Convent Life. ⛪️

                                                               Sister Loretto and Terry.

Precious time I spent with three Presentation Sisters will forever hold a very special place in my heart. I dwelled among them five days every week in their charming convent. I was their minder. 

Sister Loretto in early Alzheimer’s, Sister Ina elderly, Sister Agustine enduring cancer. I used to joke (half joking - fully in earnest 🤨) that my boys survived despite my cooking and not because of it, yet here I was cooking and keeping house for three dear ladies. Our God is a God of surprises.

The silence and prayerfulness of the convent balm to my aching spirit. In the Oratory each evening with Jesus, as the Sisters slept, painful memories would emerge mercilessly. However, with the passage of time in that Sacred Sacrosanct space they began to lose their paralysing power over me. The process of healing and restoration had begun. I began to feel whole again.

‘He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul’. (Psalm 23:2)

One Sunday lunchtime, December 2012, I noticed that Sr. Loretto was still in her bed. I knocked on her bedroom door and she told me she had a dreadful headache. Dashing to the kitchen, I made her a cup of coffee. Unable to sit up in bed, I placed my arm around her shoulders, holding her as she sipped her coffee. ‘I am parched’, she whispered, last words spoken in this world.

Sr. Loretto was just like Jesus on the Cross, both of them parched, both of them dying. I was heartbroken but so privileged to be in that sublime Sacred space. Dear Sr. Loretto passed away peacefully in hospital next day. I was allowed keep some of her books including her ‘well used’  Bible. I treasure them dearly.

Sr. Agustine died a year later. Sr. Ina moved to another convent and lived happily there until her death. 

Thankyou Father God for choosing me to mind your Sisters. You could have chosen one far superior in every way but you chose me. You didn’t just give me a better version of me, You gave me a new me and without a doubt my cooking skills improved too.

‘You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am’. (Psalm 139:3)

    

Sr. Loretto loved Terry dearly. He guarded his Sisters fiercely. Here he is, fast asleep having read the daily paper, cover to cover.😂

                                   Fixing Sr. Agustine’s blouse collar on her Golden Jubilee day.

             ‘Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will and being just what God wants us to be’.                            (The Little Flower)