Maria by Maria von Trapp. (borrowed from the parish library.) This is different from The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, also by Maria von Trapp. The latter covers just the period of her meeting the von Trapps to her first few years in America. The book I am reading now starts with her childhood and ends ... well, I am not there yet.
Here she is arriving at the convent-just weeks after her reconversion to Catholicism, and determined to give her life back to God in thanks for what He has done for her.
... in came a small frail nun with ... the kindest eyes that have ever looked at me.
After searching for a moment, a very dear voice said, "What can I do for you, my child?"
Now here I was straight from the glaciers, brown as milk chocolate. Over my left shoulder I still had the coil of ropes. On my back I had a very heavy knapsack. In my right hand I had an ice pick with which I stood like Napoleon, pronouncing, "I have come to stay!"
The meek and mild voice inquired, "Has somebody sent you, my child?"
I reared up to my five feet seven and a half inches and said, "Ha, if anybody had sent me, I wouldn't be here. I haven't obeyed anybody yet."
Oremus pro invicem!
4 comments:
I didn't realize Maria von Trapp converted to Catholicism. I tended to think this book was a favorite of even non-Catholic Christians, so I assumed she was Protestant.
TS- Welcome home!
She was basically an orphan for most of her childhood. She grew up Catholic until she came under the wing of a new guardian at about the age of 9 or 10. This new guardian was a committed socialist and atheist. Although she suffered much under him and never liked him, she did lose the faith under his watch and only regained it in her last few weeks of college. Then she was the most committed of Catholics the rest of her life. In fact, if you read the story of the Trapp Family Singers, you could almost rename it(or at least the first half) "Catholic Culture in Europe in the mid-twentieth century", in that it details so many customs and practices. The theme of both books is doing the will of God. Much of this is lost in the movie-and in fact Maria vonTrapp was not a fan of the movie at all.
I need to post her thoughts upon recieving her 1st Holy Communion as a child.
Cheers!
Interesting! I had no idea. I didn't know she'd lost her faith or wasn't a fan of the movie.
Here I thought the movie was friendly to the faith and was about doing the will of God, though perhaps it wasn't overly explicit. The sisters seem to be portrayed mostly favorably but the movie must be far different from the book for her to not be a fan of the movie. Now I got to read the book!
Her problem with the movie had much to do with how her husband was portrayed as I recall and the fact that she was denied input into story revision.
True, I think Catholicism is pretty well protrayed in the movie, but not nearly as fully explored as in the book.
Funny that the movie only covers the first 120 pages of the book.
Post a Comment