Nunsense Entered The Edmonton Carmel 11/16/08

[Laudem Gloriae]

My very good and close friend, “nunsense”, has entered the Edmonton Carmel located in Spruce Grove, Alberta Canada on November 16, 2008! I had a lovely long talk on the phone with her sister-in-law who she had written to (as she can only write family). She wanted her to call me and give me the great news!

As these nuns don't go on the internet (thank God!) and have no email either, she asked me to post this message to all of you for her:

“Nunsense thanks all of the Phatmass family for all their prayers and loving support. I have re-entered Carmel in Edmonton, Canada so please keep me in your prayers. My name in religious life is Sr. Michael.”

The Carmel in Edmonton doesn't have a website, just this article on them: [url="http://www.wcr.ab.ca/news/2001/0924/carmelitemonastery092401.shtml"]http://www.wcr.ab.ca/news/2001/0924/carmel...ery092401.shtml[/url]

[DameAgnes]

God Bless Annie/Sr. Michael on her journey and I pray she has found the Lord's true will for her, and may say, "this is my resting place, forever." Her discernment has certainly taken her far and wide. I pray for her good.

[Marieteresa]

wow, Iam happy that she has found her home. I pray that Gods will be done

[Luigi]

I'm happy that Nunsense/Sr. Michael has found a place to try her vocation, and I will hold her in my heart as I pray.

But here's what I don't get: Sr. Michael can't post her good news to Phatmass because this monastery doesn't go on the Internet - "thank God!" to quote Laudem Gloriae - and her superior tells her that she can write only to family - who then tells it to a Phatmasser - who then puts it on the INTERNET!!! - God forbid!!!

Has she broken cloister? Have we broken it for her? What's the difference between HER posting it on the Internet and someone else posting it on the Internet for her? It sounds like a distinction without a difference, to me.

Not that I think there's anything wrong with that - I think posting good news on the Internet is fine; I just don't get the "thank God" reaction about Internet use, from the very people who are using it.

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='Luigi' post='1712023' date='Nov 27 2008, 12:14 AM']Not that I think there's anything wrong with that - I think posting good news on the Internet is fine; I just don't get the "thank God" reaction about Internet use, from the very people who are using it.[/quote]

Because Carmel is very traditional (from my understanding) and a lot of traditional orders these days have been allowing computer access (for news and whatnot) and many believe that this should not be the case.

Edit - Therefore, it is nice to hear that a traditional order does not encourage internet use, which is considered "being in the world."

Edited November 27, 2008 by HisChildForever

[Laudem Gloriae]

The distinction is clear – especially when someone knows the whole story as opposed to someone who doesn't and then goes and comments on it anyway.

Nunsense originally went to this Carmel for a 6 day visit but as things went very well, the Council voted on her and she was accepted so she entered. Because she entered so fast and didn't return home like she thought she was going to, the Mother Prioress let her contact family and do a few things she would have done if she HAD returned home and then went back and entered.

What she did is NOT breaking enclosure or the cloister as she is NOT sitting at a computer inside the monastery surfing the web, reading and posting on forums when there are other things to do – things you are supposedly have entered the monastery to do! NOT to continue on with worldly things like internet surfing and forum reading. One doesn't enter a monastery like Carmel to do this. You are there to have a closer union with God NOT people or strangers on the internet. You are there to spend your life with and for God and in community with your fellow sisters. God can not be your all if you feel the need to surf the net and post on forums after you enter a monastic order!

Thank God there are still many orders who enforce this and it is a new way of breaking enclosure and keeping one foot or more in the world. Many have websites maintained by lay people for them and they have no email or if they do it is strictly enforced for vocational communication with discerners by the prioress/abbess or novice mistress/vocation mistress only. You can't truly say you forsake ALL for God if you want to do this.

This is a small excerpt from an interview with Mother Mary Xavier, Mother General of the Tyburn nuns, that was done by phone discussing this:

“MARK TAMHANE: Although Mother General Mary Xavier and the Tyburn Nuns have their own Internet site paradoxically their cloistered and highly structured lifestyle means they don't get to surf the web themselves. So while anyone around the globe with access to the Internet can now see inside their secret world, they are not allowed to glimpse what life's like for the rest of us.

MOTHER XAVIER: That's a decision that we made with great joy and goodwill when we discovered we had a vocation to be a cloistered nun, and as we say, we have left the world, or laid the world aside, for the sake of God and also for the sake of the world because we are here to pray for the world.

Now if we are spending all day looking into other people's private lives on the website we wouldn't have much time left to pray for them.”

That AND have time left for their fellow sisters, prayer, other duties, etc. as other communities have told me and others.

I could post a ton more of such things from other orders and even the Popes but for those who think nuns and sisters should spend time on the internet and NOT live their consecrated lives to God in giving up all for Him, striving to live every second in His presence and would rather talk to a fellow sister in person instead of strangers or old friends on the web, then there is nothing more to say.

I just wouldn't want to be them when they die and go before God to explain why internet surfing and forum reading and posting was more important than being with Him in silence and prayer and their sisters in community.

[Guest Jon]

[color="#000080"]It was Annie that told me about Phatmass -I emailed her Nov 12 or so and had it returned so I thought she had probably cancelled her account bec of entering her new home. I believe her guest visit was to have been till Nov 11, 2008.

Thank you for letting us know.

God bless, big smile,
Jon[/color]

Edited November 27, 2008 by Jon

[Mari Therese]

I'm so happy for her! She will be missed on Phatmass for her lovely posts about discernment and vocations. Praised be to Jesus Christ!

[VeniteAdoremus]

[quote name='Mari Therese' post='1712363' date='Nov 27 2008, 07:22 PM']I'm so happy for her! She will be missed on Phatmass for her lovely posts about discernment and vocations. Praised be to Jesus Christ![/quote]

Indeed Her honesty and courage are an example to me.

[EWIE]

[quote name='Laudem Gloriae' date='Nov 26 2008, 08:33 PM' post='1711844']
My very good and close friend, “nunsense”, has entered the Edmonton Carmel


I am so very happy for her. She is a faithful, honest and endearing person. She blessed me by writing to me off-line to find out just who I really was. We developed a lovely relationship after that and a wonderful mutual admiration.
I am blessed to know her.
She is in my prayers daily.

[Maggyie]

Congratulations to nunsense! I'll be praying for her, I hope she keeps phatmassers in her prayers I think it would be great if we could at last leave decisions about whether surfing the internet is breaking enclosure to the RELIGIOUS themselves. Folks who are actually living the life and living their rule are naturally going to know more about what is right for them than wannabes like us!

[Laudem Gloriae]

My thoughts on nuns surfing the net and breaking enclosure are confirmed BY numerous religious orders and nuns - Dominicans, Carmelites, Poor Clare Colettines, Benedictines. So this is not just my idea. It IS religious who are living the life and KNOW the consequences of such actions.

It's not hard to fathom that when one is on the internet, surfing, reading forums and posting that your mind is NOT focused on God and hearing Him in your soul, heart and mind. This is the reason why certain orders only engage in remunerative work that leaves the mind free to converse with God. If they had complicated mind engaging and focused work they couldn't. So altar bread baking, etc. leaves the mind open to communing with God. So the internet business takes one away from God in this way and good orders know this and keep it out of the monastery.

[DameAgnes]

And yet there seem to be very healthy monasteries that are both edifying to the faithful and fully rooted in the 21st century.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions. I've never been much for denouncing stuff that others find useful or profitable. I always recall that the apostles would not likely have been our first choices...God works through all of us as HE wills to. If Mother Angelica hadn't "broken enclosure" quite a lot in her life as a nun, we would not have EWTN, today.

God uses us as HE wills.

Edited November 28, 2008 by DameAgnes

[RosaMystica]

Congratulations to nunsense!

[tnavarro61]

wow, that very kind lady! Nunsense is very kind. You know what when we were still competing for a stage play competition, we asked her if we could use her username as the Title of our play. that was last August and now, this stage play won and was adapted into a short film.

Nunsense is a great part of that success. She is so motherly when she allowed us, saying she doesn't own the name so we could use it.

Anyway, I hope she can learn of what happened to us.

Sr. Michael, oh, I'm happy to meet you, even if it's a short one.