And now for something completely different: cloistered nuns who have made Eucharistic adoration their personal ministry — on the internet.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

When she entered religious life four decades ago, Sister Mary Catherine supposed her life as a contemplative, cloistered nun would keep its medieval ways forever.

In many ways, it has.

“We rise at 5:15, and begin chanting the Divine Office at 5:45,” she explained, speaking from behind the metal screen that separates her and the other Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters from the secular world.

“Then there’s meditation. That’s done privately. And Mass at 7,” said Sister Mary Louise, who sat alongside. “Then we gather for breakfast. We usually don’t speak at breakfast, except on Sundays and feast days.”

Known as the “Pink Sisters” for their rose-colored habits, they and their 20 cloistered companions at the Convent of God’s Love in Fairmount devote their lives to prayer and the adoration of what they understand to be the presence of Jesus in a consecrated communion wafer, displayed day and night in their chapel in Fairmount.

So it may seem ironic that they will receive a national award tomorrow for their “cutting-edge” ways and their “insightful use of technology.”

They won’t be accepting their Outstanding Catholic Leadership Award in person, of course. The Catholic Leadership Institute awards banquet is in Drexel Hill, and the Pink Sisters almost never leave their large, gray stone convent in the 2200 block of Green Street.

But five years ago, at the suggestion of Sam and Mary Damico of Malvern, the sisters aimed a Webcam at the exposed communion host, or Blessed Sacrament, and invited the outside world into theirs.

To non-believers, a white disc in a motionless gold display case may seem a baffling and dubious attraction.

Yet www.savior.org now gets about 45,000 hits per month, from countries as diverse as Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Spain, the Philippines, Korea and the United States.

“It’s astounding the stories they [viewers] send us,” said Sister Mary Catherine.

Many are invalids, but some are Catholics in Arab countries that suppress non-Muslim faiths. And she recalled hearing from a group of Korean nurses who, during the quarantine of a recent SARS epidemic, gathered to worship before a computer screen.

The site also invites the world to send the sisters prayer requests.

“Pray for the healing of my son Niccolo,” reads one. “Make him walk again.”

“Please pray for Kris who has gotten a bad mammogram result and is very scared,” reads another.

“Please pray with me. I am probably going to lose my current job at the end of this year.”

They get 50 to 100 such requests every day.

“They’re touching stories,” said Sister Mary Catherine, the convent’s superior.

It’s more than they can read and remember in detail, the sisters said, but they honor all as best they can.

“You keep an attitude of prayer all day long, even as you go about your chores,” explained Sister Mary Louise. She grew up in central Pennsylvania and worked for the phone company before she began searching for “the ‘more’ of life” and found the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters.

Chimes sound around the convent every 15 minutes, audible as the sisters do laundry or answer mail or work in the gardens, she said, “to recall us to the presence of God,” she said.

“It’s work and pray, pray and work,” she said, and smiled.

There’s much more at the Inquirer link. (And hey: how about those snazzy pink habits, huh?)

And don’t forget to visit the good sisters’ website and offer a prayer.

Photo: From behind the metal screen at the convent are Sister Mary Louise (left) and Sister Mary Catherine. Photo by Jonathan Wilson, Philadelphia Inquirer