Nuns in the Blogosphere
By Jen Goodnow
Many people are unaware that there are monastic orders, monks
and nuns, in the Episcopal Church. Many people, Episcopalian and non-Episcopalians
alike, think that women’s ordination in the Episcopal church makes
women’s
monastic orders obsolete. Episcopal nuns are frequently asked why they
became nuns and not priests, who can get married and have personal money.
Now you can learn the answers to these questions and more thanks to nuns who
blog. Women who are entering convents are older than their counterparts of 40
or more
years ago. They have more life experience including careers, marriages, children
and
grandchildren. They are also computer literate and are creating blogs, personal
journals
on the internet, to share their experience of spiritual life. In the same way
that many
religious orders send out quarterly newsletters to associates or oblates, these
nuns are
creating their own space online for personal, spiritual reflection. Before the
advent of
blogs, some religious had been sending out semi-regular emails with reflections
on everyday life to ever growing lists of interested subscribers.
People from all over the world are finding out more about nuns through blogs.
There
are 30 blogs listed on the blog ring, Sister Bloggers (http://sisterbloggers.blogspot.com).
These diaries are filled with daily entries about their journey to the religious
life, their
day-in, day-out life as nuns, the work that they do both in and out of the convent,
and
their spiritual reflections on these topics. Dedicated readers from all over
the world post
comments and leave their own blog addresses, creating an intimate, online community.
Perhaps most importantly, it offers people a peek “backstage” at
life inside a convent,
providing an opportunity to challenge old prejudices about who nuns are.
Three Episcopal nuns who maintain blogs are from the Community of the Holy Spirit.
Sister Claire Joy currently lives in the order’s Manhattan house, while
Sr. Catherine
Grace and Sr. Lilli Ana live at Melrose in Brewster, New York.
Sr. Catherine Grace writes about the spirituality of nature and details her life
as a nun/
farmer. As she writes in her blog biography, “The more I delve into the
deep sacredness of
all creation, the more wonder and respect I have for everything I see and touch.
This blog
explores that deepening awareness of mystery and miracle.” Sr. Catherine
Grace is
inspired by the traces of the creator in the community’s ducks, crops and
harvests,
the rhythmic flow of the seasons.
Sr. Lilli Ana tends to write about large issues in religion and politics that
stir her
intellect and spirituality. She shares her thoughts and concerns on current issues
Even more interesting, she also shares the responses of her fellow sisters, which
come
across as voices of reason and wisdom.
Sr. Claire Joy writes about whatever is topmost in her life at the moment, a
truly
spontaneous journal. Each blog entry weaves in stories of her daily life, her
innermost
thoughts, and her formation as a religious person.
The common thread in all these blogs is their humanity. The nuns write of being
elated and frustrated, inspired, annoyed, amused, joyful, nonplussed. Many of
the sisters
are so busy they don’t have time to write, thus dispelling any notions
that one may have
of nuns sitting around praying all day and doing nothing else.
A blog with a lighter side to it is, Ask Sister Mary Martha (http://asksistermarymartha.
blogspot.com). This is a tongue-in-cheek nun blog. “Sister Mary Martha” lives
with two
other sisters, Sr. St. Aloysius and Sr. Mary Fiacre, as part of an unnamed teaching
order,
presumably Catholic. The author is probably not an actual nun but does send up
hilarious journal entries as an 8th grade teacher – the strict type that
sets fear into the
hearts of convent-educated adults everywhere. One of the slogans on her blog
states
that life is tough but nuns are tougher. Ask Sister Mary Martha is the blog version
of the
Christopher Durang play, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You.
If you are interested in reading nun blogs you can go to Sr. Claire Joy’s
blog at http://clairejoy.blogspot.com,
Sr. Lilli Ana’s blog is http://srlilliana.blogspot.com/,
and Sr. Catherine Grace’s blog is http://cgchs.blogspot.com/.