It is difficult to avoid an article with a title as compelling as this: “My life of drink and one-night stands left me feeling hollow, now I’ve found the answer: I’m going to be a nun.” After reading the article about Katie Colbran, a woman who is entering religious life, I have to say there was no poetic exaggeration in the title. It pretty much tells it like it is.
“For the past four years, I’ve led the kind of glamorous life some people only dream about…. But in just a few weeks’ time, I’ll be swapping it all for a life of quiet contemplation in a religious community in Essex. One day, hopefully about six years from now, I hope to take my vows and become Sister Katie, the Catholic nun.”
Katie, like many of us who have entered religious life, has family and friends who are shocked at what she is doing. “They have visions of me taking a vow of silence and locking myself away in a convent, or turning into the type of nun such as the ones in The Sound Of Music,” writes Katie. “They find it hard to believe that I’m turning my back on my hedonistic life in order to enter a religious community and devoting my life to God. But I don’t see it in terms of what I’m going to be losing. For me, it’s about what I’ll be gaining. I feel calmer and more peaceful than I have in years. It’s also given me a direction and a purpose that I’ve never had and never thought I would have.”
There is lots more to Katie’s story. I encourage you to read the whole article about Katie Colbran and her journey to life as a Catholic sister in the UK’s The Daily Mail, (November 5, 2009).
Katie is joining the Community of our Lady of Walsingham in Essex, England. Do visit their website and read more about Katie’s story.
After reading the stories, come on back to A Nun’s Life and let’s chat about the story. What struck you the most?
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Join us this evening for Praying with the Sisters podcast. We’re trying out an evening time slot and a slightly new format. Join us today at 6 p.m. Central Time (time zone converter). Join us at at http://anunslife.org/live.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I was really touched by her story. Her conversion sounds like my own. I am really happy that she has found such inner peace and that she is following her vocational calling.
Amazing story!!! really amazing! Thanks for sharing it Sister!
It’s wonderful that this woman has found her purpose, and all the best to her. I’m slightly frustrated by the Daily Mail’s coverage, though – although I suppose it’s ‘good’ on a certain level that religious stories are getting coverage, it’s clearly supposed to be a gawker show, sensationalist and voyeuristic in that way only the Mail can be. It also somehow manages to leave out nearly all reference to Christ. It talks vaguely about “the Church”, but the only instance of a direct reference to the actual POINT of monasticism I could find was (equally vague):
“… five or six years down the line I’ll take my final vows – like a marriage to Christ… ”
*Sigh*. It’s kind of like, what do you expect – it is a tabloid after all. Still, you don’t know what effect the article might have on someone.
x M.
What a great conversion story! Her story shows us that a religious calling can occur to anyone, no matter what stage of life we’re in. It’s never to late to follow the way. Thanks for sharing the story with us!
It is always encouraging to read stories of women being called, but I am a little distressed that this story is about someone who’s “world experience” is far more libertine than that of the vast majority of young women. While I am certain that the story is true, it paints the secular world with too broad a brush and offers contempaltive life as a panecea. Some balance and analysis would have added to the quality of the article.
I’m with Marigold. The story is too tabloid. Also there’s a number of wrong words used (ex: phase for faze; novitiate for a single novice) that make the article seem unprofessionally written and edited.
She seems like a silly girl who did stupid things for a long time and is now simply doing one more impulsive thing.
Am I the only person wondering why someone with an Engineering degree would opt to move from an Engineering job to flight attendant?
I don’t know what’s in her heart, maybe it’s a wonderful conversion
story I’m just not sure. Maybe if she wrote it after she became a nun it would have more creditability. Now it’s seems self promoting.
I don’t know that she WAS an engineer–just that she had a job (could have been a clerk or something) in the engineering dept at British Airways….
As for the story–did anyone else find the story of the “model” in a full traditional habit that she will NOT be wearing to be a little gratuitous? I also thought it bizarre that they interspersed links to stories about “conical bras” and “Holly’s drunken violence” into this article…. Odd placement, to say the least.
why all the cynicism?
It is interesting to read the variety of responses. I too thought the picture of the model in a habit was unnecessary and a kind of dig. And the links and ads were odd to say the least! At some level I think random ads are to be expected on a general audience website; on the other hand, I am also conscious that such “coincidences” are not coincidences at all. I think I’ll just stick with Peggy’s summation: “Odd placement, to say the least.”
A few of you have commented on the writing style of the article. It’s difficult to say exactly how the article was put together. The byline is Katie’s so this is a first-person account. So it’s important to keep in mind that Katie is not a professional writer or journalist; rather she is describing a very personal journey. I think she’s got a lot of guts and am proud of her for talking about her life. Katie is also not a Catholic sister yet and so she might not have all the correct words to adequately describe her experience. (I remember in 8th grade giving what I thought was a compelling presentation on the League of Nations and the importance of the city of Geneva which I pronounced repeatedly as “GEN-eva”.) You’ll also notice at the end of the article it says “INTERVIEW by Paula Robinson” which indicates to me that Katie was probably asked a bunch of questions and not necessarily the “author” of the article. It’s probably that the article was thought up by Robinson who then interviewed Katie with a certain set of questions and then edited by Robinson. Having been interviewed like this myself, I am very aware that what I say is not always represented in full or in the way that I said it. No malice on anyone’s part, but it can lead to some odd images or characterizations. You’ll notice a very different style of writing if you read Katie’s story on the Sisters’ website (link above).
God does indeed work in strange and marvel-filled ways. God is full of mercy and compassion and sees into our hearts in ways that we ourselves cannot see. I’ve learned to always honor people, to see them as God sees them, even when I myself can’t figure out where a person is coming from.
When I read Katie’s story, all I could think of was the gospel. Jesus found one of His lost sheep. Lifting Katie in prayer.
I think this is as good as it gets for a British tabloid. I think it’s amazing they thought it was story material and that they didn’t slant her as mentally unstable or unable to cope with the real world.
And, Mary, in the UK we do use ‘phased’ for ‘fazed’ and although I consider myself quite far from illiterate I honestly didn’t know it was improper to refer to a single individual as entering her novitiate and I’m interested in that kind of thing so a writer on the Daily Mail or, indeed, most newspapers would only know that by sheer fluke.
All in all, I’m happy for Katie and will pray for her and as I go to Walsingham a lot I may even meet her one day! It was in Walsingham that my bishop gave me the green light to start on the road to becoming a nun so it’s a specia place for me.