Besides this, there is always a sister kneeling before the Holy Sacrament.
This station lasts an hour.
They relieve each other like soldiers on guard.
This is the Perpetual Adoration.
The prioresses and the mothers almost always bear names stamped with peculiar solemnity, recalling, not the saints and martyrs, but moments in the life of Jesus Christ:
as Mother Nativity, Mother Conception, Mother Presentation, Mother Passion.
But the names of saints are not interdicted.
When one sees them, one never sees anything but their mouths.
All their teeth are yellow.
No tooth-brush ever entered that convent. Brushing one''s teeth is at the top of a ladder at whose bottom is the loss of one''s soul.
They never say my.
They possess nothing of their own, and they must not attach themselves to anything.
They call everything our; thus:
our veil, our chaplet; if they were speaking of their chemise, they would say our chemise.
Sometimes they grow attached to some petty object,-- to a book of hours, a relic, a medal that has been blessed.
As soon as they become aware that they are growing attached to this object, they must give it up.