Sandra Heska King

daring to open doors

  • Home
  • About
  • DISCLOSURES
    • Amazon Affiliate
    • Book Reviews
  • Published
  • Contact
  • Blog
    • Commit Poetry
    • Dared

FIRST WORDS FRIDAY: WEEK 10 – 2019 – THE NUN’S STORY

March 9, 2019 By Sandra Heska King

The Nun's Story

The Nun’s Story by Kathryn C. Hulme, copyright 1956, was a Book of the Month Club selection that reached #1 on the New York Times best-seller list. My friend’s dad, who was our mailman, tucked it in our mailbox addressed to my great-grandmother. I read her books–maybe not when I was 7, but a little older. This was the book that inspired me to be a nurse--specifically a missionary nurse–in Africa. Kenya, to be exact, though Sister Luke served in the Congo. Maybe I was confused by the “K” sound. We once sponsored a Compassion child from Kenya until she moved out of the program area. So far, that’s the closest I’ve gotten to Africa. I did become a nurse and did do some mission work–though not as a nurse.

I also thought I might become a nun–which was interesting since I didn’t grow up Catholic. Well, my mom did, but my dad was Lutheran–so they were married by an Episcopalian. So goes the family story. But my great-aunt was a nun–a teacher in New York–and she wore the black habit. She came to visit once, and we picked her up at a train station. My mom said I exclaimed, “Mom! Look at all the penguins!” That was the only time I met her, but I often wrote to her, and she wrote back. She could only write at Christmas and Easter, but once she got special permission from her Mother Superior because I had written a particularly long letter inspired by Jo from the Little Women. Aunt Emma could not stay with us as she had to stay at a local convent. But Mom cooked for her. I forget what she made, but she accidentally poured rum (instead of what she was reaching for) into the dish. The rum was some my great-grandmother, Aunt Emma’s sister, was saving for a fruitcake. Mom was mortified that she might have sent Aunt Emma back to the convent with alcohol on her breath. Aunt Emma never breathed a word

Anyway…

The editor of The Atlantic Monthly wrote this on the front jacket cover:

“In many of us the need cries out for more privacy, for a less distracted, more dedicated life than circumstances permit. This need for inner renewal so beautifully certified by Mrs. Lindbergh’s Gift From the Sea is now illuminated for us by a new witness, The Nun’s Story by Kathryn Hulme . . . To read The Nun’s Story is to be brought within the radiance of a noble, deeply felt experience.”

Hulme wrote the book based on the experiences of a friend who immigrated to the United States. Hulme sponsored her.



First words from The Nun’s Story – chapter 1

The short black cape hooked at the neck and dropped without flare to the middle of the forearms. it was odd to be thinking about Lourdes as she put it on, as though that recent experience had had something decisive to do with her choosing the religious life.

She bent her elbows and brought her hands together beneath the cape. It was a practice garment of sorts, to be replaced by the nun’s robe after the six months’ postulancy, after her hands would have learned to stay still and out of sight except when needed for nursing or for prayer.

Forty other young women, mainly Belgian like herself, with a few English and Irish girls, stood with Gabrielle Van der Mal in the anteroom to the cloister, putting on similar capes but taking more time about it, especially some red-knuckled girls from farms who seemed to be searching through the folds of their capes for sleeves.

Lourdes, she though, I’m not that impressionable. But quite suddenly she was riding again in the hospital train that made the annual pilgrimage, the only lay student nurse from the training school chosen by Sister William to help escort the convoy of bedridden patients from Belgium. The faith of the prostrate pilgrims that they would survive the journey, and, moreover, return from there cured, frightened her. Her pulse-readings, her diagnostic eyes, even her nostrils that knew the smell of death told her that some could not possibly live until Lourdes and she ran to Sister William crying, Fevers, blood-spitting, cancers advanced to screaming stage and not a sound out of any of them except crazy hopes; I’ve got three in the car who should be receiving last rites this very instant, Sister. And Sister William had stopped her with a look. No one will die en route, my child, they never do, she said. I’ve taught you many things, Gabrielle, but what you are soon to see is beyond my competence to describe or prepare you for. Now say a Pater for having called faith a crazy hope and go back to your duties.

Have you read The Nun’s Story?
What did you want to be when you grew up?

Did you?
Have you ever had any crazy hopes?

Share this:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: Blog, First Words Friday

Comments

  1. Martha J Orlando says

    March 9, 2019 at 3:47 pm

    Wow, Sandra, another wonderful book to put on my wish list. Can’t believe I’ve never even heard of it before. Thanks, as always, for these “first words.”
    Blessings!

    • Sandra Heska King says

      March 18, 2019 at 10:00 am

      Martha… There’s a movie, too. With Audrey Hepburn. 🙂

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Meet Sandra

I’m Sandra, a camera-toting, recovering doer who’s learning to be. still. Read more…

Get updates from the stillness by email

Your personal information is safe and will never be shared.

Archives

Categories

Instagram Inspiration

sandraheskaking

Happy first day of fall from my backyard to yours. Happy first day of fall from my backyard to yours.
Just another backyard photo… Just another backyard photo…
From my backyard tonight. From my backyard tonight.
Just another sunset. Just another sunset.
“I would like people to remember of me, how inex “I would like people to remember of me, how inexhaustible was her mindfulness.” ~ Mary Oliver in “ A Little Ado About This and That.”
Current situation. Current situation.
“This spark of life that wavest wings of gold” “This spark of life that wavest wings of gold” ~ Thomas Wentworth Higginson in “Ode to a Butterfly”
🦋
We pulled all the milkweed because it just could not support all the caterpillars. They were eating it bare and most of them died because they ran out of food. This one butterfly found this one lone volunteer.
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright futur "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." ~ E.B. White (as quoted on today's page in my Franklin Planner)
"May you experience each day as a sacred gift wove "May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder." ~ John O'Donohue in "For Presence" from To Bless the Space Between Us
🌴
Tri-colored heron stalking breakfast in my backyard.
“. . neighbor’s tree hangs heavy with mangoes “. .  neighbor’s tree hangs heavy with mangoes. They are moving in a week. They say a family from Belarus bought the house. I hope they don’t care much for mangoes.”
**
“Beautiful Sweet Things” at https://sandraheskaking.substack.com/
"People do not grow old. When they cease to grow t "People do not grow old. When they cease to grow they become old.” ~ Emerson

It's been a while since I've written anything on my blog. Like 3 years. But I just wrote my first post on Substack. Come see?

https://sandraheskaking.substack.com/p/ten-years-ten-things
Spent a couple hours this morning with friends fro Spent a couple hours this morning with friends from @spanishriverchurch picking up beach trash. Little bits of colored and clear plastic, big bits of plastic, bottle caps, broken glass, strings, ropes, straws, socks, fast food containers, paper, cigarette holders and filters—and a couple unmentionables. Took extra care around the turtle nests. Last count was about 70 pounds, but there were also some bigger things like an abandoned chair and a plastic tent. And a big piece of burlap or something with a fishing lure and giant hook attached. D found a Macy’s gift card that he almost tossed in his bucket. But we brought it home to check the balance—$24.60! We should be able to turn that into something useful for someone. 😊
H Already dead, I am living my afterlife here in t H
Already dead, I am
living my afterlife
here
in the form of a human.
~ Xueyan from Time Peels All to Original White

Thanks to @tspoetry for introducing me to this beautiful collection via an Every Day Poems selection.
The cats attacked the window all night. The dog wo The cats attacked the window all night. The dog woofed all night. This morning we discovered the would-be burglar imprisoned between the screen and the glass on our bedroom slider. 

When I stepped out to release it (no bail), I was surprised by this brief bit of backyard beauty.
For most of us, knowledge of our world comes large For most of us, knowledge of our world comes largely through sight, yet we look about with such unseeing eyes that we are partially blind. One way to open your eyes to unnoticed beauty is to ask yourself, "What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?" ~ Rachel Carson in The Sense of Wonder
#prayformsu #spartanstrong #spartannurse #michigan #prayformsu #spartanstrong #spartannurse #michiganstateuniversity
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faith Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. ~ Psalm 136:1
A tale of two iguanas... I did not see the iguana A tale of two iguanas... I did not see the iguana in the background until I downloaded the photos. That, I believe, is the one that got caught in one of the openings in the neighbor's chain link fence. We tried in several (safe) ways to dislodge it without luck and could think of no other option but to leave it. Somehow it apparently dislodged itself. We also believe this is the pair that was getting into another neighbor's garden. We haven't seen either one since the last cold snap, so we are wondering if they survived. 
🌱
Thinking some may have tumbled from their perches last night. Pretty sure it will be raining iguanas tonight since we are under a frost advisory. It's cold. And windy.
Just sing... sing a song... Singing our way into Just sing... sing a song... 

Singing our way into the weekend.
"We don't just see. We learn to see." ~ Russ Ramse "We don't just see. We learn to see." ~ Russ Ramsey in Rembrandt is in the Wind
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Get the Mug

Embrace the life you have t s poetry mug

Privacy Policy

Full privacy policy is available HERE.

I Read Light

TSP-Red button

bibledude-net



Sponsor a Child

Join the Compassion Blogger Network

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2023 Sandra Heska King · Site by The Willingham Enterprise, LLC on the Genesis Framework by StudioPress · Log in