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AS058 Ask Sister – pooh-poohing a vocation, a matter of conscience, original sin and sex, sudden conversion, female Doctors of the Church
AS058 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 28, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: pooh-poohing a vocation, a matter of conscience, original sin and sex, sudden conversion, female Doctors of the Church, and more!
Special Guest: Sister Sarah Foster, RSM
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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!
Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:
- How do you talk to people who do not understand your calling (e.g., to religious life) or who react in negative ways?
- Conscience. What is it? Is it formed by nature or nurture?
- Is original sin all about sex? Is sex really sinful?
- Why are there so few female Doctors of the Church?
- Is it possible to have a sudden conversion and have it “stick”?
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I heard a great conversation about “sudden conversions” last week. The gist of it was, like Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, if you have a dramatic conversion moment, it’s generally a sign that you have REALLY been on the wrong path. Sort of like making a car do a high-speed u-turn before you crash into on-coming traffic. Other people only need to make more subtle course corrections to stay on target. And whetehr or not it “sticks” depends on your commitment to doing God’s will and living the life He calls you towards, and (to a largely unrecognised extent) the company you keep on the journey.
Conversion, sudden or otherwise, seems to me necessary for growth. I think this blessing is given where and when we need it. The “trick” is to not be like Charlie Brown’s outfielders who aren’t paying attention and drop the ball.
Can you tell where I do most of my “spiritual reading”
• How do you talk to people who do not understand your calling (e.g., to religious life) or who react in negative ways?
I think I am one of the ones who originally posed this question, and I’m going to offer my thoughts, but am very interested in hearing other people’s thoughts n this as well..
I have been in the process of discernment for awhile and have met opposition both from my non-Catholic parents and from friends. I actually am not sure if there IS a good response to those who don’t understand, except to show them through your life and your response to living in the vocation. I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with various communities and those around me see how happy I am when I am with the community and the joy it brings to my life, and that, I think is the best response possible.
• Conscience. What is it? Is it formed by nature or nurture?
First, conscience is our ability to discern right and wrong and to follow the better path. To be definitive, I think that our conscience is both nature and nurture. I believe it is nature because God promised to write His commands upon our heart, and the conscience is the fulfillment of that promise. Our conscience gives us the sense of right and wrong and the inner sense of which is which when faced with a difficult choice. ..Being an adoptee has given me the ability to really determine what is a product of genetics and what is a product of rearing, and the extrinsic forces that impact on our lives. I feel that my parents, teachers, moral leaders, friends, and caregivers have also given me a sense of consequences and rewards for selecting various paths and that, too, has helped to form my conscience.
• Is original sin all about sex? Is sex really sinful?
Good news…Original sin isn’t about sex at all It’s about Adam’s choice to disobey God that gave us the stain. Even better news…that stain is remitted through the Sacrament of Baptism and the gates of Heaven are reopened to us through Jesus’ sacrifice of Love.
Sex, itself isn’t sinful. It is the natural way that humans (and other creatures) reproduce. The “sin” part of sex comes into play when we waste the gift of life we are given. When we engage in sex outside of the context of marriage and also without the purpose of bringing life into the world, but the physical act of sex is not sinful.
• Is it possible to have a sudden conversion and have it “stick”?
Simple answer, yes. “Sudden Conversions” are gifts from God and, I think, if God is going to give us a gift, especially one of such a powerful nature, I don’t think He would take it from us. That being said, we still have free will and can choose to take paths that do not lead to Christ or to Heaven…but that doesn’t mean the conversion didn’t happen in the first place. We can choose to remain converted…and to continue our conversion, through the choices we make in our lives…
I would like to comment about original sin in a way that is more liberating for women. Evidently the Hebrew word for “sin” does not appear in the Bible until Genesis chapter 4 with Cain and Abel. The first “original” sin then is murder which frees up the blame on women.
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