So its been 4 months and 1 week since I did my Audrey Hepburn impersonation.
Have you ever watched The Nun’s Story?
**SPOILER ALERT!!**
In the closing scene Hepburn (Sr. Luke) goes into a little room near the back door of the convent in which she has lived. Changing into some simple clothes, she removes her habit and veil for the last time, revealing a mess of closely cropped hair and a combination of fear and excitement that is palpable.
Her solitude in this scene is confronting. Her goodbyes have already been said, without demonstration, without delays. She steps out the back door and it is all over.
Similarly, I went into a small room to remove my habit and veil for the last time, donning simple, comfortable clothes and partaking of a hearty meal (it was breakfast time) to prepare for the long trip had ahead of me. Alone, in silence. Well, not really alone – the Lord was with me. I was blessed also that, when I had eaten and changed and emerged from this little room, I had companions for my journey. My novice mistress and a dear friend of mine accompanied me to the airport, helped me get organized, and stayed with me right up until the sign “Passengers only beyond this point” jumped out at me, taunting me, as I took that final step away from the life I had known.
Lets not over-dramatize this. I had not, like Hepburn’s character, lived the life for 20+ years. I had been a novice, I was in my second year of religious life, and I had not yet made vows. It is, however, quite remarkable how quickly that place and that life became my home, and how difficult it has been to let go.
When I left, I had absolute clarity that although God had called me to live religious life for a time, that He was not calling me to make vows. That clarity was necessary, for without it I would not have been able to make the decision to leave. It was a beautiful mercy, that for that time I was able to see so clearly, for the Truth truly did make me free. I chose freely my path and did so with complete trust that the steadfast love of God would persist and that He smiled upon my desire to please Him in what I was doing. Although the FEELING of certainty is failing me these days, my intellectual capacity to choose to trust the Father who keeps His promises remains. I still trust in the clarity I was given at the time the decision was to be made and acted upon.
Nevertheless, for all that I choose to continue trusting, I still have a mess of feelings and confusion with which to contend. That disconnect between my head and my heart is causing disconcerting unease.
#1 gripe with the outside world? THERE’S NO SILENCE!! It really drives me nuts 😉
I live in a large family and it is unreasonable and uncharitable to lock myself away from them during normal living hours. I steal a few hours of silent, alone time in the wee small hours when I can, when I know its not going to make me an absolute zombie at work the next day.
But then there’s the question of how I use the little silence that I manage to procure whilst the world snores.
In the convent, the times and places of silence were designed to help me to be recollected in the Lord, to make every bit of time possible a meeting place with Him. It was prayer time!
Here? I know instinctively that I need the silence… but I get lost in my own thoughts so often and tend to run away from being alone with Him.
What am I afraid of?
I don’t want to let my intimacy with the Lord slip away into the night. My relationship with Him means everything to me. And yet even to cry out the words of Psalm 22 seems misplaced here – for it is not GOD who is doing the abandoning.
My God, my God, don’t let me abandon You! Help me to be faithful! Help me respond to Your grace!
Those times we would sit together in the chapel, and I would imagine we were walking together in the garden in the cool of the day? I long for those twilight “walks” again!
Teach me how to love You, how to abide with You, out here in the world since it seems that THIS and not the inside of a cloister is where You want me to be.
Meanwhile… I give thanks to the Lord amidst this confusion. I know that even this crazy time of being unsettled is itself a gift in the broader context of my salvation. A gift of providence from the Father who knows exactly what I need to ensure that one day I dwell with Him in Heaven.
Even in this whirlwind, I am experiencing God’s love.
Give thanks to the Lord for He is good! His love endures for ever!
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NB: JGL = Journal of God’s Love
What IS the Journal of God’s Love?
Life after Epiphany 
August 31, 2013 at 12:16 pm
Thank you for this post…I just left novitiate yesterday and I’m already wondering if I made the right choice. Intellectually, I know I was honest with all my formators and I can rely on their confidence on my decision to leave. Still, I have the lingering thought at the back of my mind that it is possible that someday I may return…
August 31, 2013 at 12:56 pm
You’re very much in my prayers, Daniel. Our experiences of leaving religious life are generally very similar in their cosmetic, external circumstances, but unique and intensely personal when it comes to the interior experience. Whatever these coming weeks hold for you, as you settle back into lay life, I hope that peace is not far around the corner. Please do trust that, whatever confusion it brings with it, this experience is ultimately a gift from the Lord and the means by which He is drawing you to Himself. If, one day, you are called back to religious life or the secular priesthood, you now know first hand that He really does help us to know what He is asking at each moment, for you have already followed Him twice… when you entered, and when you left. He has given you good reason to be confident in His ability to make His will known to you. So you needn’t fear you’ll somehow “miss” it. You already know what that stirring in your heart feels/sounds like. Do not be afraid!