Extract from her
autobiography
"It
was while my mother was reading aloud by the fireside that I had my
first distinct experience of God. The story was called ‘Pearl’s
Secret’. It was about a little girl who died, set in China.
The child had copied out the first verse of Isaiah 43 just before
she was taken ill and that night we learned it by heart. “Thus
saith the Lord, fear not; I have redeemed thee, I have called thee
by name; thou art mine.”
I, probably aged six, did not understand the word redeemed, but the
last two phrases seemed clear and simple. I went straight up to the
room where we slept and I knelt down. “My name is Patricia,”
I said, “and if you are really calling me I want to come and
be yours.”
I cannot remember any clear result except that, next morning I ran
out into the garden and looked up into the hollyhocks, which were
much taller than me and thought how exquisitely beautiful they were.
It is my first memory of consciously noticing beauty and surely this
was to have been expected. I had, in a new way, became God’s
child; I had been accepted into the realm of beauty. "
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