VANISHING NUNS

Dear God,

As You know, in days past, hundreds
of thousands of nuns taught in Catholic schools, nursed patients in hospitals,
cared for orphans, and performed myriad
other tasks for the Church and its people.

The "Good Sisters" were uniformly garbed
in habits of gray, brown, white or blue,
but mostly black. Some of the habits
were designed as long ago as the Middle Ages, and to some degree reflected the garb
of that long-gone era era.

Toward the end of the 20th century,
great changes swept over Your Church,
some reflecting movements of modernism, feminism and social equality
in the modern world.

Most orders of nuns in America have abandoned their historic floor length habits
and starchy wimples for simple contemporary clothing to relate more easily to the people with whom they work.

Simultaneously, and sadly, dear God,
the customary wave of new postulants is not forth coming, and now it seems that many orders are facing severe retrenchment,
and if conditions don't change,
perhaps even extinction.

One American order gathered recently
for a festive anniversary celebration
of their founding. In a photo we see
very few very really young women present.
No great cadre of young nuns or postulants
in their 20's are to be seen. The future
of the order does not seem bright.

I pray to You my Lord to give support, sustenance and energy, health and happiness to all of our dear aging dear, and if it be Your will, please send thousands of vocations so that a great wave of new sisters come into Your service.

These women are Your faithful servants. Please do not let the now elderly nuns
be the last of their orders.

I thank You God for the good sisters past, the good sisters present and hopefully,
the many, many good sisters of the future!

Amen

 

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