Spirit House--a Rekindling for Nuns

Blackberry bushes border a peaceful yard and provide the makings for a good pie. The women here garden, ice skate on Rose Pond, walk the wooded trails and hike along the beach. Sometimes they baby-sit for neighbors and take food to those who mourn.

It may sound like a combination resort/halfway house and has been dubbed in the past a “home for wayward nuns.” But it is none of those. It is a place of support for the talented but tired, for spiritually drained women who are members of Roman Catholic religious orders. Spirit House provides the environment for rebuilding a religious life. The main work of the sisters here does not involve rededicating themselves to their vocations as much as it does learning to take better care of themselves.

Sister Mollie Brown, founder and executive director of Spirit House, says the purpose is primarily prevention.

“Sisters have the right to the space, a right to the time, a right to get away from work and deal with issues,” said Brown. The program has welcomed sisters from a variety of orders, primarily in the Eastern United States.

The community was founded 10 years ago with support from her order, the Sisters of St. Joseph and the Sisters of Notre Dame. In the past, Spirit House residents came because of depression and burnout. More and more, she said, those arriving have suffered some kind of abuse.

Brown, a psychiatric nurse with a doctorate in human development from the University of Chicago, was outpatient director for Genesee Mental Health Center before founding Spirit House.

She estimates that half of those arriving at Spirit House these days show the effects of childhood sexual abuse. Brown also estimates that religious orders have twice the incidence of women sexually abused as children as is found in the general public. In the past, they sought religious life as a “safe place” where “they could work hard, pray hard and not have to relate to anybody.” Today, said Brown, the religious are less sheltered, and it has become more acceptable to talk about abuse.

But the women who come here, said Brown, are not sick. “They’ve given and given and given, without anyone around to say, ‘What are you doing for yourself?’ They are taught to be all things to all people all the time.”

One of the prescriptions at Spirit House is to celebrate just about everything. Most of the sisters actually dread it. Holidays have created painful memories for many of the women, said Brown. “We can’t change the past but we can help create new memories,” she said.

So recently the women rejoiced with Sister Cris, a native Hawaiian who taught them to hula dance in grass skirts on her 40th birthday. Cris spent most of her previous birthdays wishing she hadn’t been born. This year, she said, “I wanted to celebrate me for the first time.”

The 60-year-old Brown has also founded Inspirit Associates, a private counseling practice for laity, religious and clergy. Spirit House is a member of the International Conference of Consulting and Residential Centers, a 6-year-old association for programs primarily for Catholic men and women in ministry.