After watching this movie, I could never become a nun. I can understand letting go of personal possessions but, people too!?!? I could never let go of my feelings for my family and friends. I love them too much and letting go of feelings for them would be devastating.
shareNobody would expect that you stop loving your family and friends. A nun has to love God above all, and extend her love to all men, created in God's image. Even if you are in a complentative order, you can have visits. That's why monasteries have special talking parlors.
Not everybody is supposed to enter religious life, and even those who have a religious vocation cannot realize it in every congregation. Léonie Martin, sister to St. Thérèse, the "Little Flower", entered several convents, mostly of the Visitation order, only to leave shortly after. However, in the end, she found a new home in the same Carmelite convent her sisters were living in, too.
Thanks for the clairification. :)
shareHere here. I just saw this over the weekend. My mom asked me to rent it for one of her neighbors, she brought it back to my house (instead of putting it in the mail back to Netflix) and I'm glad she did because I really enjoyed it.
But back to the subject at hand, I completely agree about being a nun. Aside from the fact that I'm a man, I could never be that blindly loyal, that cold, that dedicated to a religon.
It's a shame because I (like the character) want to help people in life. But it's so hard because jobs that do that either pay crap, or you have to dedicate yourself to a religion to do so.
The religious life, whether it is a nun or priest, is one of complete service and union to Christ. They lose their identity willfully, in order to put others before themselves. In my opinion, they are a cut above the rest, because they give up everything in the world in order to follow Jesus. Sure there's the bad ones (priests who molest children) but they are a very small minority and of course receive a lot of media attention. The thousands of good religious, do not receive any media attention. Rather, they go about their selfless and sacrificial lives day after day, with no recognition.
I don't think I could do it either.
You want to dedicate your life to helping others and following in the model of Jesus? Go right ahead, I think it is great. However there's absolutely no reason to turn these people into sheep or zombies the way they do. Infact I'd say even MORE people would become priests or nuns if you were allowed a little more freedom such as marriage or children.
It IS possible to have a career that helps people, while still finding time for yourself. The whole degrading people, making them feel guilty, taking away their spirit is completely unnecessary.
There are priests who are married and have children. They are just not Catholic priests.
Carpe Diem!
catholic priets can't get married and have children anyways. on a personal level, i can understand giving up your former life to serve G-d, even though i think you can do that fine without a religious institution. but giving up those memories of your lifetime is impossible and i would never want to do that. i wouldn't want to stop myself from remembering fond times as a child in a treehouse when something reminds me of it like one of the nuns did in the film. its the personal bit of yoou that makes life into what it is. how can you communicate with a child and not remember how it is to be one? that is wrong for me
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OOOOH MATRON!
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Within the Roman Catholic religion priests cannot get mnarried. That is one of the great battles that brings up so many issues regarding celibate.
You are wrong.
they really do suck all of your personality, character, well being and happiness straight out of you! Its really a shame.. I don't think the "discipline" they try to uphold is so ridiculously unnessesary. Religion can be celebrated and recognized just fine without restrictions and giving up everything in your life just to devote one's self to it. Watching this movie made me sad and feel bad for all these women. They no longer have fun or entertainment in their lives! Not cool!
sharethey really do suck all of your personality, character, well being and happiness straight out of you! Its really a shame.. I don't think the "discipline" they try to uphold is so ridiculously unnessesary. Religion can be celebrated and recognized just fine without restrictions and giving up everything in your life just to devote one's self to it. Watching this movie made me sad and feel bad for all these women. They no longer have fun or entertainment in their lives! Not cool!
shareThis is not 100% true, as it applies only to the Latin Rite. Eastern Rite Catholics have the same jurisdiction as Eastern Orthodox -- but they are in communion with Rome and therefore Roman Catholics, just like the Latin rite. Priests either marry before ordination or take vows to become a monk.
Concering my above post: Léonie, Therese's sister, joined the Visitation order in the end, not the Carmelite convent her other sisters were living in, after several attemps of religious life. However, all the Martin sisters liked each other, and their father (the mother being dead.) Thérèse suffered a lot when her father became mentally ill. Some religious think that you have to cut all family ties…but not all, even in the strict (contemplative) orders.
Roman Catholic priests are not allowed to marry. However, if a man is a priest in another denomination and is married and joins the Roman Catholic Church, he remains married. But if the wife dies he may not re-marry.
sharePeople please. All those harsh rules and grueling initiation were things of the past. Becoming a nun is not like that anymore. I have nun friends, not only do they visit their families but they talk about their past life!
share"There are priests who are married and have children. They are just not Catholic priests."
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Actually, there ARE Roman Catholic priests who are allowed by the Church to marry and to have children. Married Roman Catholic priests include Roman Catholic priests of the Eastern Rite churches -- e.g., Maronites, Armenian Catholics, Chaldean Catholics, etc. (These "Eastern Rite" churches are often confused with "Eastern Orthodox," but they are not Eastern Orthodox, they owe allegiance to the Pope, and they are as "Roman Catholic" as the Western Rite Catholics.)
Also, some Western Rite Catholic priests are married. Former Episcopalian or Anglican priests who convert to the Roman Catholic Church and become Roman Catholic priests, if they were married before their conversion, are allowed to keep their marriages intact, and continue living with (and presumably having sex with!) their wives.
There is a doctrinal barrier within the RCC against allowing women priests, but there is (contrary to popular belief) no doctrinal barrier against married priests.
It is a matter of practice and discipline only.
Any time the Vatican decided to extend the permission to marry, which it currently allows to the Eastern Rite priests and the ex-Episcopalians and Anglicans, to the Western Rite Catholic priests, it could do so.
Yes, I agree ... abuse or degradation of any kind is utter nonsense. Women entered convents in droves a century ago, more out of economic necessity than anything. Thankfully, orders are different today than they were in 1930.
I also agree more people would become priests/nuns if they could marry. I heard an interesting thing coming out of Medjugorje, where it's purported that Mary has been appearing since 1981. She said we need marriages and families more than religious orders today ... because today the world needs more models of what holy (wholesome) family can be. I liked that.
Most orders now days don't push that not remembering nonsense anymore.
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This movie completely skews the vision of todays nuns. You don't have to give up your family and friends, and you are allowed personal possessions outside of a habit. I know that the sister that was the guidance councillor at my school wore very nice clothes, and had many friends and family outside of the order. She wasn't even cloistered.
"It's beyond my control."
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well, that would depend on the order you decide to join. And this story takes place in 1930. A lot of changes were made until now, following the II Vatican Council. Many of these practices were dropped and updated to reflect the times we now live in. Some for better and some went overboard, to their detriment.
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