"Get thee to a nunnery!"

The following was written by The View staff reporter Jerry LaVaute:

I went to Nashville, Tennessee this last weekend, for the first profession of vows for former Belleville resident Ashley Loyer to become a religious sister. She is known now as Sister Casey Marie Loyer.

Sister Casey Marie was a volunteer firefighter in the city of Belleville until two years ago, when she left home to become a religious sister. Her parents are Chris and Darwin Loyer, who is the chief of the Van Buren Township Fire Department.

It was one of those weekends that feel as if you spent a week away from home. It was transforming.

It was 10-hour trip to and from Nashville, which I’d just as soon forget – a lotta miles, although the mountainous terrain was interesting, and dramatically different from what we see each day in southeaster Michigan.

The ceremony in the church on Sunday, in fact the cathedral of the city of Nashville (from the Latin “cathedra,” or “chair,” the authority from which the bishop, who resides within, speaks) was beautiful, and caused me to reflect on the enduring importance of liturgical worship in my life.

There were several other bishops on the altar during the two-hour ceremony, and sisters galore. They filled the center of the church.

And now, after two years in the novitiate, Sister Casey Marie is one of their number.

The photos that my wife Jan took of the weekend show a radiant young lady. One look at her, and you are reminded that there is a God, and that Ashley has been blessed.

The phrase “Get thee to a nunnery” is ironic here. It’s a line from Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet,” and it refers actually to a house of ill repute.

But I didn’t visit a house of ill repute last weekend. In fact, I visited with very many holy, fine, good people, a visit and a weekend that I will remember for a long, long time.