Everything Is “Ours”
In his book about the Cistercian Monks of Caldey Island, Roscoe Howells recounts this exchange: “One of the monks never finished reading a certain book because, he said, ‘Somebody swiped it.’ Momentarily taken aback, the author said, ‘You don’t mean to tell me that monks actually swipe things, do they?’ The monk thought for a moment, then gave a wry smile that was at once both worldly and heavenly and said, ‘No. Not exactly. It's what we call total community.’”*
“Total community”: the result of our vow of poverty. Monks have a vow of poverty and so do we nuns. That means that we can’t own anything. Nothing is “mine”; everything is “ours”, and since it is ours, anyone of the community is welcome to take it. We have chosen to relinquish control of our lives. I have given up staking out “my” claim to anything. We trust God and we trust one another, and we trust those who believe that our life of prayer has value. Many people think that we nuns are supported by the Church or by the Diocese. We aren’t. We are supported by the goodwill and generosity of ordinary people, of those who believe that our prayers make a difference in the world. These are usually people who have experienced in their own lives the effect of our prayers and who contact us to thank us. Our vow of poverty empties our hands of things and makes them open to receive and to pour out God’s graces on one another and on others.
Our superiors are trusted with the duty to provide for us what we need. My Prioress has provided the laptop on which I type this article. It is posted on a blog that bears the title “From Sr. Gabriela’s Desk” but the blog doesn’t belong to me. It is “ours”, and it will contain articles from other nuns in the community. They all come “from Sr. Gabriela’s desk” because I handle the computer, but the wisdom, the insights, the joys and sorrows that you will read here are truly OURS because they come from the hearts of the nuns in the community.
Sr. Gabriela of the Incarnation, O.C.D.
* Roscoe Howells, “Total Community – The Monks of Caldey Island”