.png)
My Sister, a Nun
Two weekends ago I had the wonderful privilege of visiting my twin sister who is a cloistered nun at the Dominican Monastery of St. Jude down in Alabama. My family came by Bruté, picked me up after class, and we got some ice cream (Orange Leaf is so awesome!) on the way out of indy. Then began our 9 hour drive down to Marbury - well, Google says it is 8 hours, but both directions we hit traffic at Louisville, Nashville, and Birmingham -so it was more like 9... Either way, we got most of the way there during Friday, stayed in a hotel, and then got up early to make it 7:30 AM Mass at the Monastery.
In case you haven't seen a cloistered monastery (I'd guess most of the world hasn't), the chapel is set up in an "L" shape, with the nuns on one axis, the people on the other and the Sanctuary in the middle. From the area for the congregation, you can see the grate/grille separating the cloister from the Sanctuary and part of the way back into the "nunnery" (to use Hamlet's word). I think the point is that you don't really look back there, but if you are on the right side of the chapel you sort of have to glance in that direction to pay attention to the priest at the Altar or Ambo. I have seen monasteries set up both ways, but in this case, the Altar is facing towards the nuns, so the congregation is off to the side. This separation leads to interesting dichotomy during Mass (or whenever the nuns are praying), where you can't really see them, but you can hear them.
One. Nuns are great cooks! We ate many varieties of food over the 3 days - all delicious - home made pizza, chocolate pecan pie, turkey salad, etc. It was all fantastic! Also, they produced these meals in huge quantities. At one meal the turn (through which they send the food from their kitchen to the outside of the cloister) had 4 loads of food on it. You know, soup and salad, then sandwiches and drinks, then baked beans and mac-n-cheese, then cookies and ice cream... You get the picture; every meal was delicious, enormous, and greatly enjoyed. We have a funny tradition of trying to write poems to thank the nuns for their meals, but our poetic abilities are woeful compared to the sisters'. So we were, more often than not, spending 10 minutes after dinner to create a goofy poems complimenting the food, and a minute later the poetic reply would spin back around from the nuns. (an example can be found on your left - trust me, our poetry was much worse.
Two. Nuns pray slowly. We were able to sit/kneel in the chapel while they were doing the different "hours" of the Divine Office and praying the rosary, and I was constantly amazed at the patience they had in prayer. For instance, evening prayer (vespers) and the rosary took close to an hour. At Bruté the same prayers take almost half that time. They chanted vespers (in Latin actually), so that obviously took some of the extra time, but even when they were doing the non-chanted parts, or praying the rosary, or making the responses during Mass - everything was done i n c r e d i b l y s l o w l y. Of course, they have no reason to hurry, prayer is the center of their day and they don't have appointments or whatever coming up. However, it took constant work on my part to not get impatient. Gosh, so often I find myself praying half-heatedly, or quickly, or without concentration, and prayer means so much more when I actually concentrate on what I am doing (and listen to what God is telling me). Slowing down is something I need to work on so much, but I am always rushing from one prayer to another, or from prayer to homework to soccer. You get the picture... Well, I guess living in a monastery has its perks!
Three. Nuns praying for you is awesome! Being in seminary, I have begun to appreciate just how important prayer is. On the one hand (see part two, right above), prayer is our lifeline, our connection, our relationship with God. But, on the other hand, this is the veins of the mystical body of Christ (I couldn't come up with a better analogy, so don't put too much theological weight on that one). Not only can we pray to God for ourselves, but we can also prayer for others, to God, and others can pray for us. So often, (see above again) we slack off from prayer - maybe it's because we're busy, or tired, or don't care as much as we should, or don't feel like we are getting anything out of it - and this is when the prayers of others are so very important. Prayer has real power folks. Pray for others, and they receive grace from God. Others pray for you; bam, you are hit with extra grace. (Again, my theology here, I suspect, is a bit shallow.) That is why it is so cool to have nuns praying like all the time for the rest of the world. That is why it is so cool to have my twin sister in a convent praying for me. I am distracted, a lot, and to know that others "have my back" and are praying for me too, is so awesome. I guess that paragraph didn't say anything too profound, but to recap.: prayer is important, I am not the best pray-er in the world (working on that...), and it is really comforting, and spiritually "boosting", to have someone who I know is praying for me. Of course, I know a lot of you pray for me too, Thanks!And that is that. There is so much more I could say if I really thought about it, but our visit to the convent was wonderful. We got to talk a lot with Sr. Mary Thomas, about just about everything, she is very happy there, and I learned a lot from the few days there. (I need to start running, praying slowly is really good for me, and having a convent praying for you, and your seminary brothers, is fantastic). In about an hour our day of recollection, given by Arch-Bishop Tobin, of Indianapolis, will start, so I definitely won't be posting anything before that is over (tomorrow some time). Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Send up a prayer or two for Sr. Mary Thomas OP!
For those interested in learning more about the Dominican Monastery of St. Jude where Dominic's twin sister, Sr. Mary Thomas OP (Nicole Emeritus) is, see website: http://www.stjudemonastery.
ReplyDeleteLove ya, Dad