First, to clarify: Visitation Monastery is one foundation,one community - but life here is spread out over three houses: two that make up the monastery proper: Fremont House (the original foundation - see above/right) and Girard House, down the street and around the corner. That's the one shown in the large picture at the top, where I am staying these six months.
(It really is like one big house with a long hall between the two parts.)
"Monastic Immersion Experience" - a very apt phrase for what is happening here! When I made my other two visits here - a week last summer, a few days in March - I sat on the edge of the pool and wet my feet and watched. Maybe walked out ankle deep in the pool. This time I've plunged in, gone in over my head, bobbed around, gasped for breath, floated briefly from time to time, splashed and rejoiced!
I haven't begun to get my bearings - but I am so full of joy and gladness! This is a community that is vibrant with life. Neighbors are stopping by all day. The house is full of children, babies, teenagers, young adults.
One evening we had visitors - more than 20 young adults who work with a ministry associated with Urban Homeworks - a group which buys and renovates derelict houses in the neighborhood. These young people - Urban Neighbors - live together in Christian community in these houses which they share with people in need of housing and to whom they minister.
They come each year one evening to (in their own words) sit at the feet of the elders, the Visitation sisters. They ask the sisters to share what they have learned about living in community and sharing their lives with the people here in what they call the neighborhood of Old Highlands (or Near North) . This year some of these young people were just completing their term of service; some are staying on. They talked about problems of burn-out and how overwhelmed one can be by the needs one sees here.It's hot here. Especially the first few days - they were brutally hot - suffocating humidity. Then a few thunderstorms and showers came, and it became much more pleasant. I'm grateful to discover that my 3rd floor bedroom is very cool - good air-conditioning here. I'm making my way up and down the three sets of staircases that one navigates in this house with relatively little difficulty, and I'm trying to learn to think ahead about what I will need from one hour to the next.
I arrived here last Thursday. Thursdays are "shut down days" here at the Monastery. There is a sign in the windows that the sisters are not available today. Each sister chooses how to spend the day, how to include their own private prayer time; there is no common prayer. We will meet for dinner at Fremont house.
I loved being on the streets of Minneapolis! Wonderful place for people-watching! We had lunch on the sidewalk - and then I picked up my needed office supplies at Office Depot and bought a bus pass -
and we found our way back to the Monastery. I may get brave enough to take the bus on my own one of these days. Stay tuned. Anyhow, dinner tonight at Fremont - and until then, blogging, journaling, and putting away my new supplies!!'Taint dull here! More later.
