Contemplatives in Suburbia

I set up this page some months ago. The concept for it was clear but I never got around to posting. Today I had lunch with a friend who after a busy professional life returned to study. Now, armed with a PhD, she spends her time in itinerant ministry. No return to her former profession. Not embarking on a life of academia. Just making herself available to those who - accidentally - seek her out.

In the course of our conversation I told her about our new dog and she asked whether I had seen Red Dog ( www.reddogmovie.com ). She tells me that the people she meets are like the characters in Red Dog - misfits, people on the edge, people with life stories whose lives have taken unexpected turns. She listens. Sometimes, they say ‘thanks for listening’. Strangers. People on the Train. Itinerant workers in caravan parks. She travels alone on trains or on a bike.

I told her she was like an anchoress on a bike. She laughed because she said that in the years she was home raising a family she would describe herself as ‘a contemplative in suburbia.’ As the conversation meandered she commented that I had seemed to take up the ‘contemplative in suburbia’ concept with ease. I admitted that it was a concept I had entertained previously and asked whether she was familiar with the Beguine movement of the 13^th and 14^th century. Not surprisingly she was not only familiar with it but enthusiastic. She thought the concept was ripe for discovery in the 21^st Century.

Beguines were hidden but still part of the social and economic fabric of the town. Beguines did not take vows and were able to own property. If they did not own property they did not beg alms but engaged in manual labour. They lived privately but shared a common life of prayer and good works. Interestingly I know many women who engage in precisely this role.