Love Behind Bars

I never dreamed that I would spend part of my honeymoon behind bars in central Philly. 

And yet, five days after becoming Christ’s bride, that’s exactly where I found myself.       

I had heard about this well-known religious institute a few months before becoming a consecrated virgin, with hopes of visiting someday. But now, less than ten feet from where I stood, loomed the large golden gate that separated me from the cloistered Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters. Stepping forward gingerly, I approached the ornate iron bars and sucked in the gasp that threatened to escape my lungs. I offered a wordless prayer of thanks as my eyes drank in the marvelous sight: the Blessed Sacrament exposed in a sunburst-shaped monstrance; the sanctuary back-dropped by a sky-blue wall painted with the image of a cross and the Holy Spirit-Dove symbol in the center; pink and yellow rays exploding downward in a triangular pattern, bathing the altar in artificial divine light. 

And in the middle of it all, a solitary Sister in a striking, rose-colored habit kneeling in silent adoration before the Sacred Host. 

My first thought as I gazed upon this exquisite scene was, Heaven is on the other side of that gate. 

For more than a hundred years, the “Pink Sisters” have kept prayerful vigil at the Convent of Divine Love through total immersion in the Eucharistic life of Christ. At all times, a Sister can be seen in the chapel, her soul plunged into an inner bath of love and petition on behalf of the whole world. Every thirty minutes a bell rings, and another Sister quietly emerges to take her place, perpetuating this prayerful and total gift of self to the One held by love in a tiny white Host. These remarkable servants of Christ are His Brides, chosen to live in perpetual, constant fidelity to their Divine Spouse, ever adoring, ever consoling, ever loving and being loved.    

This is Heaven. 

This is honeymoon. 

Reflecting on the radiant witness of these devoted souls whose garments symbolize the glowing love for the Holy Spirit, I am struck by the sacred truth that this is the bridal identity we are all invited to embrace, no matter our state in life. As a consecrated virgin, my call is to live in the secular world, offering a subtle yet powerful witness of my mystical espousal with Christ. Yet, while my vocation doesn’t demand seclusion or around-the-clock Adoration, it is meant to be a constant, ever-deepening expression of the contemplative, Divine Love lived out behind bars. A daily outpouring of interior adoration and praise. An earthly sign mirroring the heavenly reality to come. 

And isn’t that the vocation of every human heart that has befriended the Bridegroom? 

God bless the Pink Sisters whose loving witness helped to awaken this mysterious charism of my covenantal bond with Christ, a bond in which all the baptized faithful share as we seek eternal union with the One Who awaits us on the other side of the Gate.