A six-part series by Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans exploring the depth and diversity of contemplative orders in the United States, published sequentially throughout the week of Oct. 5-9, 2015, plus two columns by contributing authors about contemplative life.

Carmelite hermitage in the Washington woods, where ‘prayer is friendship with God’

by Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans
Oct 9, 2015

Contemplative Communities profile five - Carmelite Sisters of Mary Leslie Lund and Nancy Casale were formed in the monastery, but wanting to lead a less institutional and complicated life, went back to the original expression St. Teresa of Avila had in mind. So they moved to the wilderness and live as hermits.
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Three Dominican nuns formed new community in 2007, pray seven hours a day

by Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans
Oct 8, 2015

Contemplative Communities profile four - Srs. Emmanuela, Mary Grace and Mary Columba, longtime friends now in their 70s and 80s, decided to launch a new community in 2007. Though approved by church leaders, it was in some ways a step into unknown territory, attracting bewilderment from some and support from others. But for Dominicans, whether they be nuns, friars, brothers or sisters in active ministry, the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts. The women draw deeply upon the traditional model of community and individual prayer, but their presence on a campus that also contains a parish church and a school inevitably gives them a more public presence than customary in many monasteries.

Researcher finds something deeper, life-changing within anonymity of the cloister

by Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans
Oct 7, 2015

Contemplative Communities profile three - When independent filmmaker and artist Abbie Reese inaugurated her collaboration with the Clare Colettine nuns at the Corpus Christi Monastery in Rockford, Illinois, she had a professional goal: nurturing a collaborative relationship that would serve as a backdrop to a young woman’s transition from secular life into an alternative community. Ten years down the road, Reese admits that the time she has spent with the nuns, who practice a form of strict enclosure relatively rare in contemporary culture, has had an effect on her that goes well beyond scholarly objectivity and curiosity.

Trappistine nuns find home in Lutheran Norway

by Sheryl Frances Chen
Oct 7, 2015

Column - Although the Reformation in Norway was much more gradual and much less bloody than in England, the last Catholic archbishop, Olav Engelbrektsson, was forced into exile in 1537, and the country became Lutheran. Monks were not permitted to enter Norway until 1897, and Jesuits were not allowed into the country until 1956. It wasn’t until the 1990s that there was a “boom” of religious orders in Norway: Cistercians, Brigittines, Carmelites, Poor Clares, Missionary Servants of the Holy Trinity, Sisters of the Holy Cross, and Missionaries of Charity joined Dominicans, Augustinians, and Picpus Fathers who were already there.

Visitation Sisters get their agenda from neighbors while living contemplative life

by Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans
Oct 6, 2015

Establishing contemplative communities in the US: The early history

by Margaret M. McGuinness
Oct 5, 2015

Amid suburban hubbub, cloistered Dominicans embrace the ‘silence of the eternal’

by Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans
Oct 5, 2015

A powerful silence: The somewhat hidden witness of American contemplative orders

by Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans
Oct 5, 2015