A place of peace and quiet in downtown Lynn

LYNN – Wedged between Broad Street?s bustle and St. Joseph?s Church?s brick ramparts is a place of peace accessible through a dented metal door facing a Green Street parking lot.?It?s tiny and very intimate; I really like it,” said Lynn resident Tianny Marmolejos.Blessed Sacrament Chapel is open from noon to 7 p.m. and located in the convent building where Sister Elsa and other Missionary Servants of the Word sisters live and work for St. Joseph?s parish.The chapel?s six pews could hold 50 people if they squeezed in together. A small manger sat before the altar on Monday as Marmolejos settled into a pew to pray. She said the chapel is at once anonymous and accessible, with its non-descript door and small entrance hall and its location a block off a busy downtown street.?It?s been a while since I came here but, sometimes, you feel like you need to be alone,” she said.Blessed Sacrament – except for one specific time during the day – is a place of silence, said Sister Elsa. A prayer is said in English at 3 p.m., but for the remainder of the hours it is open and the chapel is quiet with worshippers like Marmolejos and Mary Bagley of Lynn contemplating their thoughts and prayers. Bagley prays for an hour. Others who come to the chapel sign up for specific times when they come to pray.?It gives me peace,” said Bagley.It is that sense of peace that is important to Venezuelan native Maria Mendez. A 23-year Lynn resident, Mendez said the chapel is a place where she can pause and reflect on the good life she has built in the city.?I found work and a big community here,” she said.Mexican-born Sister Elsa has lived in the convent for four years and said convent residents consider the chapel “a place for rest.”?It is the place where you know there is always someone to listen to you,” she said.