Wanda Pedersen’s Reviews > Convent Wisdom: How Sixteenth-Century Nuns Could Save Your Twenty-First-Century Life > Status Update

She knows she will never leave the convent, that she will die in the same house where she was born. If the Vatican ever decided to beatify her, Maria de Jesus de Agreda would undoubtedly become the patron saint of FOMO, the holy intercessor for all of us who cannot help but succumb to the fear of missing out.

Some, like Margery Kempe, punctuated their sobbing with such extravagant contortions that a well-meaning friar once whispered to her, "Woman, Jesus died a very long time ago," with the compassionate honesty of that friend who bids you to get over your ex.

It doesn't matter what century you're reading this in: Women's eating habits are always scrutinized.

We were playing, prioritizing delight and detours over discipline in the tradition of Maria de San Jose. For as she knew, an unholy amount of work will not make you any more holy.

It doesn't matter what century you read this in: If they demand you work in Excel, it is not your revolution.

Nuns and bishops could spend hours arguing whether it was his death for the sake of humanity or the gift of the Eucharist that counted as Christ's greatest quality, just as you can now spend hours debating whether you'd rather run into a man or a bear in a deserted forest; you just don't write a treatise about it--though you probably should.

Religious institutions lacked a human resources department, the rigid hierarchies that managed the convents did resemble the organizational structures of most modern multimillion-dollar corporations. Between the confessor who extended a hand under the guise of friendship to ensure your spiritual writing did not stray too far from the order's party line and the bishop with the final say on whether your excessive ...

As we often say: "Anything you are going through right now has probably already happened to a nun living several hundred years ago." The euphoria, the sleeplessness, the turbulence, the caring, the rigor, and the devotion of friendship too.