Introduction
When anyone has been in the convent and then left, people generally display a lot of curiosity about what goes on 'behind closed doors'. Having been in and out of three different communities - perhaps I should have titled this 'Slow Learner' - I have a lot of colorful war stories. Perhaps you'll find them interesting.
When I left religious life at the age of 42, I had spent fifteen years living convent life. It was not my choice to leave. My first draft of this memoir, several years ago, was pretty mean-spirited. I spent a few years feeling really angry about what I saw as a terrible betrayal. In redrafting and rewriting this to be kinder and more objective, I think I must have begun a process of self-discovery, wherein I saw how my own personality and defects led to my failure in religious life.
Those who have read the book have two criticisms: one, that it sounds a bit gloomy in parts. To be honest, some of the events were traumatic. I have a great sense of humor that has gotten me through a lot; as the song goes, "It wasn't funny then, but I can laugh at it now". But I can't write a hilariously funny account of my own death. Sorry to disappoint you. If you read Words Without Songs, also here on Wattpad, you can read my actual journal entries as I went through that process. It's a more poetic and spiritual, and much shorter, account of my final exit from religious life. I am surprised at how whimsically I was able to write about most of it.
The other criticism is that I haven't made the structure of religious life (candidacy, postulancy, novitiate, vows, etc.) clear enough for the layman. To address that, I have added a glossary. I hope it helps.
As for the nom de plume: Schwester is the German word for Sister. And as the Foundress of my first community once said, "We are all Mary."
I continue to live a simple and celibate life. Not that I had a lot of other choices, but it would be my choice, all the same.
~Mary Schwester
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Disavowed: a woman's journey through three religious communities
Non-Fiction'Disavowed' is a memoir of fifteen years spent as a Sister in three different religious communities, written with whimsical humor, gentle irony, and full of colorful details plus some grim truths about convent life. Idealistic, full of good intentio...
