by Susan Mattern | | Christmas Eve, Convent, Life, The Bell Tower
“Time for bed, postulants! It’s 7:30!” Sister Miriam’s scratchy voice penetrated the walls of the study hall. It was Christmas Eve, and all of us first-year nuns, called postulants, had been sitting obediently at our desks. Suddenly, we were...
by Susan Mattern | Dec 15, 2018 | Convent, Human Connection, Power of Music
Two hundred years ago, a parish priest in Germany struggled to write a musical accompaniment to a Christmas poem he had written. He had worked on it for a few years but wasn’t satisfied with it. On the morning of December 24th, he asked the music director at his...
by Susan Mattern | Aug 2, 2018 | Atheist, Catholic, Convent, Lack of faith, Religion, Virgins and Martyrs
When I was in the convent a long time ago, we had a lot of instruction periods about virgins and martyrs. I don’t know why the women who were martyred were mostly virgins – I guess mothers didn’t have much time to defend their faith. They were busy...
