Following Jesus in rejecting empire
Ten years later. In the private dining room at the convent, Sister Shannon lifts a spoon of mashed potatoes mixed with a little beef broth to the mouth of Sister Mary Eunice. The woman yet wears the garb of a nun, but it is more wrinkled than she would have ever allowed in earlier years.…
A Christian’s allegiance to country, to the point of killing fellow Christians who are allied to their own countries, is nowhere more clear than in World War I. With the English cry of “God save the King,” raised up against Germans bearing, “Gott mit uns” (God with us) stamped upon their belt buckle, you wonder…
In front of the Friary that morning a commotion is underway. An ambulance cart is just pulling away from the grounds with Doctor Forsythe at the back next to the body of Mary Eunice. The brothers and children are all out on the lawn looking on with fascination and horror. “Brother, Doyle. Get these boys…
The night is cloudless and the moon bright. A distinct disadvantage when one is attempting a clandestine journey out of the country. But a nun’s vestments are a cloak of dark, and so Sister Mary Eunice and Magdalene are only shadows as they slip from the convent. Adrienne bears a more natural cloak with her…
Father Fitzpatrick wipes the sweat from Brother O’Brien’s forehead. He’s in a fevered delirium and has steadily worsened since the first signs of illness bound him to his bed. The boys are quiet tonight. No banter now that their mate Eric lies convalescing alongside Brother O’Brien in his room. The troubled shouts of the Brother…