Delayed vocation--previously married woman!

[Nunsuch]

This story is about a mother and grandmother who entered, left, and re-entered religious life, and is now on her community's leadership team!

http://globalsistersreport.org/blog/q/trends/q-sr-suzanne-herder-consecrated-life-after-marriage-and-children-49681

[Guest]

Very interesting interview - thank you for posting.  The final paragraph was particularly interesting.  When my SD asked our Archbishop for permission for a Home Mass for me to renew private life vows, his comment was "That's a good way of doing it".  His Grace had been President of the ACBC (Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference). His comment could mean anything of course, but I think The Church (as hierarchy in this instance) is probably looking at and considering how traditional religious life is changing and other forms of religious living developing.  Not that I think that religious and monastic life as we know it will ever fade away completely.  Some religious orders are forming other ways and lifestyles of committing to their charism - and of varying commitment levels.

But the wheels of The Church grind very slowly and rightly so since the new must have the spirit tested over time.

(1st Letter of St John, Chapter 4: "1Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.")