Can someone please enlighten me on the process on becoming a nun? Not that I'm interested of course, but just curious.
I've heard of terms such as Noviciate and Final Vows and things of that nature but I would like to know more.
Can anyone help me please?
It varies from order to order, but in the Nun's story it went like this:
Postulent - 6 months (a beginner, does not yet wear the habit, studies the Holy Rule and covent life)
Novice - 2 years (wears the habit (with a white veil) & receives new name. First year does not leave the Mother House, begins the process of facing faults, curbing appetites & passions, achieving true humility, studies only religious materials. Second year may be allowed acedemic studies.
At the end of the two years as a novice, chages from the white to a black veil, while making a vow of obidience for 3 years. Many will continue acedemic studies.
At the end of 3 years, those that have perservered will take lifetime final vows.
Hope this helps!
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: that highly disciplined life is not meant to be for all women. Nuns (and monks) are spiritual Marines. It is a special kind of holy service. I mean, you see it in the film, Sr. Luke decides to leave the convent because the requirements and discipline are, for her, getting in the way of her ability to heal people. Her true calling was to be a nurse and that was her true holy service, but she could do it better as a civilian than as a nun.
You've got me?! Who's got you?!
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Genesis aside (and keeping in mind that took place in a much different time period), I'm aware that in Victorian times, women who didn't want marriage or kids were incarcerated in madhouses for "moral insanity". That was an actual diagnosis that could be applied to women who didn't conform to the cultural and religious standards of the period. Are you serious or did you just step out of a time machine?
You've got me?! Who's got you?!
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Locked up in an asylum for not wanting to get married or to have children? Imagine a scene like that in the film
shareSimplythebest79424;
I know many straight people who remain single and do not want children.
I guess that by your dictum, they are all abnormal. I guess you would be happier if they went through the multi-divorce mill?
Do not blame the Catholic or High Anglican Churches as you read like a bigot.
"What is TRUTH?"
I WANT AN ErJen1 SIGNATURE, ALSO.
Through my profession I have come to know several nuns from various orders and I can honestly say that none of them were running away from, hiding from or denying anything. Each of them joined their order because of their love for God and their wish to serve him completely, they are all lovely women with great a tremendous joy in their lives.
Just because you don't agree with something doesn't mean you can criticise others' beliefs and decisions.
The Long Walk stops every year, just once.
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That's if maternal feelings kick in, and they the soon-to-be nuns and nuns themselves doubt their vows
share"okay, but it's NOT normal to NOT want to get married and have children."
What a preposterously asinine thing to say or to believe. So the billions of people in this world who either don't marry or choose to be childfree are "abnormal???"
ROTFL! What a narrow and pathetic world in which you dwell.
It's a prolonged training, and at any time up until a nun takes her final vows, she can walk away. After she takes her final vow and is married to Christ (as was symbolized by receiving a wedding ring at her final vows), it becomes more difficult to just "walk away" -- it become a sort of divorce, where her vows are nullified by the Church's supreme authority, the Vatican.
While it varies from order to order, here are the basic steps that a woman goes through to join an order:
An aspirant has visited a convent, lived with them 2-4 weeks, and has developed an idea of convent life.
A postulant is basically a "kindergarten nun" -- learning the rules, learning the acceptable behaviors, the prayers, how to fit into a community. Postulants may find the struggle to adapt to the rigors of a religious life to not be for them or discover that this is not the way that their wish for service should be expressed, and can freely leave.
After they make it through the postulant stage, they enter a stage called the "novitiate", and are considered "novice" nuns, where their studies are more profound, and they become more a part of their community. This usually lasts about two years. During the postulancy and the novitiate, both the nun and the order are trying to determine if the nun has what it takes to become a fully professed nun.
After their novitiate, nuns make their "first profession" and enter the sisterhood, but still as "junior" members of the community. After 2-3 years, they are allowed to take their "final profession", make their final vow and they become full-fledged members of the community. After they take final vows, leaving the community is a much more complex process -- it's more of a divorce.
It's a long process, but it is considered life-time choice, often made at a time when a woman is young and idealistic. After almost 6 years, a woman has a good idea if she is suited to the spiritual and physical rigors of a religious life.