Well, I don`t know whether the series ended with a whimper or with a bang !
I did find it very satisfying, though possibly most non-church folk might have found it rather tame...............
The "particular friendship" between Angela, the high-achiever and Victoria the atheist poet finally became a bone of contention with the nuns, who felt it was being unhelpful to the two concerned to spend all their free time solely in each other`s company, and also to the other two women.
We saw a fascinating meeting of the nuns, the result of which was that Angela and Victoria were confronted by one of the nuns who said they felt that although the two were enjoying being together, it was hindering their spiritual journey intended to take place in relative quiet and solitude, and that the two were excluding Iona and Debi by their particular friendship. They hotly denied this, but Debi bravely spoke up and said that she did indeed feel lonely and excluded by their actions.
I do think the nuns could perhaps have spoken about this much earlier than the last ten days, for it to have had more effect, though. Angela and Victoria were vehementally vocal and indignant on the "diary camera" about this, but did moderate their friendship somewhat, and guess what, that is when they began to make some progress.............
The nuns also spoke of how difficult they had sometimes found the experiment, with their home being taken over by women, some of whom quite often made no attempt to take on board the beliefs and values held so dearly by the nuns, nor to abide by the rules designed for the smooth and harmonious running of the Convent.
Iona the free spirit singer who had found it so very hard to deal with the structured day and services, began to see the immense value in sticking to something you may not always want to do or find conducive, and told of feeling that she needed to worship God even if she didn`t feel like it.
Debi, who had struggled so bravely with issues of her abandonment as a child by her mother, and her subsequent feelings of worthlessness, finally was able to forgive her mother, and come to terms with what had happened, and felt able to go up for a blessing during the daily Mass with a free heart.
Angela, after initially picking a quarrel with Debi over her previous refusal to go for a blessing whilst Debi had such anger and resentment in her heart, found that she needed to live in the present, to stop judging everyone else and their progresss by her own workaholic "must achieve" standards, and decided to stop wasting time doing things of no value and spend more time with her parents whilst she still had the chance to do so.
Victoria also found comfort and stability in the routine, and accepted that she did now believe in a Supreme Being, though not necessarily the God the Poor Clare nuns believed in. She also said how much she loved her husband, and spoke of her dream to live with him in the country, and have a settled life with some children.
They all spoke so lovingly and warmly of all the Sisters, whose unconditional - but sometimes tough-love - for them was so obvious.
I really enjoyed it. I hope it gets to you soon, Ian !
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