Monks & Nuns
Did you know we have Episcopal monks and nuns? Their gifts of prayer and service enrich the church and world each day. The Episcopal Church currently recognizes 16 religious orders and 11 Christian Communities for men, women, or both.
“…these brothers and sisters create communities of profound prayer, energetic mission, spiritual support, and prophetic challenge for the Church. By personal sacrifice and the gift of themselves, they create oases of peace and presence, retreat and recollection, conversion and personal transformation. They are a sign of the Kingdom of God present here and now.”
Questions & Answers
What is the difference between a Religious Order and a Christian Community?
A Religious Order of this Church is a society of Christians (in communion with the See of Canterbury) who voluntarily commit themselves for life, or a term of years, to holding their possessions in common or in trust; to a celibate life in community; and obedience to their Rule and Constitution. (Title III, Canon 24, section 1)
A Christian Community of this Church is a society of Christians (in communion with the See of Canterbury) who voluntarily commit themselves for life, or a term of years, in obedience to their Rule and Constitution. (Title III, Canon 24, section 2)
What is a regular worship routine for a monk or nun (i.e. a ‘religious’)?
While most lay people go to a church only once a week, Religious gather together four to seven times a day to worship and pray. The cycles of prayer that they follow have been practiced for centuries, are central to the Religious life, and are a gift to the life of the Church and all its members.
Below are some sample worship schedules. Note that different communities use ancient and modern names for the different “hours” of “offices” of the day.
Holy Cross Monastery, West Park NY
www.holycrossmonastery.com/Worship.htm
Horarium
6:00 a.m. Matins
8:15 a.m. Great Silence ends
Eucharist (Wednesday - Saturday)
9:00 a.m. Eucharist (Sunday)
12:00 pm. Diurnum
5:00 p.m. Vespers
7:40 p.m. Compline
9:00 p.m. Great Silence begins
Community of St. John Baptist, Mendham NJ
www.csjb.org/services.htm
Schedule
7:30 a.m. Lauds (Morning Prayer Rite II)
(7:00 on Sundays & Festivals)
8:00 a.m. Eucharist
(7:30 on Sundays & Festivals)
9:30 a.m. Terce
11:55 a.m. Noonday Office
4:55 p.m Vespers
8:30 p.m Compline
Episcopal Sisters of Charity, Martinsburg WV
Worship Times
8 a.m. Morning Prayer
(8 a.m. Holy Eucharist on Thursdays)
Noon Noonday Prayer
5 p.m. Evening Prayer
7 p.m. Compline (night prayers)
What is the “quest and adventure” of Religious life today?
- Brother Curtis Almquist, SSJE
Religious sisters and brothers are eccentrics. I’m not referring to our being rather dated curiosities (though we often do attract attention). I’m speaking of how, since the early centuries of the church, individuals have been drawn to the edge, to be eccentric, from the Greek èkkentros, out of the center. This movement has often been as a protest to the “success” of the church, its power colluding with the rather than confronting or transforming the surrounding culture. The movement out of center has also been a radical, sometimes-desperate response of individuals who know their personal culpability and who long to see more clearly, follow more nearly, love more dearly the God of their desire. The psalmist prays, “lift me to a place that is higher than I.” It’s that longing sense of perspective, of integration, of withdrawal that often attracts a person to explore the religious life.
An early desert father, Evagrius of Pontus (346-399), spoke of this separation not as a point of exclusion but rather of inclusion, about our being “separated from all and united to all.” What we read on the front pages of the newspaper – about war and conflict, about hope and desire, about fear and failure – we surely understand in our own hearts. From that point of identification, we seek to pray our own lives and help others find the prayer that God is giving them. In religious guesthouses, individuals are offered a king of holy space to stand back from their lives in order to see God’s hand at work within them and around them. A retreat is not the same as an advance. Especially in North American society, where the tyranny of urgent demands can be so blurring, some regular experience of retreat (even daily, if only for a few minutes) is often crucial to retrieve or redeem or reflect on what otherwise could be lost components in making us whole and really present to life.
Robert Putman, in a recent book, Bowling Alone, offers a provocative and comprehensive study about the collapse (and hopeful revival) of American community. Putman, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard, documents the vast decline in civic, political, and religious participation in our culture, noting a steady move toward individualism and alienation especially in the last fifty years. He speaks to the need for viable organizations – I would include religious orders – to simultaneously “bridge” and “bond,” to create “social capital,” the ways in which we connect with friends and neighbors and strangers. “Bonding” is an ongoing necessity to abide with one another, not just to bunk under the same roof. The Johannine literature of the New Testament gives such fruitful images for a community of love and practice, gathered in Jesus’ name, where there is friendship, a united vision of discipline, and a generous availability for what is new and what is now. “Bridging” is also crucial, especially as religious orders seek to live out close to the edge. Religious orders look and pray for new links to other people, organizations, traditions, disciplines where there is the experience of reciprocity and illumination, otherwise we simply live in a pseudo-bastion of truth, with no currency to trade. I recently had a conversation with a graduate student who came saying she had no background in any religious tradition but was desperate to learn about “the Real Deal.” We bridged our two worlds by finding a common second language. These days living the religious life is both an adventurous quest and an urgent invitation. Consider exploring the way with us!
© CAROA - used by permission
Brother Curtis Almquist is the Superior of the Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE) in Cambridge, Massachusetts and an experienced preacher and spiritual director.
I’m wondering if God is calling me to the Religious Life in Community. What should I do?
- Sister Diana Dorothea, CT
You’re starting right. You’re asking questions. Ask LOTS of questions from heart and head. Take the time to listen for answers. Be willing to be surprised. For some, the answer to the first question below becomes clear and sufficient. For others, many questions - and much time - are needed to hear the answers.
Ask questions of God:
· Are you really asking this of me?
· To whom should I be talking and listening?
· What do I need to see in myself as I seek your will?
Pay attention to circumstances, especially people who come into your life or are already there. Answers will come. The question you’re not likely to have answered completely, at least in this life, is “WHY?”
Ask questions of people who are already in the religious life. It doesn’t matter what denomination. I received excellent guidance from Roman Catholic and Orthodox sisters and nuns.
· What drew you into the religious life?
· What keeps you going?
· What’s hardest for you?
· What do you wish you’d known before you entered?
· What illusions have you had to overcome?
· What gives you joy in your life?
· What should I be reading?
· What questions should I be asking?
Ask questions of people who know you well and aren’t afraid to tell the truth. Ask them to pray with you.
· What is your initial, honest reaction if I say, “I’m thinking about entering the religious life”?
Ask questions of as many Communities as you can find. Write to them. Tell them your story. Ask for prayers and advice. Many have web-sites, but not all, so don’t limit yourself to the internet. Go visit the ones that appeal most to you. Spend as much time as you can and visit as widely as you can.
Ask questions of yourself.
· What interests me about the religious life? What draws me to it?
· What repels me as I think about living in community? What frightens me?
· Does the idea of entering the religious life keep coming back in unexpected ways?
· What do I imagine that the religious life is like? (As you get answers to these questions, run them past people who are already living the religious life.)
· How do I respond when finding out I’m wrong about something?
· How do I cope with people who are very different from me in opinion, ways of doing things and so forth?
· How do I open myself to loving people I don’t like very much?
· Can I gently laugh at myself?
Keep asking, keep listening. Answers will come as you need them and the next step(s) will become clearer.
. . . one of the most important aspects of any religious vocation:
the first and most elementary test of one’s call to the religious life . . .
is the willingness to accept life in a community in which
everybody is more or less imperfect.
Thomas Merton, Seven Story Mountain
Sister Diana Dorothea is a member of the Community of the Transfiguration in Cincinnati, Ohio.
How can I participate in the life of a Religious Order or Community?
- Tobias Stanislas Haller, BSG
Nearly all religious orders and communities offer ways for you to participate in their life and ministry. Communities welcome your support as a way of connecting with the wider church, and they have a lot to offer. Sometimes called “the best kept secret in the church” these communities are resources that can enrich the spiritual lives of anyone who chooses to take advantage of the blessings they provide.
Many communities offer “days of recollection” or overnight or longer retreats in which visitors can share in the life of prayer and work that is at the heart of religious community life. Some retreats offer a specific program or explore an aspect of spiritual life or ministry, while others are “self-directed,” and provide you with a peaceful and prayerful environment for reflection and inner renewal.
For all visits, especially a self-directed retreat, it is vital that you check well in advance when planning your spiritual getaway. Most communities that offer retreats have a member whose ministry includes helping visitors make arrangements. This ministry of hospitality was one of the earliest that religious communities undertook, and it is a tradition well worth drawing on!
Sometimes communities invite you to go deeper, and offer retreats intentionally designed for vocational discernment. This might allow you to share in the community’s life for a longer stretch of time – but watch out! You may discover you are called to even greater participation than you planned for, and many have found themselves moved to explore life as a member of a community in this way.
If you wish to maintain an ongoing connection with a community, many of them also provide for associate membership of one form or another. A few even have a special category of oblate membership, in which you might take a modified form of vows after a period of formal preparation. The level of commitment involved in these relationships varies from community to community, but most of them welcome the company of fellow pilgrims.
Everyone can take advantage of the periodicals and books that many of our religious orders and communities publish – and benefit from the insights, experiences and wisdom in these resources. Some communities’ members also craft icons, incense, rosary beads, vestments and prayer cards. These books and devotional items can enrich and deepen a life of prayer, whether you pick them up for yourself or as a thoughtful gift.
However you choose to connect with a religious order or community, you will find a warm welcome and encouragement from sisters and brothers who have learned the blessing of “living together in unity.”
Tobias Stanislas Haller, BSG, is a member of the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory and Vicar of Saint James Church Fordham in the Bronx. He is chair of the National Association of Episcopal Christian Communities.