The occasional, often ill-considered thoughts of a Roman Catholic permanent deacon who is ever grateful to God for his existence. Despite the strangeness we encounter in this life, all the suffering we witness and endure, being is good, so good I am sometimes unable to contain my joy. Deo gratias!


Although I am an ordained deacon of the Catholic Church, the opinions expressed in this blog are my personal opinions. In offering these personal opinions I am not acting as a representative of the Church or any Church organization.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Mother Miriam: From Conservative Jew to Benedictine Sister.

I have a number of friends who have come to the Catholic Church from Judaism, but none of them took the same path. One, for example, was a completely secular Jew who was brought up in a family in which religion in any form was considered the height of folly. His conversion came about when, after suffering a series of family and business setbacks, he wandered into an inner-city Catholic Church and had what he calls a "mystical experience." Another was the son of a rabbi. Seeing his father's frustration in the face of God's silence, he lost what little faith he had, only to find it, transformed, years later when he read a book by Mother Teresa. The others experienced equally unique conversions, leading them to the fulness of Christian faith.

Yesterday I came across a wonderful story about a remarkable woman, Mother Miriam, a Benedictine sister in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Rosalind Moss grew up in Brooklyn, in a conservative Jewish home, and in the years that followed took a strange path to her present life as prioress of a Benedictine religious community, Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel’s Hope in Tulsa, Okla. On her journey she made stops as a Messianic Jew, as an evangelical (and strongly anti-Catholic) Protestant, as a Catholic, and finally as a nun. I could offer more details about her journey, but I think it best simply to let you read her story as it was published in the National Catholic Register.

1 comment:

  1. I was blessed tonight to sit in front of Mother Miriam at Solemn Vespers while my husband was 2nd Deacon tonight. She is such a wonderful soul in so many ways.

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