A Question About Religious Life...

[Guest :: Ashley ::]

Okay, here's the deal. I want to be a nun,but I used to self-injure myself when I was 14, before I converted or anything. I also used to (not anymore) smoke pot when I was younger too. I have not done either of these things in about 4 years...what are my chances of being rejected from a religious community??? I have totally changed and I am a much better and healthier person now.

[Laudate_Dominum]

The trials and misdeeds of your past are rarely a hindrance to religious life. It sounds like the cutting and pot (which are actually pretty common among young people these days), are a thing of the past.
I've known people in religious communities (and priests) with much worse pasts than that. Often it helps them in their vocation somehow. For example, a priest I know had a crazy pre-conversion life, and he's really good and relating to and helping people who have done similar stuff (partying, drugs, sex, stealing).

One of my favourite examples of the love of Christ in this regard is Saint Margaret of Cortona.
She was a young woman who lived with a man with whom she was not married.. She basically lived a sinful life and had the worst reputation in her town. Her lover was basically a criminal and one night he didn't come home. Margaret was worried that he was murdered (because he was involved in very shady stuff), and went out looking for him. Eventually she found his severed head in the woods.
It was at that moment that God gave her the grace to see how her life was empty and she was on the wrong path, but she also felt in her heart that despite the depths of her sin, God was going to make her a saint.

I've read the account of her life and spiritual progress and it's really quite beautiful.
She became a franciscan penitent and devoted herself to prayer and penance. She had a very low opinion of herself and was preoccupied with her sins, which wasn't a bad thing since she was at the stage of finding deep penitence. One day Christ appeared to her and spoke to her, addressing her as "my daughter".
This apparition changed her heart and her spirituality changed in some ways. She became more focused on trying to love and help the poor and sick people around her, even though she was just as poor as them.
Her prayer life also deepened and she remained devoted to penance.
Years later Christ appeared to her again and this time addressed her as "my spouse", and promised her a place among his virgins in heaven.
Christ had restored her virginity and she was just as pure an inviolate as if she had never sinned in that way. Truly a miracle, but it shows how God deals with His own.
After this she truly became a bride of Christ and her spirituality became even richer. There are accounts of her having profound experiences while receiving the Eucharist and praying in front of Christ in the Eucharist, and many other things.
Late in her life she had done an incredible amount of good, helping those in need and converting people just by her example. People would see the holiness of this woman who was once the scandal of the town and give praise to God. Eventually her will was as perfectly conformed to the will of God as possible and Christ came to her a third time, this time He addressed her as, "my mother". Which shows that she had become an image of Our Lady, by the grace of God. And that her life of prayer, sacrifice and charity had been fruitful in bearing Christ into the world.

I hope this helps.