I dont know why I was given the desire - at the age of eight - to be a (traditional) Benedictine nun when God was at that exact moment allowing, through His mysterious permissive will, all the Benedictine communities to catch the terrible Modernist disease... but I do know that the desire has never entirely disappeared. Its been forty years, and if there had been something like this when I was in my 20s, I would not be here today. But I can tell you that, of all the well-known celebrity Catholics I met in Rome, the most joyful meeting was with the superior of this community, who was standing with her companion on the steps of Ssma. Trinita one evening waiting to get in to the afternoon Mass. The doors were shut, so we chatted. I told her that I had always wanted to be in a Benedictine house, but that the timing was wrong and it was impossible. She responded by teaching me, and singing with me, one of the Office hymns for Vespers. Later they came out to dinner with us. It was wonderful, though it almost makes me cry to think of it now. youtu.be/0hPgVRZeEvY
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 21:36:09 +0000