Jesus, Come into Our Enclosure

'Come!  I am so bold as to invite You, Lord Jesus, to enter my heart.  I have prepared a place of refuge for You.  Come!

Come!  I ask that You shine Your light into all areas of my heart refuge; not just into the most easily accessible ones, but most especially into the hidden crannies and dimly lit areas.  Come!

Come!  Are there any areas that need cleaning, dusting, or polishing?  Are there areas in a state of disrepair?  Are there areas where trash or garbage have accumulated and need to be removed?  Come!

Come!  Lord Jesus, please show me what needs to be done to keep my heart a fit and pleasing refuge for You.  I want my heart to be as perfect a place for You to stay as I can prepare.  Knowing that I can never reach total perfection, I humbly ask that You accept my great desire for this perfection.  Come!

Come!  It is my desire to have a perfect heart refuge for You, and from that comes my boldness to ask You to enter and stay with me.  It causes me much sadness to know that I will always fall short.  Yet You stoop to Your child because of Your great mercy, to accept what my love can give.  Come!

Come!  With tears of joy and thanksgiving, I thank and praise You for coming to one so afflicted and poor as I.

Come, Lord Jesus!  Come enter my heart refuge!'

Written by Rosemary O.

May she rest eternally in the Heart of Christ.

Painting:  Winslow Homer, Girl in the Orchard

To return to the 'Monastic Adventure in Sequence' post, click here

The Church Speaks of Our Enclosure

"In the formation of conscience,
the Word of God 
is the light for our path; 
we must assimilate it 
in faith and prayer 
and put it into practice." 

Catechism of the Catholic Church # 1785










Painting:  El Greco, A Boy Blowing on an Ember to Light a Candle






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Scripture Speaks of Our Enclosure

"He who obeys the commandments he has from Me is the man who loves Me; and he who loves me will be loved by My Father.  I too will love him, and reveal Myself to him…. Anyone who loves Me will be true to My word, and My Father will love him; we will come to him and make our dwelling place with him.” (John 14:21 & 23)

"If you live according to My teaching, you are truly My disciples:  then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  (John 8:31-32) 

“The love of God consists in this: that we keep His commandments - and His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)

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R.S.V.P.

Our own in-the-midst-of-the-world-cloister, we said last time, is genuine "enclosure," one that goes beyond all of our loftiest mental images.  As a cloistered nun or monk lives within a specific area known as the cloister, we can make a specific choice to live in the safest spiritual place on earth.  

We can accept God's grace to live within the loving embrace of His will.  

How is this different from the invitation God issues to everyone?  It is not different at all.  We are each given a generous invitation to live within God's will, and we are each free to respond.  The cloistered heart analogy is simply one way of envisioning it.

God placed the first human beings on this earth and gave instructions on how to live (Genesis 2:16-17).  It was pretty simple, really, and absolutely do-able.  God said, in essence: here is all you will ever need.  A splendid bounty.  You don't even have to work for it.  All I ask is that you trust Me, trust that I know what's best for you, and just do not eat of that one single solitary tree. 

All these millenia later, we still face the same basic choice.  Because of that first move out of the will of God, we were not born into Eden - but thanks to Our Savior, we do have an eternal world of glory awaiting us. And we also have an opportunity to live, even on earth, in the best location possible.  A place from which we can look with anticipation toward our eternal Home.  A place in which we can be assured that God is ordering our circumstances (even when we see them as painful or murky) toward nothing but good.

It is all so basic.  We are issued an invitation.  Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died to provide all the grace we need to accept it. 

How will we respond?

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Suggested links from our archives:

Location, Location, Location 

Just Having a Look


Text © 2014 Nancy Shuman. 
(portions of this post were taken from our archives) 

Photos from public domain 



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O Blessed Enclosure!

In every monastery, of nuns or of monks, there is an area normally reserved for residents of the monastic community.  This is “the cloister” or “enclosure.”  Some communities observe what is called full (or papal) enclosure.  This means that those residing therein live within their specified enclosure for life.  That’s right:  they go in, and under normal circumstances they do not come out (there are exceptions, of course, like for medical care).  This doesn’t mean they never see the sun again; often enclosures are rather vast places, always including some outdoor areas and occasionally encompassing meadows or streams.  The cloistered person also still sees family and friends, meeting with them in parlors and meeting rooms.

It can be awfully strange, for those of us not called by God to it, to consider a life of full enclosure.  It can seem so terribly..... confining.  

However, to those with a vocation to the cloistered life, it appears to be anything but.  

"Enclosure baffles so many persons.  Even those who love and admire the contemplative life think that the importance of enclosure is exaggerated.  That is why it must be understood, from the beginning.  Love of God alone motivates a girl to remain in the cloister..."

"O most blessed enclosure!  O precious and safe cloister!"

"The liberating gift of enclosure leads those who receive it over that threshold which opens upon a life of profound union with God."

"By your solemn vow of enclosure you stand as a stumbling block against all false freedoms."

"Enclosure rings out that God is enough; and that where He is, there is infinite space.  And where He is not, all the space of the world is constraining and restraining and withering and wizening.  In your own life, love must not flicker out for a moment.  By day and by night it must proclaim "Jesus is here.'  The church bell must keep ringing out from your life: 'Blessings on all men!  God is enough! God is enough!  And everything else is not enough...."

The above quotes are from the booklet "Walls Around the World" by Mother Mary Francis PCC.  It is available for $2.50 from Poor Clares of Roswell NM, and you can get to "books" on their website by clicking on this line.   

Next time, we will look at the enclosure in which we are invited to live.  While not being physical, it is genuine "enclosure," one that goes beyond all of our loftiest mental images.

Painting:  John Singer Sargent

Test not in quotes © 2014 Nancy Shuman.  All Rights Reserved.
thecloisteredheart.org   


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