said:

I would suggest, also, that just because a community doesn't currently have an extern, it doesn't necessarily follow that they wouldn't be open to having one.

Yes! I do have a specific community in mind—they used to have externs up until rather recently.  But formation things have changed (the top down from Rome changes) and  there isn’t a whole lot that they had on the life.  I’m just trying to find more information on the extern vocation kind of in general—although specifically Carmelite extern information would be amesome.  ^_^

[JHFamily]

I can tell you what I think I know.  The externs are formed  with the rest of the novitiate, and their roles as externs are only begun after first vows, and then only a little at a time.  The one that I have had experience with spends very little time out of the cloister.  She does help Father each morning with anything he needs and attends Mass in the public chapel, but then whoosh, she is back in the cloister again.  No hanging around talking to the laity.  However, go to the turn, and she is there greeting those visitors.

Their turn room has visiting hours so that the extern can live the full liturgical life of the rest of the community.   She takes care of the public areas -- when they are all locked up.  Her cell is inside the cloister.  I get the impression she is very integrated into the community, and there is no feeling whatsoever that she is "different".

I think of the extern much like the "runners" at a law office.  Her main duty is to be at the service of everyone else, so no telling where she will be or what she will be doing.  But she'll be "running" (at a Carmelite pace, of course).

Some of the usual duties of an extern are mitigated at this Carmel because they also have caretakers that do their shopping, driving to appointments, picking up aspirants at the airport, etc.  Some Carmels have their externs do this work.  And so, it's the usual answer given on phatmass... it depends on the community.  Contact them.

There is a section in "The Right to be Merry" wherein Mother Francis talks about externs.  If you've ever seen that book, you might want to read at least that portion.

[truthfinder]

Again, this is one of those things which differs community to community.  Too bad @Sr Mary Catharine OP wasn't posting here anymore; her community of Dominicans has extern nuns, and I think they reflect what JHFamily writes, as well as going out to some vocation events.  PCPAs, at least in Hanceville a decade ago, had an extern large enough that they were essentially a family within a family, had their own, separate place within the community and probably would have dined and recreated together.  (In my own research, waaayy back in the day, in cloistered teaching communities, the mother assistant was often in charge of the extern/lay sisters.)

Here's one Carmel's page on externs: they don't have any right now, but they do seem welcoming of those who believe it might be their vocation: https://lorettocarmel.org/extern-sisters-guardians-of-the-enclosure/

[Crucesignata]

4 hours ago, truthfinder said:

Here's one Carmel's page on externs: they don't have any right now, but they do seem welcoming of those who believe it might be their vocation: https://lorettocarmel.org/extern-sisters-guardians-of-the-enclosure/

Lol yep that’s the community I’m discerning with. ^_^ Thanks so much!  

@JHFamily, this is amesome! I have A Right to be Merry somewhere, but I totally missed the part on externs, lol. Thanks for the snapshot look into the life, too. <3

 

[JHFamily]

If that's not Divine Providence, I don't know what is.

[andibc]

Nunsuch, Perfectae caritatis doesn't suppress lay sisters, it discourages a particular type of discrimination that sometimes developed.  I know of at least a dozen monasteries with lay sisters or brothers and they are in conformity with Perfectae caritatis #15 based on what I have seen.

[Nunsuch]

ANDIBC: While lay sisters are not suppressed, they are strongly discouraged. Why anyone would want or need lay sisters in this day and age is entirely beyond me, and I've researched and published pretty extensively on the subject....

Lay brothers are something different, in that men can also be clerics in religious institutes. 

[graciandelamadrededios]

The Nuns of Carmel of St. Therese in Gilmore, Manila produced a commemorative book that chronicles the foundation of their monastery.  They celebrated their Diamond Jubilee last 2001.  The title of said book is:

 

Carmel of St. Therese

75 Years

1926 November 24 2001

 

The following lines are dedicated to their beloved Extern Sisters:

 

Community: Extern Sisters

 

            We are a strictly enclosed Community meaning that, except for some justifiable reasons allowed by our Constitutions, we simply stay inside the main building of our Monastery.  We don't even go out and attend Mass inside our very own chapel, but attend Mass in the Choir inside the enclosure!  Even for minor ailments not needing hospital care, we rely on our own infirmary and infirmarians.  You may therefore wonder how come you see some Carmelite Sisters outside of our enclosure.  You may also wonder how in the world we do some necessary temporal affairs like purchasing, running errands here and there, etc.  We may profess to live with our sights set on heaven but we are not angels and we still have to live by the rules and trades of the world.

 

            Well, for these reasons and more, we do have our Sister-angels!  They are called Extern Sisters (while those inside the enclosure can be referred to as the Cloistered Sisters).  We are not really different.  For all intents and purposes, both the Extern and Cloistered Sisters are Carmelite Sisters, monghas, in the strict and essential meaning of our vocation.  The only difference is one of geography:  Extern Sisters pray and work outside the enclosure while the Cloistered pray and work inside the enclosure.

 

            In a real sense, our Extern Sisters are our eyes and ears.  They are our connection with the rhythm of everyday living.  They are our lifeline with the goings-on of daily life outside our walls:  the horrendous traffic, the skyrocketing prices, the floods, and the hassles and bustles of life.  And during our first years, they were literally our breadwinners!  For you they are our front-liners, so to speak.  They are your more ready access of Sisters to talk with, of Sisters to ask for prayers, of Sisters to unburden your cares on.

 

 

Before Vatican II, Extern Sisters are not really part of the Second Order which consists of Cloistered Nuns.  They belong to the Third Order Regular attached to the monastery they are serving.  They also wore different religious habit and veil.

After Vatican II reforms, they are incorporated to the Second Order following the same constitutions, but with separate statutes that governs their status as Extern Sisters.

 

 

With regards to the habit of the Extern Sisters after Vatican II reform, they now wear the same habit of the cloistered sisters, no distinction anymore.  Other Externs wear modified habit of the Order while the cloistered still wears the traditional full habit.

 

 

[graciandelamadrededios]

I checked my copy of the 1991 Rule and Constitutions of the Discalced Nuns of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel:

 

Extern Sisters

 

182.  If the Chapter so decides, a monastery may have some extern sisters aggregated to it.  These are religious engaged in the extern service of the monastery in order to allow the nuns to maintain an entirely contemplative way of life. 

 

          Externs are called by God to a special vocation.  By the profession of public simple vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, the consecrate themselves totally to the Lord and join the family of the Teresian Carmel, whose charism they share, by means of incorporation into the monastery in whose service they pledge themselves.

 

          Everything having to do with their admission and formation, their condition in law, and their rights and obligations will be set down in a special statute, approved by the Apostolic See5, with due regard for the norms established by universal law.

 

5See preamble, no. 3 to, the Instruction De sororibus externo monasterium servitio ddictis, 1961.

 

The erection and suppression of monasteries

 

205. The monastery or the monasteries which undertake a new foundation must have a sufficient number of nuns to provide for the new house without undermining their own strength and compromising their future.

 

          In order to proceed to proceed to erect a new monastery, there must be at least eight religious, not counting the postulants and extern sisters, of whom six must be chapter sisters.  They must have freely accepted the transfer to the new monastery and must be endowed with appropriate spiritual qualities and sufficiently prepared for the environmental and cultural conditions of the new foundation.

 

Election of the Prioress

 

 

228.  In the election of the Prioress, in addition to the chaptern nuns, by judgment of the Chapter of the monastery, the extern sisters in perpetual vows may have active voice.

 

*Active Voice “ the right to vote"

*Passive Voice “ the right to be voted for (a position)"