The phrase “contemplatives in action” has become well known in recent years thanks to the work of St. Teresa of Kolkata and her Missionaries of Charity. It is not that difficult to understand the idea of prayerful people living out their relationship with God in service to their neighbor. But the idea of being contemplative without the action can be puzzling. When we speak of “contemplative nuns”, who are still often called “cloistered nuns”, there is something mysterious about the term, something that can be alluring and at the same time rather daunting.

            The correct term is “nuns wholly devoted to contemplation” and the official definition is women religious who have no outside apostolate, such as teaching or caring for the sick. This is helpful but a fuller explanation is still needed.

            It is possible to present the vocation to the wholly contemplative life in several ways, but I think that the simplest is to say that contemplative nuns are the praying hands of the Church. All people are called to pray, and contemplative nuns remind us that the Church itself is called to pray. The hands of the Church have many tasks to do. The Church must be busy with all the corporal and spiritual works of mercy: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, instructing the ignorant, counseling the discouraged. Yet in the midst of all this activity, contemplative nuns remind the world that our relationship with God comes first. We are loved into existence. We are the focus of God’s love, and that focused gaze of love must be returned by us to Him. This is not only just and right; this is what we are called to do when this life of time is over: to return love for love for all eternity. Contemplative nuns are a sign, a witness, to the primacy of sharing in God’s love, now in time, and beyond time for eternity.

            Prayer takes several forms: the prayer of petition, intercessory prayer, the prayer of thanksgiving, the prayer of adoration, Some contemplative orders focus more on one form of prayer, for example, there are the various communities of perpetual adoration. But in the end, all the forms of prayer are part of the lives of contemplative nuns, either personally or communally. The prayer of the Church never ceases in the hearts of her contemplatives. Our hands and eyes and hearts are always uplifted to God for the sake of the whole world.