In one of last year’s blogs, I mentioned that the first Advent I was in Norwich everywhere seemed to be playing ‘Rudolf the Red-nosed...

Ascension Day 1869 would have been one of great rejoicing in our Community, for it was the day a Sister made her vows. Not only was Sr...

Determination Quite what the motivation of the rich ruler was in asking how he could attain eternal life, we don’t know; but it obviously...

Sixty Years. Christmas is always a season to celebrate, but for William and Hannah Drew the 25th December had extra resonance as the day they married in 1858; their oldest daughter, Clara, was born two years later. A Norfolk family, during the 1860s, they moved from Sprowston to Calvert Street, off Colegate in Norwich. For some reason, the family don’t seem to have attended either of the two churches on Colegate, St George’s and St Clement’s, but St James, Pockthorpe (now the

Where is your home? As the youngest of Matthias and Margaret Edge’s six children, Ann must have grown used to her siblings being away from home. Matthias was a solicitor, based in Ormskirk, Lancashire and at the 1851 Census only 3 of the children are at home with their parents: Jane, aged 16, Robert, aged 12 and Ann, only 6. Agnes, the oldest, was staying with friends in Liverpool, and Margaret, aged 10, was at school. I haven’t discovered where William, the oldest son, was.

Saintly? I have had a fondness for St Teresa of Avila, ever since I discovered that she was born on the same date as me (although I suppose in theory I was born on the same date as her, given that she preceded me by a few hundred years). Teresa did exhibit some of the stranger forms of sainthood, such as levitation (a gift I would find useful sitting in cold churches, given that hot air rises. I have a vision of us all bobbing around in the air at the required level of heat …

Last week’s Blog nearly never made it; it was all written, when my laptop decided not to connect to the internet, and while I know there are ways that my phone can connect to documents on my laptop, I hadn’t investigated them. However, sheer stubbornness saw me through, and I got it over to Bungay for uploading to our website. Wednesday saw me going over to Bungay, via a less technological route, so our secretary could examine why the internet connection wasn’t there. (She su

There were many different types of work that a newcomer might be given on joining the Community. However, Sr Winifred has entered...

Coincidences do happen, so when I saw that we had two Sisters with the same surname, I wondered vaguely if they could be related, but...

Convents are peaceful places, right? Full of prayer, and Sisters who love each other, and a sense of peace that hits you as soon as you walk through the door. Well, it’s probable that for visitors that last one might be true; and, to be fair, most Sisters probably do love each other and they do pray. But a moment’s thought might tell you that all that does not necessarily add up to Convents being peaceful for those who live there. Just take any number of women (say, between

‘Who do you say I am?’ queries Jesus to his disciples; their answer, while being totally accurate, was also wrong. For the vision of the...

Charles Cousins, a Commercial Traveller employed to sell the products of his company, married a widow, Emma Osmund Moore, in 1849 at St Martin in the Fields, and by 1861 they were living in Camberwell, with their seven children: Emma Anne, aged 10, Charles, aged 9, Ada Lydia, aged 8, Walter Stephen, aged 5, Frederick Sydney, aged 2, and twins Elizabeth Caroline and Edward, aged 4 months. Unfortunately for both Charles and the children, Emma Osmund Cousins died in 1867, aged 4

‘Blessed are the poor’ says Jesus in Luke 6; yet I wonder how many people today feel blessed because they are poor, in a time when it is...

Sometimes, researching the past leaves me with more questions than it finds. Take Sr Agnes as an example. Sr Violet had told me, years ago, that there had been an early Sister who was at the Orphanage before joining the Community. So when I saw Agnes Bellis as a pupil at the Orphanage in the 1901 Census, I knew I had found her. She died in 1968, so Sr Violet would have known her. What this didn’t tell me is why Agnes was at the Orphanage in the first place. She could have bee

Do you? The two greatest commandments in the law are that to love the Lord your God with all heart and all your soul and all your mind...

Sr Harriet was a widow, which makes finding her background more complicated. In addition, she was born in Ireland, so may or may not appear in the English census before she joined the Community, depending on when she came over here. However, I like a challenge - although, to be honest, that depends very much on the nature of the challenge; but I like this sort of challenge. I have found some information, although I cannot be one hundred percent sure that it is correct, or tha

I was back in the Convent Chapel last week; realising how much I had gained from that space, but also that I had let it go and moved on...

Where would Jesus be? I couldn’t help pondering that question as I watched some of the Norwich Pride parade. It was a colourful scene,...

What would it be like if we could call down fire from heaven whenever we felt like it? (see Luke 9:51-56). Every time someone irritated...

It is the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price, that you would give everything you own to possess. Yet not everyone...