Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/50583
Faith in Hollywood H ollywood exists as a place of contrasts – from hiking in the rugged Mt. Hollywood hills to glamorous red carpet events on Hollywood Boulevard. It is home to the very rich and the very poor. e allure and mys- tique of the place is alive in the American consciousness as a place where dreams can be made or broken. Marilyn Monroe once quipped, "Hollywood is a place where they will pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul." "We pray for Hollywood every day," said Sister Mary Pia, one of the cloistered nuns at the Monastery of the Angeles right in the heart of Hollywood. e cloistered Dominican nuns at the Monastery of the Angels have been in their location since the early 1930's. Nestled in the foothills on Carmen Avenue just above Franklin, the monastery is a place of silence, prayer, work, and worship. According to Sister Mary Pia, the Cloistered Do- minican Nuns of Perpetual Adoration acquired the three and a half acre property from a well-known copper magnate, Joseph Giroux. Many considered Hollywood 'too worldly' a location, but in 1938 Monsignor John Cawley blessed the monastery, welcoming the nuns to Hollywood by saying "they would im- part the badly-needed tradition of spirituality to the area." Monastic life is rigorous; prayerful contemplation, silence and worship seem a bold contrast to the swirling hub of ac- tivity in Hollywood. Sister Mary Pia explained what Domini- can contemplative life is all about, and is not troubled by the seemingly theological paradox of a Catholic monastery just a stone's throw from Hollywood's colorful passing parade of residents and visitors. It turned out that Hollywood in the '30s, before many of the studios and their moguls moved west, was in need of a stalwart source of spiritual assistance. Sister Mary Pia ex- plains that the Dominican order has a true missionary out- reach, and believes their presence in the Hollywood community inspires people to think of God. Sister Mary Pia grew up in Hollywood and is aware Sister Corita Kent at an exhibition of her serigraphs. 48 DISCOVER HOLLYWOOD / WINTER 2011 that it might seem an unusual location for cloistered monastic life. "I graduated from Immaculate Heart high school in 1950. It was right after the war and everybody wanted to do something – do their part. My brother was in the war in 1945 in the Philippines," she said, "I wanted to do my part with prayer." e monastery is completely self-sustaining; its chief source of income the distribution of altar breads, and pumpkin bread and candy made at the monastery. Donations can also be made to receive "a share in the daily Mass, prayers, sacrifices and good works offered by the nuns.