In This House of Brede

by Rumer Godden

‘Don’t worry. We have you tucked in our sleeves,’

‘The nun you see rapt away in church isn’t likely to be the holiest. The holiest one is probably the one you would never notice because she is simply doing her duty.’

unmercifully prominent. An Abbess cannot lift a little finger but it is seen and marked by her nuns; she must lead, inspire, and every hour of the twenty-four hours of each day until she died, bear that awesome responsibility of souls and, in her own monastery, consent to be the representative of Christ.

When you are in trouble,’ Abbess Catherine told herself, ‘think of a bird caught under a net; the more it struggles and makes a flutter, the more it gets enmeshed; if it is still and looks about for a hole, keeping its strength, it has a chance of escape.’

‘prudently, lest, in seeking too eagerly to scrape off the rust, the vessel break. Remember that the bruised reed must not be broken.’

If a place has been filled with prayer, though it is empty something remains; a quiet, a steadiness,

‘Christus vincit, Christus regnat. Christus imperat’ with its three soft repeated cadences. ‘Christus vincit’ and, ‘Thank you,’ Philippa had whispered, ‘thank you for bringing me where I am,’ and, ‘even if You send me away, I shall be here for ever.’

This hits my heart! No matter where I go, there are a handful of places where part of me will be forever.

‘Listen; “… whoever you are, whatever you are, there is room for you in Him … the hearts of mortals will forsake you but the most faithful heart of Jesus will never deceive, will never abandon you.” Donald, and his new work and worries,’ wrote Philippa, ‘you with yours and new responsibilities, the baby and all your hopes for him, gather them all up and put them into that great heart, and go to sleep.’