About The Anchoress
Dec 27th, 2010 by Star Foster
In the middle ages an Anchoress was a woman who lived in a small, sealed room inside a church; she would have visual access to the Sanctuary and to Holy Communion. Usually there was also a small side window at which she could converse with visitors, receive foods, get the news of the day and so forth.
I have no illusions that I am holy, but as a shy sort of person who prefers to hang in the background, the persona suits. I do not do myspace, though I do twitter, and have ventured into facebook.
Consider this my window. Visits, news and commentary all welcome! I ask only that you be civil, because I do believe that decent people can disagree and still be decent people.
All posts are copyrighted, 2011 Elizabeth Scalia.
Blog administrator is most emphatically not responsible for content of comments.
Please DO NOT leave comments here; I will not see them. I can be reached at theanchoress@gmail.com
Comment policy is here.
Note: All emails are considered fair game for publication, unless you specifically tell me not to quote you or use your name, in which case I am happy to comply.
Who painted the painting you use in your masthead? It’s not Rebecca Guay, is it?
[Waterhouse -admin]
Dear Elizabeth,
Richard Pollock has an interesting post at the PJ Tattler blog about the spirituality of the University of Arizona Tucson Memorial Service. (January 13, 2011, 7:14 am)
He says ” the University of Arizona offered up secular political leaders to serve as our spiritual leaders. They were the ones who were there to salve our wounds. They were the ones to quote from the Old and New Testaments, to cite from proverbs, psalms and other scriptures. We witnessed a national secular religious event. If that sounds like a contradiction in terms, welcome to the New World of religious secularism.”
I found his post to be interesting, and I would so much like to read your thoughts on the subject.
http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/01/13/political-leaders-as-our-high-priests/
Your posts are always insightful and thought-provoking; I save many of them to come back to for further reflection. This “secular religious event” topic is one on which I’m sure you could provide more thoughts.
Thank you–
An appreciative reader, Carolynn Spies
I can no longer find an e-mail link on the blog, and I really did not want this personal note to get in the way of the real content and comments, so this is the best I can do. I’ve checked back in for a while here because I’m in between one cycle of Buddhist prayers and another.
At the end of this first cycle I was spending 3-5 hours a day doing them. I don’t have the full explanation for the new practices yet, but I expect to have the complete instructions very shortly. I will probably be doing these new practices for 3-5 hours daily for the rest of my life–confidently 10, probably 20, and maybe even 30 years since my genes are pretty good and, unlike my parents, I haven’t killed myself with tobacco.
It has been my great pleasure for the past 6 years to have watched you gradually emerge from shyness and find your true voice and true vocation. Beyond the controversies of the day you have been a superb spokesperson for the choice of the monastic way of life. I think this will be your most lasting legacy.
The sum of religious life is not what we achieve, but how we respond to the inevitable limits of our own achievement, and what we make the opportunities life hands us. What has come to you is a blog and not a habit, bustle and not quiet, a portion of fame and not anonymity, and a call to write as well as to pray. What has also come is much love, friendship and agape from many whom you may never personally meet.
You have used these things well.
One of the prayers I chant repeatedly every day is what we call the Four Immeasurables. It is normally chanted to include all sentient beings, but we may chant it for individuals as well:
May you and your readers find happiness and the cause of happiness.
May you be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.
May you know the Great Bliss that is the end of suffering.
May you achieve the Great Evenmindedness that is beyond both craving and anger.
Hi – my first visit to your new site!
Looks good.
I’ve linked to you for many years – I’ll change the URL to go straight here.
You used to link to “Liturgy” http://www.liturgy.co.nz I thought
but no longer
Maybe it just fell off…
or maybe I have offended?
Blessings
Bosco+
http://www.liturgy.co.nz
Dear Elizabeth, A few months ago you posted a video of a young lady singing a beautiful song . She was blond and sang with no music or very simple musical accompaniment. She was singing about the Lord being with you in the most desperate of circumstances. I think you may have posted it in October or early November. I searched your archives and can’t find it. Could you please post it again or email me the name or the singer. My beautiful 24 year old grand-daughter-in-law is dying of cancer all over her body. She was diagosed about 2 weeks after her wedding. I would like to share this song with her if you could possibly help me find it. God bless you.
Forgive me, I couldn’t find your e-mail address to send this to. I came across a quote from Tony Blair’s recently-converted-to-Islam-half-sister-in-law that reminded me of several of your posts about Catholicism/Christianity and women…Sad that she could have found these very same things in the Catholic Church is she didn’t already “know so much that isn’t so” about it to feel forced to look elsewhere.
“I sat down in the mosque in Iran, there was such tranquility. I had the compulsion to pray and from then on I knew I was a Muslim,” she said.
“Muslim women are not oppressed, it is Western women who are oppressed… Western women are bored, lonely and oppressed.”
found on yahoo news under “Blair sister-in-law wants him tried for Iraq crimes”
Saw your Twitter message- If you’re looking for ‘live’ Egyptian coverage in the middle of the night here’s a live feed.
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/
Dear Elizabeth, I know you sometimes post “nun news” and I wondered if you were aware that the Passionist nuns at St. Joseph’s Monastery have a new novice? Also we have one too at the Monastery of the Infant Jesus in Lufkin, TX….both were vested on February 2 which is a wonderful date to have as your clothing! You can see our pictures of the new Sr. Bernadette Marie, OP at http://lufkintxcontemplativenunsop.blogspot.com or just Google us at “Dominican Life on Lotus Lane”. Thanks so much for your blog, it is great! God bless you! Sr. Mary Thomas, OP
I know you must be flooded with correspondence, but I’m going to try anyway. My wife and I will soon be visiting New York for the first time. We are staying on the upper west side. Our smallish hometown is, shall we say, liturgically poor and rarely do we hear real chant or anything composed by anyone that could be considered great. Since we wil be there over a Sunday, we would like to attend mass somewhere. Where do you think the most beautiful mass is? Or at least where are the best places to attend a full sung mass with good music?
Dear Anchoress,
Thanks for posting all the great news about nuns and friars and monks! Just to let you know, we recently had a postulant take the habit (on February 2)…her beautiful new name is Sr. Bernadette Marie. We have more information about her clothing on our website, http://www.lufkinnuns.org (under Photos) and on our blog, http://lufkintxcontemplativenunsop.blogspot.com. We’ve posted a couple of things since then but you can scroll down and see her under the blog title “We Have A Novice” or search under “Bernadette Marie”. Thank you so much!
God bless you,
Sr. Mary Thomas, OP