I have managed to obtain an interview with one of the holy sisters
We are an old order, we hold beliefs and keep alive traditions that the male heirarchy of this church has tried to erase over the centuries. They have not succeeded.
Yes, I will tell you something about our ways. We had a young woman make her final profession here just recently. Six years I've been a full sister here myself. Six years since my own vows, what a beautiful day it was! The community assembles in the chapel, along with lay friends and well wishers from the outside world. The woman making her profession is dressed humbly, with plain habit and veil, psalms are sung, she kneels before the altar and pledges her life to God and to her new sisters. It is a wonderful ceremony, as outsiders always agree, but it is not complete.
We make our apologies at that point, we Sisters of St Mary Magdalen, and retire to our quarters for a private ceremony of welcome for the new sister. No priest or bishop has ever been invited to these proceedings! The new sister removes her veil, her simple habit, and is revealed to the community as her maker created her. In devotion to the patron of our order she is bound to the great cross at one end of our refrectory, where she hangs in humility while the community shares a meal in her honour. The new sister hangs there, naked, helpless, a reminder to us of the sacrifice of the Magdalen, who we believe, no, we know to have been crucified rather than abandon the one she loved! She was crucified, and so we are also crucified, in love, in devotion, a devotion shared with our sisters.
As we eat and drink, we marvel at the beauty and endurance of the one who has joined us, we rejoice in our good luck, to have found another to share our life, our devotions. It is a reverential and moving meal.
Then, at a signal, the crucified one cries out "I thirst!"
A sister will take to her a cup of wine, and gently bring it to her lips to symbolically include her in our communal meal of love. Now that she is one of us, a final tradition remains. The new sister's thighs are gently parted, and each member of the community comes forward to give her a welcoming kiss on her exposed lips. It is a true communion, for us, to share the taste of a crucified woman.
We have all experienced this, our common bond, and continue to know the glory of the cross each year on our anniversary. Each one of us celebrates her profession date quietly, on the cross, with her closest sisters in attendance, knowing that they will see her through the experience in a most beautiful way, and that she will do the same for them on their own day.
