“I feel the nuns have been expecting us. They knew our last nerve would disappear at some point.”

This quote comes from a piece in the online publication Vice: “Gen Z Women Are Booking Convents Instead of Beach Houses This Summer.” They are not staying for life. Convents typically have “come and see” weekends for women discerning religious life. These aren’t those weekends. These offer respite to an overwhelmed population in need of quiet time — and God.

“Monasteries and convents are now seeing waitlists as young women line up for a kind of stillness that’s hard to come by elsewhere,” according to the article. “No phones buzzing, no endless notifications, and definitely no small talk. Instead, many are spending their days tending gardens, attending prayer services, and catching up with themselves.”

It is exhilarating to see. There is something hopeful happening. I’d say it is mysterious, except it makes all the sense in the world. People aren’t happy, and they want to be. We want something more than the pressures and fears and burdens. We need to know that life means something.

Just in my New York metro area, the Birgittine sisters have an extraordinarily beautiful bed-and-breakfast type guesthouse on the Long Island Sound in Darien, Connecticut. Their website suggests it’s a hideout for artists and academics. I made use of it when on deadline on a book on prayer, “A Year with the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living.” I should have stayed a year, but the longest stretch for which I could convince the sisters to put up with me was two weeks.

And while The Sisters of Life do not run a guesthouse in the same way the Birgittines do, they do have a retreat house they run for the Knights of Columbus in nearby Stamford, with retreat weekends for women and men throughout the year. These weekends do book quickly.

The Birgittines, founded by the great mystic Bridget of Sweden, are known for their hospitality. When I was looking for a place to do a 30-day retreat in the tradition of St. Ignatius of Loyola and his demandingly fruitful Spiritual Exercises, they provided plenty of it. In the Franciscan town of Assisi, the sisters welcomed an American in silence. (We may have snuck the occasional chat — they are, after all, mostly cloistered).

If you don’t have the time or energy for a full-blown retreat, you could learn from Gary Jansen, in his book (much smaller and cheaper than mine), “The 15-Minute Prayer Solution.” OK, so your phone may be constantly blowing up. Your baby may not sleep any night. The bills are making you work extra shifts. And that may be only the beginning of the litany of noise in your life. You can carve out 1% of your day (which, as Jansen reminds us, equals 15 minutes). Call it self-care or whatever makes it palatable to yourself or others, but you’re talking about 1% of your day to try to make exclusive time for God, your creator, the creator of the universe. We don’t need a convent waiting list to clear up in order to clear our heads, refresh our souls and remind us of what really matters.

Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book “A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living.” She is also chair of Cardinal Dolan’s pro-life commission in New York, and is on the board of the University of Mary. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com.