Project Canterbury

A Day at Nashotah

The Church Eclectic
September, 1893, pp. 485-487


AT 6.30 the old bell rings--the same bell which used to hang in the tree in front of the original "Mission" house--and again at 6.55, this last a warning that in five minutes great "Michael" who hangs in his cross-topped rustic belfry near the chapel will announce the hour for the Daily Mass. Students in cassocks and cloaks hurry along the path, the lights are twinkling upon the altar, the Celebrant and server enter, and soon the deep-toned murmur of the responses tells that the service has begun. At the conclusion the Priest returns from the sacristy, kneels at the communion rail, and the Thanksgiving is said. Then immediately follows the Meditation given by the Celebrant or other member of the Faculty, closing when the bell at the Refectory gives warning of the Breakfast hour at 8 o'clock. Arrived at the table, all stand until at a signal from the President, the Latin grace, "Oculi omnium" is sung. During the first quarter-hour some instructive book, usually a biography, is read from a lecturn, and conversation is suspended. The walls of the Refectory are hung with various portraits of Bishops, benefactors, former professors and students--but a large Crucifix occupies a prominent place. At 8.30 again the great bell rings, this time for Matins, which however is not obligatory, as are the Eucharist and Evensong. The interval till 10.00 has no assigned duties, but it gives an opportunity for students to arrange their rooms, or, perhaps quite as likely, to put a hasty finishing touch upon their preparation for the day's recitations. From 10 till 1 o'clock, students and professors are busy in their class rooms. At I o'clock dinner is served in the Refectory. The food is not elaborately prepared, but it is wholesome, abundant and well served, and the half-hour spent at the table is not infrequently prolonged to an hour, when a vein of humor or anecdote is struck, and stories and experiences are exchanged.

The afternoon hours may be used at discretion. Many of the students rightly consider physical exercise a duty as well as a pleasure, and, in the fine Autumn or Spring days some go on long walks, others shooting or rowing, while a number find diversion nearer home in tennis, foot-ball and base-ball. In winter skating and tobogganning have their many devotees. If quiet thoughts posess the mind, and communion with the God of nature be one's object, there is the beautiful cemetery stretching along the wooded ridge towards the south, where, under the sign of the cross, rest the mortal remains of Bishop Kemper and of many another soldier who has fought valiantly under that Standard. Or, in the opposite direction, one may take the path, carpeted with turf and moss, as it winds in and out among the oaks, leading to "the Station." Any where else it would surely be called "Lovers' Lane." And we must not forget the "petit Calvaire" down by the lakewise; round and smooth it rises abruptly from the water's edge. One expects to see a Cross there, so Golgotha-like is it. And where It stands, rough, brown and weather-beaten, towering above the rude stone-heap at its base: above the modest cedars which stand reverently aside, lest they should obstruct the view; Upper Nashotah, upon which the Cross looks out at all times. It is good to kneel in this place of an afternoon. But we must come back from our ramble. The narrow, sometimes treacherous path, close by the bank will lead us most directly. We pass stretches of sloping sandy beach where one might like to bathe; then, further on, we see the bright clean pebbles on the lake bottom almost under our feet, and the fish make for deeper water as we pass along. Now we come in sight of the chapel-belfry again, rising high above our heads, at the top of the bluff. Again "Michael" tolls out his majestic tones, and the students are assembling for Evensong. The vesper lights gleam on either side of the huge Tabernacle which dominates the massive altar of oak. A moment of silence and the Officiant intones the "Aperi Domine," to which there is the reverberating response, "Amen." The long train of students in cassock and surplice, headed by the Crucifer, then file slowly up thro' the shadowy nave into the brightly lighted choir, the clergy into their stalls, while the organ gives forth soft and graceful harmonies. The service is fully choral, not "shortened" except by the use of the briefer exhortation; the Psalter and Canticles Gregorian; Office Hymn after the third Collect; the Athanasian Creed chanted at the end of the Office one day in each week. As the procession slowly returns toward the vestry, we see, through the open west door the setting sun mirrored in the placid waters of the lake. We would fain tarry in this quiet beautiful house of God; we believe it is a foretaste of Heaven. But--another petition that God may make real and lasting to us the sweet communion of this place, another Amen, more subdued and solemn than before, and soon the dark cassocked figures of the seminarians are making their way in the twilight along the path which leads to the Refectory. Tea is a brief refection; and then follow the hours of most earnest study. At nine the bell rings for Compline, and in the oratories of the several buildings the old Psalms are said, the old Hymn and Nunc dimittis are sung.


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