If Nuns Ruled the World Read Free Page A

perfectly­ tousled curls and a penchant for mascara and funky earrings­. She has a harmless addiction to buying beautiful scarves and loves a glass of white wine. When we met she was discerning­—religious speak for training—to become a Franciscan sister in Aston, a Philadelphia suburb.
    I told Marks I thought of her as a unicorn, since she is one of the incredibly rare women today seeking to become a nun in her twenties. I found her through her blog titled “Mascara and Prayer,” and we soon started talking about how she reconciled giving up the fairy tale of a wedding, husband, and kids. Marks was so matter-of-fact that I was taken aback.
    â€œI wanted the first five years. I wanted the engagement, the wedding, having the baby, and I never thought beyond that—about living the day-to-day with one person for the rest of my life. Once I thought beyond it, I was able to give it up. I realized I was more in love with the  idea  of those things than the reality of them.”
    Marks said no to being a nun for about seven years, but she kept dipping her toes in and out of the vocation. She’d be on a date on a Friday and on a retreat with the sisters on Saturday.
    â€œHow do you tell somebody you’re dating that you’re considering becoming a nun?” I asked her.
    â€œYou don’t,” she said. “It’s like living a double life.”
    One of the final signs she was ready to become a sister came when she read her journal. She realized that every time she wrote about being sad or lonely, it had to do with a man. When she wrote about feeling happy and fulfilled, it was when she was spending time in a community of sisters. She professed her first vows as a Sister of St. Francis on the Feast of St. Clare in August of 2013.
    That sense of emotional fulfillment is mostly universal across the sisters I spoke with. This emotional stability and sense of peace makes nuns a real joy to be around. Like their laughter, it is contagious.
    God has become a character in these chapters. It is an occupational hazard when writing about the lives of nuns. In these pages, God means a lot of different things: a friend, protector, confidante. Sometimes God is just the hand of the universe shuffling the deck of our lives.
    While most of the stories I have worked on in my career as a journalist seem completely unrelated to one another, I believe there is a common thread. What I most enjoy doing is treating the extraordinary stories of ordinary people the way most of our media today treats the lives of celebrities. Have you ever noticed that everything a celebrity does is inherently fascinating to us? They walk down the street, they get a coffee, have a wardrobe malfunction, take their kids to the playground, fight with their spouse, or adopt a puppy, and it could be the most-read news of the day.
    I need to admit right here and now that this is partially my fault. I have worked in the entertainment sections of newspapers, magazines, and television news networks for years. That makes me feel a bit guilty. Some might call that Catholic guilt. Perhaps that is why I want to tell the stories of these nuns as if they were rock stars or Hollywood royalty. My guilt aside, this is exactly the kind of platform they deserve, more so than any starlet I have covered.
    I wanted to write a book that showed nuns as people as opposed to stereotypes.
    The women in these pages have done extraordinary things.
    Each of them has changed her corner of the world for the better. The fact that they have accomplished so much while yoked to an institution that actively and publicly sets out to quash their activities makes what they have done that much more remarkable.
    I originally titled this book Bad Habit: The Secret Lives of Nuns . I, too, like a good pun. But the thing is, none of these women is a secret. They don’t do their good works behind closed doors. They aren’t trying to pull the wool over