The first photo shows that the light from the cranny windows can be seen from the main body of the chapel quite easily. The second photo shows the actual lower 1/3 of the crack in the wall, but you have to get right up next to it to see it this way. The whole thing is as tall as the west chapel wall and is divided into three window partitions--each maybe 6 feet high.
Its only other claim to fame, besides giving natural light there and providing an interesting perspective outside, happened a number of years ago at some event--maybe it was Sunday liturgy, but I doubt it---more likely it was a creative prayer time during a community weekend or summer community days. Anyway, the reading was the gospel story of Lazarus and at the point when the reader said, "Lazarus, come forth" out of this cranny, completely covered from top to bottom in white strips of cloth, comes one of our sisters playing Lazarus! The first gasp was the visual of this "person" emerging; the second gasp was wondering who in the world it was; and the third gasp, delayed a few seconds, was when everyone realized that she'd probably been in there 15-20 minutes, before the sisters even came into chapel and through the whole first part of the prayer! (She was walking a little wobbly--probably due to heat and also not wearing her glasses!) It was an unforgettable event that put the chapel cranny into our memory evermore!
As you undoubtedly can tell I'm enjoying this new little series, Nooks and Crannies, quite a lot. I have found a sort of "patron saint" for it, Alfred Lord Tennyson, writer of the famous poem, "Flower in the Crannied Wall." Ta da:
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower—but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
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