What do nuns do?
Two paths, one and the same total self-gift: the active life and the contemplative life
When someone asks “what do nuns do?”, the most honest answer would be:
“they love, serve, and pray for the world.”
But behind those three words lies an entire life of self-giving.
Some do it in silence, within walls, and others amid the noise of the world.
Both forms are two faces of the same love: Christ.
“Nuns are the feminine face of a Church that prays, serves, and loves.”
Cloistered nuns: the hidden heart that sustains everyone
They are the contemplative nuns, those who live “hidden with Christ in God.”
From the silence of their monasteries, they pray for all, for those who believe and those who do not, for those who suffer, for those who love, for the whole world.
This is how their day beats
Their life is marked by a serene and steady rhythm:
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Personal prayer from dawn.
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Eucharist as the center of everything.
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Manual work: garden, sewing, sweets, icons…
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Silence, which is not emptiness, but an encounter with God.
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Spiritual reading and community time.
“Silence does not separate them from the world; it unites them to it from within.”
Although they live in enclosure, they are not disconnected.
They welcome visitors in the parlor, pray for specific intentions, and some make products they sell to support their community.
In a world that runs, they stop so that love can keep breathing.
Active-life nuns: the visible hands of the Gospel
While contemplatives pray in silence, active-life nuns go out to meet the world.
They are the ones who teach, care, accompany, heal, and evangelize.
Their prayer becomes action, their cloister is the heart of their neighbor.
You will find them:
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In schools and universities, forming minds and hearts.
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In hospitals, tending the sick with tenderness.
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In humble neighborhoods, sharing life with the poorest.
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In distant missions, proclaiming Christ with a smile.
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In parishes, accompanying groups, youth, families, the elderly.
“While some pray for the world, others embrace it with their hands. But both love it with the same love.”
Two paths, one love
Although they live in different ways, all nuns have the same mission:
to follow Christ more closely and make His love present.
Some do it through contemplation; others, through action.
But both are invisible pillars that uphold the Body of the Church.
“If the Church is a body, cloistered nuns are the heart that prays,
and active-life nuns are the hands that serve.”
The contemplatives remind us that God is the center.
The active remind us that the love of God translates into works.
And together they teach us that faith cannot be understood without prayer or without charity.
💬 Why choose a life like this?
Because in a world that seeks success, they choose to give their lives.
In a time of noise, they choose silence or service.
And in a society that runs aimlessly, they stop to gaze at Christ.
To be a nun—cloistered or active—is a vocation of radical love:
a total “yes” to God, a lifelong commitment to the Gospel.
“It doesn’t matter if they pray or teach, if they cook or go on mission:
everything in them proclaims that God is worth one’s entire life.”
Two styles, one and the same melody
In monasteries or on the streets,
in silence or amid the cries of the world,
nuns remain witnesses that God is alive.
And while the world runs searching for meaning,
they—through prayer or action—remind us of the deepest secret:
happiness is found in giving oneself completely.