Sister Tatyana is 31 years old. She is a nun of the congregation of sisters in a Catholic monastery in Polotsk. And she claims that her life is her conscious choice.
When she graduated from school, she already understood in the 10th grade: God speaks in her heart, this voice is strong, and then Tatyana realized her calling on this earth.
My sister gave a tour of the monastery and told how her usual day goes.
Features
The monastery has a room designed only for sisters. There they communicate in private with God, no one outsiders enter there.
Each nun wears a habit (monastic dress), her head is covered with velen (translated from Polish - "veil"). When she sleeps, she takes off her clothes.
Tatyana’s sister doesn’t have makeup bags, nuns don’t use makeup. But things like shampoo, shower gel and cream are a must.
Each sister wears a cross and can wear a rosary (a special form of a rosary, a ring on her finger) to pray somewhere outside the walls of the monastery (for example, in public transport).
Morning
The daily routine, according to Tatyana’s sister, is sacred, this is what keeps all the inhabitants of the monastery.
The sisters get up at 7 in the morning. Go to sleep around 23:00. Their day begins with prayer, then about half an hour later they meditate on God's word.
Then have breakfast. In the kitchen of the monastery - everything is modern. There is a refrigerator, an electric kettle. The sisters cook themselves. Everyone can show their abilities in this area.
Duties
After breakfast, everyone takes on their duties. Someone is busy cleaning, someone is cooking.
The nuns have at their disposal a washing machine, a washbasin, just like all people. But a special towel hangs on the coil, which the laity does not have. On it, the priest distributes to people the body and blood of Jesus Christ. And the nuns wash this clean towel. The first water, in which the towel rinses, can not be poured into the sewer and where people go. It is poured where people do not appear. Because the body of Christ can remain on the towel.
The culmination of every day is the Eucharist, which the nuns spend with all the people in the temple.
One day sister Tatyana
She works with youth, prepares her for the sacraments. He works with sick people in the ward, visits one grandfather. Together with the sisters, they pasted him a wallpaper, though they immediately fell off - the sister is laughing. But grandfather warmly thanked, for grandfather the main thing is attention and care.
How do others react, questions of the curious
Very often, children ask their sister what color her hair is, and whether they are at all. She replies with humor that there is, and they are green. In general, Tatyana gives the impression of a very modern girl with an excellent sense of humor and 100% self-awareness in this life. Very solid nature.
She is often condemned to ask how it is - a nun who vows and is obliged to live in poverty, travels around the city in a luxury car and has a laptop. The answer is simple - all this does not belong to the sister, but is the property of the congregation or ward.
The sister also has a salary, but the abbess disposes of it. Therefore, Tatyana does not know how much she receives, and if she needs something, she turns to the abbess.
Stages of becoming a nun
The sister confesses that her parents, of course, were very worried at first and did not want her daughter to become a nun. But over time, they realized that she was happy, which means that they are happy.
After taking the sister to the monastery, the first stage takes place, which lasts about 0.5 years. Sister prays, does simple things.
After this comes a more serious time - "novitiate", lasting 2 years.This is a closed time, the sister does not have the possibility of phone calls, and also she can not visit relatives.
Then, at the end of this period, the Catholic nun takes the first vow for 1 year. Further - in a year she will again take a vow. And so for 6 years. And then for life.
But someone does not stand it and leaves, realizing that this is not his ...
In the case of Tatyana, this is a conscious decision for life.
Love
According to Tatyana's sister, a nun can fall in love. A person has one heart. When you surrender to service 100%, different feelings and emotions still prevail. Of course, she is a man and she can fall in love with another.
Concluding the story, she explains that it is important not how the person is dressed, but that he lives as Jesus commanded. And the task of sister Tatiana is to carry the will of God to the people.