Recreation is a very important element in cloistered religious life. After all, even nuns have to have a break! It also provides them the chance to know the women with whom they must live for the rest of their lives, women whom they didn't choose themselves but who were chosen by God. There are occasions, too, when two or more sisters must work together at various jobs around the monastery; although the rule of silence forbids them to hold casual conversations while working and limits verbal intercourse to the absolutely necessary, they do come to know each other somewhat through their mutual work. Recreation, however, is the time for more camaraderie, freedom of expression, and just plain fun.
Most houses in most contemplative orders allow time in their daily horarium for two recreations. In the Monastery of the Infant Jesus, the first recreation, which is scheduled at 1:00 after dinner, is separated; that is, the professed sisters have theirs in the main community room, and the novices would have our own in the novitiate community room. This room is dominated by four large tables which are usually pushed together to form one huge one; around it, all the novices, postulants, and the novice directress would gather, sometimes doing little projects as we chat. Many of the sisters make rosaries, either of the "knotted" variety, or with chain, to give out to the missions. Unfortunately, I never mastered that particular skill. One of my fellow novices tried to teach me how to make the knotted kind, to no avail; my knots kept unravelling. God in his infinite goodness gave me many gifts, but making rosaries isn't one of them; nor is darning, which is another thing sisters are fond of doing during recreation. The vow of poverty compels nuns to make things last until they fall apart beyond all repair, including the knee socks they all wear (they still refer to them by the quainter term, "stockings"). Holes in toes or heels, rips or runs in the legs, all must be darned. My first few feeble attempts at darning came undone, inevitably, in a single washing. Chastened, I asked my novice mistress what I could be doing wrong; she asked me, "Are you using the right thread?" There's a special thread for darning? Who knew?
The second recreation takes place after supper, around 6:40. All the sisters -- professed and novices -- gather in the large community room in the main building, again bringing little projects or just a readiness to be sociable. The only rule is, there must be more than two in a group -- "pairs" are considered exclusive rather than sociable, a consideration which, I suspect, stems from the long-established taboo about forming "particular friendships" in the monastery. A very good thing, that, for many reasons; one of which (the most important) is that religious must emulate Jesus in all things, including loving everyone equally and with detachment (which means not "cleaving"). Another very good reason is that forming particular friendships creates factions, which will eventually and inevitably destroy the unity of mind and heart so crucial in a monastic community -- "unity" being half of the word "community."
My favorite recreation of all was Sunday evening. It's a half hour longer because it's Game Night. Board games are brought out -- Uno, Clue, etc., usually a jigsaw puzzle as well, and there is always the canasta group, which consists of a small core of die-hard canasta players, plus an ever-evolving satellite band of rookies. The die-hards are among the oldest of the sisters, and they tend to make up their own rules; so if you are at all familiar with the game going in, you have to be prepared to forget everything you once learned and conform to their peculiar form of canasta. I did learn, but have since forgotten completely how to play, both their way and the real way.
Game Night's other chief characteristic is the snacking. Now, you have to remember (or perhaps you didn't know) that "snacking" in the worldly, secular sense is not done in monastic life. You have your meals, and necessary glasses of water or juice in between, and that's it. Maybe some crackers, if you have to take something with prescription medicines. So the Game Night snacks -- which always included among them the sisters' favorite, popcorn -- are indeed a treat. They are put on a cart by the cook sister, and the cart is pushed around to the various gaming groups by a novice or postulant at the proper time, about halfway through the recreation period. Once when it was my turn to push the cart, I accidently knocked over the very large, almost full barrel of freshly popped corn. Fluffly kernels scattered everywhere. In the old days, I would have been ordered, as penance, to clean the mess by myself and eat the popcorn (e-e-e-w!!). Fortunately, it was 2005, so a few of the other sisters helped me clean up, and one of them (bless her old-school-nun's heart) offered to eat the popcorn. I suppose I could have remonstrated and taken on that penance myself, but -- I'm sorry -- I just couldn't bring myself to do anything so unsanitary! I was a bad nun!
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