Cloister of the Heart: Association of Contemplative Sisters

About the Book

CLOISTER OF THE HEART tells the story of the Association of Contemplative Sisters: its gestation, its inception in 1969, and what has transpired since then. In those forty years ACS has developed from an organization which served only monastic communities into an Association of women, both religious and lay, who live in a diversity of ways a life of prayer. Its three sections include a narrative history, followed by eleven essays written by individual members, describing their experience of ACS. It concludes with an appendix of important data.

About the Author

Both Ann Denham and Gert Wilkinson have been active members of the Association of Contemplative Sisters for many years. Ann Denham was formerly a minister in the United Methodist Church. Her contemplative prayer path brought her into the Catholic Church in 1982. She was among the first lay women to join the Association in 1987. Ann teaches Scripture at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Sacramento, CA. Her husband, Walter, died suddenly in 2002; she cherishes time with her children and grandchildren. Gert Wilkinson was a Redemptoristine nun for 23 years, Along with a few other nuns, she helped contemplative communities come together to assist each other in implementing the directives of Vatican II. Gert was founding editor of Contemplative Review/Living Prayer, and was on the editorial staff from 1968 until it ceased publication in 1996. Since her retirement she has volunteered in her local parish as well as in a residential hospice in Oconomowoc, WI.