Close-of-year-2010 Update

Since a vocational discerner said she thought it best if monastic communities didn't blog on a daily basis, we are following her opinion, and are blogging about every six months, which had been her preference.

Housekeeping matters, first, though:

The Reparatrix Anchoresses/Anchorites of Our Lady of the Cloister are a private preparatory association of Christ's faithful with the intention of becoming an institute of religious life.

According to the Guidelines for establishing religious organizations (available from the Institute on Religious Life), the Cloisterites are in the first years of their organization, in which they exercise a voluntary association of members while practicing experimentation. This phase does not require any church official's permission. This experiementation includes the use of religious names, post-nomial initials, habit materials, etc., within the group.

Gemma's local bishop has been updated on the progress of the Cloisterites. However, since we still don't know where the novitiate will be established, and we don't know yet as to "what works for us," we will remain a preparatory association until the requirements have been met (rule, constitutions, etc.). The IRL emphasizes that each stage of a new foundation may take as long as five years, thus culminating in the group reaching Pontifical Right status after 25 years of growth.

That being said, the Postulants' formation reading, each of which expands on a particular aspect of the Cloisterite Plan of Life, has been as follows:

June -- The Devotion to the Sacred Heart by Fr John Croiset, SJ

July -- The Dialogue of St. Catharine of Siena

August -- The Blessed Sacrament by Fr. Faber

September -- Re-read Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross

October -- The Secret of the Rosary by St. Louis de Montfort

November -- A Treatise on Purgatory by St. Catherine of Genoa

Advent -- The Incarnation by St. Alphonsus de Liguori

On October 21, a group of four aspirants began a month-long pre-admittance retreat with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Both groups started their pre-promotion retreat-novena to the Poor Souls on November 13.

On November 21, those who had been experimenting in the postulant stage completed that year, and initiated Novice studies. The aspirants, who had been Lay Cloisterites, begain their Nova studies. Their experience will assist with the further solidifying of the Nova year studies.

Some Cloisterite backstory. . .

The formation program is adapted from that which Gemma had developed when she was living the charism in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1988-89. Obviously, this was before she met her husband. She had met with her bishop, asking for his approval of the charism, and he stated that he couldn't approve anything until he knew "what works for you," which is a direct quote from him. At the time she knew only the basics of the charism: blue and white habit; work for cloistered vocations; formation based on Salesian, Dominican; and Carmelite spiritualities. He also told her that she could live the charism by herself, and wanted the laity to be involved. Back to the drawing board.

The Passionist nuns offered assistance with the structure of the Cloisterite constitutions, which is now known as the Summary--both branches will share it. The Passionists taught her that the formation program explains the constitutions. Their superior also gave her over-the-phone lessons about poverty, explaining that the "woodenware" so popular in St. Paul of the Cross' time was now far too expensive for them to afford. They now ate off of divided plastic cafeteria plates and used inexpensive eating utensils. She also explained about their remunerative work (altar hosts), and how their schedule had been changed due to the advancing age of the nuns (Matins at 11pm). Straw tics were no longer used as mattresses due to allergies.

Habit parts were more evasive. The distinctive headdress, as Gemma came to find out, was a piece of wood under the veil, as per the communities which had used such a veil at one time, and those who still used it. However, neither patterns nor seamstresses were anywhere to be found.

She added the night rising for all 15 decades of the rosary, but a lay Discalced Carmelite advised her not to "unless the Lord gets you up." She followed his advice.

She had about half of what was required in hand when she met her husband. They married six months later, and he was almost immediately deployed for Operation Desert Shield/Storm.

When she went online in 2002, she published a website for her apostolate, then named the Society of Our Lady of the Cloister (SOLC), and published advertising websites for not only the Cloisterite Nuns, but two other charisms she had presented to the bishop in 1989. He had had no objections to them. Her bishop had said that she would take the vocations for the Cloisterite nuns from those who came to the SOLC for discernment assistance and support. Such has come to pass.

In 2008, a group of seven discerners had decided it was time to come together for experimentation. However, they lost the starter convent; part of their remunerative work; and the aspirants that went with those two elements. Gemma told the others to stay put and live like Third Order members. A meeting with a diocesan canonist set them on the eremitical path.

Due to a miscommunication, we are no longer working with a canonist. Since there are many, many questions asked by canonists regarding the charism, and we are still in the experimentation stage and don't have many answers yet, we do not feel the need to retain a canonist at this point in time. The Guidelines from the IRL mention receiving in writing a summary of what services the canonist will provide, so miscommunications with canonists are apparently a regular occurrance.

Advice from former adherents of other emerging charisms has led us to take everything very slowly, and to make sure we have a formation program that works before going to the chancery. As stated above, we do not know where the novitiate will be established as of yet. The bishop of that particular (arch)diocese will be the one approached for constitution as a "private association of the faithful with the intention of becoming an institute of religious life." This status is one of the three designations of private association which is recognized by canon law.

There are five living the Novice level of formation, and now three on the Nova level. One of the four Novas transferred to the Contemplatives of Life. She and the affiliate founder for the Sisters of the Holy Innocents & St. Gianna Molla are in discernment regarding the CL charism at present.

The hermits now have their first gentleman Nova. He will be helping start the men's branch of the eremitical expression.

We ask that those interested in the Cloisterite Hermits--or even the cenobitic expression--to please contact Gemma directly at foundress2003@yahoo.com We require a number of months of discernment before admission to the aspirant level.

###

Updated Formation Reading List

Advent--The rest of Fr. Faber's Bethlehem. We read the first part last Advent. We don't have any assigned readings for the last two weeks of Advent, due to the family commitments some of the hermits-in-training may have.

January--The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila

Lent--The Conferences of St. John Cassian

May--Devotional book in honor of Our Lady for the Month of May

June--The Devotion to the Sacred Heart

Carthusian meditations are also given on a fairly regular basis.

We continue to field vocational inquiries.

Blessings,
Gemma

In Response to Our Critics

The Reparatrix Anchoresses of Our Lady of the Cloister (Cloisterite Hermits) are a private association of the faithful with the intention of becoming an institute of religious life. They are comprised of five women who have persevered in the spirituality of this charism. They have a right to associate under the private association provisions of canon law, and are distinctly separate from Cloister Outreach.

One of the indicators of a true charism is whether or not its adherents experience peace and expansion of heart while living the spirituality. Those involved in the Cloisterite Hermits have experienced both, and have no intentions of abandoning this way of life, despite the criticisms.

Gemma, Cloister Outreach coordinator, had been handling the "legal" part of the Cloisterite Hermits, to include interactions with the canonist. Because of this, we thought that the local ordinary was aware of the project. However, due to Gemma's autism, and the complexities involved with the language of canonical legalities, she (Gemma) did not understand a particular phrase used as meaning that the canonist had separated herself from the project. This was entirely Gemma's fault--not due to stupidity, but due to autistic deficit.

As a result, the Cloisterite Hermits had persevered in the development of their charism (entirely legal under canon law), thinking the canonist had still been retained. Critics went so far as to contact the canonist and posting her information online--thus violating her privacy which we had fought to maintain, as per her request--in an attempt to undermine the Cloisterite Hermits' foundation. Due to the information that we were working with at the time, we were under the impression that the Cloisterite Hermits were a work-in-progress known to the diocese. Now that we know the actual situation, the websites will be amended to reflect such.

Our spiritual director, the former president and vice-president of the Fellowship of Emerging Religious Communities, assures us that this happens all the time with new foundations, and is assisting us with the matter.

In the charism's best interests, Gemma has put the responsibility of contacting any bishop at the appropriate time on the hermits' shoulders. She will continue to support them and assist in assembling resources, but the legalities will be entirely in their hands. It will now be up to them to persevere in their vocations, and to become holy hermits. Once they have the Seven Pillars of New Foundations (rule, constitutions, horarium, formation program, remunerative work, stable source of habit parts, and four persevering members), they will be ready to present their information to the appropriate bishop. As to whether or not that will be in the Diocese of Charlotte remains to be seen.