Cloistered Minnesota nuns share thoughts on handling social isolation
SAUK RAPIDS, MINN. – The Poor Clare Sisters know all about sheltering in place.
They’ve been doing it most of their lives.
Sixteen Catholic nuns reside at Saint Clare’s Monastery in this central Minnesota city, living lives of service to God through prayer. To the usual vows of poverty, obedience and chastity, they’ve added one more: enclosure.
From their hilltop sanctuary, they send out prayers in answer to the thousands of requests that come in by phone, by letter or confided through a screen in the doorway of their monastery.
But they never leave their cloister, except for infrequent medical checkups.
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across Minnesota and much of the globe, several sisters graciously consented to meet and offer their thoughts on how the rest of us can cope with our social isolation during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“We are very happy and content, and feel very blessed to be in this situation. …