An alb with a hood

I got my new alb in the mail last week. For my nonEpiscopal readers, an alb is a long white robe you wear to celebrate or assist at a service with a Eucharist. You wear a stole over it - a long, decorated scarf that goes around your shoulders, and perhaps a chausable - like a big poncho that matches the stole. My alb is a lovely, shiny polyester blend! Perhaps a little tacky, but as a deacon friend pointed out, you don't have to iron it and it's stain-resistant. I think it's beautiful. I got one with a hood, like a monk's habit. It makes me feel a little like a romantic, but maybe there's nothing wrong with that.

This past weekend, I saw a movie about the life of the Carthusians, an austere monastic order devoted both to community and strict solitude. It's called "Into Great Silence." A long, basic, almost silent movie - just like the lives of the monks.

I miss life in community - it's been seven years since I lived at the Farm. Living at Seabury is somewhat like living in community, which has been great. But the monastery in the movie was quite a bit more intense. I'm also reading a book about Carthusians, which is full of monastic craziness. It's amazing how rigorous a serious commitment to spiritual life can be. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to give everything of yourself so fully to God in that way - what happens to you? It must hurt, but it must also be joyful in some way, or people wouldn't do it. My friend, Julianne, says she has "Carthusian delusions." After seeing the movie, I think we've both had some cold water thrown on our romantic ideas, but there's still something very compelling about monastic life in this day and age.

We're talking about becoming oblates somewhere - a kind of associate to a monastic community - maybe at a newer community called the Order of Julian of Norwich in Wisconsin? They wear some heavy-duty habits, but I think they're pretty progressive - and they're co-ed, which is interesting. We're trying to figure it out.