A former enclosed Carmelite nun recalls a powerful if quirky Pentecost custom from her years in the cloister

It should not come as a surprise that a decade or more in the cloister leaves the monk or nun a changed human being. This is exactly as it should be. The radical separation from “the world” effected not only by the visible (and only partially symbolic) presence of bars and locks and keys, but by the culture of contemplation and all that supports it, cannot but have far-reaching effects on the mind, imagination, and eternal soul of the individual. Prayer is powerful, and a life organised around prayer and sacrifice is as good as revolutionary. No area of human experience is left untouched by “operation contemplation” and its far-reaching consequences.

But what is worthwhile change, how does it come about, and how do we distinguish between change for the better and change for the worse? At first sight a stable monastic community might seem the most resistant of fortresses against adaptation, rooted as it is in centuries of regular observance of an ancient Rule, even if that Rule has accrued footnotes over the years. Customs and traditions, including local idiosyncrasies, feature heavily in the cloistered life, the more so the more decidedly autonomous the character of the religious house in question. The famous story of the Ashram Cat illustrates the tendency of stable communities to adhere to customs for customs’ sake. And yet character is being formed, capacities stretched and human souls redirected and remoulded within the confines of the daily round.

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