Revisiting Our First Post!

In light of the letter and newsletter excerpts I will be sharing here soon, I think this might be a good time to re-visit our very first post. This was written nearly five years ago...

September 29, 2011

"I am a laywoman, married...yet I have a vocation to the cloister.  Obviously I am not called to the physical enclosure; I am called, rather, to cloister my heart.  The word 'cloister' speaks of total consecration.  It seems that compromise would not fit well in a cloister, nor would lukewarmness, nor would complacency.  The cloistered life is absolute."

I look at the above words and am amazed that I wrote them twenty years ago.  Twenty years!  Today these sentences provide me with a ... well, a kind of challenge.  Have compromise, lukewarmness, complacency found spaces in my cloister in which to hide?  O yes.  O yes, indeed.  Looking at these words now, I wonder if I'm "cloistered" at all.

And the instant I start to wonder, I'm positive that I am.  By the amazing grace of God, I am as "cloistered" as I was in 1991; probably more so.  My prayer has gone through droughts and seasons of change, my life has had challenges and triumphs and surprises.  But in the 'cloister,' I remain.

One thing I've discovered is that "the cloistered heart" has many facets.  Like a precious jewel whose gleam is spotted by a treasure hunter, the cloistered heart is still being dug out and examined, turned about and exclaimed over, loved and cherished and LIVED.  If you happen to be one of those who has explored along with us in the past, I welcome you to this new kind of "newsletter."  We will continue through the rooms of the cloister as we did in "Cloistered Gatherings," and I expect we'll wander about in them more freely.  There is an informality and a randomness about blogging that I think I'll find appealing and easy to deal with (although I warn you that I'm totally new at it).

If you are someone who is joining this exploration for the first time, we welcome you to our "dig!"

As we continue, we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.  "If Christ is not the alpha and omega of the life," wrote Dom Hubert Van Zeller, "there is no particular point to monasticism." 

Jesus is the reason for our cloisters, and with Him as our focus - we begin.


© 2011 Nancy Shuman. 
thecloisteredheart.org    

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

Rediscovering....

I have just received an unexpected gift:  a collection of personal writings stored carefully away by a friend. These were written by several of us who've looked together into what it means to live in this world as "cloistered hearts." For a number of years we mailed monthly/bi-monthly/quarterly newsletters to 100-200 kind souls, sent missives back and forth to one another, and shared prayers and issues and ideas. 

This tidy bundle, filled as it is with thoughts and prayers and quotes, is like a newly unearthed treasure. Nearly forgotten bits of inspiration strike me now as fresh and energizing and new, and I cannot keep them to myself. So - over a period of time, probably interspersed with more "current" reflections - I will be sharing bits and pieces here, with you.

Just flipping through a few pages, I find myself "voicing new amens" to little gems like these... 

"We are in danger of forgetting what we are. The world around shall see us as part of it when really we are not part of it, and we shall be tempted to see ourselves as the world sees us..." (1995)

"Have we ever spoken the Name of Jesus (aloud or silently) and found our hearts suddenly lifted from the circumstances around us? As if a little door into Heaven popped open and we were allowed a swift glimpse inside?" (2006)

'It is easier for me to surrender to God the earth-shaking, freedom endangering issues of the world than it is for me to surrender the simple, everyday issues of my family life." (date uncertain)




Painting: George Phoenix, The Grandmother's Wardrobe, in US public domain due to age