You might be surprised. I t was a sunny Memorial Day weekend, and my mother and I were making our annual trek to New Jersey to visit her sister, a Carmelite nun. The Carmelites, a cloistered Order, rarely leave the convent except to vote or see a doctor. They serve God through prayer and worship, and have direct contact only with the people who come to visit them. Even then, their visitors must speak with them through an iron grille.
Age is uncertain, although the face surely has spent slim hours in the sun.
I am here to see the Pink Sisters, having entered the Convent of Divine Love though a heavy oak door, one of the few portals to the sprawling stone facade of this place that is both landmark and mystery to its neighbors on the 2200 block of Green Street in Philadelphia. The cloistered nuns who make this place their life assign one of theirs to break the rules of silence and handle the duties of the door. All rights reserved. Copyright 2000, University of St. Thomas .