I went on a five-day retreat at the Visitation in Philly in May 1998. I wasn’t really thinking about religious life, but I was getting ready to be let go from a job I had since I was 19 years old *, and the other was a widow in her early 50s who had just entered the novitiate on May 1-she was the quieter of the two. The Superior, who was also the Novice Mistress, had been a postulant in a Carmel in New Jersey when she was younger *, and she told me some funny stories about her days there! Another Sister was small in stature, and for reason she took a real shine to me, which was kind of cute! She always sat next to me at Recreation time. And there was a Sister who was black, and another from the Phillippines!
I took part in all the things the Sisters did-prayers, meals, recreation, work. I did dusting and sweeping in the Novitiate, which was in the basement. Got real sweaty! Most of my ‘work time’ was in the kitchen helping to prepare food [needed some help peeling and slicing potatoes] or wash and dry dishes. I also sat in on the Novitiate sessions.
One of the really nice ‘customs’ the Sisters had was at the end of Morning Prayer and * Mass. When the community left the choir and entered the ‘ante-choir’, the Sister in front of the line would turn around, bow from the waist and say, ‘God be blessed and good morning Sister [name].’ I was at the end of the line, so I heard my name from the Sister who was front of me. It was a sweet beginning of the day!
The Sisters had two dogs, one a loveable golden retriever [who liked me-always wanted to get a belly rub-and a ‘guardian’ Aussie shepherd [who always barked at me, and on my last evening outside at recreation, ‘nipped’ the back of my heel like it was ‘herding’ me!]. The monastery was next to the Cardinal’s residence, and i heard a story from the Sister who took me back to the train station that there was once a dogfight between the Sisters’ dogs and the Cardinal’s dog! Their male gardener, a Gulf War vet, had to step in and break it up! And being next door to the Cardinal, the community in 1979 got to meet John Paul II, up close and personal [saw the photos to prove it!].
I did get some time to talk with Reverend Mother alone. She was very impressed at my knowledge of the Visitation’s history, and how I correctly pronounced the word “Annecy”-that’s the name of the city in France where St. Francis de Sales and St. Jeanne de Chantal co-founded the Order in 1610. But I couldn’t really make up my mind as whether I wanted to take such a drastic step at that period in my life. But as I said, the Sisters were all very kind to me: I got as a little ‘present’ a card showing the then-recently beatified Visitandines from Madrid who were martyred in the Spanish Civil War.***
