Bishop Robert J. Banks

A beacon of prayer

Never underestimate the power of Sisters!

Eight years ago, a small band of Carmelite Sisters arrived here in Green Bay. They had been invited first by Bp. Maida and then by me. I had also run the invitation by our Presbyteral Council so that the Sisters would feel they were being welcomed by the Diocese.

It had been difficult finding a convent where they would have the silence and solitude that are necessary for cloistered, contemplative nuns. Finally, we settled on the building in Robinsonville that had been used by the Bay Settlement Sisters in preparing high school girls to become members of their community. It not only seemed large enough, but it was also next to the famous shrine of Sr. Adele Brice.

On Ascension Thursday eight years ago, in keeping with the Church's ceremony for the establishment of a strict cloister for contemplative nuns, I turned the key and locked the small band of nuns into their monastery. As I remember, it was a sturdy Yale lock and would serve adequately the purpose of keeping the nuns in and others out. (The nuns, of course, enter freely and are able to leave the community whenever they decide it is not the life for them. The locking of the door is only a symbol of their desire to seek the solitude necessary for serious prayer.)

In any case, the lock didn't seem to work too well. Eight years later, the Carmelites are ready to begin construction of a handsome new monastery on a beautiful hill outside the town of Denmark.

I would say that there are two main reasons for the new monastery. First, the Robinsonville building was going to need serious repairs and even some expansion if it was going to serve the Carmelites for years to come. Second, the use of the shrine church by the sisters was proving to be an inconvenience for the many people who liked to come during the day for prayer. As I think about it now, I should have known that you can't use a church that is supposed to be open to the public as a chapel for nuns.

The decision to move to a new monastery was made by the nuns, of course. But the Prioress, Mother Mary Elizabeth of the Blessed Trinity, spoke to me about their hopes and plans. Since all the money for the new monastery would have to be raised by the Carmelites, they faced a serious challenge. How do you raise money when you cannot even leave the cloister?

Anyone who is at all familiar with cloistered, contemplative nuns knows that such a community quickly develops a large circle of friends who love the sisters and want to support them and their way of life. The nuns' generous way of life inspires generous support among their friends. That has happened here in Green Bay. So friends of the nuns took the initiative in raising the necessary funds and searching out the expertise necessary for such an ambitious project. And the prioress herself is no slouch at providing some very knowledgeable leadership.

The result should be a beautiful monastery that will attract people from all over northeast Wisconsin to be with the nuns in prayer. Just as Holy Hill, the Carmelite church and shrine outside Milwaukee, has become a spiritual center for so many, I think this new monastery will over time draw its own following.

The Carmelite nuns tend to think in terms of centuries. When I asked them for a copy of their rule of life, they handed me the one given to their Order by St. Albert of Jerusalem around 1204. St. Theresa of Avila fleshed out the Rule with new constitutions in 1567 and 1581. It is those ancient documents to which Pope John Paul II returned when he approved new constitutions some 10 years ago. So they are planning a monastery that will last at least for a couple of centuries, if not much longer.

They do not see it simply as a home for themselves. It is to be a beacon of prayer for all who see it, a reminder of the importance of prayer in the life of the Church and the individual Christian. Its beauty is to be a reflection of the beauty of the Gospel and of life in Christ.

As for as their own living quarters, they will be as stark and simple as the ones they have now. The small cell, the thin mattress on a board, the backless stools for chairs, the year-long abstinence from meat and the six-month fast will all be the same. If any comfort is built into the new structure, it will be limited to those areas that are for the public.

As I see it, the new monastery is intended by the nuns to be a statement of the importance of prayer and contemplation in the life of the Church. That also fits into the way our Holy Father thinks about such monasteries.

Pope John Paul II has a particular love for the founders of the Discalced Carmelite way of life, St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa, and a tremendous respect for the importance of the way of life itself. He has called the nuns' monasteries "oases of prayer and of special contemplation in the silence of the cloister." He says, "The Church has a need of your contemplative charism, in the task of the new Evangelization, and in facing the immense spiritual and material needs of humanity."

The monastery building doesn't do that; it is the life of the nuns cloistered within. The challenge of our local Carmelite nuns is that given by our Holy Father to all the Discalced Carmelite nuns, "Give testimony to the beauty and missionary fruitfulness of your hidden life with Christ in God. Show the value of the prayer of intercession and of silent immolation around the Eucharist ... in order to be as Therese of Lisieux so ardently desired - love in the heart of the Mystical Body."

My words to the nuns on the occasion of the groundbreaking for the new monastery were not as uplifting. I warned them that when I locked them into the new monastery, they were to stay there.