Not long after I quit the BBC for the convent, a few of my former colleagues came around for tea and biscuits. So for a bit of craic, I wheeled the convent tea trolley into the parlour and did my best Mrs Doyle accent: “You will, you will, you will!” We all enjoyed the joke!…
I was led down the garden path the other day – at Knock Shrine of all places! There’s a new Creation Walk about to be launched on May 25. It’s a celebration of God’s grandeur, 30 signposts, each marked living word. It begins with The Birth of the Cosmos 13.8 billion years ago and the…
In my secondary school, we had a lovely English teacher called Sr Anna. To my 16-year-old self, Sr Anna, with grey wisps and translucent skin against a black veil, seemed at least 70. She was feisty though. And she was concerned for our teenage souls, often lacing our literary discussions with debates on morality. Except…
Let’s value the gift the Lord has given to women religious as Brides of Christ, writes Martina Purdy An Anglican minister met me recently, a lovely woman who was very frank about a complaint made to her by an Anglican nun. This sister was frustrated at the lack of vocations to her convent in England. …
Truth is no longer just the first casualty of war, it is the target, writes Martina Purdy Three little words, uttered by a politician, echo down the ages: “What is truth?” The question will be posed again at Good Friday services next week, the words of Pontius Pilate – a politician, who gets a…
There was no ‘Women’s History Month’ when I was growing up and I wasn’t oppressed, writes Martina Purdy I find myself identifying with a man: the Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman. Ironically, this self-identification began this month, with Women’s History Month (which flows from International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8, and inspired by German marxist,…