Buddhist monks always make me want to be one, and I've had the same experience in an Episcopal monestary -- it's that deeply peaceful feeling. It's like relaxing to my soul.

On the priest/brother/monk thing, I think we tend to call the Christian religious-ordered people all monks and nuns, when really those should be the term for cloistered people, not out in the world. Those are sisters and brothers. I've heard people use the term "women religious," but I think that was referring to sisters. If I've got it all right.

Even British people sometimes find British accents difficult to understand so use Close Captioning - and included directions on how to get your close captioning to work.

That's really funny.

I wish I trusted the weather enough to put my air conditioner in my bedroom, but if I do that, I can never leave the window open again.

women religious

Right. At Loyola, they used 'avowed religious' to cover anyone how had taken specific vows.

I cracked up when another classmate described why he'd become a Jesuit, rather than some other order. "We have all the money and the best clothes...oh, and there is that education thing too."

He was always impeccably dressed...in an academic setting.

Oh, and no, I don't think cloistering dictates the job title. Many, many nuns in my program lived independently...apart from a mother house. Though, I'm not sure about monks.

My cousin's ex's father founded a major buddhist center in...St.Paul? I think it was St.Paul, not Minneapolis. Oh! He's on wikipedia! [link]

Wikipedia tells me that among Catholics, at least, the nun/sister thing I was saying is right: [link] I realize Wikipedia is not infallible, but it sure is convenient.

This is so interesting! Here's a sister's blog, which says much of the difference is about money. [link] She says she uses "nun" in general conversation, because it's easier, but also says she didn't realize that her Ursuline coworker was actually a nun!

ita, I've been on a tour of Green Gulch and can totally see going there.

I've been running errands and cleaning like crazy most of the day. Now I have ice cream and porn while I wait to rotate in more laundry. And seven open tabs on Zappos for casual walking shoes.

Oh, and no, I don't think cloistering dictates the job title. Many, many nuns in my program lived independently...apart from a mother house. Though, I'm not sure about monks.

It's actually true, in Catholicism. Monks are cloistered and Friars are not. Though, medeivally speaking, it got messy as monasteries became major landholders and they needed outrider monks to visit the property.

Initially all nuns were cloistered.

Kat, that sounds really amazing. Man, I wish I had some vacation time, or would within the next four months. I really need a shift of some sort.

Hmm. I could never actually be a monk without the fighting thing. One of the krav junior instructors went on a long trip to China last year, and went from temple to temple looking for some fighting instruction. NSM of that--though he did get shooed off by a monk on his cellphone arranging stock trades.

So, you'd be looking for the Shaolin, then, ita?

Which makes me laugh now, thinking of it as Staten Island, per the Wu-Tang Clan.