I'm really only close with one member of my family - my brother. I love my brother a lot. He is my only other sibling and he understands me very well... and he's not Catholic. He loves having a sister who is a nun. I don't exactly know why, but I do know that we bonded very well when we both made life altering commitments against the desires of our parents about a month apart... we really threw them for a loop! My brother went into the service a month before I entered the convent... it was not taken very well.
Today I went to a meeting at my community's motherhouse and then met up with my family who lives nearby. I'm always happy to see them but I'm also always more aware when I leave the gathering of how different my life is from theirs. Some of my family is Catholic... most are nonpracticing but it certainly makes for an interesting gathering when the nun shows up. Today was mostly good. It's hard to explain my life to people who have no concept of convent, apostolate, community life, living a Rule, vows... all of it! They just seem like outsiders to me sometimes and I hate that.
It isn't that I don't love them... it's more like we live on two different planes. And then when it comes to my parents - it's a whole other ball game. I know... it's hard to imagine... but nuns come from broken homes too - myself included. It's certainly more difficult but here I am and I just hope and pray that God accepts the carrying of that cross as an act of love for Him.
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