Nuns Without Habits, Explaining Past Mistakes to Children, and Fr. Josh’s Conversion

Today Fr. Josh answers questions about how to explain past mistakes to your children, how to react to nuns who don’t wear habits, and his own conversion story. If you have a question, comment, or response for Fr. Josh, email us at askfrjosh@ascensionpress.com. You may hear your question or comment in an upcoming podcast episode! Snippet from the Show How can we say “I love you” to a God we cannot see if we don’t show that love to the body of Christ who we can see. SHOWNOTES Glory Story (1:21) Fr. Josh shares how grateful he is to be the pastor who is in relationship with the beautiful body of Christ at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church. His second glory story is his new audiobook version of Broken and Blessed. His third glory story is about a pro-choice woman who went to see the new movie Unplanned and had a transformation of heart. Listener Feedback (4:35) Explaining Your Past Mistakes to Your Children (7:49) Hi Father Josh, Thank you so much for your priesthood and the great work that you are doing with this podcast! Thank you especially for introducing me to the litanies that you have mentioned. They have changed my prayer life! Here is a short background for my question. My husband and I were both raised Catholic, with a real love of the Lord. But our faith had shallow roots and neither of us were properly catechized. We both fell away from practicing the faith in university, and by the time we met we were “cafeteria Catholics” at best. We were super proud of ourselves for waiting for each other and still being virgins when we met. But we did not wait for marriage, we lived together before we got married, and we contracepted throughout dating and for the first couple of years of our marriage. We both had really powerful conversions about two years ago. Understanding and following church teachings has transformed our marriage and our lives. We now have a beautiful daughter, and we hope and pray for more children. But how am I supposed to teach my daughter what’s right when I didn’t set the example? She will probably see photos of me dressed immodestly. My friends and family will tell stories about me drinking to excess, clubbing, using recreational drugs. And the big one is that she will know that her father and I lived together before we were married. I’m so worried that from her perspective it will seem like we had our fun and then decided to follow church teachings when it was convenient for us. And even if I share with her how deeply wounded I was by living that way, it was an interior suffering and pain that comes from being cut off from God. On the surface, looking at the timeline of my life, it looks like things worked out pretty well. This affects my confidence in my ability to evangelize as well, because I fear that my family and friends see me as a hypocrite. I said I was a Catholic throughout my 20s, while I basically did whatever I wanted. Who am I to try to teach people about Christ and His church and all of the beautiful teachings, now that I claim to be “really” Catholic? This all weighs heavily on my heart, and I appreciate any advice that you can give. God bless you, Father! Know that you are in my prayers regularly. -A Changed Mother Fr. Josh’s Story (14:22) I'm more or less of an agnostic right now. I was wondering why you, in particular, are a Catholic. What gives you the conviction that Catholicism is the 'one true faith'? What, in your eyes, sets Catholicism apart from all the hundreds of religions and spiritual ways of life mankind has practiced and continues to practice today? Thank you so much! -Dave Nuns without Habits (22:06) First of all, I wanted to thank you for your podcast. Your Glory Stories encourage me to recognize Christ's actions in my own life, and every episode brings me nothing but peace and clarity. Thank you so much! I was hoping you could bring a little clarity to a certain aspect of my life. I work for a monastery and I absolutely love my job. The sisters are the most beautiful, happy, holy women I have ever encountered and they inspire me daily to grow closer to Christ. They do so much good for the community as well. In telling people where I work, I run into a lot of judgment simply because the sisters don't wear habits. I feel like every time I tell people what I do, I have to give this elevator speech about how much I love the sisters and how much good they do - which is usually met with condescension. When I try to engage and talk about their frustrations with the sisters, it all comes down to the habit. I understand the beauty and importance of wearing a habit, I really do. However, I don't think it's bad that these women don't. Am I wrong? It pains me to see all the good the sisters do being overlooked because of what they wear. Thank you, and I will be praying for you! I hope you have a wonderful day! -Mary Beth Universal Points (33:50) (Please note that these are a brief summary of the answers Fr. Josh provides in the podcast and are intended to help you remember the advice given on the show.) Explaining Past to Your Children - Don’t let your past dictate your future. Fr. Josh’s Conversion Story - Experience, history, falling in love with Jesus. Why are you a disciple? Nuns without Habits - We need each other to make it to heaven. Want to browse the previous resources Fr. Josh has recommended? Go to ascensionpress.com/askfrjosh to select an episode and view the shownotes.