Sixty Years Behind These Walls

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Sixty Years Behind These Walls — book cover

Sister Agnes — The Complete Collection

Both digital books, delivered to your email together:

Volume I — Sixty Years Behind These Walls · my life as a nun, told plainly
Volume II — The Convent Book of Prayers · the words for every hour of the day

~~$38~~$29Today

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Volume I

Sixty Years Behind These Walls

Why I entered at nineteen, the first year I wanted to leave, and the small daily order that has held my mind together ever since.

36 chapters · 150 pages

~~$34~~$19

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Volume II

The Convent Book of Prayers

The prayers as we actually say them — at the first bell, over the work, at the table, in fear, for the sick, and last thing before sleep.

120 prayers · every hour of the day

~~$34~~$19

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Volume I · A life, told plainly

Sixty Years Behind These Walls.

What a Convent Teaches You About Grief, Money, Loneliness and Growing Old.

I entered at nineteen and I have never written any of this down until now. The first year, when I packed my case twice. The winter we had no coal. The sister who taught me to grieve without drowning. How we lived on almost nothing and never felt poor. The hour of the day that keeps a mind steady, and the habit that let me sit with the dying without fear. Thirty-six short chapters. No sermon in any of them.

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First Edition36 chapters150 pages7-day money-back guarantee

Volume II · The words for every hour

The Convent Book of Prayers.

Not the Prayers in the Missal — the Ones We Actually Say.

Short, plain, and worn smooth by use. The offering at the first bell. A prayer for hands that are working. Grace as we say it at our table. Words for when the phone rings with bad news, for a sleepless night, for the sick, for the ones we have lost, and for the last candle before sleep. One hundred and twenty of them, arranged by the hour, so you always know which page to open.

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First Edition120 prayersBy the hour7-day money-back guarantee

From inside the walls

This is where the books were written.

Nothing on this page is staged. The chapel, the kitchen, the rosary on the table — this is an ordinary Tuesday, not a good one.

Rosary and prayer book on a wooden table — The table where I write, after the first bell.

Votive candles in the chapel — The candles. One is always for you.

Hands kneading bread dough — Tuesday bread. Enough for the week.

Sister Agnes in the chapel, speaking to the camera

A note from the author

“I wrote these so that what the sisters taught me would not leave with us.”

There were forty of us when I entered. There are six of us now, and I am not the youngest. The things we know — how to keep a day in order, how to sit with a dying woman, which words to say when there are no words — were never written anywhere. They were handed over at the sink, one sister to the next.

So I sat at the kitchen table after the first bell, every morning for a year, and I wrote them down. Not for nuns. For you — for a house with a phone that rings, and bills, and a night when sleep will not come.

These are not books about being holy. They are about being steady. That is the only thing I have ever been any good at.

Sister Agnes

A gift before you decide

Read the first chapter free.

Type your email and I'll send you the first chapter of Sixty Years Behind These Walls — the whole beginning, free. No spam. Just the chapter, and a line from me now and then.

Before you choose

Simple answers.

No subscription, no church membership, and no Latin required.

Which book should I start with?

If you want to know who is talking to you, start with Volume I — my life. If you want something to use tonight, start with Volume II — the prayers. The Collection gives you both for $29, which is $9 less than buying them separately.

Are these physical books?

They are digital — PDF, delivered to your email the minute you order. They read well on a phone or a tablet, and they print cleanly if you like to keep a book by the bed.

I'm not Catholic. Is this for me?

Yes. The prayers are plain English, not liturgy. Readers who have not set foot in a church in forty years write to me most often. Nobody is checking at the door.

Is this a book about religion?

It is a book about a life. There is faith in it because there was faith in the life — but the chapters are about grief, money, loneliness, work and growing old. You will not be preached at.

What if the books are not right for me?

Reply to your delivery email within seven days and you get every dollar back. No forms, no questions asked.

One decision, kept for life

The quiet is ready when you are.

Order now and both books are in your email before the kettle boils. Seven days to change your mind, every dollar back.

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Let the Quiet In.

Sister Agnes — The Complete Collection

Sixty Years Behind These Walls

The Convent Book of Prayers

7-Day Money-Back Guarantee

Sixty Years Behind These Walls.

What a Convent Teaches You About Grief, Money, Loneliness and Growing Old.

The Convent Book of Prayers.

Not the Prayers in the Missal — the Ones We Actually Say.

This is where the books were written.

Read the first chapter free.

Simple answers.

The quiet is ready when you are.