What do nuns do all day?

The nuns pray the Divine Office together in choir five times a day, spend an hour and a half daily in mental prayer, do spiritual reading for at least a half hour a day, observe silence except during Recreation which is after dinner and supper; and engage in a variety of work: maintenance of the monastery, gardening, ...

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What do nuns do for a living?

Nuns take vows that vary by faith and order, but often involve dedicating themselves to a life of poverty and chastity. Some nuns devote themselves to prayer, while others, known as religious sisters, serve their community by helping the poor, teaching in schools, or providing health care.

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How many hours of sleep do nuns get?

According to Carmelite tradition, nuns get 4-6 hours of sleep per 24-hour period. This usually consists of two or three separate sleep periods, which typically last two to four hours each. However, some other cloistered monasteries advise their nuns to get only four hours of total sleep per night.

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Do nuns only sleep 3 hours?

Each night, these nuns allow themselves no more than three hours of sleep. Their calling is an extreme one: to stay inside the walls of their convent and spend their days and nights in prayer and silent contemplation.

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Do nuns wear a habit all the time?

The fact is, sisters - known also in Catholicism as women religious - have abandoned the habit, much as Catholic women have abandoned the religious life since the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.

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A day at the Convent

19 related questions found

Do nuns use sanitary pads?

However, around 3 percent of the adolescent schoolgirls did not use any kind of absorbent material. Similarly, almost nine out of every ten (87.5%) nuns used sanitary pad followed by around 11 percent who used napkin/cloth or towel.

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What do nuns do after breakfast?

The sisters, contrarily, wait patiently with their heads bowed. Then, at the end of the meal, they call out the kitchen and serving staff to applaud them and sing a blessing over them.

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Do nuns have phones?

After joining the convent, nuns are limited to a great degree in their contact with the outside world. They can't always use cell phones, are only allowed to visit family certain times of the year and must share the use of items like cars with other sisters in the convent.

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Can nuns go in the pool?

Catholic nuns

Regulations for nuns' swimwear are far from universal. According to Sister Lorraine from Ask a Catholic Nun, a social media-based forum run by the Daughters of St. Paul, some cloistered nuns never swim at all, while those of other orders may choose to wear fairly modern suits.

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What are the strictest orders of nuns?

The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Latin: Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a Catholic religious order of cloistered monastics that branched off from ...

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How long do nuns stay silent for?

It is also considered a virtue in some religions. In Western Christian traditions such as Catholicism and Lutheranism, the Great Silence is the period of time beginning at the canonical hour of Compline, in which votarists are silent until the first office of the next day, Lauds.

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How do you become a nun in Australia?

How to Become a Nun
  1. Pray. The most important place to begin is to pray (or continue praying) about this call you sense. ...
  2. Meet Nuns. Do you know any real nuns? ...
  3. Talk with a Mentor. ...
  4. Contact a Religious Community. ...
  5. Work with the Vocation Director. ...
  6. Join the Community.

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Do nuns make good money?

Most eligible nuns receive Medicare and Medicaid. But their monthly Social Security checks are tiny: Nuns get about $3,333 a year, compared with an average annual pension for secular retirees of $9,650.

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What do nuns do when they retire?

Retired nuns continue to serve through the ministry of prayer. A willingness to remain active reflects the years of busy lives they lived. Most will serve until they no longer can. Sisters are constantly praying for those in need, often taking turns on the hour during times of crisis.

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Do nuns have their own bank account?

But nuns take vows of poverty and generally do not have salaries, personal bank accounts or property and the communities in which they live can't afford to pay off the hefty loans.

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Do nuns have to cover their hair?

Nuns of the Roman Catholic, Western Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican traditions often wear a veil as a part of their religious habit. Likewise, Moravian females wear a lace headcovering called a haube, when serving as dieners in the celebration of lovefeasts.

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Can nuns live alone?

Nuns consider this their wedding dress. Not all nuns live the same lifestyle. Cloistered nuns rarely leave the confines of their monastery and pray up to 12 hours a day. Some sisters choose an independent path, which means they live alone, go to college, pursue careers and don't wear a habit.

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Are nuns allowed to have social media?

In a document published by the Vatican's office for religious life, nuns were told that while they were allowed to use Facebook or Twitter and read online news, they were advised to do so “with discretion and sobriety”.

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Can nuns eat pizza?

Pizza is one of favoured treats for nuns and monks. He reckoned 8 out of 10 like pizza. Although pizza contains cheese, ham and pepperoni, nuns and monks are less conscious about animal proteins on pizza toppings as these are part of food called 'pizza'.

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What sacrifices do nuns make?

I read about the sacrifices the nuns are required to make, including vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and enclosure. A nun makes her vows, including removing herself from the world, in order to pray for humankind, or to put it simply, to help people reach heaven.

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Can a woman become a nun after being married?

A woman who has been married and divorced must have her marriage annulled within the church, he said, and, if she is a mother, her children must be old enough to not be her dependents. Widows can become nuns but have different criteria, he said. Msgr.

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Can nuns take birth control?

"The Catholic Church condemns all forms of contraception except abstinence, as outlined by Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae in 1968," wrote Britt and Short.

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Can nuns take medication?

She told ABC News that nuns have the same access to care that every woman has, which includes the pill. "A nun goes to a doctor for her medical care, and if that medical care requires a certain kind of medicine then that medicine is prescribed," Walsh told ABC News. Her take?

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Can I dress as a nun?

Sure! As long as there's nothing crude or disrespectful about the way you do so, no one at your church is likely to have a problem with you dressing up as a nun.

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