Oprah gets schooled
I awoke this afternoon just in time to see the Oprah show on Tues. Geishas and Dominican nuns. The list of what Oprah claimed she didn’t know makes me wonder, no, makes me worried about the general religious knowledge Americans have (or don’t have). For instance, the notion of being a “bride of Christ” and the habit as a kind of wedding gown was news.
I don’t mention this to bash Oprah. I only mention it because if Oprah doesn’t have a basic conceptual grasp of the life of Christian religious, i.e., the life of Christian nuns and monks, sisters and brothers, one can barely expect more “ordinary” lay persons to have half a clue. Why? Read more
St. Elijah’s in Iraq
[Photo: Eros Hoagland for The New York Times]
From the NY Times, a wonderful photo-documentary on the rebuilding of a Christian monastery in Iraq, St. Elijah’s.
I hope that when the dust settles and the bullets stop (or mostly stop), Iraq will be a destination spot for people interested in studying antiquity. There’s so much history there, religious and otherwise.
Rosh Hashanna
Happy New Year!
A little late! I did celebrate. But I wanted to share two things.
1) The traveling rabbi who comes to your office to blow the shofar!
2) This poster. I think it’s over the top cool.
May our names continue to be inscribed in the roll book of learning.
How to tell you’re living with a Guadalupana
It’s not even December, but there’s no mistaking the Guadalupan-i-ness of the Beguinage.
The proof below.
Six degrees with Winance
I mentioned that there was a “six degrees” story about myself and Fr. Winance (look under Convent Blog).
Many, many decades ago, a young man attended Pomona College where he met Fr. Winance. Fr. Winance was teaching a class at the Claremont Graduate School which is just up the street from Pomona College. (The Graduate School is now called Claremont Graduate University). This student’s name was Robert Hale.
Sermon by Fr. Winance
I took several classes from Fr. Winance while I was studying at Claremont Graduate University. He was a fascinating man. There’s a six degrees story that I’ll post later. But I want to get these You Tube videos up now.
Quiet
Wednesday before evening prayer I actually joined the sisters in silent meditation.
It was so quiet! I’ve done silent mediation before. I think if I hadn’t I’d have burst a blood vessel or something. Wednesday was a busy day for me. Well, it’s been a busy semester thus far. I wanted to conduct a little experiment. Could I be still? Could I lay it all down and simply be?
Updates to follow
I’m way behind in my blog posts. The semester is nearly half over. It’s hard to believe. Anyway, this is a promise to myself and my class to fill in the blanks, so to speak and update the blog over the weekend. We’re going to be starting on DZ’s book and I want to be able to blog along with the class.
Convent notes
One of the interesting things about convent life is orderliness of it. One aspect of this is the amount of “control” there is in the house. I don’t mean cult-like control. Just the really tight ship management of the household. There’s not a smigden of chaos in this place – probably not even in the sisters internally!
Some notes are left on a bulletin board near the front door. But others are left on the floor. They let you know who is out. This is for safety, too, I suppose. But there’s never any guessing. There’s no, “I wonder where Sister X is?” There are notes that are “pre-made” not necessarily written just for that day.
When the sister comes back in, she picks the sign up and puts it back in an envelope on the bulletin board.
How You Know You’re Living in a Convent #4
This past week was the Feast of the Stigmata, the day Francis received on his feet and hands the marks of Christ’s crucifixion. Things were, therefore, a little bit different in the convent. Most noticeable was the beautiful singing of chant or plainsong during many of the services. I tried my best to keep up. I didn’t manage to throw anyone off with my croaking. I did sing softly enough to sing with them and not an octave below! This alone was quite a feat since they place the pitch rather high. Special icons were brought out that illustrated the seraph Francis is said to have encountered. And there was a lovely bouquet of flowers placed in the statuary Francis’ hands. Very dear. I meant to take a photo of it but there was always someone around when I had my Blackberry Pearl with me. (I’d actually love to get photos of the sisters. I wonder if that’s OK?)
Here’s this week’s installment of how you know you’re living in a convent!
1. When you feel over-dressed because everyone else is wearing sandals.
2. When you take an active interest in how to reflect the Feast of the Stigmata in the next evening’s dinner. (My contribution was to suggest we have something “Italian”, which one of the sisters did by putting lots of oregano in the casserole. The prize has to go to Sister E who made tapioca for dessert. It had cranberries and bittersweet chocolate nibs. The cranberries – red for the Stigmata – and the chocolate for the “bittersweetness” of Francis’ experience. Yep, definitely living in a convent!)
3. When you actually feel a little pride in being able to sing along, not with a Motown classic on the radio, but while people are chanting.
4. When you are summoned to meals by the ringing of a little bell.
5. When you finally stop offering to help clean up after meals because everyone else has already jumped into “nun” mode: they each have a role which they execute with absolutely unearthly efficiency!
6. When you ask your students a question in class and noticing that it could be answered with a salacious remark, you append the question with “Keep it clean!”
7. When you’ve parked in front of the convent, getting your stuff out of the trunk of your car, and have a Zip-Lock baggie with a pound cake loaf in it, and a Black guy in his car rolls down the window and calls out, “Hey sister! I know you don’t need that cake!” and you’re confused for a moment as you think: “Am I really beginning to look like a nun or is he just calling me “sister” because I’m Black?”