āāFound ur blog thru Instagram. I'm a religious sister. While my community is not a cult, we are far from perfect. Your writing helped me put words 2 my own experience--which has been majorly messed up from time to time. I saw 3/5 of my canonical novitiate leave (2 treated 4 major depression.) I entered post grad school, at 26. I'd been an adult & managed things on my own "BC".
Once āinsideā, I was treated like a child. Now, Iām going thru therapy to be an adult (again). Thx for naming the gifts ur nun life gave u. Ironically, Iām in NYC now. Iāll wave to St. Paulās the next time Iām up that way.Ā
Hi Anonymous,Ā So sorry for the delay & I cannot find a way to respond to you other than this way. It does not allow me to message you backā¦they change this platform all the time. Anyway, I also cannot tell when you sent this and did not get any kind of notification that you had written, but thank you for sharing your experience with me and for connecting. So, you are still a religious, but just in therapy to learn how to manage or merge being an adult in religious life? I get that. I am sorry to hear about your classmates as well. I knew personally many dear friends/sisters who suffered a lot inside, left with depression and had to struggle to regain their confidence and peace outside. Granted, not everyone who enters is emotionally healthy to begin with, but I do think that various ways of the lifestyle could be damaging to someone who already has those tendencies of depression.
Iām happy to hear you are in NY and yes, please step into St. Pauls and take a look at it on the inside! Itās truly a gorgeous church! Thank you for saying that - I hold many, many fond memories of sweet times with the people there.
Feel free to share my name and posts with any friends you may know. I am always happy to listen, share and in anyway hold space for anyone either on the inside or outside.
Thanks, Anonymous & stay warm over there! :)
