“Would you like to speak with Sister at the Turn?”
To a first-time visitor at Carmel, this simple question can cause panic! Speak with Sister? I thought they were cloistered and had a vow of silence! And what on earth is a Turn?
Having a vow of silence is an old-wives’ tale that is still around today. No religious order or congregation has a vow of silence, though many include periods of silence in their daily schedule. This question is easily answered and once answered is easily accepted. Introducing a visitor to the Turn, on the other hand, can be a challenging experience.
The Turn is simply a sort of large Lazy-Susan set into the wall of a small room.
It is a means for passing things into the enclosure, rather like the revolving doors in some stores. The round drum has an opening on one side, and this opening can be turned to face out to the visitor’s side of the wall and then in to the Nuns’ side, inside the enclosure.
“Uh, yes, but you talked about speaking with a Sister at the Turn?”
Nothing is simpler. Next to the round drum there is a white rope hanging down. Just give that a pull, it will ring a bell inside the enclosure and a Sister will come to the other side of the Turn and you can speak with her.
So you bravely give the rope a tug. A loud bell jangles on the other side of the wall. After a few minutes, you hear sounds of a door opening and footsteps coming closer. A gentle voice says, “Praised be Jesus Christ!”
At this point, most first-time visitors freeze. What do I say?!! Old-timers know that the proper response is “Now and forever.” Other people just say, “Hi, Sister!” But it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what to say. The Sister on the other side of the Turn understands and she will coax you into a conversation with a few encouraging words. After a while, you will hardly even realize that you don’t see her and by the time you leave a few minutes later you will be quite at home with the unusual experience of Talking With Sister at the Turn!
