What the candidate said

Usually I never mention candidates, or anyone who is enquiring about our life, or discerning her vocation to monastic life.  Someone at that stage on her journey is entitled to a lot of privacy, and doesn’t need her details posted on the internet.  (Unless of course she does it herself, on some other website).

But I’m going to make an exception here, because a candidate made a very interesting remark to me.  This woman is staying with us for three months, as she learns about our life and seeks to know if this might be her calling from God.  She has been with us for a few weeks now.

A few days ago I went for a long walk with her, through our grounds and farmland.  I wished I had a camera with me!  (It would have been better to wish that SHE had a camera with her, because I am the world’s worst photographer – but we still wouldn’t have had one!).  The soft November light was beautiful, and there were so many signs of God’s presence in nature that would have made wonderful shots to post on this blog!

We began our walk by passing through the cemetery, where more than forty sisters who have lived their lives in this community are buried.  The oldest grave dates from 1933, and the most recent from May of this year.  A majestic cedar tree overhangs the cemetery and adds its own special dignity to the earthly resting place of our sisters.

We passed by the apple orchard (our own apples are available every day in the refectory, and they are delicious), and on to the vegetable garden.  This is a walled garden, dating from the era when Glencairn was an Anglo-Irish country gentleman’s estate.  November is a fallow time in the garden, for the most part, while nature rests a little. 

Continuing on to the farm, we passed a field of large bullocks, who barely raised their heads to glance at us as we passed by.  We passed the fields where the wheat and barley had been harvested earlier, just the stubble left now, to be ploughed back in to the land later.  We passed a field of younger cattle, much more vigorous, who came rushing over to take a closer look at us (but there was always an electric fence between us and them, so they did not get too close for comfort). 

Descending a steep hill we came down to the inches (the fields by the river).  These were pretty mucky, still sodden because of all the rain that fell earlier in the year, but both of us were suitably dressed for the underfoot conditions.  Crossing the inch, we arrived at the bank of the majestic Blackwater, flowing swiftly on its course towards the Atlantic, and paused for a while to admire it.

After that we entered a wooded area, with autumn gold and red and brown all round us, and followed the pathway back towards the monastery.  Climbing up again, we eventually arrived once more at the cemetery, at the corner where a little “Lourdes grotto”, with statues of the Virgin Mary and St Bernadette, always seems to have some flowers blooming around it.

See what wonderful opportunities there were for photos, even very amateur ones?  And we didn’t have a camera!

But never mind about that.  The interesting thing that the candidate said to me was this: after a few weeks in the monastery, her impression of Glencairn is that it is “a place of freedom”. 

She is right.  For those who are called to live this life, the monastery is a true place of freedom, where we can serve God and our sisters in simplicity and joy.  St Benedict says that though it may be difficult at first, ”as we progress in monastic life and faith we shall run along the way of God’s commands, our hearts freed and overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.”

It is good that the candidate can see that this becomes reality here.  And it is good for us too, to have it confirmed by someone from outside.