PIFFARD — In between services at The Abbey of the Genesee, lights are off in the church, requiring time for a visitor's eyes to adjust to the darkness, even in daytime.
Unlike the soaring spaces of today's Catholic edifices, which are often brilliantly lit by natural light, this modest church is cave-like and medieval, finished in boulders and hand-hewn lumber interrupted by only a few nearly hidden windows.
The ancient and timeless effect at the abbey is reinforced by the sight of an elderly Trappist monk — one of only two left from the group that founded the abbey 60 years ago — dressed in a black, hooded scapular draped over a full-length white habit as he slowly walks through the fields surrounding the monastery or of a visiting Carmelite nun, covered head to toe in a flowing brown habit as she makes her way to the abbey's church.
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