On a Sunday night during Lent, a circle of Episcopal nuns sat in their lamp-lit library, chatting, knitting and gazing upon an unlikely altar: An orthopedic dog bed cradling their venerable mutt, Jennie, who was recovering from ACL surgery.
Vespers was over. So was supper, featuring spring rolls, liverwurst and potato chips. It was almost time for the Great Silence, a nightly 12-hour hush that amplifies sounds of wind and wildlife around the convent on a hill in Mendham, N.J.
But first came the final prayer of the day, and everyone took turns reading lines. “Blessed be the air” sounded like an understatement in the golden glow of the room. At “Teach us to be at peace with what we have,” Jennie sighed and repositioned herself on the plush gray cot, the rare modern furnishing in the century-old convent. It was a gift from a follower of Sister Monica Clare’s TikTok account.
Imagine Maria von Trapp as a successful nun, and you have a sense of the 59-year-old mother superior who launched @NunsenseForthePeople in 2020 and now has a memoir, “A Change of Habit,” coming out on April 29.
She started her TikTok as a way to raise awareness about progressive orders like the Community of St. John Baptist and, perhaps, to attract new members. After all, she worked in Hollywood before becoming a nun; she knows the power of social media.
The convent at Community of St. John Baptist in New Jersey, where Sister Monica Clare serves as mother superior. Credit…Lila Barth for The New York Times