A Day In The Life of a Monjita

"Do not think that I am sitting here to pass away the time

telling you that religious life is poetry; 

it is the roughest type of prose."

- Mother Justina Reilly, IHM

     Every so often, I tell you that I spend a day in the life of a Sister. This day consists of prayers, Mass, meals, maybe visiting the older nunnies and some recreation. Occasionally, there will be some "laboring" activity (like that one time I literally built two benches with one of the Sisters...) but most of the time it's the "normal," "every day," activities. Eat. Pray. Love. But today I spent a few real hours in the day of the life of a Monjita. Let me tell you a few of the things I learned today: I now understand why the Sisters wear aprons while cleaning; I now understand why they often times go to bed so early; I now know the best possible way to clean votive candle holders; and I know that no Sister is perfect. 

     This morning started like every morning: I woke up smiling at the crack of dawn and ready to greet the day. Okay, okay...really it started like this (which happens most often...): my alarm went off at 6:00 AM screaming in my ear that I needed to get up. I yelled back by hitting the snooze button three times. Finally by 6:27, I was rolling (literally) out of bed and dragging my feet to the shower room. By 6:45, I was ready. I had thrown on a sweatshirt, some yoga pants and my shoes. I tossed my hair up in a bun and ran down the stairs. This morning was the second morning in a row that I was doing wash before anyone else on campus (minus the Sisters) was up. Only this laundry wasn't my own. These towels ad such had to be washed for our retreat in a few weeks. Ironically, this was all part of my "work study assignment" for the day from Sister Cathy. At college, we often sticky note our washers with our room number just in case the wash cycle gets done before we get to it. I was so tempted to put "Nun Laundry" on the sticky note this time, but I didn't....I simply put my room number.

     After the wash was thrown in, I headed over to prayers and Mass. You know, the usual. And by the time Mass was over, the retreat wash was ready to be put in the dryer. So I said to myself, I said, "Self. You deserve a nap." And so, I took one. In a hour, the retreat wash was ready to be folded. In rainbow order, I folded the retreat wash in a nice orderly fashion and moved on to job number two. This is where the apron comes in.

     You see, I had spent countless Fridays after school with Sister David in high school cleaning Chapel. We would do everything from rearranging the flowers to...cleaning votive candle holders. The thing that baffled me the most was that Sister David would always wear her apron while cleaning. Like why? I thought those most unfashionable things were only used for baking. Okay, now flash forward to Camilla Fair 2011. All of these sisters had on these beautiful, hand-made aprons. Many times the sisters at the Motherhouse would wear them while doing housework. While still confused by the notion of wearing an apron while cleaning, I needed an apron for baking. And you know what, they weren't unfashionable anymore. I was soon the proud owner of a pink Camilla apron. Now, present day, I am sitting literally picking wax out of these tiny votive candles trying so hard to get all the wax in the trashbag. Where did most of it end up? All over me. Yeah...needless to say, next time I clean votive candles (or anything at that), I'll be donning my apron, too. 

     Of course, in cleaning these votive candles, I also learned the best possible way to do it. Of course, I was not instructed to how to really clean these things. I was simply given the supplies at my door the night before. However, I am convinced that somewhere inside all sisters and sisters to be, there is an INNER NUN, almost like a conscience, but better. This INNER NUN tells you how to do things perfectly in NUNLY fashion. Because after I had scraped as much wax as I could from all the votives (and trust me it wasn't all), I had this genius idea. SOAK THEM IN SOAPY SCORCHING HOT WATER. Ingenious, really. So I filled the sink with SCORCHING HOT WATER and some Palmolive soap (it HAS to be the green kind, right, Sister?) and let the votives soak. Can I tell you that it worked like a charm? Literally, it was so much faster. So, for all my nunny friends....here's a (maybe) new way to do it! Of course, your INNER NUNS probably told you that years.

      Soap and water, as you know, often make things very slippery. And so this is where "No Nun Is Perfect..." comes into play. While washing the votives and lining them up to dry, I accidentally dropped one on the floor and to no surprise, it shattered into a million little pieces. Instead of being disappointed though, I merely shrugged and said, "Well that's the first of many votives I will break." It's true. I am sure sisters EVERYWHERE, while cleaning votives, drop one every so often. Of course, just no one tell Mother Superior and we'll all be fine! I realized that it was lesson in perfection. No one is perfect, we all drop a votive candle holder at some point in our lives. It's bound to happen. I found myself thanking God for letting me realize this early on so that I'm not an older sister when I drop my first votive; that would be earth shattering. Besides, I know this is God's way of saying, "I'm keeping you humble." 

      At the end of my morning, when I was carefully (very, very, VERY carefully) transporting the votives back over to the "Jesus Closet," I realized how exhausted I was. Literally, I found myself closing my eyes for longer than a few seconds and thinking, am I ever going to get a nap today? As some of you may know, I am a pro napper. I pretty much take a nap every day. Today, I did not get a nap. Right now, it is 9:16. As I was crossing back campus from play practice just a few minutes ago, I promised myself that I would be asleep tonight by 10:00 at the latest. I now understand why my Daddy used to call the Sisters the "Five and Ten" girls. No, they didn't work at five and tens. But rather they were up at five and in bed by ten. After a mere few hours in the day of a monjita, that life is literally a life I would be all about. I guess to elevate in the levels of getting closer to a monjita, I better start doing other nunny things. Maybe I'll start sewing a habit....that'll take a few years!

Okay, it's a bit extreme but....all for good humor!