Sack Religious

The girl on the kneeler wore the plain, gray dress of a novice. She faced the corner of the small, empty room and prayed the prayers she had been taught, especially the prayers of contrition. The door opened.

"Sister."

The girl rose and followed the nun into the next room. This room like the other was small, windowless, lit only by a large candelabra perched on a small table. Next to the table sat the abbess, her face bathed in the soft glow.

"Sisters."

Two nuns stepped forward. One the girl recognized as her sponsor. Her stomach formed a knot. This could only turn out badly.

They stepped to either side of the girl and unbuttoned her dress. One nun drew it off her shoulders, the other pulled her undergarment up and over her head, bent and removed the girl's slippers. There was a mirror. She hadn't seen a mirror in three years, hadn't seen herself, not even her face. Her cell had no window and the bathing area, likewise, was free of glass. All she had seen was the occasional glimpse of a vague image caught in a window pane.

The girl looked into the mirror; a woman looked back. How she had changed. She'd come into the convent little more than a girl. Her breasts were larger now and she noticed that she had brown nipples, tried to recall if she already knew that. Her hips had widened. She had not wholly matured, but she was no longer a child.

The nuns spread a white cloth on the floor and guided the girl to it. They retrieved a wooden bucket and proceeded to wash her, head to toe, front and back. They were very thorough, washing between her fingers, between her toes, between her legs. The girl stiffened. The sensation was not unpleasant, but she had... issues. Issues that had brought her here today.

The nuns dried her and eased her down onto the floor. There were a few damp spots that were cool against her skin. But before she could even register the damp the nuns raised and bent her legs, spread them wide, nearly lifting her bottom off the floor.

Her sponsor knelt between her legs. She had a metal pail and a speculum. She worked the cool metal into the girls vagina. It was distinctly uncomfortable, only the second time she'd had anything inside her like that. The first, a mere month ago, was during her deflowering.

The nun worked the mechanism, stretching the girl, slowly, but deliberately. When she was satisfied she removed the lid from the pail and extracted a brush. It was round like some puff ball. Black liquid dripped into the pail.

The nun pushed the brush into the girl, all the way in, past the smooth metal tongs, and bathed the deepest parts of her in black. She repeated this twice more. Then, slowly, little by little, she extracted the device, pausing every inch to further coat the girl's snug canal, until she withdrew it completely. She spread the girl's vulva and painted her inner labia, covering her completely from her clitoris down nearly to her anus.

Satisfied the nun took the pail and speculum and placed them in a box. She returned with a bundle of white cloth. She arranged it on the floor. The girl saw that it was, in fact, a sack. A sack with a heavy cord cinch. The nuns guided her into the sack, pressed her down so thet she was sitting. They arranged the sides up and around the girl until the cloth reached her shoulders.

The abbess stepped over.

"You have been with us three years."

"Yes, Mother."

"Do not speak. This isn't a conversation. I am simply stating the facts so that there will be no misunderstanding."

"As I said, you have been here for three years. We have been well pleased with your devotion, your service to our community. And you have been invited to join us. You have even received the sacrament of deflowering as a show of your commitment. Once deflowered you can never live freely outside. You will never find a husband. No man would have you. If you were to leave now you would be something of a pariah. Yet you chose the sacrament."

"And now that you are healed, it is time to complete your induction. But there is an issue, something very grave, something one might call sacrilege."

"I consulted with Father as is our policy at this stage and he told me something disturbing, something you related during confession."

The girl shot the abbess a glance, then lowered her eyes, her cheeks burning in shame.

"Yes, the confessional is private... in most cases. There are exceptions. Cases like this one. At issue is one of our core beliefs. Now I know you have questions. That's to be expected. I have questions every day and I've been here over thirty years. Much of our practice is based on questioning. But while I may question, I obey, I practice as our mother, Saint Karynne, taught. It was her way. It is our way."

"You can see yourself. See the woman you are becoming. And you must know that a woman has certain needs. Look at yourself. Behold the wonder and beauty of God's creation."

"Our Lord created us, created our bodies for very specific reasons, specific functions. We see, we hear, we speak, we smell. We touch, we walk. We eat, we digest, we evacuate. All of these functions make us the humans we are. And it is our obligation to honor the body's functions. And that includes the sexual."

"Sex is necessary. We would not be here if it were not for sex. And that is why He made it pleasurable."

"Now, we here have taken a vow of chastity. We vow to not have sexual relations. But we cannot deny our sex it's pleasures, its needs. So we must, to a degree, indulge our natural urges. Not to excess. That's where, with God's help, we strengthen our self-control. But as with eating food, or drinking wine, well, there's a reason we crave food, enjoy the effects of a glass of wine. God instilled those desires, those needs in us. Likewise with sex. As with the other urges, if we indulge them overmuch we fall ill. Contrary-wise if we ignore these needs we invite harm. And so we have The Three."

"Three orgasms a day. That is our practice. Yes, even during menses. Three. No more, no fewer."

"Orgasms not only feel good, we now know that the body releases many favorable compounds during the act in addition to the sensation of physical pleasure. Science has recently confirmed that, one, women crave sex as much or more so than men. And, two, the health benefits of these compounds are indisputable. They go all the way from fighting cancer to improving longevity. And to think Saint Karynne intuited this so long ago, long before there were doctors, back when the practice of medicine was little more than shamanism."

"And this is our practice. You were aware of this aspect. I know. Your sponsor discussed these things with you. You had issues. We all have issues. But we practice and ask God's help to resolve them."

"But to refuse to even pursue The Three is something I find, quite frankly, unsettling. It's like refusing to breath, refusing to eat."

The abbess paused, collecting her thoughts, trying to see if there was something more to be said, but there wasn't. The case had been stated fairly and honestly.

"You will remain in the sack for five days. Five days with no food or water. A five-day fast. During that time you will pray as you have been taught and you will touch yourself, explore yourself deeply, fully. You will practice The Three four times a day at Prime, Sext, Vespers, and Compline. You can hear the bells in here and Sister will pray with you and bear witness to your practice."

"At the end of your fast you will be removed from the sack and we shall see the evidence as to whether you've truly complied with my instructions."

"The ink is semi-permanent. Meaning it will not wash off easily, but it will discolor anything that comes into contact with it... your fingers for instance."

Again the abbess paused. She bent and kissed the girl's hair.

"Sisters."

The nuns drew the hem of the sack up and over the girl's head. They cinched the cord, knotted it, hefted the sack, and carried the girl to a corner where a stout hook hung from the ceiling. Then nuns then gathered their things and left the room.

"Sister, your meals will be-"

"Mother! No. No, I will fast with her."

"Sister, with respect, you are old, older than I."

"But I am strong, Mother."

The abbess was about to say something, but the bells rang. Sext. Noon.

The girl in the sack began her prayers. The old nun slipped down onto the kneeler and joined her. The abbess placed a hand on her shoulder, bent and kissed her head.

"Pray well that she may emerge whole."

20.12.13