The Carmelite sisters of Indianapolis are moving to Oldenburg, and their gorgeous monastery will soon be a seminary for those wishing to enter the priesthood. Today, they had an open house, allowing the public to view many parts of the grounds not normally shown. Here are some photographs I snapped while wandering around…

Rooster Gate

It really does look like a little castle.

Entrance.

While one of the sisters told me it was perfectly alright to take photographs, I hesitated to aim my camera at the sisters in full habit, no matter how badly I wanted to. A few seconds before this shot was taken, one of the sisters put her hand on the statue and had an incredibly photogenic moment of prayer. My inner monologue was reeling, “Just snap the picture, just take it, take it, take it OMG why aren’t you shooting this.” But the guilt of my nine years of Catholic schooling surfaced as I thought: would I just take a picture of Sister Josephine without her permission? No, because she would yell at me in Italian until I cried. So I photographed the sisters walking away.

This next one is a shot upward into the skylight…