![]() ![]() ![]() In the book we follow her career from postulant to taking her final vows, which bestows on her the title of Dame Philippa. At mid life she discovers a vocation to join a cloistered order of nuns. Her husband died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, and we discover much later that she is also a bereaved mother. The story begins in the mid 1950s and the main character is Philippa Talbot, a forty year old senior civil servant, apparently in something like the Treasury. The monetary is a kind of spiritual power station, generating praise, thanksgiving, and intercessions for those in need. Though they would appear cut off from the world, they are continually involved. Seven times a day, from Vigils at 4 am to Comline at 8.30 pm they chant the daily office in Latin, praying for their community, for the world, and for people outside who have asked their intercessions. If prayer were an Olympic event, the nuns at Brede would be gold medalists. I felt so deeply immersed in Benedictine spirituality that when I looked out my front window I almost expected to see a cloister. This was the perfect read for self-isolating, a story of women monastics. ![]()
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