Enclosure
“The material aspect of separation from the world has a particular manifestation in the enclosure… The enclosure of the contemplative responds to the need, perceived as a priority, to remain with the Lord…”
Instruction, Cor Orans
“Nuns relive and perpetuate in the Church the presence and work of Mary. Welcoming the Word in faith and adoring silence, they put themselves at the service of the mystery of the Incarnation, and united to Christ Jesus in his offering of himself to the Father, they become co-workers in the mystery of Redemption.
Just as in the Upper Room, Mary in her heart, with her prayerful presence, watched over the origins of the Church, so too now the Church’s journey is entrusted to the loving heart and praying hands of cloistered nuns.”
Instruction, Verbi Sponsa
Our life unfolds within the enclosure of the monastery. The monastery and its enclosure are for the monastic community what the desert was for the early monks – a place to live in the presence of God. St. Benedict realised that our hearts are easily divided and changeable, and that our rootedness in a monastery is a powerful means of rooting our lives in God.
We freely and joyfully choose to live within this enclosed space, so that we can concentrate on God and the search for him. The aim of our cloistered life is to foster that purity of heart that opens out upon the whole of creation and the entire human family in an embrace of love.
“The enclosure evokes that cell of the heart where each one is called to live in union with the Lord. Accepted as a gift and chosen as a free response to love, it is the place of spiritual communion with God and neighbour, where the limitation of space and contacts works to the advantage of the internalization of evangelical values.”
(Instruction, Cor Orans)
“If they have withdrawn from frequent contact with mankind, it is not because they are seeking themselves or their own comfort, but because they are intent on sharing to a more universal degree the fatigue, misery and hopes of all mankind.”
(Instruction on Contemplative Life, Venite Seorsum)
“O Lord, I love the house where you dwell, the place where your glory abides.”
Psalm 25/26
