The Parable of the Cloistered Heart

 

Over the past few months, several of the Mass readings have been on Jesus' parables.  Nancy has her own parable - the Parable of the Cloistered Heart  ♥

February 1, 1993

            Thank You, Jesus, for this month of my birth.  For I was born to Love You.  February is a month in which love is spoken of and celebrated, and in this month 47 years ago I was born to love You.  May those who sing and speak of love this month find You, the Great Lover.

            Father Walter Bunofsky wrote me last week that all - single, married, or religious - "really must be passionately in love with God."  I could only sing out "yes!" from the happy choir stall of my heart!  "That is part of the significance," he says, "of pink (of the "Pink Sisters") habits."  And I think of all the times I have "seen" myself dancing with Jesus, in a flowing gown of pink.

            Today, however, I am His little bride in brown.  For our consecration to the will of God last week, J.P. made us little triangles of brown material.  These are like little "hoods" or "veils" - symbols of the "habits of humility" we are called to wear.  We spoke of how we, as humans, really grasp things more concretely when there are symbols provided.

            The cloistered heart life is a life of symbols.  Humans have always used symbols.  Jesus spoke in parables to teach so much of His Truth.  Mustard seeds, pearls of great price, shepherds and lost sheep, prodigal sons.  I believe Jesus speaks in parables still.  For we can grasp only a small bit of the magnificence of His Truth, and so He gives us parables, symbols, even yet.

            Moons reflecting the sun.  Hidden cloisters.  Grillwork through which we see all things in His light.  I live within a parable; my vocation is a parable.  Yet, vocations to consecrated life ARE that; so much of their life is that.  And mine is a consecrated vocation.  Not a "religious" vocation in the strict sense of the word, for my vocation is secular.  But a vocation, indeed, to the consecrated life.  Consecrated to the will of God, I am called to be.

            And so, I think one day there will be a "book" of the "cloistered heart" way of life (I just thought of that, although I have of course thought of it before), and this book will be the story of someone called, someone spending her life finding her vocation.  It will be the story of a search.  It will be truth, and some of that truth will be a great parable, a parable Jesus is yet unfolding...

            Then Jesus told them this parable.  "There was a certain woman.  She came to live in a cloister, consecrating her life as a monastery and accepting the Father's grace to make hers a holy life lived entirely for Him.  The woman accepted enclosure in the will of God and thus became a cloistered heart.  Others, seeing her joy, asked her: 'show us the way into this cloister.'  And she said to them, 'consecrate yourself fully to the will of God.  Accept His will as your enclosure, ask to see all things through His will as through a grillwork.  Surrender yourself totally to God, for surrender is the only doorway into this cloister.  Set up a choir stall in your heart from which you may daily sing God's praises.  Clothe yourself in the habit of humility.  Love the will of God as your Bridegroom, take Jesus Christ as your Lord, live within and love the boundaries of God's will as these are revealed to you in Scripture and church teaching, and you shall become a cloistered heart.'''

            Jesus went on to say to them, "I tell you this woman has found a true enclosure." 

            "She is" (He may go on to say) "truly My little bride in brown.  She sings praise to Me from the choir stall I have built within her heart.

            "Her brown is the color of earth, and one day the little bride's body shall be hidden in earth of this color.  But her spirit shall then be My bride in white, dancing with Me in the Kingdom of the Father, hidden from the prying eyes of the world.

           "Today she is my bride in brown, hidden in the things of earth.  She shall call forth brides in brown to follow Me into the fullness of My Father's Will.  And they shall be a light throughout the earth - if they stay hidden in their habits of humility and surrender to My will.

            "Hide yourselves in Me," He seems to say, "and I shall raise you up for MY glory alone.  Veil yourselves in My habit of humility and you shall be seen then only as cloistered hearts, only as My little Army of brides in brown." 

            Today I love brown.  It is truly the color of my habit.  It is earth, in which I walk in a hidden cloister.  It is the color of humility, the color of hiding.  It is a color in which I don't even look all that great (!), and so I love more than ever to be clothed in it.  

 © Nancy Shuman 
         All rights reserved

What IS a Cloistered Heart?

We ask ourselves the question now and then, in different ways. 

Is 'The Cloistered Heart' an analogy? (yes).  Is it a way of life? (yes).  Is The Cloistered Heart an article, a book, a blog?  Is it Catholic?  Is it people who pray for the Church and the world and one another?  

The Cloistered Heart is basically an analogy in which our lives can be seen as "monasteries," places where God is loved and lived for and served.  

In the world but not of the world.  This is not a new or different idea; rather, it is an emphasizing, a kind of "underlining," of every Christian's call.  The uniqueness of this emphasis is in its monastic imagery. 

The word "cloister" speaks of total consecration.  Those who enter a traditional physical cloister make a tangible break from the world.  Compromise does not fit well in a cloister, nor does lukewarmness, nor does complacency.  The cloistered life is absolute. 

Christians living in the midst of the world are also called to live for God.  But for us, the break is not so clean.  The world is persistent in its tugs on the heart trying to live for God.  We need support in our struggles to surrender our lives to God and to resist the world's allurements.  This is where the imagery of the cloistered heart can be of help.  "If the cloister is in a man's heart, it is immaterial whether the building is actually there.  The cloister in a man's heart means only this: God and the soul."  (from Warriors of God by Walter Nigg, NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1959, p. 13)


Drafted by NS 8/3/17

This Artistry

Painting: Gunnar Bach Pedersen, 'Admission of Holy Clare to the monastery in 1212'

Revisiting My Call

God calls some people to give themselves fully to Him in Religious life. As for me, I've been called to the married vocation, to the blessings of children and grandchildren, and to serving in the midst of the world.

So as far as a making a total gift of myself to God, does this mean I'm off the hook?

Oh, I should certainly hope not.  A total gift of self of God is one 'hook' I want to be on; it's a source of unspeakable blessings, it is a 'brass ring' on the ride of life.  I would hate to miss out on it.  And God, in His goodness, would hate for me to miss out on it too. With great love, He calls you - and He calls me.

Those who embrace Religious life have felt tugs so strong they just couldn't ignore them. Have we not felt God's tugs as well?

Are we not called to a life of total (not just partial, but absolutely total) commitment to Him? I provide the following as a tiny bit of evidence of our own calls to live fully for God, right in the midst of the world...... 

"I beg you, through the mercy of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship.  'Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may judge what is God’s will, what is good, pleasing and perfect.' " Romans 12:2

"I have loved you with an everlasting love... I am constant in My affection for you."  (Jeremiah 31:3)
 

"I am the Good Shepherd.  I know My sheep and My sheep know Me, in the same way that the Father knows Me and I know the Father; for these sheep I will give my life."  (John 10:14-15)

"The grace of God has appeared, offering salvation to all men.  It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires, and live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age as we await our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of the great God and of our Savior Jesus Christ."  (Titus 2:11-13)

"Be intent on things above rather than on things of earth.  After all, you have died! Your life is hidden now with Christ in God.  When Christ our life appears, you shall appear with Him in glory.  Put to death whatever in your nature is rooted in earth:  fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires, and that lust which is called idolatry....  What you have done is put aside your old self with its past deeds and put on a new man, one who grows in knowledge as he is formed anew in the image of his Creator."   (Colossians 3:2-10)

"You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Men do not light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket.  They set it on a stand where it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, your light must shine before men so that they may see goodness in your acts and give praise to your Heavenly Father."  (Matthew 5:14-16)

“Do not lay up for yourselves an earthly treasure.  Moths and rust corrode; thieves break in and steal. Make it your practice instead to store up heavenly treasure, which neither moths nor rust corrode nor thieves break in and steal.  Remember, wherever your treasure is, there your heart is also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

"Out of love, place yourselves at one another's service."  (Galatians 5:13)

"May I never boast of anything but the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ!  Through it, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world."  (Galatians 6:14)

"I will instruct you and show you the way you should walk; I will counsel you, keeping My eye on you."  (Psalm 32:8)

For more about commitment to God, click this line

This is a slightly edited repost from our archives. It is linked to Reconciled to You and Theology is a Verb for 'It's Worth Revisiting Wednesday.'

Suscipe

     'Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
     my memory, understanding, and my entire will,
     all I have and possess.

     Thou hast given all to me.
     To Thee, Lord, I return it.

     All is Thine; 
     dispose of it wholly according to Thy will.

     Give me only Thy love and Thy grace,
     for this is sufficient for me.'

     St. Ignatius Loyola







Painting: John Henry Frederick Bacon, Suscipe me Domine

Consecration of a Monastery

 

I think the following is an ideal prayer for those of us who want to go through the world as 'walking monasteries,' living for the glory of God. 

Praying through this, line by line, leads me to an examination of conscience, into repentance, and toward a renewal of my decision to live for Christ.

'Dear Lord, The indwelling in me of the Holy Spirit implies that like the Church, the Altar, the Tabernacle, I am consecrated to be the temple, the house, the home of God Himself. My body is set apart, dedicated to God's use as something holy, never to be profaned by worldliness, by selfishness, or by sin. 

'My body is the Spirit's chosen dwelling place, 

a privileged altar. It must then not be looked upon as 

a market place for the transaction of business, 

or a school for study, 

or a playground for amusement. 

It is none of these.  

Indeed, it is not really my property at all, 
but Your very own...

'I must never dare to bring the God dwelling within me 

into contact with things which He abhors. 

'O God, hidden within me, forgotten and neglected on so many days, during so many years, I ask You to forgive my carelessness, my irreverence, my infidelity....

'Joyfully I consecrate to You my body, with all its members and all its senses, 

my hands and feet, 

my eyes and ears and tongue, 

my powers of seeing and hearing and speaking, 

my impulses and instincts and appetites and desires. 

I make them over to You by deed of gift; 

to be absolutely and forever Yours, to be employed always in Your service, never to be used against Your will.

'O God, take this body of mine, 

consecrate it, 

let it never be defiled by sin. 

Let it never become the abode of evil, 

nor be used against the best interests of any of Your children.' 

(from "Listening to the Indwelling Presence" by a Religious, Pellegrini, 1940, pp. 24-26) )

 

Paintings in US public domain due to age

A Morning Offering

Our Monastery

'The Monastery of a cloistered heart is the person's own life. A monastery is a place consecrated to God, a place of prayer, a place where God is loved and served. Our lives can be all of these things.  Just as any building can become a monastery by being dedicated to God, so our lives can become 'monasteries' by such dedication.'    

'Even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity.  'If a man loves Me,' says the Lord, 'he will keep My word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.' (John 14:23)'  (Catechism of the Catholic Church #260)

© Nancy Shuman
thecloisteredheart.org 

Into My Mother's Hands

A particularly tender moment in a nun's profession is when she pronounces vows with her hands in those of Mother Superior.  "My heart was full of joy," wrote one such Sister, "as I pronounced these words from the vow formula, '...I vow to God into your hands Reverend Mother to live my whole life in obedience, without property, and in chastity.'" (Sister Mary Immaculata) 

"I vow into your hands...."

I read these words and immediately think of the total consecration to Mary according to St. Louis de Montfort:  "I, (name)_____, a faithless sinner, renew and ratify today in thy hands the vows of my Baptism..."

In whose hands are these baptismal vows being renewed and ratified?  Into those of the Blessed Mother. 

"I vow into your hands...."

"When first under Francis’ (de Sales) direction, Jane de Chantal, then a widow with four small children… took the Virgin Mary as the Abbess of the cloister of her own heart." (from Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal, Letters of Spiritual Direction by Thibert, Wright and Power, 1988, p. 41) 

"I vow into your hands...."

The abbess of a monastery is in every way a mother.  She leads those in her community; she nurtures their spiritual growth and oversees the care of their temporal needs.  She teaches, guides, counsels, prays, comforts, serves, loves, corrects, soothes…

We who wish to live cloistered in heart, subjected as we are to the world and its distractions, must have an abbess who truly cares about our personal stresses and trials.  We need an abbess who can help us live in the midst of the world and not be of it.  Ours must be a Mother who can nurture us, care for our lives of "enclosure," and show us what it means to say and become a total yes to God.

"Mary said a total yes to God.  Thus she lived enclosure in His will fully.  She embraced His will so totally that He became enfleshed in her.  She listened to Him more completely than any human ever has or will.  Sinless, she never stepped outside her enclosure.  She yielded fully to God’s will, abandoning herself utterly to God.  All her plans for her life were put aside in favor of God’s.  Mary carried Jesus within her as a baby and she gave Him to the world - thus she is the perfect cloistered heart." (from The Cloistered Heart (book), 1996)

"‘Behold thy Mother’ (John 19:26).  By these words, Mary, by reason of the love she bore them, became the Mother, not only of John, but of all men." (St. Bernadine of Siena)

"Honor, venerate and respect with special love the holy and gracious Virgin Mary who, being the Mother of Christ our Brother, is also in truth our very mother.  Let us then have recourse to her, and as her little children cast ourselves into her bosom with perfect confidence; at all times and on all occasions let us invoke her maternal love."  (St. Francis de Sales). 

"God could have given us the Redeemer of the human race and the Founder of the Faith in another way than through the Virgin, but since Divine Providence has been pleased that we should have the Man-God through Mary, who conceived Him by the Holy Ghost and bore Him in her womb, it only remains for us to receive Christ from the hands of Mary." (St. Pius X)

A Prayer:  Blessed Mother Mary, your "yes" was the door through which our Savior entered the world as Man, and so I thank you for that yes.  I ask your help that I, too, might say yes to all that God asks of me.  May I be given grace to do whatever He tells me.  May I be given grace to utter magnificats of praise in all of the circumstances of my life.  I ask you to teach and counsel me, to comfort and correct me, to lead me ever closer to your Son. 

Pray for me, Heavenly Mother.

Into your hands, I entrust my commitment to God.

Text not in quotes © 2014 and 2015 Nancy Shuman
thecloisteredheart.org      

This is a re-post from July, 2014, slightly edited 
Photo of a profession at Tyringham Visitation Monastery, Massachusetts, provided by C Wells

Their Moments of Yes

The ceremony of a person entering consecrated life is (I find) beyond the reach of mortal words.

I dare not touch it with description. 

Instead, I will allow those who have made such commitments to show you their moments of yes.

I hope we will all
do ourselves a favor,
and click on the links below.....


















Click on lines to view:
Profession Ceremony

Entering Carmel











To our e-mail subscribers:  this post features videos, which can be viewed on the blog itself.
As always, ads on videos here are neither chosen nor endorsed by me.

Photo at top of post by Connie Wells, of a Sister signing vows (digitally altered with  permission)


For more about our own commitment to God, click this line

Their Vocation

A religious habit, as we read several days ago, is a sign of an inward consecration.

Without this consecration, I could wear every sort of wimple and every length of veil, and still I would not be a nun.

God called me to a different vocation, and He has given me grace to respond to that one.  Is there anything I can learn, however, from looking at the call to religious life?   How does that particular call come, and how does a person respond?

The following stories are ones I have found inspiring.  I hope they will touch you as well.

"The love of God is the strongest driving force on earth. Thousands upon hundreds of thousands have given up their lives simply because they loved Him so much that breath and heartbeat slipped into the inconsequential by comparison.  Hundreds upon thousands of young girls have walked into cloisters and never walked out of them because their youth and liberty were the very least to give the One they loved so much."  (Mother Mary Francis PCC, A Right to be Merry,  Click here for more about this book)

Links to (beautiful) personal stories by individuals who have answered a call to cloistered life:

Vocation 
A Rose Transplanted
Totally Yours, Jesus   
Prom Queen to Cloistered Nun






To our e-mail subscribers:  this post contains a video.  
As always, ads on videos here are neither chosen nor endorsed by me.

Painting at top of post:  Olga Boznanska, 1890,in US public domain due age


To read about our own call to commitment, click this line

Never to be Profaned

'The Indwelling in me of the Holy Spirit implies that like the Church, the Altar, the Tabernacle, I am consecrated to be the temple, the house, the home of God Himself.

My body is set apart, dedicated to God's use as something holy, never to be profaned by worldliness, by selfishness, or by sin.

My body is the Spirit's chosen dwelling place, a privileged altar.  It must never be looked upon as a market place for the transaction of business, or a school for study, or a playground for amusement.  It is none of these...

I must never dare to bring the God dwelling within me into contact with things He abhors.

O God hidden within me, forgotten and neglected on so many days, during so many years, I ask You to forgive my carelessness, my irreverence, my infidelity.

Gladly I accept this great vocation, this high honour, this immeasurable dignity, to be Your temple, Your altar, Your house, Your home.

Joyfully I consecrate to You my body, with all its members and all its senses, my hands and feet, my eyes and ears and tongue, its powers of seeing and hearing and speaking, my impulses and instincts, and appetite and desires.

I make them over to You, by deed of gift; to be absolutely and forever Yours, to be employed always in Your service, never to be used against Your will.

O God, take this body of mine, consecrate it, let it never be defiled by sin.   Let it never be employed in the service of Your enemy, the devil!  Let it never become the abode of evil, nor be used against the best interests of any of Your children!'

(from "Listening to the Indwelling Presence," compiled by a Religious, Pellegrini, Australia, 1940, pp. 24-26)

Painting: George Hitchcock, A Dream of Christmas