The Other PCPA's

[uruviel]

[quote name='jgirl' date='Apr 16 2006, 05:30 PM']Yes I am, but if you are wondering any specific details about the order itself, you'd be better off asking the Sisters than me! They know more than I do!
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that's wonderful!!! Congratulations. I have gotten a good amount of info from Sixtina, she wants to enter. Do you think I could have their address? Do they have a website?

[HisChild]

Lori,

Pardon me for butting in. . .here is their website, which has all their contact info.

[url="http://www.sisterservants.com/"]http://www.sisterservants.com/[/url]

[stlmom]

It's such a wonderful thing to see a monastery have a new chance at life again. It takes a lot of faith and discernment for someone to enter where he/she might be the first postulant in a number of years with no guarantees that others will follow. Those who do surely deserve lots of prayer support.

[HisChild]

Oh, isn't that the truth? I think that's so important to look at when you are discerning. . .not if you feel others will quickly join you, but if you feel called to the community by what you experience 'today'.

[be_thou_my_vision]

[quote name='PCPA2Be' date='Apr 17 2006, 11:00 AM']The sisters who choose to enter the monastery in Alabama are called to enter there.  Each monastery is pretty different from the next.  I have visited all 3 monasteries (AL, OH, and AZ).  Even though they all stem from the same community, I can see big differences already.  So, knowing that each community is different, should point out the obvious that it would be like asking the Nashville Dominicans, for instance, to go help out a community of Dominicans that aren't getting any vocations.  There's a reason for that, and a reason why women are entering Nashville (I'm sorry, I'm just picking on them as they have a lot of vocations) and not the ones with no vocations or very few.  However. . .just to put forth a hypothetical. . . .

First they have to be invited by the bishop of the diocese to come and help.  The bishop is the one who initially invited the sisters to come to the diocese, even if it was another bishop, and so, in order to make what will more than likely be big changes, he's got to approve that change.  The bishop needs to see that there is a crisis within the monastery, requiring assistance. I believe there are still 7-8 nuns in DC.  I'm not sure. The last picture I saw of them even shows one novice.

Second, the remaining sisters have to want that help.  At the time, in Ohio, there were 3
88-yr old nuns and one in her 40s.  Two of the elderly nuns have Alzheimers, requiring care that the remaining two could no longer provide, and after those two were placed in a home, that left two. One preferred to go to the other Ohio monastery in Cleveland, where she'd be part of a larger community.

At Portsmouth, the sisters who were left (those 4 initially) wore a completely different habit, and their rule was a little different.  Even much of their horarium was different.  (you can see one of the remaing original Portsmouth nuns in a pic on their website with a different veil)  The sisters who remain have to agree to various changes. 

But before there is help provided to another community, the sisters within the larger community have to feel called to help.  Initially there were 3 who felt called to go to OH, but when they were asked to stay, only 2 felt called to remain.  Same thing with AZ.  6 felt called to go there, but in the end, after a brief stay, the 6th didn't feel called to remain.  And since it's a monastery and not a missionary or active order, it's not required of a nun to go someplace other  than where she entered.  Her vows are to the monastery where she entered.  Cloistered life is very dfferent that way.

When they first arrived in Ohio, the sisters told the bishop that they weren't sure how they could be of any help as their life was much different than that of the sisters who remained.  The bishop then said. . .since there couldn't be divided lives (different schedules, different rules, etc.), he asked if the AL sisters would be willing to remain to re-establish the monastery.  This would mean that the AL nuns take over, so to speak, being the new superior, etc.  That's got to be accepted by the sisters who remain, a shift in authority.

So, there's lot of factors that go into going to another community.  And since there's no crisis in the DC monastery, there would be no reason for them to go to help.
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Okay, thanks! That helps... How are the communities different from one monestary to the next? They are all PCPA's, aren't they? That's very interesting.

[HisChild]

Each monastery, once there are 9 (I believe) professed nuns, they become independent from the monastery they came from. (I believe that was how it was explained to me). Once independent they are self governing. Many other orders are the same way. Although there are a couple of monasteries that are interdependent, but in other orders, not the PCPA.

Each monastery has its own mother superior, of course. By their very numbers there are different, first off. For example, the sister in Portsmouth, will exhibit a different spirit than Hanceville, simply because one has 8(included the two who aren't living there, but in a nursing home) and one has almost 50. That brings a different spirit already.

Some have different habits. Some have a lot of young sisters, some only older sisters.

Some follow a different horarium. For instance, some may not be perpetual adoration simply because of the lack of numbers to do so. Each one I visited had different devotional prayers. Some pray more in Latin, some more in English. Some have more silence than the others. Some allow for TV/movies. Some don't. Some are more austere in their observation of their life, some are a little more 'relaxed' in some rules. Each is different.

Some may have externs, some may have to do the duties they externs would normally do, on their own. Some have monasteries more modern looking, some more 'poor' looking, some more grand. It just depends. All those things, whether external or not, each have an effect, intentional or not, on how the community operates and presents, making each unique. Does that help at all?

yours in Christ,
Denise

[uruviel]

[quote name='PCPA2Be' date='Apr 17 2006, 01:50 PM']Lori,

Pardon me for butting in. . .here is their website, which has all their contact info.

[url="http://www.sisterservants.com/"]http://www.sisterservants.com/[/url]
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no it's ok, and I'm stupid because I've been to their website before! I think I have it in my favorites, I completely forgot about it!

[be_thou_my_vision]

[quote name='PCPA2Be' date='Apr 17 2006, 04:35 PM']Each monastery, once there are 9 (I believe) professed nuns, they become independent from the monastery they came from.  (I believe that was how it was explained to me).  Once independent they are self governing.  Many other orders are the same way.  Although there are a couple of monasteries that are interdependent, but in other orders, not the PCPA.

Each monastery has its own mother superior, of course.  By their very numbers there are different, first off.  For example, the sister in Portsmouth, will exhibit a different spirit than Hanceville, simply because one has 8(included the two who aren't living there, but in a nursing home) and one has almost 50.  That brings a different spirit already.

Some have different habits.  Some have a lot of young sisters, some only older sisters.

Some follow a different horarium.  For instance, some may not be perpetual adoration simply because of the lack of numbers to do so.  Each one I visited had different devotional prayers.  Some pray more in Latin, some more in English.  Some have more silence than the others.  Some allow for TV/movies.  Some don't.  Some are more austere in their observation of their life, some are a little more 'relaxed' in some rules.  Each is different.

Some may have externs, some may have to do the duties they externs would normally do, on their own.  Some have monasteries more modern looking, some more 'poor' looking, some more grand.  It just depends.  All those things, whether external or not, each have an effect, intentional or not, on how the community operates and presents, making each unique. Does that help at all?

yours in Christ,
Denise
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Yes that does help. Thanks!