The Community of Our Lady of Walsingham

"But the truth is that if young women realised how happy life is as a nun, then communities like ours would be overflowing. There simply wouldn’t be enough convents to fit them all in.”


The Times has an interesting article today about a new community (five years old) and led by its founder, Sr. Camilla Oberding.
The Community of Our Lady of Walsingham came into being after Sr. Camilla's efforts to find a religious order that would provide what she was looking for, were unsuccessful.

"I wanted the poverty of the Franciscans, the zeal of truth of the Dominicans, and the liturgy of the Benedictines,” she says.
Sr Camilla, commenting on the countercultural significance of entering the religious life, in today's secular world, added:

“It’s absolutely not what you’d ever expect, not a decision you can rationalise or understand… unless, that is, you have faith. But precisely because it’s so radical, it’s also prophetic, and as strong a witness as it ever was – even stronger, perhaps, in today’s culture. Because we’re showing that, in the midst of the consumer society, it’s still possible to live totally for God – and while living totally for God, to be entirely happy and fulfilled.”

Sr Camilla expects two young women to be joining the Order soon, one currently working as an air hostess and the other a nurse. The Community may soon be able to open it's doors to male vocations, too, as Rome has given its blessing.

May God bless The Community of Our Lady of Walsingham with many fruitful vocations.