Trousseau For Carmel - What To Bring - Suggestions Welcome!

[MarieLynn]

In answer to the question about the petticoats (sorry off line for most of the day due to work) I didn't make them - I bought them from the 'Nun Shop' that provided undergarments (etc) to the Sisters of Mercy and Dominicans in my hometown. You had to see this place to actually believe it!! Talk about stuff out of the Ark! Anyway, I asked if they would be suitable, and was told that they were what the Mercy sisters wore, and black was black, so that was what I ended up with. Actually they lasted me for years, and even tho' I had no use for them when I came home (my younger sister commandeered them and made a witch's outfit out of one) they never seemed to wear out.

[Antigonos]

[quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1319158692' post='2324451']


I am completely useless in the kitchen and always have been. I used to be able to bake things - like breads and cakes and cookies, but I have never liked or been able to do the regular meal things... although if someone tells me exactly what to do, I can usually follow directions. Cooking is a real penance for me, but I am very happy doing dishes!
[/quote]

I am your complete opposite. You are hereby cordially invited to come live with me: I'll do the cooking if you do the washing up.

[faithcecelia]

Apparently the correct way to cook frozen peas is to defrost them over night and then fry them.

[bernadette d]

[quote name='faithcecelia' timestamp='1319179735' post='2324541']
Apparently the correct way to cook frozen peas is to defrost them over night and then fry them.
[/quote]
Oh WOW!

[brandelynmarie]

Wow...I read somewhere once that a NM was having a little trouble with some novice monks as each monk's mother had fried potatoes differently. Apparently each believed that only [i][b]he[/b][/i] knew the proper way to fry potatoes. I can see where that could be a problem...So I am guessing when in a kitchen do what the other sisters do? And if left to your own devices try your best, but be prepared to be shown what they do traditionally?

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='brandelynmarie' timestamp='1319190254' post='2324561']
Wow...I read somewhere once that a NM was having a little trouble with some novice monks as each monk's mother had fried potatoes differently. Apparently each believed that only [i][b]he[/b][/i] knew the proper way to fry potatoes. I can see where that could be a problem...So I am guessing when in a kitchen do what the other sisters do? And if left to your own devices try your best, but be prepared to be shown what they do traditionally?
[/quote]

This is why obedience and humility are so important in religious life. Each person has to be re-taught when they might already know their way of doing something. It's incredibly humbling to have to be shown the community's preferred method and follow their teaching.

[HopefulBride]

[quote name='faithcecelia' timestamp='1319179735' post='2324541']
Apparently the correct way to cook frozen peas is to defrost them over night and then fry them.
[/quote]

Say wha....?

You mean the carmelite way to do it

[faithcecelia]

[quote name='HopefulBride' timestamp='1319194951' post='2324575']

Say wha....?

You mean the carmelite way to do it
[/quote]


The Q way to do it I have never, ever known of anyone before or since who does it that way!

[brandelynmarie]

I may have to give this whirl...

[juchu]

[quote name='MaterMisericordiae' timestamp='1319192368' post='2324570']

This is why obedience and humility are so important in religious life. Each person has to be re-taught when they might already know their way of doing something. It's incredibly humbling to have to be shown the community's preferred method and follow their teaching.
[/quote]


My favourite situation was - when I was the first time at my community as a volunteer - I was shown what I should clean that afternoon. There were also bathrooms. I have cleaned a lot in my life so I really do not mind cleaning them.

So the sister who showed me - we communicated in English which was neither her or mine mother tongue - started to explain how to clean the toilet. Then she stopped and said "its really stupid to teach someone how to clean the toilet, but look this is how we do it here" and then she just cleaned it. (The thing was that the toilet brush had a little extra brush that went under the top part of the toilet ... so it actually was good that she showed me)

While I regard this as a really "nice" way of being taught something, there have been - and for sure will be - different situation. My most "negativ" example is, that I set the coffee-break table for a group of guests, putting drinks on one side and food on the other side. So then another sister (who was not responsible for the kitchen nor for the group of guests nor for me) came up and said that this would be wrong and she set the food ad the other side and the drinks on the other side and then said that now it would be right! But actually she only changed sides. Since it was in a room where one could walk around the table to get what one wanted, it actually - did not matter at which side the beverages or the food was ....

But well, I thanked her and left after rearranging...

So I guess it is a bit too easy to say that "the young new ones" have to learn everything new, but I hope that sometimes also the "old ones" can take the "new ones" as a challenge to rethink if this really "has" to be like this. Of course I will learn the way the community "does" it, but as my future nm told me after I talked to her about the coffee-break incident - so many things are actually not "rules", but "traditions" and as long as it makes sense, one should be able to do it how it works best for oneself.

[AccountDeleted]

[quote name='juchu' timestamp='1319196469' post='2324584']


My favourite situation was - when I was the first time at my community as a volunteer - I was shown what I should clean that afternoon. There were also bathrooms. I have cleaned a lot in my life so I really do not mind cleaning them.

So the sister who showed me - we communicated in English which was neither her or mine mother tongue - started to explain how to clean the toilet. Then she stopped and said "its really stupid to teach someone how to clean the toilet, but look this is how we do it here" and then she just cleaned it. (The thing was that the toilet brush had a little extra brush that went under the top part of the toilet ... so it actually was good that she showed me)

While I regard this as a really "nice" way of being taught something, there have been - and for sure will be - different situation. My most "negativ" example is, that I set the coffee-break table for a group of guests, putting drinks on one side and food on the other side. So then another sister (who was not responsible for the kitchen nor for the group of guests nor for me) came up and said that this would be wrong and she set the food ad the other side and the drinks on the other side and then said that now it would be right! But actually she only changed sides. Since it was in a room where one could walk around the table to get what one wanted, it actually - did not matter at which side the beverages or the food was ....

But well, I thanked her and left after rearranging...

So I guess it is a bit too easy to say that "the young new ones" have to learn everything new, but I hope that sometimes also the "old ones" can take the "new ones" as a challenge to rethink if this really "has" to be like this. Of course I will learn the way the community "does" it, but as my future nm told me after I talked to her about the coffee-break incident - so many things are actually not "rules", but "traditions" and as long as it makes sense, one should be able to do it how it works best for oneself.
[/quote]

This.

But that's why it's important to enter the community that thinks the way you do...because not all have this philosophyso if you entered where this was not their idea, then things could get difficult.

It's funny because at one Carmel they showed me how to 'do' the cell, from how exactly to prepare for sweeping it out, to exactly how to sweep it. At another Carmel they told me that I certainly should know how to sweep at my age, and any way that worked for me was fine, as long as the cell got cleaned!

So if this kind of thing matters - then one should choose carefully. I didn't really care - if they wanted me to sweep their way, then so be it - but it wasn't the 'right way' or even the 'Carmelite way' - it was just their way.

[maximillion]

The 'Customary' way!
No matter how many time you may have done a thing in your life, the conventual ways will be different. The notion of cleaning the cleaning equipment after you had used it was new to me.......
Waxing floors....when Sr Household hove into view with that evil stuff she concocted somewhere in the cellar, we all quaked. Mind you, it was great for clearing the sinuses, nearly took the veil off the back of your head!
Whoops. Didn't mean to .

Posted my pre-entry list somewhere on the forum, but I wasn't entering a Carmel. From what others have said, though, I may just as well have been.
I turned up in a poison green coat I got at a charity shop, it was hideous. Much later I saw it in Boniface' ( the dog) bed!
My sister used to send me regular food parcels as she was convinced I would be starved. The sisters got used to Heinz Tomato Sauce.It was not (for some strange reason) available in an enclosed French Sisterhood in 1972.

[mme_hardy]

[quote name='faithcecelia' timestamp='1319179735' post='2324541']
Apparently the correct way to cook frozen peas is to defrost them over night and then fry them.
[/quote]

I [i]knew [/i]there was a reason I could never be a Carmelite. (Apart from the whole happily-married Protestant thing.)

I would shop the -- er -- heck out of a "nun shop". Sturdy black stockings, yay.

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='mme_hardy' timestamp='1319220562' post='2324767']

I [i]knew [/i]there was a reason I could never be a Carmelite. (Apart from the whole happily-married Protestant thing.)

I would shop the -- er -- heck out of a "nun shop". Sturdy black stockings, yay.
[/quote]

[MissScripture]

[quote name='faithcecelia' timestamp='1319179735' post='2324541']
Apparently the correct way to cook frozen peas is to defrost them over night and then fry them.
[/quote]
! BAHAHAHA! The best part is, when I said, "I didn't know there was a wrong way!" I was also thinking (and almost typed) "At least you weren't trying to fry them or something!" !

Good thing I'm married and get to "rule" my kitchen.