In Nairobi, cloistered Carmelites give themselves to God in prayer [Catholic Caucus]

cns ^ | February 17, 2011 | Barb Fraze

[NYer]

This is a Catholic Caucus thread

[Tax-chick]

Meals, cooked by the sisters, are eaten in silence while one nun reads -- to nourish the soul.

I wish we could do that at our house. Listening to the children bicker during meals is bad for my digestion.

[Steelfish]

I have always regarded the Carmelites as God’s angels on earth.

[surroundedbyblue]

Sounds awful to say (and sinful) but in a way I’m envious of their life! Lol! It seems like such a beautiful life. God bless them.....I will think of them when I pray for priests & religious!

[NYer]

I wish we could do that at our house. Listening to the children bicker during meals is bad for my digestion.

Give it a try. Let them take turns reading during dinner. Lent might be the perfect reason to begin a new tradition.

[Tax-chick]

It’s worth a try, at least on some occasions.

[Judith Anne]

Print out a saint from the net, have one of the kids read about their life, and then go around the table and have each one make a comment.

St. Fiacre, patron of taxicabs and gardens, is always interesting.

Tell them it’s their Lenten sacrifice, and don’t tell them when Lent begins. ;-D

[Tax-chick]

... and don’t tell them when Lent begins.

Nice thought, but it's on the calendar.

[Judith Anne]

Well, there you are. My kids always ignored the calendar, so I was able to make up “special” days out of thin air. ;-D

You know, St. Immacolata, patron of closet cleaning and sock matching. Etc.

[Tax-chick]

That might fly ... but Ash Wednesday is too well-known. If I told them Lent started next Wednesday (2/23), their Sunday School teachers would set them right the following week.

[Judith Anne]

Okay, okay, I've got it, tell them they're practising for Lent. ;-D That's it, I'm fresh out of ideas.

[ArrogantBustard]

Some time during my Tenth year (IIRC) my father decreed that the family would read the entire Bible, from "In the beginning ..." all the way to "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."

So we did ... fifteen minutes or so at a time, after dinner. Some of it was an awful slog, but God spoke to us (certainly to me) even in some of the most boring passages. We went on to other readings, and other forms of family prayer, but I've never forgotten that family trip through the Scriptures.

[I still care]

What joy in that young woman’s face.

[Tax-chick]

I think we’ve been through the whole Bible - even Leviticus and Deuteronomy, all of First and Second Chronicles, and the distribution of the land in Joshue - and many books more than once. But we read Scriptures in the morning.

Maybe I’ll start reading the Iliad during supper.

[ArrogantBustard]

Maybe I’ll start reading the Iliad during supper.

In Greek, of course ...

[Tax-chick]

We’re not ready for that yet ... we know only the present tense of verbs.

[trisham]

That reminds me ( I have no idea why-but it’s a good story, imho) of when I was 11 or 12 and it was time for me to leave for school. I couldn’t find my tie, which was a required part of my uniform and I was terrified to have Madam angry with me again. I admit that I was a serious drama queen as a child, and I haven’t progressed much, I confess.

Anyway, my mother was calling me as I was about to miss the bus again, and I was frantic.

I dropped to my knees, closed my eyes and prayed. When I opened my eyes I saw my tie, which had fallen under a chair. If I hadn’t been on my knees I would never have seen it. I felt that the Saints had intervened.

Shortly thereafter we went on Retreat for a week, and I thought that I was destined to be a nun. There are times that I still feel that way.

[trisham]

What joy in that young woman’s face.

***************************

It's a beautiful thing to see!

[married21]

The joy on a nun’s face is truly a sign of grace. I’m on the mailing list for one order of nuns. I always study the pictures in the fundraising letters to see that joy.