Just a very special thank you to you all for your support and prayers. I’m settling in well and am looking forward to this New Year with hope and faith in Jesus to guide me through all the challenges of community life.

We are holding you all in prayer.

Happy New Year.

The above link is from a Christian program here in the UK who after the Daily Mail article wanted to feature me on their program and it came out very well. I feel it has balanced out the ’sensationalism’ of the Daily Mail article and I hope you will enjoy it.

God bless. Katie. x

And, Mary, in the UK we do use ‘phased’ for ‘fazed’ and although I consider myself quite far from illiterate I honestly didn’t know it was improper to refer to a single individual as entering her novitiate and I’m interested in that kind of thing so a writer on the Daily Mail or, indeed, most newspapers would only know that by sheer fluke.

All in all, I’m happy for Katie and will pray for her and as I go to Walsingham a lot I may even meet her one day! It was in Walsingham that my bishop gave me the green light to start on the road to becoming a nun so it’s a specia place for me.

A few of you have commented on the writing style of the article. It’s difficult to say exactly how the article was put together. The byline is Katie’s so this is a first-person account. So it’s important to keep in mind that Katie is not a professional writer or journalist; rather she is describing a very personal journey. I think she’s got a lot of guts and am proud of her for talking about her life. Katie is also not a Catholic sister yet and so she might not have all the correct words to adequately describe her experience. (I remember in 8th grade giving what I thought was a compelling presentation on the League of Nations and the importance of the city of Geneva which I pronounced repeatedly as “GEN-eva”.) You’ll also notice at the end of the article it says “INTERVIEW by Paula Robinson” which indicates to me that Katie was probably asked a bunch of questions and not necessarily the “author” of the article. It’s probably that the article was thought up by Robinson who then interviewed Katie with a certain set of questions and then edited by Robinson. Having been interviewed like this myself, I am very aware that what I say is not always represented in full or in the way that I said it. No malice on anyone’s part, but it can lead to some odd images or characterizations. You’ll notice a very different style of writing if you read Katie’s story on the Sisters’ website (link above).

God does indeed work in strange and marvel-filled ways. God is full of mercy and compassion and sees into our hearts in ways that we ourselves cannot see. I’ve learned to always honor people, to see them as God sees them, even when I myself can’t figure out where a person is coming from.

As for the story–did anyone else find the story of the “model” in a full traditional habit that she will NOT be wearing to be a little gratuitous? I also thought it bizarre that they interspersed links to stories about “conical bras” and “Holly’s drunken violence” into this article…. Odd placement, to say the least.

She seems like a silly girl who did stupid things for a long time and is now simply doing one more impulsive thing.

Am I the only person wondering why someone with an Engineering degree would opt to move from an Engineering job to flight attendant?

*Sigh*. It’s kind of like, what do you expect – it is a tabloid after all. Still, you don’t know what effect the article might have on someone.

x M.