If there is something positive about going through life with the occasional prejudice in your backpack and with a camera in your hand, it is that surprises happen without prior notice. By dint of reading articles and reports that spoke of the «rapper nuns» server visited Monastery of the Incarnation of Mule hoping to find frivolity instead of spirituality and a performance instead of the calm transmitted by the inhabitants of the fortified building. The building, which has its origins in the 17th century, is an imposing Asset of Cultural Interest, at the foot of the Castillo de Mula.
It is currently inhabited by only seven Colombian women belonging to the Eucharistic Communicating Sisters of Heavenly Fathera religious community that became popular for developing its evangelization through the Internet and its own audiovisual production company, with which make music videos and social gatherings uploaded to Youtube among other content shared in the active profiles of their social networks. So strong is the digital profile of this Catholic group that on their website they underline that «the Eucharistic Communicators of the Heavenly Father Our specific charism is to evangelize in and through the dynamic world of the media as Communicators, a friendly presence for those who seek the Father and as Eucharistic Souls in action, who proclaim from the housetops what Jesus whispers in their ears (Mt 10:27 ), in the intimacy of prayer».
The convent was the scene of the plundering of the Poor Clares that ended this month
The previous tenants of the convent, the Poor Clares, abandoned it before the pandemic with controversy: not only did they leave, but they took with them, to their new home in Elche, dozens of works of art (paintings, sculptures…) that belonged to the patrimony of all the muleños. Hence, the City Council set out to recover what belonged to the town. Then began an administrative and negotiation journey, which resulted in the abbess receiving a financial penalty: 100,001 euros. At the beginning of this month of July, the nuns announced that they would return the pieces to Mula in exchange for the fine being removed. And the pieces came back. A. LUCAS
The sister superior Sonia and sister Milagros they welcome me and I confess how relieved it is, in the midst of a heat wave and at the time of the sacred Spanish siesta, to cross the threshold of a stone building. Sister María Cielo joins soon, she works as deputy director of the group and answers my curious questions. I am aware that I am not going to photograph a recording studio or anything like that, nor am I going to be a spectator of the latest choreography of fashion on tik tok, but I am in an environment of the most traditional spirituality in which silence and stillness prevail. «We are currently working on the legal and administrative part of audiovisual production. In the future we will carry out this task”, Sister María Cielo tells me.
Far from reducing the activity to the ancient walls of the monastery, the seven inhabitants of the Renaissance building They combine their evangelizing action with the continuation of their university studies in the UCAM.
Specifically, four of them study Marketing and Commercial Managementwhile the remaining three study Labor Relations and Human Resources.
A robust dark wood door separates the space open to the public from the private rooms of the community to which it access is prohibited. It is next to that door where I get to know the day-to-day life of the sisters explained by themselves, while in the background Sister Mariana does not stop weaving and making bracelets made with brown beads and silver medals.
If it weren’t for the white and blue habit, it would be hard for me to tell if the sparkle in the sisters’ eyes is due to the kindness imprinted by their religious charisma or to a kind of coquetry typical of young girls.university youths. “For now, it is not contemplated that more sisters come to the monastery, but in the future it is possible that they will,” they confess.
The key
A temple open to the faithful, pilgrims and visitors
Currently the church of the monastery remains open to the faithful every day from 8 to 9 in the morning for the celebration of the Eucharist. The rest of the day, except from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., the temple is open to pilgrims and visitors. On Fridays, at 7:00 p.m., a religious act is held, open to the public.
It is not easy to get the sisters to show me other parts of the monastery, but they agree to Sister Augustine, guitarist, rehearse the songs you sing every Friday at 7:00 p.m. for people who go to church. On the way to the temple, and regarding the photos that I am taking, they tell me that a sister member of the community, resident in Colombiais passionate about photography, and even did an end-of-year project on photographic technique.
While Agustina sings the songs on the guitar, the rest of the sisters they pray scattered around the church. I wonder again what it will be like to live in a building like that, which inevitably transports the visitor to earlier times.
Before retracing my steps and suffering the inclement sun again, as the singer-songwriter would say, they place one of the bracelets made by Sister Mariana on my wrist. At that time they do what they do best and try to convince me to walk the path of faith and attend mass on Sundays. “He gives us 24 hours a day, give him only one hour a week.” I don’t know if I leave there more or less a believer, but it gives me the feeling of having experienced for a while a charming immersion in a mixture of past and future, and having banished some prejudices, in a privileged place.