Written by Mother Mary Francis, PCC

Published by Ignatius 2001, paperback, 229 pages.

Can life really be “merry” inside a Poor Clare cloister? This happy book reveals the challenges, cares and joys of that cloistered life from an “insiders” view.

No one who has not lived in a cloister can fully understand just how intertwined are the lives of cloistered nuns. Their hearts may be wide as the universe and bottomless as eternity, but the practical details of their living are box up into the small area within the enclosure walls.

As Mother Mary Francis points out, they have “as great a right to be merry as any lady in the world”.