Tips from the Monastery

It has been nine years since I entered the Monastery of the Poor Clare Colettine nuns. I was just out of high school when I entered and was with the nuns for six months. Though it has been a while, I have learned many things from the Poor Clares. I would like to share it with you.

First of all, nuns live in monasteries (which are typically cloistered). Religious sisters live in convents. So, my blog, “From Convent to College” was not exactly accurate as it was really “From Monastery to College.” The first just rings so much better and is generic for everyone to understand.

• Joseph’s intercession is super powerful, especially in regards to vocations. While in the monastery, after 30 days of devotion to St. Joseph, he is the one who helped me realize I was not called to be a Poor Clare
• Clean with great haste! If you have a team, that is preferable, as nuns live in community. It makes cleaning nice and quick. And you need to learn how to work with speed. It is a skill to clean as fast as a nun.
• A veil is a great solution for a greasy or just plain-out bad hair day.
• Eat everything that is given to you. That includes for me, prunes, oranges, and pears mixed with cottage cheese. If given a hotdog bun as your bread for the day (every morning started with bread and tea), accept it. Not only eat it. Eat all of it. Every last crumb. The Poor Clares use their fingers to pick up every single crumb. Even to licking the crumbs stuck to your fingers.
• There are different “levels” of bowing. There is partial prostrating, full prostrating, kneeling, a head bow, a head and shoulders bow, a bow to the waist, and genuflecting. Poor Clares give a “head bow,” whenever they hear the Name of Jesus, as the Scriptures tell us that every knee shall bend at the Name of Jesus (Philippians 2:10).
• You will find that there are great acoustics when singing in a mausoleum by yourself. Yes, during my free time, I would go outside to walk to the mausoleum. With all the dead sisters around me, I sang my heart out. And in that small building with its fantastic acoustics, I sounded like a professional singer.
• Never try to pop a zit without a mirror. We did not have mirrors in the Novitiate (the side of the Monastery for the “nuns in training.”). It gets messy. And you cannot even see what the messiness looks like.
• Go to bed at 8:00 pm on Friday night. You will feel grand in the morning. And the bell rang to wake us up in the morning at 5:00 am. Depending on the number and health of sisters, the nuns pray at midnight! My midnight prayers were not quite as romantic as I imagined, given that I was just trying to keep my eyes open.
• If you never leave the house, you get to wear slippers all day! I was a cloistered postulant so I got to wear little black ballet-like slippers. But then…once you become a professed sister, you go barefoot, which is exciting for the nuns to have an outward sign of their poverty and devotion to God.
• Decoration is a skill. If not, it will become one. I am talking about holiday decorating and feast day decorating. Nuns go full out, especially at Christmas time.
• Sometimes when you genuflect in the center of a chapel, you loose your balance and fall over. Let us just say that genuflecting is a skill of balance and concentration.
• Celebrate the pope’s birthday by having a cup of hot chocolate! Now, that is something to celebrate.
• Have custody of the eyes. When passing rooms in a hall, do not stare at what is within the rooms. And also, protect your eyes from lingering to look at other people and their bodies.
• People love hand-written letters. And nuns have a collection of cool stationary, pictures, and stickers. A lot of my free time at the monastery was spent writing letters to family and friends.
• Learn to laugh. During our recreation, if you think something is not funny, it is very likely that one of the nuns will. That laughter is contagious.
• Literally, pray without ceasing. Even if you are just standing, waiting for the elevator or you are cleaning the refectory (the dining room).
• Colette is a more unknown saint, but a super saint! She reformed the Poor Clare order and did crazy things. God made her glow! Like, literally shine!

I know I used a lot of sarcasm and humor in these “tips,” but they are all very serious and real. Monastery life is hard, but I hope you see the good and joy that reflect the real lessons that nuns live. Just know, that my list is just of one person’s experience. Another nun or novice may love prunes or dislike writing letters, etc.

One last thing: know that nuns are praying for you. In their waking and retiring; their prayer and their work; in recreation or procession, nuns are praying for you. For me, it was a great honor to pray for so many people and intentions. I can only imagine how great an honor it must be for professed nuns.

Pray for them too! They go through a lot for our sake.