Religion
Even after leaving the convent and the sisters behind in order to become a wife to Georg and a mother to the seven beautiful children that she had grown extremely fond of during her time as their Governess over the summer of 1938, Maria still ensured that her religion had a place within her heart. The Reverend Mother had once made her realise that even if she was deeply in love with Georg it didn't mean that her love for God was weaker than it'd been when she had entered the convent as a shy eighteen-year-old and those words had helped her to see that she hadn't committed a sin by falling in love with the Captain.
Her new role as Baroness demanded a lot from her and she had more responsibilities than ever before, but even though the majority of her free time was taken up by spending time with her husband and their children she still made it a priority to get ready and attend Mass at the abbey every week and to go to Church every Sunday. Georg, bless his heart, supported her wholeheartedly with her religion despite the fact that he wasn't a religious man himself, and he – along with their children – would occasionally go to Church with her on a Sunday morning. Maria knew that her husband understood just how big a part of her her faith was, and it only made her adore him more to know that he supported her.
When the two of them had married nine months earlier he had been the one to suggest that they held the ceremony at Nonnberg Abbey, knowing how big a place the building had in her heart, and throughout their engagement he had understood when she had needed to escape from wedding planning for a few hours in order to simply go and sit in the chapel and reassure herself that she wasn't committing a sin by giving him her heart. She still prayed every evening before she would climb into bed beside him and she knew that he found joy in watching her kneel beside their bed with her hands clasped together.
As a child she hadn't had a religion. She and her parents had lived in a cabin far away from any church and when she had been forced to go and live with her Uncle she hadn't been allowed to leave the house unless it was to work out on the farm, and even then she had to be supervised at all times. She hadn't been allowed to go to school and she hadn't been able to have any friends; she had felt as though she'd had no-one. One day, however, her Uncle had left the front door unlocked by mistake and she had risked making her way down the mountain that his cabin was upon and climbing a tree in order to watch as the sisters made their way to vespers, her eyes wide with curiosity as she had sat in silence.
She had snuck out at every opportunity to go and listen to the sisters' beautiful voices filling the air as they'd sung, making certain that she climbed back down the tree and hurried home before her Uncle returned from work or the public house at the end of every afternoon. He had soon found out about her antics, however, and so on the day that she had turned eighteen he had dragged her out of the cabin by the wrist before forcing her into the car and driving her down to the abbey gates. He had then abandoned her at the side of the road with nothing but a carpet bag and the guitar that her father had given to her just weeks before his untimely demise before speeding off and never returning for her.
The Reverend Mother had taken her under her wing instantly and had given her a cell to sleep in, despite the fact that Maria hadn't yet decided to enter the religious life, and after a week of living within the convent walls and attending Lauds and Mass as the Reverend Mother had suggested in order for her to cope with all of the emotions that were burning within her from the years of horrific abuse that she had suffered, she had become a postulant and had been permitted to wear the robe that she'd worn every day until she had been sent to the von Trapp villa to work for the retired naval hero who was to become her beloved husband in due course.
It was the sound of the organ beginning to play the beautiful music that signalled the beginning of the closing hymn that brought her back to the present, a loving smile spreading across her lips as her husband squeezed her hand tenderly and she gazed up at him as the two of them made to stand with the congregation. As she began to sing along with her husband, children and others in the congregation something began to dawn on her.
It had been her religion that had given her the life she had only been permitted to dream about just a couple of years earlier, and she was never going to take her faith for granted.