Nun Buzz

Thanks to Julie for pointing me to this article in the Sacramento Bee: "A New Tradition: The average age of nuns is 70, but a younger generation of women is turning to the religious life."

You need to be a subscriber to read the whole article OR just visit Julie's page where she has posted the text.

There have been a number of articles lately in the secular press about the glimmer of hope of increasing vocations to religious life. Most have focused on the fact that some women are in fact becoming nuns and even blogging about it.

This article is in that vein. It focuses on tennis star Andrea Jaeger who became an Anglican Sister - and includes a brief mention of this here blog!

While Jaeger's transition from tennis star to nun may have taken many by surprise, her decision to enter religious life is not unusual. After years of little growth, several religious communities are reporting an increasing number of women answering the call. The numbers are still small, but they are a ray of hope for religious orders worried about their future. ...

"People are surprised when I write about biking or drinking wine," says Sister Julie Vieira, whose blog, "A Nun's Life," gets about 500 hits daily. Vieira, who works for a Catholic publishing company in Chicago, started the blog last summer as a way to educate.

"There's a lack of understanding about what it means to be a religious today. I want to show there are all kinds of nuns."

Vieira's blog is one of many written by sisters about life inside a convent.

In blogs such as "the ear of your heart" -- described as the adventures of a canonical novice in a Benedictine monastery out in the boonies -- the nun writes about her exercise "addiction" as well as her love for Christ. On another, "Musings of a Discerning Woman," a new sister talks about movie night at the convent ("Field of Dreams") and the importance of meditation.