More Miserable Nuns…

Couple weeks ago we saw some very happy nuns who were belying Bitter Maureen Dowd’s assertions.

Seems there are other nuns who are happy – nay, joyful; in fact, they seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Check out these Franciscan nuns in Spain:

A 43 year-old prioresses has revolutionized an old Poor Clares convent in Spain, turning it onto a magnet for dozens of young professional women. . . .Sr. Veronica joined the convent which had not seen a new vocation in nearly 23 years.
. . .
The Spanish daily El Pais, one of the newspapers most sympathetic to the current Socialist government’s campaign against the Catholic Church in Spain, could not resist publishing an extensive report on Sr. Veronica. According to the newspaper, she “has become the biggest phenomenon in the Church since Teresa of Calcutta,” as “she has made the old convent of Lerma into an attractive recruiting banner for female vocations, with 135 professional women with a median age of 35 and 100 more on a waiting list.” The paper adds that Sr. Vernoica has also “opened a house in the town of La Aguilera, 24 miles from Lerma, at a huge monastery donated by her Franciscan brothers.”

I am struck by the 21 year old postulant who says, “…I asked Our Lady to teach me to love her son like she does.” Such perfect Mariology; Our Lady is not the object of our worship, but she points to that object, teaches us about Him, guides and prays, precisely as Pope Benedict describes, here.

More Happy Nuns, and this fast-growing community (pdf) sings joyfully, too! But some of you already know that, if you picked up their lovely CD from last year. Jack at Catholic Key advises that these Benedictines are now offering a Christmas CD, with both classic and new Christmas music:

“We recorded a fresh translation of Silent Night from the original German. One of the sisters did the translation and another set it to music. The church’s organ was broken so composer Franz Gruber played the accompaniment for Stille Nacht on his guitar.”

Some of the songs are familiar carols; others are original compositions by the sisters. Almost every day, one of the sisters is inspired to write a song, Mother Therese said. “We’re not professionals,” she said. “We just love to sing.”

Listening to snippets at their website, they sound like angels. Maybe all that fasting and all those prayers make them very light.

Our Passionist Nun friends in Kentucky have designed and made a cross that may make a great present for a pro-life friend.

And these Poor Clares have a chili cook-off with their neighbors.

At Clyde Monastery, where the Benedictines have opened a teahouse and recently received the first profession of a former Army Reservist who has seen active duty (scroll down) the sisters seem jubilant.

None of these women seem miserable, to me.

Related:
The joyous Poor Clare nuns of Malawi

FTC Disclaimer: I get no kicks from champagne, and no kickbacks from any of these sisters, for recommending their stuff.