A 2012 article in the Wichita Eagle states that fewer than 100 women enter American convents and monasteries each year.  From one perspective, and given our post-modern culture, that might seem like a lot, but not compared with days gone by.  Here in Cor Unum Abbey, we delight to think that more and more men and women are exploring deeper and more devoted practices of worship and prayer at home, and within these cyber-walls we know that what matters most is that we enter that holy vocation, that we bring ourselves before God continually, finding our joy in Him and His strength, learning His ways, hearing His Voice, knowing Him, and letting that knowledge become for us eternal life.  (John 17:3)  We have seen and spoken this year: God is not on the surface.  He hides Himself that we may know the value, the honor, and the necessity of training our souls into the race that winds through the Highway of Righteousness.  (Isaiah 40:3)

We have been together for our first week of the New Year, looking into the challenges and the benefits of a life with one focus and goal, that we might walk with God.  The sub-heading for that volume is very, very long!  That we would obtain His peace, receive the answers to our prayers, conquer our fears,  abide in hope, be filled with the Holy Spirit … this list could go on for pages and for days!

We are bringing our lives together that we may live alone before God in the splendor of His will and His life within us.  We have seen that we must live “solo” as to our faith and our pursuit of God, but we can help one another in this online community and in our churches.  I hope you will leave a comment or two along the way, make Cor Unum a site that comes to your door, brought to you by the world wide web!  Many of you, were we living within stone walls with bolted oaken doors, would be Chapter Nuns, the decision makers, those bound to pray for the novices and postulants, those that keep the Abbey going.  Some of you are new and wondering “why?” and “what?” concerning Cor Unum Abbey, and wondering “why?” and “what?” relative to your own devotional lives.   As is true for those who really do, those 100 or so women across the nation who do leave their everyday lives behind to live out their days in cloister, in worship, in intercession, in the Practice of the Presence of God, this can be done!  It wasn’t to monks and nuns alone that the promise was made … it was to all!  If we seek God we will find Him, if we seek Him with our whole hearts. (Deuteronomy 4:29)

Over the next few days we will worship here together, and on Monday, we will roll up the sleeves of our habits and get down to business.  (John 6:29)

John 17:3 … Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (NIV)

Isaiah 40:3 …Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the LORD! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! (NLT)

Deuteronomy 4:29 … But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.  (KJV)

John 6:29 … Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (NIV)

Discalced Carmelites … Nun and Novice

by permission, Eugenio Hansen