The strongly felt need for spirituality in our time, which “only a return to the purest Christian roots can satisfy”, was already demonstrated by the success of the TV programme “The Monastery”, transmitted by the BBC in May last year. It will now be confirmed by a new series along similar lines called “The Convent”. In the programme, due to be broadcast this spring, four women shared for six weeks the life of the convent of the Poor Clares at Arundel in the South of England. According to a BBC spokesman, the four lay volunteers, “although they found the religious life of the convent rather tiring, were able to experience a unique witness of love and of faith that left a deep impression on them and they were very sad when the moment to take their leave came”. The community of the Poor Clares in Arundel was founded by ten nuns in 1886. Today the community consists of 23. They get up at five in the morning, and spend the day in prayer and in work. One Sister paints icons, another is a woodcarver, others make lace or work with wax. According to John Blake, executive producer of “The Convent”, the aim of the programme was to show the impact of a traditional religious life on some women of our time. “Our four volunteers he said had various reasons for wishing to take part, in particular rediscovering their own relation with God and beginning to know themselves better”.
