Cloister & Community Life Within a Carmelite Monastery

"For centuries the Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila has fascinated anyone interested in a life lived out of the depths of the human spirit. With warm and lively prose, Mary Jo Weaver tells not only Teresa's story but also how Teresa's ideals are lived by contemporary Carmelite nuns in Indianapolis. You will not want to set down this beautifully crafted tapestry of a saint and her modern daughters until you have turned its final page."

--Keith J. Egan

Cloister and Community is both a history of the Carmelite monastery of Indianapolis and an introduction to the Carmelites, a contemplative order of Roman Catholicism, founded in the 13th century and rededicated as a reform movement for religious women in the 16th century by Teresa of Avila. A key element of the order is that its nuns live an ascetic, cloistered life, but as Mary Jo Weaver demonstrates, the view that one must "leave the world" to find sacred space apart from it has evolved to embrace the notion that the world itself is sacred space.

Weaver focuses on a modern Indianapolis community and describes how the sisters incorporate Carmelite belief and practice into their daily lives. Cloister and Community is a beautifully written and handsomely produced book that offers readers a privileged view of the world of present-day contemplative spirituality.

For centuries the Spanish mystic Teresa of Avila has fascinatedanyone interested in a life lived out of the depths of the human spirit. With warmand lively prose, Mary Jo Weaver tells not only Teresa's story but also how Teresa'sideals are lived by contemporary Carmelite nuns in Indianapolis. You will not wantto set down this beautifully crafted tapestry of a saint and her modern daughtersuntil you have turned its final page.

-- Keith J. Egan

Cloister and Community is both a history of the Carmelitemonastery of Indianapolis and an introduction to the Carmelites, a contemplativeorder of Roman Catholicism, founded in the 13th century and rededicated as a reformmovement for religious women in the 16th century by Teresa of Avila. A key elementof the order is that its nuns live an ascetic, cloistered life, but as Mary JoWeaver demonstrates, the view that one must leave the world to findsacred space apart from it has evolved to embrace the notion that the world itselfis sacred space.

Weaver focuses on a modern Indianapolis communityand describes how the sisters incorporate Carmelite belief and practice into theirdaily lives. Cloister and Community is a beautifully written and handsomely producedbook that offers readers a privileged view of the world of present-day contemplativespirituality.

Mary Jo Weaver is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University. Her most recent books, Being Right and What's Left? (both Indiana University Press), have dealt with divisions within American Catholicism at the turn of the millennium. She has been a friend of the Indianapolis Carmelites for more than 20 years.

Preliminary Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Creating a Sacred Space

2. A Few Rooms/A Few Sisters

3. Content with Little

4. Never Out/Never Seen

5. Moving Stillness

6. A Door to the Universe

Additional Notes

Some Important Dates