Just a quiet week in the monastery
If you come to our monastery or saw our latest post on Facebook you know that for a week we were without phone or internet service. Heavy winds on Monday, November 2nd, created the problem with the box for our line which we learned was sort of hanging over the bridge near us on Morris Avenue. It was not probably secured after the bridge was rebuilt. The nearby Jewish Center on Kent Place was also affected.
Verizon’s incompetence went on throughout the week. We did manage to get our phone number rerouted to a cell phone which helped but anything for which we use the internet for---and we realized how much—we couldn’t do. So, Sr. Mary Ana had a back-up of orders from our online store during our busiest time. The gift shop sales could only be done manually with a calculator and we couldn’t accept credit cards. The bursar couldn’t do her work and even the sister who does embroidery work and is preparing items for the gift shop couldn’t access the files on our server.
We put out a plea for help and friends contacted people they thought could help. Happily someone who knew someone at Verizon immediately got on it and by Sunday afternoon all was repaired! A shout-out to the young service man at Verizon who figured out how to access the box without having to have traffic on Morris Avenue rerouted during the repair!
Meanwhile, monastic life continued. November is a month of feasts. We had our usual Halloween/Saints party on the Vigil of All Saints and we all enjoyed our “guests” for the evening. Sr. Mary Magdalene came at St. Hyacinth. Sr. Joseph Maria came as the newly beatified Bl. Carlo Acutis, tucking pants into her habit belt which just added to the ingenuity of her costume. Sr. Maria Johanna continued her theme of apparitions of Our Lady and came as Our Lady of La Salette.
A recent donation of sewing items and fabric caught the Sisters’ imagination. Sr. Mary Ana came as St. John the Baptist showcasing fake fur. Sr. Marissa came as St. Kateri and Sr. Maria Rose came, not as Moses but as Aaron. The funny thing is that some sisters didn’t even know who SHE was under that costume! Siena wasn’t going to be left out and we are told she came as Bl. Joanna of Portugal. We’ll have to take her bark for it!
Sr. Kenda, our extern postulant came as well, an extern postulant to the max, ready to clean the chapel complete with her 6 foot ruler (from the sewing room) with a sign that said, “Keep 6 feet away or I’ll shoot!” (She is from Texas, after all!)
Our special guest, was “Sr. Chiara Luce Maria Frassati” of the newly formed “Eventist Sisters”. One day at recreation one sister jokingly said that there should be a new congregation whose charism is to attend Catholic events. Sr. Chiara Luce, AKA Sr. Lucia Marie, arrived wearing a green scapular for Ordinary Time, the requisite lanyard and ID and a veil sparkling with fairy lights from the Christmas decorations which Sister had careful sewn into her old novice veil. We were informed that this veil is only worn at events to “attract attention” and throughout the party Sister would change the settings and set her veil sparkling and blinking. We were also informed that the “other” sisters were attending the All Saints Vigil for Youth at St. Mary’s in New Haven, CT as part of the celebrations for newly beatified Fr. McGivney.
We all enjoyed the pumpkins, carved by the novitiate sisters. Nearly every year, unless one of the Sisters grows pumpkins, our pumpkins come to us from Williard Farm in Still River, MA, a farm that has been run by generations of the Willard Family. Sr. Mary Ana made candy corn cookies and Sr. Mary Catharine served freshly made doughnuts paired with hot chocolate and apple cider for a festive recreation.
