My first visit to a monastery

So on Friday I went to Our Lady Of Grace Monastery to see Ann. Ruth and her sister Pat picked me up from the bus station. Since they're cloistered nuns, they have friends in the area who do things like give rides to their friends. It was dark and rainy. I felt like I was Mary driving over the moor for the first time in The Secret Garden. It was almost 11 when I got in, but Ann had waited up for me. She asked me if I wanted to go to mass at 7 a.m. tomorrow, and I said I would, but I slept in. I had a nice little room in the visitor's wing. I went in the chapel after the mass and saw the nuns praying behind the grate.

Then I met Ann in a small parlor which didn't remind me a bit of a prison visiting room, which was the image I had in my head. Since they're cloistered, they can't come out, but we basically only the equivalent of the Gund room divider between us.

We talked for almost 12 hours straight. Ann loves the monastery and wants to stay, but she is a bit lonely. The nuns there are a young group, but that only means that they're not mostly seniors. There's no one in their 30s there, and there's another postulant, but she isn't very talkative. Sarah, the other postulant, just got a masters of engineering from MIT, and she's a huge LOTR fan. Ann speculated that she waited until January to join just so she could see The Two Towers first. They watch about three movies a year, at Thanksgiving and Easter, and when a nun has her Jubilee, she can choose a movie to watch. No television, internet or phones (except for emergencies or planning visits) but they do read the newspaper. I brought Ann up to date with the pop culture news. Not that that stuff is really important.

Sarah's parents live in Connecticut and they come to see her all the time, and Ann's mother and sister refuse to come see her. They view her joining a cloistered monastery as a form of betrayal. They're Catholic, too. I really hope they come around soon, because that must be so hard for Ann. Her father and uncle were coming to see her that weekend right after me. I love her Dad. He sends all her friends e-mails after he visits her telling us about his trip, and when she told him that there weren't many hugs in the monastery, he brought her her Elmo doll. I was the first friend to visit her since January. She told me that she really appreciated all the letters I send her, and I immediately felt bad, because I only wrote her three letters all semester, which probably means her other friends were writing even less. I know the fine art of writing letters has fallen by the wayside, but friends of Ann reading this, write her! The address is the same as the one on the website I linked above.

This is a link to Ann in her postulant garb. The blue veil really brings out her eyes. The regular habit is white with a black veil, which is not as flattering to Ann, but it's not like many people will see her.

But I could go on about all the little details. The way it is set up did remind me of visiting Meredith's hippie commune. They come from very different places, but they both ended up with about the same rules about becoming a member of the community. I've missed Ann so much, and I'm glad our friendship seems to be still strong even with this great change. I admire her so much for doing this, and it can't hurt to have a nun praying for me.