false 5 0 false false Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 1972 Mon Mar 09 07:52:25 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 09 08:02:43 -0700 2009 twice Philippa Talbot enters the Abbey of Brede when she is successful, at the peak of her career, all her friends are astounded, but for her the life that she had led was simply not enough. Yes, she chooses to leave all her worldly possessions in pursuit of a life as a Cloistered Benedictine nun. When she knocks on the door of the Abbey of Brede and tells the Mother Abbess, “I wish to try my vocation as a Benedictine nun in this house of Brede,” that is when the real story begins.
This novel with its many characters can be recognized as one of the most realistic explorations of religious life in literature. So much goes on behind those Abbey walls, but always within a framework of prayer, sacrifice, and love. Prayer, sung prayer in choir and personal prayer alone. Prayer says one of the nuns “Is our craft. . . . The craft of a contemplative religious, and as a good workman, an artist, loves his craft, we must delight in ours.” The nuns all find solace and peace in their devotion to continual prayer. Their special calling is to honor God through prayer, and to change the world by doing so. What was touching for me is that lay people could ask the nuns to intercede for them during their times of need.
Sacrifice - when you are thrown in the midst of so many nuns, there are so many different ‘sacrifices’ that are expected from you, Dame Agnes, for example resents Dame Philippa for her superior learning, Dame Agnes also resents her rival the poet Dame Veronica. So many emotions, jealousies, loneliness and rancor plague the lives of the fellow “sisters.” The life of a cloistered Benedictine nun is in no way the quiet oasis that many fantasize cloistered life to be.
Love - becoming a nun means that you are in the midst of women from very different backgrounds, who you are not related to and you have to love them. Love is not naturally innate. Indeed, as a nun, love towards the other sisters is a sacrifice and gift that requires the grace of God. But by continuous prayer, sacrifice, the thought of others before self, that at the end, Philippa learns to love each of the sisters equally, cherishing their many different foibles and their different natures. However, just like in a marriage in which there are times when it is so very difficult to love one’s spouse, In This House of Brede illustrates that it is equally difficult to find the will to love in a cloister.
This beautiful book emphasizes that what one does with ones own life is your personal choice, the choice aided by God. Thus, although we might want our lives to be one way, our Lord might have something entirely different in mind for us – perhaps more beautiful- but He will give us the strength and his love to do it.
On a personal note, I know that sometimes we yearn for some thing, it could be a person, it could be a job and we pray for it with all our heart. We do “achieve this thing” but many times it turns out to be truly unsuitable for us, but always God with his infinite capacity for Love helps us through this difficult time of our lives.
On a personal note, I know that sometimes we yearn for some thing, it could be a person, it could be a job and we pray for it with all our heart. We do “achieve this thing” but many times it turns out to be truly unsuitable for us, but always God with his infinite capacity for Love helps us through this difficult time of our lives.





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