Board index › Topical Discussion › Politics, Philosophy, and Religion

What's it like to be part of a Brotherhood/Convent

Page 1 of 1 [ 6 posts ] 

Previous topic | Next topic

Llixgrjb
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 233

25 Feb 2010, 8:21 pm

My late grandmother, a fierce Catholic, once told me that I could chose from three paths to take in life. Either I marry a man, marry my career, or marry God.

The first two paths seem blocked off for me.

Is anyone here currently or formerly a "Bride of God?" What is it like being part of a convent? Sometimes I feel like I should join. I need to believe in something, do good works, but most importantly escape the soul-crushing work-a-day existence waiting for me at the end of college.

I might even get extra points for still having my virtue intact.



Last edited by Llixgrjb on 25 Feb 2010, 8:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Age: 98
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,484
Location: Finland

25 Feb 2010, 8:32 pm

Llixgrjb wrote:
My late grandmother, a fierce Catholic, once told me that I could chose from the paths to take in life. Either I marry a man, marry my career, or marry God.

The first two paths seem blocked off for me.

Is anyone here currently or formerly a "Bride of God?" What is it like being part of a convent? Sometimes I feel like I should join. I need to believe in something, do good works, but most importantly escape the soul-crushing work-a-day existence waiting for me at the end of college.

I might even get extra points for still having my virtue intact.


I am not religious so perhaps not the right person to speak on his, but I would find the extraordinary discipline of a religious order with its many irrational constrictions no freer than the mind hobbling of an insignificant job out in the world. Each of our lives is unique and being live is a rare opportunity to explore and make our own decisions and make our own unique way. I personally would be horrified to lose this wonder in the conceptions of a highly disciplined rigid order.



Llixgrjb
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 233

25 Feb 2010, 8:46 pm

But maybe restriction sets us free. That's a school of thought that's been around for centuries. But nowadays there is a fine line between ascetic and jihadist (Muslim and Christian-equivalents) and I've got to tread carefully.

Maybe I am living under the tyranny of having too many choices and the indecision and confusion that comes from it.

Our adolescent period has been getting longer and longer with every generation. It used to be you were settled down, mastered a trade and with offspring by the time you were 21. We don't have that now. We have 35-year-old adolescents still going to school, childless, twitting their faces off, yet to fill out a niche, wandering around without purpose. This is the product of this "freedom."



Sand
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Age: 98
Gender: Male
Posts: 11,484
Location: Finland

25 Feb 2010, 9:05 pm

Llixgrjb wrote:
But maybe restriction sets us free. That's a school of thought that's been around for centuries. But nowadays there is a fine line between ascetic and jihadist (Muslim and Christian-equivalents) and I've got to tread carefully.

Maybe I am living under the tyranny of having too many choices and the indecision and confusion that comes from it.

Our adolescent period has been getting longer and longer with every generation. It used to be you were settled down, mastered a trade and with offspring by the time you were 21. We don't have that now. We have 35-year-old adolescents still going to school, childless, twitting their faces off, yet to fill out a niche, wandering around without purpose. This is the product of this "freedom."


People do different things with their freedom. Some surrender it to the ideas of others in disciplinary organizations, some permit themselves to be seduced by the awful nonsense offered in a consumer society, some use it to search deep within themselves and nurture something valuable and original and discover the world and the universe for themselves. I can only suggest you think deeply before you make a vital decision..



Llixgrjb
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 233

25 Feb 2010, 9:16 pm

Good point.



Tensu
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Dec 2009
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,661
Location: Nixa, MO, USA

26 Feb 2010, 6:15 pm

As someone who is also religious, I would say one doesn't have to be a member of any monastery or convent to be a monastic.

I personally have had very bad experiences with authority figures all my life though, so my perception may also be somewhat skewed, but I've always idealized something more like Paul: wandering around doing whatever you could for whoever you could.

But ultimately I don't feel this is the kind of question you should seek human advice on. If you want to devote your life to God, how do you think would be the best way to go about that?