Five Bishops and about 50 priests concelebrated the
beautiful Mass, including OLMC’s own Fr. Richard! Anna and the other postulants were assigned
to the choir. Other Sisters made up a
small horn and string section. Anna is singing 2nd soprano but she
admits she can’t hit the highest notes. The choir director told her she will
learn to ‘stretch’ her voice. Anna has a
nice voice but soprano is indeed a stretch!
Anna is the oldest of the six postulants by age, but she was
the last of the postulants to request acceptance into the order. Therefore, she is the youngest of the Sisters
in ‘Convent age’. As a result she also
had another role in the Mass during the procession of the gifts. She pushed the oldest Sister, who is 102 years
old, in her wheel chair as part of the procession. Anna met her last week and had an instant bond
as she was born in Omaha, NE and the Hoefer family has Nebraska roots,
including Gachia who was also born in Omaha.
After Mass we were bussed to the Gillespie Center on the St.
Mary’s College campus for a luncheon which gave us 15 minutes to visit with
Anna. The good news is she was upbeat
about how she was adapting to life in the Convent. However, all is not rosy, she did comment “I
have never cleaned or sung as much in my entire life as I have the past 2 weeks”!
At the luncheon, other orders of Sisters in attendance were
recognized. Among those in attendance
were the Nashville Dominican’s and the Sisters of Mercy from Alma, Mi. Anna had visited both of those Convents as
part of her initial discernment. The
Dominican’s who attend Notre Dame University stay at the Franciscan Convent. The Sisters of Mercy provide some
professional services to the Franciscans such as psychological evaluation of
the Candidates before entering the convent.
We were at a table with a current or previous connection to
OLMC: Fr. Richard Doerr, Fr. Dan Gartland, Sister Margaret Mary, Dave and Barb
Mitchel, Anna, Gachia and me. Needless
to say, with that collection of wit, we had a good time during lunch. When Sister Angela, mother superior of the
province, went to the podium, she stated one thing Sisters are good at is
keeping order. That’s why we have at
least one Sister at each table. The plan
worked very well except for the Our Lady of Mount Carmel table! We took being called out as a compliment…..
Most of the attendees were either benefactors or in
leadership positions with the various apostolates the Sisters oversee. Several of the Sisters introduced one of the
benefactors to Anna. He used to be in a leadership role at PwC and
wanted to meet that new postulant “Miss Anna” who used to work as a CPA at PwC.We took the bus back to the Convent and had a little more time to talk before saying goodbyes. We left with Anna and another postulant Rachael saying goodbye using the white handkerchief (tissue) wave.
It was great to visit with Anna. That makes the goodbye even more difficult, but Anna said it was not quite as difficult as the first goodbye. Gachia recently wondered whether it will ever get easier for us to leave the Convent. I do believe it will be less difficult over time, but I doubt it will ever be easy.
