When I was a child growing up in a large Catholic family (11 children!), I wanted to be a nun. This was primarily because I had seen Hayley Mills in The Trouble With Angels and I wanted to be just like her. Most nuns have a better reason than that. Today, in honor of Pegasus Theatre’s upcoming world premiere Death Is a Bad Habit!, we explore the steps it takes to become a nun:
- The Call: This is “…a message from God that a person is called to lead a more spiritual life. When a woman believes she is being called, she is urged to pray about what she’s being asked to do. She also can begin checking out different religious communities, which can slightly resemble sorority rush. Sometimes, communities sponsor “nun runs,” in which women who are in the process of discerning their call travel from convent to convent to talk to the sisters and figure out where they belong… This part of the process might take a while — women are encouraged to see many communities before settling on one.”
- The Aspirant: In this step, the woman is a pre-candidate for becoming a nun. Aspirants have selected the religious community of which they wish to be a part and they are encouraged to learn as much as possible about that community by spending time with the nuns there. This step would involve a lot of assessments and paperwork, along with reading various Church Resources for higher knowledge, as the religious community evaluates the spiritual, mental, and physical health of the aspirant. During this time, aspirants are typically still living independently and supporting themselves.
- The Postulant: In this step, the aspirant becomes an official candidate. This indicates there has been a mutual agreement that the aspirant is a good fit for her chosen religious community. The postulant might start living with the sisters of the religious order and participating in their activities. This step typically lasts a couple of years.
- The Novitiate*: As a novitiate, the woman is officially a novice member of her chosen religious order. She lives with the sisters and studies Canonical law and other religious materials chosen by her order. If she is still receiving a salary from an outside job, she donates it to her order. The order in return sees to all of her physical needs (food, shelter, etc). After about two years, the novitiate takes a spiritual retreat to study in preparation for taking her vows.
- Becoming a Sister: When the novitiate is ready, she takes two sets of vows to become a full-fledged member of the religious order. The first set of vows must be renewed each year; the second set of vows are considered binding forever. After taking the second set of vows, the sister receives a simple ring to wear on her right hand, indicating she is a bride of Christ.
*Note that in “Death Is a Bad Habit!“, Grace is a novitiate; as such, she is the only nun who does not wear a ring designating her as a bride of Christ.