Religious Life - funny anecdotes

[BarbTherese]

I was writing away in another thread : HERE  about some funny experiences of mine being very new in monastic life (I discerned out).  It occured to me that we have in Phatmass those who discerned out, those with some experience of religious life, those still on the discernment journey within religious life and of course the professed..........and any I might have overlooked.  I thought there must be plenty of very funny anecdotes out there in Phatmass land.  Going from a busy modern life into religious life in one its various forms can be a really jarring experience leading to funny situations.

Please do share your funny experiences of being very new in active and/or contemplative life......or even funny experiences from those no longer newbies in the life.......

[JHFamily]

This isn't necessarily a newbie experience, even though it happened in my first days in religious life.  The chapel had a rather large sunroof over the tabernacle, and the monastery was on the outskirts of a medium-sized city.  One day in the fall, as the geese were making their migratory trek, they decided to rest at our place and began walking on the chapel roof.  (Weird, huh?  I don't think I've seen geese on a roof before or since!)  As they walked around on that sunroof, the plop, plop, plop, of their feet was so funny that all the sisters had a really hard time choking down laughter.   I think it took us twice as long to say our Office as usual, and it brought a cheerful note to the rest of the day.

 

[sr.christinaosf]

https://ourfranciscanfiat.wordpress.com/tag/short-sheeting/

https://ourfranciscanfiat.wordpress.com/2015/10/08/circumstances-escapades-really-calling-for-a-modified-habit/

[Fr. Antony Maria OSB]

I will never forget this experience that I had when I was a postulant. I had been in the monastery for less than a month (I hadn't even received the habit yet), and one morning I woke up because I heard the 5 minute warning bells for Vigils and Lauds! In my panic stricken state of not wanting to be late, I rushed, threw on my clothes, and ran down the length of the third floor hallway (my cell is towards the end of the hall furthest away from the church), down four flights of stairs and into...a completely black church. In my panic, I didn't bother to look at the clock and only realized when I got to the church that the bells had malfunctioned and gone off at 2 or 3 in the morning! The only other person in the church was the monk in charge of the bells, and he told me to go back to sleep, which I did (gratefully). One of my greatest moments as a postulant

[Nunsuch]

There is a booklet (privately published) from the Monroe, MI, IHMs of funny novitiate stories. It's about 100 pages long. I own a copy. Some of them are really hilarious.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Nunsuch said:

There is a booklet (privately published) from the Monroe, MI, IHMs of funny novitiate stories. It's about 100 pages long. I own a copy. Some of them are really hilarious.

Short enough to post a story now and then?

very funny stories one and all - thank you!  Keep the stories coming!

Sr Christina's short sheeting story is particularly very funny and only I think because I know how religious feel towards certain people (I don't want to spoil her story by stating who the "certain people" are.)

[Nunsuch]

I'm afraid each is about 2-3 pages long. I will try scanning when I'm finished  with grading finals and other end of term responsibilities. 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Nunsuch said:

I'm afraid each is about 2-3 pages long. I will try scanning when I'm finished  with grading finals and other end of term responsibilities. 

Thank you very much.  I hope you will be successful and blessings too on all your end of term responsibilities.

[MaryBethany]

I love these

[Nunsuch]

I had said that I might be able to reproduce some of the anecdotes above. But I can't, because I don't have a scanner. In any event, they are all at least 50 years old and have very little relevance to the way that religious life is lived today. So I think it would be a misrepresentation to circulate them, regardless.

[Guest]

I think that funny anecdotes from "at least 50 years old" would be ok if one points out that they are half a century old and a misrepresentation of religious life as it is today.

One funny one I can recall from I think it was "A Right to be Merry" (about Poor Clarelife).  It is paraphrased:

A brand new postulant had forgotten to wipe off her lipstick.  When an older nun from pre V2 days sighted it she was tsk tsk about it, commenting "Postulants with lipstick, what next!"

[sr.christinaosf]

2 hours ago, Nunsuch said:

I had said that I might be able to reproduce some of the anecdotes above. But I can't, because I don't have a scanner. In any event, they are all at least 50 years old and have very little relevance to the way that religious life is lived today. So I think it would be a misrepresentation to circulate them, regardless.

My anecdote

is more recent; so you can use it

[Nunsuch]

1 minute ago, sr.christinaosf said:

My anecdote

is more recent; so you can use it

This is a reference to the IHM book, published over 50 years ago.

 

[sr.christinaosf]

OK -  I was going to say - I'm not THAT old

[gabrielofsorrows]

 This is about a talk i had with two priests at separate times. I was never a priest or brother, butSeveral years ago i was contemplating a religious vocation and i spoke with a priest that i knew. I said hmmm, i don't know if im called, but if i am, what if i fall in love.. ( lol) my friend thats a priest said... Oh, i fall in love about 3 or 4 times a week. I was cracking up! Another priest i didnt know as well heard i may be thinking about it, he said remember Bernadette had her eyes on a sweetheart... These priests are down to earth and honest and funny. 

[Guest]

I think that in the pursuit of any vocation at all, a sense of humour is a great gift and wonderful asset.

 

 

[Nunsuch]

13 hours ago, BarbaraTherese said:

I think that in the pursuit of any vocation at all, a sense of humour is a great gift and wonderful asset.

 

 

"I would have her distinguished by Christ-like charity, a limpid simplicity of soul, heroic generosity, selflessness, unfailing loyalty, prudent zeal, gracious courtesy, an adaptable disposition, solid piety, and the saving grace of a sense of humor."  Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, founder, on what characterizes a Maryknoll Sister.

[Kayte Postle]

Having a sense of humor in religious life always makes me think of Mother Angelica. I saw this particular post on facebook the other day, and it gave me a good laugh.

[Guest]

Thank you very much for sharing

[beatitude]

Anecdotes, you say?

There is always the time I clogged the toilet of my community on the day the Archbishop was due to stop by for tea.

As we only have one toilet in that house (holy poverty is where it's at), I was mortified. One sister bravely went in and tried to unclog it with the help of an unravelled coat-hanger. After poking the coat hanger about for a while, she backed out of the bathroom, looked at me, and said solemnly, "It's made it worse."

It had. The, err, contents of the toilet were now floating about level with the rim. Sister got on the phone to the plumber. He wasn't able to come out until the next day at the earliest. I burst out in horror, "But what are we going to do?" Sister said serenely, "We're all right. We've got buckets. It's the bishop we've got to worry about. He is elderly and I don't know what his bladder will be like at his age."

Cue a serious conference on the probable state of the Archbishop's bladder, with one sister deciding that the thing to do would be to invite him in to meet the next-door neighbours as soon as he arrived, so that if he did ask for the toilet there would be a working one that he could use.

Shortly after that incident they decided they would accept me as a postulant, so perhaps it endeared me to them somehow!