Well, it's a new semester and I am as busy as ever. It's a good feeling, aside from having little time to do things like blog, crochet, etc. I have plenty of time for reading, though, since I am in two literature courses and, well, I have to.
Much of what has consumed my time thus far this semester, however, is rehearsal for Bethel's spring musical, The Sound of Music. I hadn't expected it to be so much work since I am merely a nun, but have come to realize that there is nothing easy about being a nun, even if only for the stage. This point was proven time and time again this morning--just hours ago--as some of the other nuns and I visited a convent as part of our character research. We had the opportunity to visit the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration. Most (if not all) of us didn't really know what to expect, and I was astounded at how we were blessed by this visit.
The convent itself, first of all, was beautiful. Sister Dorothy, who has been a nun for over fifty years, gave us a tour of the place and led us through many great halls. We met their postulants and novices in one of these halls. The hall itself consisted of a lot of marble and beautiful arched ceilings, and our voices echoed as we, the stage nuns, bounced questions off the practicing nuns. I was struck by how very much like us they all were. They were students themselves, also wondered about whether to wear contacts or glasses, and had deep love and appreciation for music, too. The last part was a particularly nice surprise as the nuns in The Sound of Music are continually getting after Maria for singing in the Abbey, though we ourselves all love to sing. And speaking of which...
As soon as we entered this lovely marble hall, most of us were just aching to sing something. When we found out they had their own choir, we asked if they would sing something for us. After a brief discussion of what to sing, they went to the marble stairs (where the acoustics were the best) and sang for us, their voices airy and straight-tone. It was so beautiful that a few notes into the song I couldn't help but tear up. When they were finished, they asked us to sing something ourselves. It was our honor to go to the stairs ourselves and sing them our Morning Hymn from the show. It never sounded better. If only we could take the acoustics with us! But in those moments, singing Rex admirabilis on the marble stairs of the convent, my heart was content. I think we all stumbled off the stairs a little shakily, as if exiting a dream. I did, at any rate.
A bit later, Sister Dorothy led us to their chapel and we got to say (and sing) their morning prayers with the other nuns. Much of the scripture we used for the prayers were familiar verses from the psalms, and I recognized a few other memorized prayers from experiences with my mother's side of the family. My favorite part of the prayer was Psalm 119:87-88:
They almost made an end of me on earth,
But I did not forsake Your precepts.
Revive me according to Your lovingkindness,
So that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.
So what did I take from this experience? It was amazing. I was excited to go, but had no idea how powerful the experience would be. I was moved by many things at this convent and truly thank God for the experience. Obviously these are nuns of the Catholic faith and they do believe a bit differently than I do as a Christian, but I was struck by how much overlap there was. There was no doubt of their faith, no timidity in their beliefs. Sister Dorothy told us many times while we were there how important it was that we read our Bibles, and how wonderful Jesus was; she told us, "Remember how, in the Bible, when Jesus was on this earth, everyone flocked to be close to him? But he's here right now. We are close to him." I was constantly amazed, and have compiled the following list as a bit of what I've learned to admire about the high calling to be a nun.
Ten Things I Have Learned (and loved) About Nun Life
- Perpetual adoration. Maybe you thought, as I did, that "Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration" was just a name they gave themselves. I guess I couldn't really fathom something so huge as perpetual adoration. In actuality, Sister Dorothy explained to us, there has been at least one nun in the chapel praying constantly for the last 150 years. Think about that. In 150 years, there has never been a moment that the room was unoccupied and no one was praying.
- Vocation to the Gospel. As a nun, your primary vocation is to live the Gospel. Each nun eventually takes on a way to support herself, but that vocation is always secondary to the Gospel.
- Materialism is unnecessary. It was so interesting when Sister Dorothy told us about their Christmas tradition. Each nun draws the name of another and commits to pray for her leading up to Christmas, at which point they give not gifts but rather personal cards to their prayed-for sister. It was like our choir tradition of prayer partners, except without gifts, because the nuns believe that possessions are simply not necessary. It struck me as beautiful that the gift they give to others is their kind written words. What other gift would they need? Nothing is better than kind words and prayers.
- Joy in simple tasks. The convent is cleaned and tended to by the nuns, particularly the postulants. There is no complaint in this; in fact the postulant who explained this to us was gleeful about it. Granted she was basically gleeful about everything, but you could tell she took real joy in the tasks she had for the convent.
- "Your name is indicative of your mission." This is something Sister Dorothy told us as she was explaining the process by which postulants receive their new names when they become novices. I found this very interesting because my own name, Christen, means "Christian, anointed" and the spelling is synonymous with baptism. Granted it is my given name, and I think my parents chose it primarily because they liked the name, but it's very interesting to me to look at my name's meaning as a vocation. It's quite a vocation to be called to. I'm excited to start looking at it that way.
- Devotion. One of the first things Jill, our music director for the show, told us about being nuns is, "You are not changing your life; you are sacrificing yourself." This couldn't be truer, and it's been something I've thought a lot about in preparing for this role; yet, I was totally surprised to see the joy the nuns took in their devotion to their lives in the convent. They are up at 5:30 each morning to begin their prayers and take such joy in devoting their time to prayer. Celeste, the incredibly gleeful postulant I mentioned earlier, got so excited about prayer. These women are fully devoted to the vows they took of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and are thoroughly excited about how these things will further God's Kingdom. While I do not feel called to be a real-life nun, I hope I can emulate even a fraction of that devotion.
- Writing letters to family. The nuns (at postulant level, anyway) are encouraged to write letters to their families and get to call them on special occasions. While I would have a hard time with limited contact to my family, I really appreciate the gesture of old-school letter-writing. Messages mean so much when someone has taken the time to hand-craft them.
- Learning about oneself. One of the novices, Sister Joan, said something I had to write down: "It's amazing how much you can learn about yourself when you're learning about Our Lord." So beautiful, so true, and so simply put. It was one statement in the middle of a flurry of others, said so easily, and yet had so much significance.
- Nun roommates. This marks the first show my roommate Michelle and I have actually been able to do together, and we are both nuns! It was awesome to get to share the convent experience with her. From waking up earlier than we'd wanted to on a Saturday morning to trying to figure out what to wear to a convent to singing with the nuns to sharing favorite convent moments afterwards (and thus agreeing it was totally worth waking up early), it was a really awesome roommate experience.
- Habits are actually really awesome! Sorry, I had to say it. I'm really excited to don my wimple and be a nun this Valentine's Day. That's all I have to say.
With that in mind, our show runs February 13, 14, and 15 at 7:30 pm with a 2 pm matinee on the 15th. Tickets are going fast, so get yours soon and come join in the nunsense! Till next time, blessings to you all.
