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Topic: Your ALL-TIME Favorite fiction?

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JennGM
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Posted: June 28 2005 at 7:42am \| IP Logged

Ah, I loved reading about nuns. I'll have to find In this House of Brede. I was inspired first by Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, OP in her The Shepherd's Tartan, then by Mother Mary Francis' books, particularly A Right to Be Merry (the Poor Clares in Roswell) and then I found My Beloved: Story of a Carmelite nun. All of these had the humor and beauty, revealing the "secrets" of the cloister. Just wonderful. I was seriously contemplating religious life when I read these stories...but God had other plans.

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Leonie
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Posted: June 28 2005 at 8:09am \| IP Logged

Kelly,

It's interesting to me to hear that a book by Rumer Godden helped you to begin your conversion.

I credit the very start of my interest in Catholicism to two things - one a secret, furtive visit to a Catholic church when I was around six or eight ( Catholics were not liked in my family home). The other - a book by Rumer Godden, read for English in Year 10 - An Episode of Sparrows.

Leonie in Sydney

teachingmom
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Posted: June 28 2005 at 2:45pm \| IP Logged

Leonie wrote:

You might also like Godden's Five for Sorrow,Ten for Joy and Black Narcissus. Also about nuns in convent life. All very haunting.

Thanks for the suggestions, Leonie. I'm enjoying The Middle Window by Goudge right now. But I am definitely going to look for more Godden on my next library visit. I'm glad to know what you have enjoyed, so I can start there.

Kelly wrote:

For years, afterward, when I ment nuns, I always measured them up against the Brede nuns (and with all the modern reforms, often found them wanting, supercilious creature that I am...). Then, we met the Poor Clares in Roswell, New Mexico, later the Dominicans in Nashville, then the the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in Alabama, and the Visitation nuns in Mobile, and I saw that the monastic life that Godden so vividly and beautifully described still existed.

That's really encouraging, Kelly. I have to admit that I was really surprised at Godden's portrayal of life in the cloister. I didn't know there was so much freedom to speak to one another, to meet with visitors, and to develop friendships with both visitors and the other nuns in some contemplative orders. Some of the nuns in the book had such beautiful ministries of spiritual direction (of sorts) to their visitors during their parlor time. I loved how many of the nuns in the book still used their intellectual gifts of writing, music, art, languages, etc. while living away from the world. The book jacket said that Godden spent three years writing this book and she lived in the gatehouse of a Benedictine Abbey very much like the fictional Brede and spent a lot of time with the nuns, so I suppose it is a fairly accurate portrayal.

Another thing I found very interesting was the book's portrayal of the Church in the 1960s with the changes of Vatican II. The story begins in the 50s ends at some point short of 1969, when the book was published. It is fascinating to experience the changes of that era from the viewpoint of cloistered Benedictine nuns. It made me sad to think of all the women in other orders who entered religious life with certain expectations, only to have them turned upside down by reformers who were interpreting the documents of the council in a particular way.

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