get me to a nunnery

Last night, the Dominican Sisters of Springfield opened up their convent chapel to host a Taize style advent prayer service. I have been a big fan of the Taize style of worship since visiting the monastic community in France during my college years. I was very excited to see that there was someone incorporating that style into a service in Springfield.

In addition, I had often passed the convent and wondered what it was like inside. Not being Catholic, I have no idea about nuns other than what movies tell me, which I'm sure is entirely misleading. Attending the Taize service and the refreshments afterward gave me an opportunity to take a sneak peak inside the secret lives of nuns.

The service was very nice. I sat in the nuns' seats at the front, which are individual inward-facing cubicle-like seats, but they have kneeling benches positioned to face the front of the church. The music was a mixture of familar tunes from Taize and what I imagined were some well known Catholic tunes. Despite the fact that there was a full house, the crowd did a good job of maintaining silence throughout the characteristic Taize style silent meditation sections of the service. Overall, I thought it was well done.

Afterward, the nuns led us through their living quarters and into their fellowship hall/cafeteria for tasty cookies and mulled cider. The building was very much like a college dorm, although instead of smelling of dirty laundry and puke, it smelled faintly like a nursing home. I looked around and could see no nun under the age of 50. In fact, there were quite a few buzzing around on motorized chairs. If the priesthood is having trouble recruiting, I bet the convents are having an even worse time of it.