The Way We Were: A Story of Conversion and Renewal

Among those affected by the renewal of Vatican II, none experienced the changes more than women religious. Habits were replaced by secular dress; separation behind the cloister gave way to service in the world. But the deepest changes were less visible-a new way of thinking and imagining the meaning of religious life. For communities that had seen little change in a hundred years, the impact was beyond imagining. "It did not feel like 'renewal' then," writes Joan Chittister. "It felt like disaster, like loss, like liberation, like life gone wild. And it felt like all of them all at once." This book is both a study of the way change happens and an example of it. It is an inspiring story, addressed to the wider church, about how to redefine the essentials of faith in a time when old ways and formulas no longer serve.