This blogger has just hit a few milestones. It was about one year ago that I made my first very timid and insecure steps into the world of blogging. I was, and remain, not terribly astute in matters technological but felt very strongly that the monastic way of contemplative spirituality and the existing possibilities of this vocation needed to be expressed in a new format. For me, it is not just a matter of the promotion of a particular religious vocation, but also an effort to meet the necessity of keeping within the sphere of general knowledge that our lives, expressed in whatever walk of life, can still be oriented to the transcendent, to the Other, to a power greater than ourselves, to the expression of all love. And, as a bit of an historian and a former educator, I believe that we have a responsibility to do our bit to promote, at the very least, cultural and historical literacy concerning the ageless traditions and contributions of monastic life. We Redemptoristines speak of the charism to be "living witnesses" to the love of our Redeemer God. There is the potential to witness at many levels and the Internet just broadens that spectrum.This blog, at the address of MonasticMusingsOSsR, languished for lack of input for a number of months, due in part to intervening double knee replacement surgery last August. Once creative energy returned in the fall, I doubled my efforts, kept the address but changed the title to Contemplative Horizon because I had become more savvy regarding the 'flag' words that would get the blog noticed in Google searches. In January of this year I was able to install a 'hit counter'. That counter just provided another milestone. To my great amazement over 1,500 visits have been made to this blog in the last three months. It is chicken feed in the immensity of the WEB but consequential for us. To think that persons unknown have stopped to read something here 1,500 times! Wow!
Now I want to ask a few questions of those of you who are stopping by to visit. What are you looking for when you come to this blog? What attracts you? What more would you like to know about our way of life? How can contemplative monastic nuns assist you in your spiritual journey? What do you think it would be helpful for me to know about you? If you wish to answer just click on the word "comment" below and you will have your chance.
Thank you for visiting. I hope that your spirit is lifted by the things you see and read here. May God bless your journey and Happy Spring!
4 comments:
I know that you are a blogger, but I consider you to be a writer who is honest with relections about her life. What you write causes me to think and gives me insight into my experiences. I appreciate the spiritual value of your writings and could link the very personal post of the garments of Jesus with today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles. You have a voice and you are using it wisely!
Tnak you!
I am a woman priest (and a blogger, too) who was referred to this site by a colleague. 'Though not called to the monastic life myself, I have many friends who are, and am striving to understand this vocation better. Reading Contemplative Horizon has helped me in this quest to understand my brothers and sisters whose vocation is different from (but interdependent with) my own. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experience!
I just started reading your blog and find it fascinating that you became a cloistered nun after being married, having children, etc. So in answer to the questions you pose in your last entry, I would like to learn what made you turn to this life, how did you come to your decision, what did your family think. And I would like to hear more about how you are able to focus yourself in prayer for so many hours a day, what the Liturgy of the Hours is (and is it a book we can all access?), do you pray formally or meditate or talk to God? In summary, I was hoping to read more about your personal experience in this religious life.
I've always appreciated the reflections from monastic religious who came to their vocations later in life, who have been shaped by some of the same experiences that regular laypeople have had. I look for solid insights, no touchy-feely flakiness, you know? I like your stuff...
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