This mornings’s Press gives an inspiring and welcome insight into the life of the Carmelite Sisters of Christchurch. The online Press page gives an interactive view at this link. The sisters own webpage also has some great interviews and videos including a “vintage” 1969 TV documentary.

Annunciation
A couple of thousand years ago, a young Jewish woman was going about her normal morning routines, perhaps with a mixture of house and garden work, chatting with parents and neighbours, aware of the local drought, the sickness of a neighbour and annoyed by the neighbourhood’s lack of sleep caused by the Romans’ noisy party the night before, when God broke into her routine and entered her life in a new and powerful way.
HOW ABSOLUTELY RIVETTING THE WALL DAMAGED IN THE QUAKE WHERE THOSE STATIONS OF THE CROSS STAND AS A PARALLEL TO WHAT CHRISTCHURCH SUFFERED NOT ONLY POSSESSIONS-WISE BUT IN AT THE DEEPEST LEVELS OF ITS PSYCHE.
i MUST ADMIT THAT WHEN I LIVED IN CHRISTCHURCH i ONCE WENT UP TO THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE FOOTPATH ON THE ROAD THAT ISN’T LINCOLN ROAD JUST TO SEE WHAT I COULD SEE OVER THE WALL. I SAW NOTHING MORE THAN WHAT THE PHOTOS SHOW!
Once when trying to get into the outsiders’ meeting room, i blundered in an a Sister who was talking to a visitor. Both ladies could not have been more gracious. But what bowled me over was how abuzz with holiness the room was.