Let's write about how they celebrate Easter in a convent!
That's was just one idea I had for an Easter-themed story (my editor needed multiples).
He bit.
I started looking around.
Have you ever tried to FIND a convent in or near Lancaster, bastion of evangelicalism and the Amish?
Right, then.
But we did stumble upon one that was close to Lancaster, or at least in the Diocese of Harrisburg -- in Danville, (near Reading).
(I also found a group of ten enclosed Dominicans right on the Lititz Pike -- and called to ask if I could get their story after Easter.)
I'd spoken with the General Superior of Cyril and Methodius back when the Leadership Conference of Women Religious was being investigated on suspicion of being more liberal than the Pope and most American prelates (shocked, shocked, shocked).
I grew up reading, and rereading, a novel about a group of enclosed nuns in England and their adventures in faith. "In this House of Brede" gave me what turned out to be some pretty romantic ideas about the religious life.
Aside from chatting with one of the most rockin' priests I have encountered in recent times ("I'm going out now to find the tree where they (the nuns) will hang me" he said after a riotous interview), I really enjoyed writing this story.
There's nothing extraordinary or exciting about it, except that scenes like this are becoming more and more rare.
Fewer nuns visiting the sick.
Fewer sisters teaching in schools.
Fewer vowed ones serving in parishes, offering female leadership that many Catholics feel is sorely needed.
Are we going to miss the sisters when they are gone (possibly within our lifetime)?
God bless them.
I'm quite sure of it.
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/832087_Holy-Week-special-time-for-nuns-of-St--Cyril-and-Methodius.html
