Sister Rose, 79, one of four Carmelite nuns
who spent their lives in seclusion at the
Carmelite Monastery in Mobile, is pictured
at the Convent of Mercy
In March, Sister Marie Therese and 3 other nuns moved from the monastery to the Sisters of Mercy retirement home in west Mobile.
In their late 70s and early 80s, they were no longer able to keep up the day-in, day-out workings of the monastery.
Barbara Bradley, a Carmelite nun for 22 years who now serves as "extern" — a person shopping for groceries, taking the nuns to the doctor and the like — tells the story:
Radiators were broken; some buildings had fallen into disrepair.
Sister Marie Therese had suffered a serious fall, and is still bed-ridden. And there were not enough young women in the United States joining the contemplative order to fill the monastery with a bright, new generation.
After discussions with the Rev. Thomas J. Rodi, archbishop of the Mobile Archdiocese, they agreed to move out.
Largely with the help of volunteers, the monastery is being refurbished — new appliances and central air and heat added, and old buildings fixed and repainted.
The cells are being outfitted with new bedding — a mattress and board over two sawhorses cut low to the ground.
"The presence of the Carmelite sisters in the Carmelite monastery has been long," says Sister Paul Mary, Mother Superior of Mobile’s Little Sisters of the Poor, who serves as a liaison between the archdiocese and the religious orders.
"Their only mission to other people is to pray for them. The people of this area have gone to them for their prayers and supported them. The archbishop wanted it to continue. Not just for here, but for the whole Gulf Coast.
"To accomplish that," she says, "we had to revitalize the monastery."
But Sister Marie Therese and the others will not be returning.
New Carmelite sisters are on the way, what Sister Paul Mary calls "God’s providence at work."
Through a Jesuit brother at Spring Hill College, Brother Bao, and two Vietnamese nuns at Spring Hill, the archdiocese made contact with Carmelite sisters in Vietnam.
In Vietnam, says Sister Paul Mary, the Carmelite order has "more vocations than they could accommodate."
So, eight Carmelite sisters will be traveling to Mobile in February.
After a ceremony of enclosure, they will enter the newly restored monastery, and spend their lives in prayer, contemplation, and work.
Four Carmelite nuns who spent their lives in seclusion at the Carmelite Monastery in Mobile are pictured at the Convent of Mercy Tuesday, January 18, 2011. L-r: Sister Rose, 79; The Rev. Mother Marie Therese, 83; Sister Genevieve,78; Sister Elias, 81.
"Silence, solitude, mortification and manual labor help to attend a prayer life," Bradley says.
That path, she explains, can be a challenge, requiring great discipline.
"The ultimate goal is union with God."
Although, Bradley, 55, left the order for health reasons, she resides just outside the monastery and lives by Carmelite principles. And she will continue as the go-between for the Vietnamese Carmelites and the outside world.
Before the arrival of the new Carmelites, the monastery will be open — for one morning only, Saturday, Feb. 5 — for the general public to see a world, otherwise, forever closed away.
 |
| Sister Rose, 79, one of four Carmelite nuns who spent their lives in seclusion at the Carmelite Monastery in Mobile, is pictured at the Convent of Mercy |
In March, Sister Marie Therese and 3 other nuns moved from the monastery to the Sisters of Mercy retirement home in west Mobile.
In their late 70s and early 80s, they were no longer able to keep up the day-in, day-out workings of the monastery.
Barbara Bradley, a Carmelite nun for 22 years who now serves as "extern" — a person shopping for groceries, taking the nuns to the doctor and the like — tells the story:
Radiators were broken; some buildings had fallen into disrepair.
Sister Marie Therese had suffered a serious fall, and is still bed-ridden. And there were not enough young women in the United States joining the contemplative order to fill the monastery with a bright, new generation.
After discussions with the Rev. Thomas J. Rodi, archbishop of the Mobile Archdiocese, they agreed to move out.
Largely with the help of volunteers, the monastery is being refurbished — new appliances and central air and heat added, and old buildings fixed and repainted.
The cells are being outfitted with new bedding — a mattress and board over two sawhorses cut low to the ground.
"The presence of the Carmelite sisters in the Carmelite monastery has been long," says Sister Paul Mary, Mother Superior of Mobile’s Little Sisters of the Poor, who serves as a liaison between the archdiocese and the religious orders.
"Their only mission to other people is to pray for them. The people of this area have gone to them for their prayers and supported them. The archbishop wanted it to continue. Not just for here, but for the whole Gulf Coast.
"To accomplish that," she says, "we had to revitalize the monastery."
But Sister Marie Therese and the others will not be returning.
New Carmelite sisters are on the way, what Sister Paul Mary calls "God’s providence at work."
In their late 70s and early 80s, they were no longer able to keep up the day-in, day-out workings of the monastery.
Barbara Bradley, a Carmelite nun for 22 years who now serves as "extern" — a person shopping for groceries, taking the nuns to the doctor and the like — tells the story:
Radiators were broken; some buildings had fallen into disrepair.
Sister Marie Therese had suffered a serious fall, and is still bed-ridden. And there were not enough young women in the United States joining the contemplative order to fill the monastery with a bright, new generation.
After discussions with the Rev. Thomas J. Rodi, archbishop of the Mobile Archdiocese, they agreed to move out.
Largely with the help of volunteers, the monastery is being refurbished — new appliances and central air and heat added, and old buildings fixed and repainted.
The cells are being outfitted with new bedding — a mattress and board over two sawhorses cut low to the ground.
"The presence of the Carmelite sisters in the Carmelite monastery has been long," says Sister Paul Mary, Mother Superior of Mobile’s Little Sisters of the Poor, who serves as a liaison between the archdiocese and the religious orders.
"Their only mission to other people is to pray for them. The people of this area have gone to them for their prayers and supported them. The archbishop wanted it to continue. Not just for here, but for the whole Gulf Coast.
"To accomplish that," she says, "we had to revitalize the monastery."
But Sister Marie Therese and the others will not be returning.
New Carmelite sisters are on the way, what Sister Paul Mary calls "God’s providence at work."
Through a Jesuit brother at Spring Hill College, Brother Bao, and two Vietnamese nuns at Spring Hill, the archdiocese made contact with Carmelite sisters in Vietnam.
In Vietnam, says Sister Paul Mary, the Carmelite order has "more vocations than they could accommodate."
So, eight Carmelite sisters will be traveling to Mobile in February.
After a ceremony of enclosure, they will enter the newly restored monastery, and spend their lives in prayer, contemplation, and work.
In Vietnam, says Sister Paul Mary, the Carmelite order has "more vocations than they could accommodate."
So, eight Carmelite sisters will be traveling to Mobile in February.
After a ceremony of enclosure, they will enter the newly restored monastery, and spend their lives in prayer, contemplation, and work.
|
| Four Carmelite nuns who spent their lives in seclusion at the Carmelite Monastery in Mobile are pictured at the Convent of Mercy Tuesday, January 18, 2011. L-r: Sister Rose, 79; The Rev. Mother Marie Therese, 83; Sister Genevieve,78; Sister Elias, 81. |
"Silence, solitude, mortification and manual labor help to attend a prayer life," Bradley says.
That path, she explains, can be a challenge, requiring great discipline.
"The ultimate goal is union with God."
That path, she explains, can be a challenge, requiring great discipline.
"The ultimate goal is union with God."
Although, Bradley, 55, left the order for health reasons, she resides just outside the monastery and lives by Carmelite principles. And she will continue as the go-between for the Vietnamese Carmelites and the outside world.
Before the arrival of the new Carmelites, the monastery will be open — for one morning only, Saturday, Feb. 5 — for the general public to see a world, otherwise, forever closed away.
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