Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Happiness is within, not without


Today is Ash Wednesday in case it isn't known already. With my pre-Lent preparations, I've been busy and not posted at all and with Mass looming at 12:10, this will be short.

By John Thorne | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

ROME – In 2003, Cristina Pavone, left her Dublin, Ireland, apartment, her boyfriend, and her steady job with Hertz Rent-a-Car, and went home to Italy to join a Franciscan order. Last summer, she took her final vows and became a cloistered nun.

Today, Sister Cristina, 31, lives with 179 other monks and nuns at a small red-brick monastery north of Rome. She reads, does chores, meets visitors, and prays five times daily, starting at 3 a.m.

"I was far from God," she says quietly, wrapping her hands around a hot mug in the monastery's drafty dining hall. "I experimented with everything you can experiment with to find happiness. Now that I've left everything, I've found everything."
[...]

Read the complete article New fervor among young Italian Catholics.

In addition to Italian young people, the Anchoress has a post in the flowering of vocations here in the US that is worth a look as it is quite heartening.

Photo: PETER MACDIAMID/GETTY IMAGES

No comments: