A Change of Habit

A Change of Habit is moving and soul-searching . . . - Constance Holcomb, retired publishing executive "The arduous journey of this teenage girl to womanhood is a profound story containing lessons for all of us" - Walter D. Serwatka, retired chairman of the board, MacMillan-McGraw-Hill "This was a real joy to read! Heartwarming . . . inspiring . . . I didn't want the book to end. I laughed, cried, and cheered you on" - Aaron Harper, spiritual counselor A Change of Habit recounts a spiritual journey that started when a religious eddy hurls seventeen-year-old Patty into a convent in the 1960s. Her deeply embedded guilt drives her to obey the Catholic Church, please her earthly father, and say yes to her heavenly Father. But in the convent, she fails to find happiness in religious rites and rules. Her time in the convent parallels changes wrought in religious life by Vatican II, including changes of names and attire. After leaving the convent following seven years of service, she assumes she can pick up her life and move on. But once the religious habit comes off, long-practiced habits of poverty, chastity, and obedience dog her into married life. Finally facing the reality mirror, she breaks out the debilitating patterns learned in the convent. In finding true spirituality and finally listening to the God within, she shakes the destructive habit of guilt. Her story speaks to like-minded "guilt sponges" offering hope on their personal spiritual quests. She shares the seven secrets to guilt-free living learned on her journey. A Change of Habit is not the story of a girl breaking from the convent to live happily ever after; the story's uniqueness hinges on how ingrained duty lodges. This story of personal reinvention and empowerment that takes place over forty years shows that it's never to late to change one's future.