A Life of Prayer in the Tehachapis

By WILLIAM LOBDELL

July 1, 2000 12 AM PT

She’s young, bright and attractive, razor sharp, once a promising litigator and partner in a Minnesota law firm. If you’re still not getting the picture, imagine a new actress coming on “Ally McBeal”--and then dress her in a white nun’s habit.

There you have Sister Mary Norbert, former big-city attorney and accountant, who now lives a cloistered life in the Tehachapi mountains. She shares the modest convent with five other women from Orange County’s St. Michael’s Abbey, which recently launched the only house of Norbertine nuns in the United States.

St. Norbert, a German, lived in the early 12th century and gave up his wealth for life as a poor priest who followed a strict regimen of prayer and penance.

“There comes a point when you have a conversion, and everything changes,” said Sister Mary Norbert, who joined the order a year ago after feeling disenchanted with her career. “Part of the change in my life was my work. I was pushed out of the legal system, but there was also a pull from God.”

It has to be a strong pull. For the rest of their lives, the sisters will follow the same daily routine. They will rise at 4 a.m., go to sleep at 10 p.m. and get up again for midnight prayers. Prayer will take up most of their time, but they will also sing, study and develop a cottage industry (maybe data entry for companies on the Internet) that will make them self-sufficient. They will get one hour of free time each day.

It’s a lifestyle stripped down to essentials. There is no television, no radio, no newspaper, few visitors and no trips off the 475-acre grounds except for doctor’s appointments and family emergencies.

“It’s hard to give up all the distractions. You’re faced with just yourself and your own selfishness,” said Sister Mary Stephen, a 24-year-old UCI graduate.

The pioneering sisters volunteered for this austere life because they believe prayer matters. Intercessory prayer helps people. And the best way to pray for themselves, the Norbertine priests and the rest of the world is to reduce life to its basics, allowing no worldly diversions to come between them and God.

Sister Mary Stephen never thought she would become a nun; she wanted a big family of her own. Then a priest told her she could be the spiritual mother of thousands.

“Being a nun, I can be a mother of souls through prayers and sacrifice,” she said.

A contemplative life is something not many people can understand, including some of the nuns’ family members and friends.

“When you live a life in the world and live that lifestyle, everything is normal,” Sister Mary Norbert said. “When you start to make changes, oftentimes those changes become frightening, and people are challenged by it because it makes them look at their own life.”

With the priests’ backing, the women began the community three years ago. Several were regular visitors to St. Michael’s Abbey in Trabuco Canyon and had been awed by the beautiful services, the intense prayer life and the emphasis on learning that are the hallmarks of Norbertine fathers.

“They enjoyed the vibrant quality of the life at the abbey,” Abbott Eugene Hayes said. “And they thought, ‘Gee, it would be nice if there was something like this for women.’ ”

In the mid-1980s, an attempt to form a house of nuns failed when the women decided that a cloistered existence was too much.

But the latest recruits embraced the life of self-sacrifice and prayer, led by Mother Mary Augustine, a 61-year-old former art-frame store owner, rancher and grandmother of three.

“That’s going to be their world for the rest of their lives,” Abbott Hayes said. “This group seemed to be clear that they were all experiencing a pull to a deep prayer life.”

Said Sister Mary Norbert: “This was a conscious choice to give my life to God. It’s pretty radical, but Christ’s gospel is demanding. We’re here to save souls.”

As Sister Mary Joannes Baptista sees it: “I think I’ll be working on my self-will the rest of my life. On those occasions where I can use self-denial, there’s a very great freedom. I’ve never felt so free.”

The women’s first step in establishing the community was to move into a condo near the abbey, where they prayed, took classes and practiced Gregorian chants. They then spent a year living with Dominican nuns in Buffalo, N.Y., to get a taste of solitary life.

They traveled to Europe to visit the seven monasteries of Norbertine nuns there, learning more about the order’s tradition. They even visited the tomb of St. Norbert.

After returning to the United States, the nuns had been living in a vacated convent at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Santa Ana before moving last month to a former ranch in the mountain town of Tehachapi, near Bakersfield.

Abbott Hayes said the abbey had to buy the $900,000 property three hours away from St. Michael’s because of the shortage of open space and affordable land in Southern California.

Mother Mary Augustine hopes the fledgling group--it will be at least three years before the Norbertine order officially recognizes them as an independent community--will attract other women who are serious about a life of intercessory prayer and penance. To get the word out, the sisters already produce a newsletter with 1,000 people on its mailing list.

But the best advertisement for life as a Norbertine nun are the sisters themselves.

Sister Mary Norbert, her eyes wide and alive, said of the day she became a nun, “I had a lot of peace, a lot of joy. I was ready for this. There is nothing else. God is everything. There is no other choice.”

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A Day in the Life of a Norbertine Nun

4 a.m.: Rise

4:30 to 8 a.m.: Prayers and Mass

8 to 8:20 a.m.: Breakfast (optional)

8:30 to 10:30: Gregorian chant practice

10:30 to 11:45: Latin class

11:45 to noon: Prayer

Noon to 1 p.m.: Lunch

1 to 2:10 p.m.: Silent prayer

2:10 to 2:40 p.m.: More prayer

2:40 to 5 p.m.: Work