Quid Retribuam Domino?

Extract

In an old number of ‘Punch', in those days a very anti- Catholic paper, there was a picture of a small child about five: ‘Gran'ma', she says, ‘please I want to be a nun'. ‘Good gracious, child, whatever has put such a dreadful idea into your head?’ ‘Well, you see, Gran'ma, I've found the world is very hollow; even my doll is stuffed with sawdust— so please, I should like to be a nun.’

This early Victorian idea of a nun has unfortunately not yet died out. To many, even now, she appears as a disappointed, not too happy creature, who has somehow lost her way in the world. Many, even good Catholics who are ready to admire the active Orders who teach and nurse (God bless them!) regard the life of an enclosed contemplative religious as ‘pure waste of life', and do not hesitate to say so. This attitude, we hope, is the result of ignorance rather than of malice. They do not know anything about it, still less do they understand. They do not understand the distinction between a career and a vocation.