When I entered the monastic immersion experience last October, the program specifically for women interested in working with the elderly had not been created, but I've been, de facto, in a precursor to the program. It's been a dance of prayer and work, each benefitting the other and often blending; challenging, deepening, each day offering the opportunity to put spiritual ideals into practice. Working with the elder sisters has been a rare opportunity to enter thoroughly into the life of the monastery, and I have received more love than I have given, from the other caregivers as well as the sisters.Practical skills and people skills have grown. Prayer has deepened and become more than ever a river flowing quietly and powerfully beneath the surface of everyday life.
It seems that almost everyone coming to volunteer at the monastery has stereotypes and illusions about religious life and the people that have chosen it, which crumble with blessed rapidity as the days pass. Then, more slowly but with much more satisfaction, one gets to know and greatly appreciate the sisters as individual human beings: this one's integrity, intelligence, and sense of humor, that one's warmth and exuberance, another's unflappability as I broke the nut-cracking device on a rock-hard black walnut and she did the same with the other one ten minutes later. Valuing the solemnity of the greater feasts and enjoying the quirks and non-ecclesiastical passions of the greater community: sharing in the search and widespread commiseration when our maintenance man's coffee cup, so chipped and stained that only its mother could love it, carefully placed behind the coffee machine after washing so that no one else could either use it or be appalled by it, was lost; coming to recognize one sister's bright Gonzaga T-shirt worn as a public-service announcement that there is a televised game that night.
I like the variety of the work: the majority of the hours I put in make use of my caregiving and massage therapist's skills, but there is always something else for diversion, from hoisting the Advent wreath by ropes hanging from two stories above, to raking leaves, to writing and talking, collaborating on a new project.
The sisters' way of life lends itself to putting in practice the ideals for quality of life for the very elderly or handicapped which are emerging in the world at large: integration into the community, contributing, respected, finding meaning in life until the very end; the community benefitting by the presence of its eldest members and able to ensure and contribute to the quality of their care.
Time to show up for prayer...will end here. All the best, Annon.
