"In order to properly function in a convent, one must sync herself to the time in which the sisters live. That is, five minutes ahead, on the dot, or five minutes late."
- Lesson #2
I used to think that nun time was "five and ten" which meant that the sisters got up at five in the morning and went to bed at ten at night. This meant they got a total of seven hours of sleep, and seven is the eternal number, so it was kind of like sleeping for eternity but not really. At least that's what my Dad always told me; that the nuns were five and ten girls. But then I met some real nuns and they proved that rumor false, at least now in the modern world. Maybe that used to be part of their rule, but it wasn't anymore. They could easily go to bed whenever they desired and get up whenever, too, as long as they didn't miss out on crucial community events like Mass and dinner.
So, then, in high school, nun time took on a different meaning. My HS principal would always warn us before we would leave for a trip (and being part of quite a few groups in school, we went on a lot of trips), to always be on nun time. No one ever asked her what nun time was, we just gradually shook our heads. Until finally, my Senior year, right before we were leaving for the March for Life, she explained: "Girls, don't forget, always be on nun time today. By nun time I mean, five minutes early for everything. Also, channel convent life today; stay in a small community." Of course, at 5:30 AM, I may have been the only one laughing.
Being my father's daughter, I was always on time for everything. And by on time, I mean early...extremely early. We are always a half hour early for Mass. We always leave the house with travel time in mind plus twenty minutes just to be safe. We are early for family parties by significant amounts, we are early for events, we are early for everything. People used to joke and say, we'd be early to our own funerals. Seriously, it made my Dad crazy if we weren't going to be on time, and then it rubbed off on me. I hated being late. My friends used to tell me I was time paranoid especially because I always had to know what time it was. I brushed it off by saying, "Being on time is a good habit to get into. Besides, it's helping me practice nun-time."
But then I got to college. I started out having to leave for class fifteen minutes before class would start; it only takes five minutes to cross campus, and that's if you run into someone and have a small conversation with them AND check your mailbox. My friends would get so annoyed when I would have to leave breakfast at 8:30 for an 8:45 and my class would be in the next building. I would make them all show up for a seminar early too and we would be the only students present until two minutes before actual start time. I just HAD to be early. However, my time paranoia calmed down a bit when I started work study.
Sister and I would plan to start work study at 12:30 and I could count on her casually strolling down the hall from the cafeteria at 12:42. Work Study wouldn't actually start for at least fifteen minutes after planned start time if not more, and that was if I got right to work. Most times we would casually chat about life for a good twenty minutes. As much as being late for work drove me crazy, it didn't seem to bother sister any. If I was running late and she just happened to be in her office, she would simply exclaim, "Oh, you're ready for work already?" not realizing that I was running about ten minutes late. Slowing, that eased my paranoia a bit.
After I realized that my work study sister didn't operate well on so called, "nun time," I started to see a pattern. If I had any sisters for class, class wouldn't necessarily start on time. I would go to Mass in the morning and no one would say anything if prayers started a few minutes late (unless it was like fifteen minutes late then they would all be like WHAT?!) and thus, had Mass start a few minutes late. I started to realize that these sisters had no time paranoia at all. And then I went on a discernment retreat with them at their motherhouse where the words, "Shall we say..." became more than just a few words, they became a coined phrase that signified we were off schedule...again. Every time after that phrase was first coined, we have never been on time for anything but Mass (which clearly shows their priorities are in check!).
On Friday, I happened to be blessed with two full hours and then some with my favorite Work Study Sister!! After having just got back from NOLA (I'm suuuuure you read that post!), I had pictures and stories galore to share with her. And so, since I was headed there for a discernment retreat AND a trip to the Religious Freedom Rally, I figured I could sneak a few minutes with her. Those few minutes, like I said, turned into two hours. At ten til six, just exclaimed that I was going to be late if I didn't get moving. We had been sitting on the rocking chairs on the back porch of campus and it was just so perfect that I turned to her and said, "I'm not time paranoid; I lost that." She asked right away when, and I told her when I met her. True Story. She laughed and we chatted for another half hour before I finally drove across the street. There was some kind of peace in just being and not worrying about time and being on God's time. And the best part, was that none of the sisters noticed I was late because they themselves were on their "nun time."
So basically from all of that you get How to Survive Convent Life lesson #2. I have realized that yes, being on time is a great habit to get into. However, if every moment of your life truly belongs to God, you should not limit God to work in your time frame but instead His. So, it's ok to be late for something especially if your reasons for being late were talking to a sister about something important like a prayer intention, or you are chatting with a random passer-by about their day just to lighten up their smile, or because you were running a random errand for someone that was unable, or because you were casually letting God work somehow by your presence. In order to survive convent life, you have to put yourself in sync with your community and be on time for those very important things, but make sure you do not forget that every moment of your life belongs to God and He can work in very mysterious ways.
As I was driving to my best friend's brother's wedding reception part two yesterday, I was stuck in traffic and I knew I was going to be late for the Mass. So I said, "Ok God, there is a reason you are making me late." After almost getting hit by a train, God laughed and said, "Silly girl, you won't be late, you will just make it. I'm just trying to remind you that every moment is mine and I was busy using those last minutes teaching you true dependence on Me." Yep, sometimes the time paranoia slips back in, but let's be honest, if I depend wholly on God, He'll get me to where I need to be when He needs me there.
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