A cloistered Norbertine monastery in California has quietly become a source of encouragement for mothers around the world after viral social media posts said the nuns rise each night to pray specifically for mothers awake with their children — a practice often described online as a “Holy Hour for moms.”
The posts struck a chord with Catholics and non-Catholics alike and resonated deeply with women navigating the quiet, often exhausting hours of early motherhood. But while the Norbertine canonesses of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph do indeed rise each night at midnight for prayer, the community says the viral description of the practice grew out of a slight misunderstanding — one that nevertheless has borne unexpected spiritual fruit.
In an interview with Zeale News, the Norbertine Canonesses said their midnight prayer is the liturgical hour of Matins — the first of the seven hours of the Divine Office celebrated throughout the day.
“Our Norbertine Order, officially known as the Order of Prémontré, is more than 900 years old,” the religious sisters said. “From the beginning it was a custom to rise in the middle of the night for the Liturgical hour of Matins, as was generally practiced by religious of the time.”
The Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph, founded in 1997 and tucked away in the Tehachapi Mountains of California, has grown into a thriving contemplative community of more than 40 sisters. They live a cloistered life centered on prayer, liturgy, and manual labor, producing artisanal cheese, baked goods, and rosaries to support the community.
While many Norbertine communities eventually moved Matins to other times of day, the Canonesses of St. Joseph said their priory felt called shortly after its founding to restore the traditional midnight hour — a time often marked by darkness and loneliness. By rising at that hour, the sisters said, they seek to remain watchful for Christ and to intercede for those most in need.
“We have always seen this to be analogous to a mother who rises in the middle of the night to care for her children,” they explained, “as we rise in the middle of the night to give praise and glory to God (just as we gather to do at various points throughout the day), to be watchful for His coming (‘But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Look! The bridegroom! Go out and meet him.’ as it says in Scripture), and to intercede on behalf of mankind at a time when sin often abounds.”
According to the community, it was this analogy — shared informally with a visitor several years ago — that helped spark the now-viral description of the midnight prayer as a “motherhood hour.”
“A few years ago, while explaining this analogy to a dear visitor, it was taken in a slightly different way than we intended,” the sisters said. “Her post about it was very popular, as have been subsequent posts and articles, and thus began our reputation for the ‘motherhood hour.’”
Stories from mothers around the world
The canonesses said what “began as somewhat of a misunderstanding has truly been a providential blessing,” as responses from mothers around the world continue to reach the cloister in unexpected ways. In an article shared on their website, they drew a direct parallel between their vocation and motherhood, saying that just as mothers rise in the night to care for their children, they too rise “to attend to the spiritual needs of souls all over the world, and especially to those most in need of a mother’s caring love.”
“With God there are no accidents!” the canonesses told Zeale News. “We have been struck by all the mothers who have been touched by this and who have contacted us with their truly heartwarming, and at times heartbreaking, stories.”
The canonesses shared several of those testimonies in their article, offering a glimpse into how the story has reached women far beyond the cloister and describing them as evidence of the “consolation of Christ through the power of prayer.” One mother, who said she was not Catholic, wrote that after two miscarriages and a difficult birth, learning of the midnight prayer “healed something within me” and reassured her that she had never been alone.
“I sometimes wonder how we got through so many tough nights, and I know it was in part, because of you,” the mother wrote, later adding, “My baby will know about her many ‘aunts’ in California who pray for us each night and continue to pray for others.”
Another mother said that during a difficult stretch of sleepless nights with her young child, the simple thought that “the Norbertine Sisters will be up soon to pray for us” carried her through.
Echoing the message that first spread online, the canonesses emphasized in the article that the comfort many mothers describe ultimately points to the truth that God “took upon Himself all the sufferings and pain of humanity,” even the pain of those who feel hidden in the quiet, lonely hours of the night.
“When we suffer, we never suffer alone,” they wrote. “Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us, and so even in our darkest moments, at the darkest hours of our lives, we are accompanied by Him who loves us and who knows our needs.”
The sisters told Zeale News the experience has led them to intentionally carry mothers in a special way, along with the rest of humanity, by “uniting our prayers to those of mothers throughout the world.”
“We are grateful that the stories have positively impacted many mothers and other people as well,” they said. “We pray that this will lead many souls closer to God.”