Sr Maria remains something of a mystery to me. I can find nothing of her background, so the only information I have is of her time in Community. Even that is not as complete as it could be; for some reason, we do not have the year of her Profession recorded. All I know is that it was on the feast of the Annunciation (March 25th), at some point between 1872 and 1876. But this in itself is interesting, given her age at the time. Born in 1811, Maria Jones would have been the o

As I write, it is the anniversary of Sr Winifred’s death. In worldly terms, her legacy was not huge; she left no will, and had no money to bequeath. Her main physical legacy was the jotters that she used to make up to sell for charity. She had many of these left after her death, notepads of paper offcuts, glued together, which she had not yet put cardboard covers on. Despite having died over ten years ago, some of this legacy still remains to us. I brought some to Norwich wit

He was seen in the heart of this place of worship; this man who had been stirring up controversy wherever he went, diverting people from...

For the last few years of her life, Clara Louisa Latter was an Associate of our Community; I mentioned this in a blog back in April. Clara was the oldest daughter of William and Clara Latter. She seems to have remained in the family home in Belmont Hill after her father’s death in 1884; she died in October 1907, and her newspaper notice of her death refers to her many years of patient suffering. This does imply that for most of her time as an Associate she would not have been

“I am the God of your ancestors” it says in scripture, “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. This hasn’t really had much direct impact...

Labelling people by their occupation or apparent status in life can be very easy, but it can also falsely limit our understanding of them. Sr Rosanna’s story is a case where the usual labels do not fit. The distinction between lay and choir Sisters goes back to our foundations, as far as I am aware, and was ended in the 1940s. It is not always easy to work out why a Sister became lay or choir, though; there is some class distinction, but this is not always definite. Many choi

While reading through the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, I was struck by the way the story of David is told. In his earlier years, David would ask God ‘should I do such and such?’: ‘shall I go down and attack the Amalekites?’, for instance. Later on, once he became king, this seems to stop. It isn’t that his faith is any less; his response to the prophet Nathan shows that it isn’t (see 2 Samuel 12:13). But his instinctive asking of God before acting seems to lessen. Now, I am only

There are verses in the bible that one often passes over; they do not seem directly relevant to us, or to our times; yet, sometimes, these verses jump out, and you realise how pertinent they actually are. Read John 12:37-43. That last verse refers to people who believed in Jesus, but would not come out and say so publicly: they loved the praise of people more than the praise of God. Not relevant to us, right? It was those in Jesus’ time who were scared of being put out of the

Investigating the past can leave you with more questions than answers: sometimes, it points up a lack of wider historical knowledge; at others, it is just lack of information, or information that doesn’t quite fit. You cannot be entirely certain as to the facts. Was this particular person, with this name, the one I am looking for? The existence of people of the same age and same name confuses the research, without additional information to confirm which one you have found. In

Ascension Day always falls on a Thursday; when I joined the Community, the days in between Ascension and Pentecost (ten days later) focussed on the coming of the Holy Spirit. This seemed totally logical to me, but many of the Sisters very much missed the former way of celebrating, where those days were a continuation of the celebration of the Ascension, followed by Pentecost, of which an Octave was kept (eight days celebrating, in this case, the Holy Spirit). I’ve always kind

More and more mothers were arriving with their children; some were quiet or shy, hiding behind their parents. Others were bolder, running...

There are many lives that touch the Community’s, some briefly, some not so brief; some of these people we know a little, some are well-known. Many others are undiscovered, even undocumented. However, the ten-yearly census gives us the names of those who were living in our houses on that date. This includes some women who were listed as ‘Sister of Mercy’, but of whom we have no other information. These women would have been Novices, who didn’t stay; the Census doesn’t distingu

It can be very frustrating when you are blocked from seeing; those of us who are short will more than likely know this well. So I do have...

I wonder how accurate a picture we have of Jesus? there is that phrase ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’; is that how we see him? Yet an honest read through the gospels shows Jesus at times being anything but mild. For instance, read though Luke chapters 11-13. Do we truly take on board every part of this passage? There is the teaching on the Lord’s Prayer (11:1-13), the lamp (11:33-36) and the ravens and the lily (12:22-31), all of which might be quite well-known. But what of th

Looking through an old book of Associates from our Archive, I was struck by the number of recognisable surnames. This wasn’t an extensive exercise, as I was primarily looking for information on Lucy Hansell and Theophila Coyte, and there was more information on Theophila to be discovered elsewhere. But, still, along the way I found a number of interesting links. A few Associates had themselves later become Sisters: Mary Emma Mombert, admitted as a Sister Associate in 1901, wa

One of the problems of researching the background of our Sisters is those who were born abroad, which was more common than you might initially think. M. Adele was born in Switzerland; the first Sr Margaret in Canada; and Sr Eileen in Malacca (Malaysia). In none of these cases can I find anything about their background. Another issue can be if my system for recording which Sisters I have written about breaks down, and am therefore in danger of telling you the story of the same

‘May it be to me according to your word’, says Mary when Gabriel greets her with the news of her pregnancy (Luke 1:26-38). At this point,...

A was very proud of its role at the head of the Alphabet. It obviously meant that it was better than all the other letters and had an...

There are times that come when there is nothing to write about; I have a couple of ideas, that do not flourish. Moreover, I am busier...

How much do you need to give up? The rich young man in Mark’s gospel (see chapter 10) is asked to give up everything he owns. Sell all he...