Free for God Alone
The Cloister & The Contemplative Life
“By withdrawal from the world, in fact and in spirit, the nuns, like prudent virgins waiting for their Lord, are freed from worldly affairs so that they may have leisure to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the kingdom of God.”
The Meaning of Enclosure
When our Holy Father St. Dominic founded the nuns, he meant them to be able to devote the whole attention of their hearts to God, “free for God alone,” as our Constitutions describe it. The cloister (specifically, papal enclosure) is the particular way that God calls us as Dominican nuns to belong exclusively to Him. In order to understand enclosure better, we can think about the practical aspects of its observance, the interior freedom it brings, and the symbolism at its heart.
Practical Aspects of Enclosure
Papal enclosure, which is under the direct authority of the Pope rather than the local bishop, is governed by laws from the Holy See specifying how cloistered nuns are to maintain separation from the outside world in order to remove distractions and foster their life of prayer. These rules are not imposed on us; rather, each of us chooses this form of life as a personal response of love to God.
You can read the most current regulations for papal enclosure in the document Cor Orans on the Vatican website.
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At our monastery, effective material separation is realized in the wall and fence that surround the part of our grounds reserved for the nuns, and the grille that separates the nuns from the public in the chapel and parlor.
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The laws of enclosure also regulate the reasons the nuns can leave the enclosure (for instance, for health care) and that others can enter (for instance, a priest to give the sacraments to a sick nun, or a workman to do necessary repairs).
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What about news and the internet? Yes, we use these, as our Constitutions explain: “In their prayer the nuns bring before God the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anguish of the people of today. Therefore they should be suitably informed of these matters; but the communications media should be used with discretion and moderation so that worldly interests which the nuns have given up for the sake of God may not be introduced into the cloister.”
The Purpose of Enclosure: Sacred Space for the Word of God
“The purpose of all regular observance, especially enclosure and silence, is that the word of God may dwell abundantly in the monastery.”
Why these rules? The instruction Verbi Sponsa uses the beautiful image of the still pool which reflects a perfect image of the sky. When nothing disturbs the waters of the heart, there is peace and communion with God. Another image is that of the desert, the place stripped of all distractions from the encounter with oneself and with God. In the Dominican cloister, this space prepares our hearts as the good soil to receive the Word of God and bear fruit thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold.
Especially today, as the world outside is increasingly consumed by technology, the very disposition of mind and heart which is able to “be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10) is often completely impossible. By setting apart a space and environment for the contemplative monastic life, the cloister is an important means to foster a life of intimate union with God.
The Symbolism of Enclosure: A Sign of the Wedding Feast of Heaven
“A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed.”
In order to unlock the deepest meaning of enclosure, however, we have to turn to its ultimate symbolism: in a radical way, our cloistered vocation represents “the exclusive union of the Church as Bride with the Lord” precisely because our life is “entirely dedicated to God, loved above all else” (Verbi Sponsa, 4). Because of this profound symbolism, our observance of enclosure goes beyond what is simply useful in creating an environment for prayer, to what shows forth in a more radical way the total belonging to God that will ultimately be fulfilled in the whole Church at the final culmination in Heaven.
The cloister unites us with Our Lady in a special way, as she is the perfect image of the Church as Virgin, Bride, and Mother. She is the “enclosed garden” of the Divine Spouse, where at the Incarnation He comes to take His delight. In the cloister, consecrated exclusively to her Son, we also are called to preserve our hearts entirely for Him.
The Contemplative Life
“This hidden life should open their minds to the breadth and height and depth of the love of God who sent his Son so that the whole world might be saved through him.”
By setting apart a space for harmonious communion with God and the Sisters, the cloister creates what is called the contemplative state of life. This is distinct from but aimed at the contemplative life of interior prayer to which all Christians are invited by virtue of their baptism. In the canonical contemplative form of religious life, all the aspects of the nuns’ religious observance are “so ordered to interior contemplation that their whole life and all actions can easily and must efficaciously be imbued by the desire for it” (Cor Orans, 4).
What is this contemplative prayer that we should desire so much? Simply put, it is an experience of God’s loving Presence, rooted in faith and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that transforms us more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. It is a free gift of God—not something we can achieve ourselves—but it is a gift which Our Lord ardently desires to give to all. “Let all who are thirsty, come!” (cf. Is. 55:1, Jn. 7:37, Rev. 22:17).
Our entire Dominican monastic life is a preparation for this gift of loving union with God. Our community life, our vows, our liturgy, our prayer, our study, all bring us to the contemplation of Divine Truth, God Himself. “Whoever has experienced this in some way cannot help but pray over and over again, stopping at nothing, asking for that mercy sought by the Bride [in the Song of Songs]: Kiss me . . . (Fr. Juan Arintero, O.P.) And, as for the Bride, this union with God in prayer becomes for us a hidden spiritual motherhood that bears much fruit in the Church for the salvation of souls.
