Forty-five years of my life were spent in the Roman Catholic church; twenty-two of them as a nun locked up in a convent, dedicated to worship, restoration and suffering. I believed that the call of a nun to the service of God had to be like a little savior before the world; I wanted to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.
I decided to become a nun:
After having attended elementary school for eight years and memorized catechism, which is the textbook of the Roman church, I believed, with all my heart, that a family with a son or daughter of a nun or priest could receive the favor of God and His blessings. I decided to enter the convent when I was old enough to be able to leave home. This was my goal when I turned twenty-one in 1954. I entered the convent against the will of my parents. My belief in the call to become a nun outweighed the opposition of my parents.
Despite feeling sorry for leaving my parents, I felt the comfort that I was doing the will of God by fulfilling this sacrifice for the salvation of my family and all those who were outside the Roman Catholic faith, which, I thought, they were destined for hell.
Life in the convent:
At first I was in awe of the tranquility, structural beauty, and peace that seemed to reign there. I was taught to do penance by sleeping on a board, prostrating myself at the dining room door as an act of humiliation, and punishing myself as a means to appease the wrath of God. This taught me to believe in a punishing, untouchable, and unloving God. I feared him in every moment of my life. As time went by, I began to feel an emptiness in my heart and hopelessness oppressed me. I was feeling depressed; Many times I cried and I rebelled against the authority with great anger and I felt hatred for the rules and customs of the convent for being so cruel.
I felt attacked by many diseases and tremors that only the valium helped me to alleviate. All the time the medications clouded my understanding and did not allow me the ability to think and reason.
My desire to know God:
I was excited to know that God loved me, and eager to know him, I began to read mystical writings, which taught me that I could have a mystical relationship with God; achieving a supernatural wisdom from Him, which would lead me to complete holiness. This path led me to? not just the Bible and Jesus, but everything related to religious life.
Step by step I lost the ability to reason and deal with reality, reality was very painful for me to face.
Answered Prayer:
Feeling hopeless and uninterested, I prayed to God. In His mercy and grace, He heard my prayers. In 1975, a distant cousin, who was a Christian, brought an evangelist who was visiting New York to the convent. He was preaching on the street near the Catholic parish. I was given permission to attend, and for the first time I heard the true gospel. It really was the good news! "Because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life"(John 3:16). I learned that Jesus Christ died for my past, present, and future sins. When I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior I repented of my sins, He made my spirit come alive and I began a personal relationship between Christ and me. This is God's gift to everyone who believes, “For by grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, so that no one can boast ” (Ephesians 2: 8-9). It is very important to know that individually we change and believe in Him , "... that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10: 9).
My life after having heard the gospel:
After I had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I began to read the Bible and pray directly to God. In 1977, I left the convent and began on my own in search of the truth. The Word of God was my only authority and everything was measured against the bible, but this was just the beginning. I was not doing the great damage that the false doctrines and beliefs had created in my body and my mind.
Through a Christian friend who helped me see that being a doer of the Word brings healing to the body and clarity to the mind, and that through the new birth we can have the mind of Christ. It has not been an easy road, but it has been one full of blessings and the love of God.
God's faithfulness:
The Lord has been faithful to me through His Word. He promised to restore the years that the caterpillar ate. "And I will restore to you the years that the caterpillar, the jumper, the tumbler, and the locust have eaten, my great army that I sent against you" (Joel 2:25).
It is my hope and I pray that I may have the privilege of sharing God's love and goodness by telling all who listen that He has a plan for every life and that He is faithful to accomplish that plan when we receive the gift of salvation. and when we believe in His Son Jesus Christ. "Rather, as it is written: Things that the eye has not seen, nor has the ear heard, nor have come up into the heart of man are those that God has prepared for those who love him" (I Cor. 2: 9)
[Source: https://bereanbeacon.org/es/desde-el-convento-a-la-conversion/]
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