Today, in
cloisters and schools around America, the sound of young voices is
ringing out. These sisters’ voices resound in classrooms, lift in chant,
laugh on the playing field — and bring their fresh, healthy orthodox
Catholicism into the spiritual desert.
In September 1971, Sister Imelda Marie, O.P. stepped into our eighth grade classroom. She was greeted by a stunned silence.
Sister smiled awkwardly, and then turned on her heel to write pre-algebra equations on the chalkboard.
From the back of the classroom came a stifled giggle, then a raised hand.
“Sister, where’s your habit?”
Sister Imelda was a formal person, so she didn’t joke with us. The class surveyed her warily — after all, we were a little shocked. She was dressed in the height of 1970s fashion – a no-nonsense, powder-blue, pantsuit.
“The Order, in their wisdom, has decided that we will no longer wear our habits,” she said shortly, and turned back to her chalk board. That was all the explanation we ever received.
Sister Imelda Marie wasn’t alone. In the 1970s, almost every Dominican group in the United States banished the traditional garb worn by the Order since it was founded by St. Dominic Guzman in the 1300s. There followed a massive exodus of sisters. Since then, the Order has dwindled to a mere shadow of its former significant presence in Catholic schools and parishes across America.
The decimation of the Dominican convents was, for decades, in some Church circles explained away as a ‘positive’ fruit of the ‘spirit’ of Vatican II. When such face-saving exercises became futile, many would simply shrug and point to the ‘effects’ of the ‘turbulent’ 1960s.
These days, the Western news media routinely highlights the lack of vocations as merely one aspect of a Catholic Church engulfed by crisis. And thanks to the media publicity heaped on the dissident ‘Nuns on the Bus,’ most Americans today can be forgiven if they think that Catholic sisters are all septuagenarians in pantsuits pushing an out-there feminist agenda.
This is a huge misconception. In fact, the media has missed a story which is truly historic:
- All over America, a quiet revolution has been taking place since the 1990s.
- US religious orders who wear traditional garb and live in community have been experiencing a renaissance — a veritable ‘springtime’ of the Church.
- These orders are growing — many by leaps and bounds — as reverent young women have sought out the life that has sustained their forebears and the Church through the centuries.
Today, in cloisters and schools around America, the sound of young voices is ringing out. These sisters’ voices resound in classrooms, lift in chant, laugh on the playing field — and bring their fresh, healthy orthodox Catholicism into the spiritual desert that we have lived through lo these many decades.
From Christian Newswire Your gift is in the giving, the old holiday nostrum goes.
But you also can get a feel-good gift in the buying, especially if you tap the monasteries, convents and hermitages scattered around the world. Many specialize in making food products, the range of which goes way beyond the usual fruitcake to include spice blends, jams, cheese, truffles and even coffee.
And no matter whether they're Roman Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant, they do it while pursuing what they say is their main mission: prayer."Prayer and labor have been in the monastic tradition from the very beginning," said Sister Gail Fitzpatrick, a member of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, known popularly as Trappistines. She is based at Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey in Dubuque, Iowa.
The nuns there make candy, including their signature Trappistine Creamy Caramels. Fitzpatrick is up every day at 3:45 a.m. By 5, she's at the candy facility tempering chocolate. Then she goes back to the abbey to pray, read and celebrate Mass before returning to tend the chocolate.
"You do have to weave tasks," the nun said with a chuckle. "Chocolate has demands."
Fitzpatrick is proud of the candy. She points to the quality ingredients used but notes the fact that nuns make them is also a selling point with the public."I think they can trust us, that what we put into that candy is good," Fitzpatrick said. "The environment in which we make candy is one of love and care. And if they believe in prayer that will mean something because we pray as we work."
Will Keller has been selling products made by nuns and monks for 10 years through his Cleveland mail-order company, Monastery Greetings. Among the religious communities Keller's company represents are the monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel in Clark, Wyo. The brothers began roasting, blending and selling coffee beans in 2007 to finance construction of a permanent monastery."One of the brothers was something of a coffee expert. He was a barista," said Brother Paul Marie of the Cross, who oversees the coffee business. "His family owned a coffee plantation in Costa Rica."Now the monks roast and blend 30 different coffees, including decaf. Brother Paul Marie said some customers buy the coffee to support the monastery but others buy it because it tastes good.
"We use good arabica beans. The gourmet coffee drinker appreciates it," he said.
For John Tapert of Duvall, Wash., it was disappointment in a gourmet cedar plank used to grill fish that led him to make fish planks out of alder wood and package them for sale with bottles of his own St. Benedict barbecue sauce and spice rub.
A one-time jewelry maker, Tapert now specializes in religious art. He and his artist wife, Candace, belong to the secular branch of the St. Joseph Carmelite monastery in Shoreline, Wash. They live in their own hermitage in Duvall following many of the same rules and traditions as the cloistered nuns, who are part of the Order of Discalced Carmelites. In addition to the alder grilling sets, he makes a range of jams named after various saints.
The 5-acre hermitage provides both the alder wood and the fruits and berries for the jams."It's a simple, honest, straightforward way to make a living," he said. "It involves a lot of quiet labor. We're not out in the world doing it for the most part. The end product is something you can be honest about. It has integrity, if you will."
Order from the Source
These products are made by or for monasteries, convents, abbeys and hermitages in the United States. All are available by ordering directly from the source. Or you can buy them through Monastery Greetings, a Cleveland mail-order firm (800-472-0425, monasterygreetings.com). Prices for products listed below are from the makers and do not include shipping or other charges:
St. Benedict sauce and plank from the Northwest Alder Plank Grilling Kit. Fashioned by John Tapert for the St. Joseph Carmelite Monastery in Shoreline, Wash. $39.95. 425-788-4905, johntapert.com/Tapert_Studios
Cowboy Blend Coffee by Mystic Monk Coffee. Made by the monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, Clark, Wyo. $9.95 (12-ounce bag). 877-751-6377, mysticmonkcoffee.com.
Trappist Abbey Monastery Fruitcake by the monks of the Abbey of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Lafayette, Ore. $27.50 (three 1-pound fruitcakes). 800-294-0105, trappistabbey.org
Milk Chocolate Butter Nut Munch by Trappistine Quality Candy. Made by nuns at Mount St. Mary's Abbey in Wrentham, Mass. $12 (10-ounce box). 866-549-8929, trappistinecandy.comDeluxe Caramel Assortment from Trappistine Creamy Caramels. Made by nuns at Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey in Dubuque, Iowa. $17 (24-ounce box). 866-556-3400, www.trappistine.com.
Springerle Cookies by Simply Divine, a bakery run by the Sisters of St. Benedict, Ferdinand, Ind. $10.50 (12 cookies). 812-367-2500, www.simplydivinebakery.org.
In September 1971, Sister Imelda Marie, O.P. stepped into our eighth grade classroom. She was greeted by a stunned silence. 
