Behind Closed Doors - A Carmelite convent
Translated from an article by Madeleine Meteyer, who visited the Carmel at Jonquières in 2017.(On the site maintained by students of the Centre de Formation des Journalistes in Paris).
No heavy creaking wooden door, or old building stones here. Behind the high red metal gate, a beige facade and glazed doors. A unprepossessing building, constructed in the early 1990s, on the edge of the village of Jonquières, 10 kms from Compiègne. The place resembles a retirement home rather than a venerable historic carmel. The only identification - a discreet cross on the chapel roof. Traffic noise from the N31 echoes in the courtyard and mobiles can access 3G. "What is there that can possibly interest people? We lead such ordinary lives!" The eleven Carmelite sisters of Compiègne giggle like schoolgirls when they learn that their everyday life excites curiosity. It is over twenty years since a camera was last inside.
Hidden from view, the Carmelites are cloistered but not frozen in time. "There is no question of living in the age of oil lamps!" Sister Alix-Anne, tall and energetic, is the Prioress, the local superior. She entered the Carmel at the age of 20, in 1964.
In 1992 the community left their convent in the middle of Compiègne, which had become old and costly to repair, and took up residence in this shiny modern building at Jonquières.
Inside the walls, the parlour serves as a space between two worlds. It is there that the sisters receive their relatives. The little room is simply furnished; in the centre sits a wooden table with two chairs. There was once a grille which separated the sisters from their relatives; they could scarcely see or touch one another. This symbolic frontier persists: "We try to reserve our space to the maximum, but we are sometimes obliged to receive people from outside, for example the cook who comes to help us every other week" explains Sister Alix-Anne. "If too many people come and go, we no longer feel at home, in our desert refuge".
The intrusion of technology:
The ring of a telephone resounds in the long white corridor. Sister Alix-Anne always keeps the handset attached to the belt of her scapular, that ample brown garment traditionally worn by the Carmelites. The Prioress can be contacted at any time during the day. In former times, the nuns communicated by means of bells. Each bell had a different sound, so that a particular sister could be summoned from one end of the monastery to the other. "We do not want to abandon tradition, but to live it in the 21st century, which implies inevitable adjustments," explains Sister Christiane-Edith, the newest arrival to the Carmel, a small, talkative woman. "We are like everyone else. For example, we can't do without the internet - especially the sisters who work".
The area in the monastery most connected with the world is undoubtedly the printing press. It is equipped with an internet link and a state-of-the art printer. Sister Marie-Pierre spends three hours a day there. With an air of concentration, and eyes wrinkled up behind her little glasses, she sorts out the orders which have come by mail. Today Adélaïde and Guillaume had entrusted them with their wedding invitations. They have chosen a pale blue script on thick cream paper....This work gives the monastery a source of regular income.
They only use the internet if it is absolutely necessary. "We must not become slaves to it, above all as a source of distraction." considers Sister Christiane-Edith. There are no computers in the recreation room; they much prefer to play Scrabble. When Facebook is mentioned the Carmelites laugh: "We know of its existence but it is not for us!" However, they are not novices as far as social media are concerned. For several months this year, a sister from the Ivory coast has been sharing her daily life in Compiegne remotely. The Prioress explains, "I suggested that she use Skype to communicate with her family in Abidjan. It seemed reasonable to me that she should have the same amount of contact as sisters whose families live 20 kilometres away."
More and more involvement in the outside world:
A clatter and crash of cutlery. In the refectory the sisters dine seated in an arc, their eyes on their plates, in silence. They chew on radish salad, plunged in thought. They communicate with simple gestures or look. Today Sister Christiane-Edith serves the meal, watching carefully over everyone's needs. The only departure from the golden rule of silence is the cassette player which crackles out extracts from the gospel. They have all heard the story a thousand times, but they giggle in chorus at the enunciation of one of Christ's miracles, as if they were laughing at the pranks of an old accomplice.
During supper, the gospel is replaced by the news. That has not always been the case. "Myself, I never knew how the Algerian War came to an end". Sister Line-Marie, who took her vows in 1961, has kept the mischievous air of a young girls. She is 74 years old, with rebellious white hair which escapes from under her long veil. A joyous laugh punctuates almost everything she says. Once very isolated, the sisters now make it a point of honour to stay informed.
Every evening, in the silence, a sister reads out loud from the journal La Croix, particularly political and international news. "I pay particular attention to events in the Middle-East, especially since we have Carmelite sisters in Iraq", explains Sister Line-Marie. The others agree: in order to pray for the world one must know what is going on there.
During the service of Laudes, at 7:30, a prayer strikes a note of anachronism amongst the praise: "Let us pray to God that the presidential campaign takes place with respect and dignity". The eleven Carmelites do not just hope, in matters of politics, they also participate. They will go to vote on 22nd April and 6th May in the presidential election. The polling station is in Jonquières, less than a kilometre away. For them it is an opportunity to leave the cloister, by car or, for the more able-bodied, on foot. "We know that the result will not change our lives, but we want to make a good choice, for our families and for France in general", explains Sister Marie-Luc who is in charge of the sewing room at the Carmel.
Face to face with God
Upstairs, individual rooms, called "cells", succeed one another and resemble each other. With a simple bed and a tiny wooden desk as the only furniture, they are a place of solitude and reflection. Since the move in 1992 each cell is equipped with a personal washbasin. The sisters never tire of this luxury. "Before this, we had to make do with a jug of water and a basin to wash", remembered Sister Alix-Anne.
Sometimes the silence and isolation of a cell is not enough. It is time to renew the hermit's life of the founders of the order. The Carmelites leave their fellow nuns, retreat still further, become more completely alone, in an absolute silence. The time of retreat is taken in turn. Sister Liliane is the next in line for the privilege. In two days, she will pack her bag to leave for a little house at the far end of the grounds. When she thinks about it, she has difficulty in suppressing a smile. The details of the stay are strictly regulated and remain secret; the camera is not invited to film. At the end of the garden Sister Alix-Anne grumblingly picks up some tins of sardines, the last remains of the last stay in the hermitage.
Despite the order's hermit tradition, communal prayer occupies the first place. The Carmelites gather all together at least five times a day, beneath the vaulted roof of the chapel. The latter is open to the public from daybreak to evening, but the separation of the otherworldly from ordinary lay life remains visible. The sisters, arranged in an ark round the altar, turn their back on visitors and form a barrier between the two worlds. "In the beginning, it was difficult. I left my life for silence and solitude", admitted with a smile Sister Line-Marie, who had entered the Carmel aged only 19. "But I sometimes became bored here when I was young". She murmered that before she took the Carmelite's habit, she was very in love with a boy...
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