The Spiritual Journey of a Catholic Nun who becomes a Woman Priest

This is the touching story of the Spiritual pilgrimage of a Catholic Nun who - after 40 years of a faithful service to her religious community - finds that she is not going to be allowed the freedom by her Provincial Superior to continue to be part of the first ecumenical mission to teach new therapies for children in psychiatric institutions in the Soviet Union & Eastern Europe during the days of Glasnost & Perestroika from 1989 - 1991.

This is the story of the simple devout life which allowed her the courage, deep faith, and strength "to obey God rather that human authority", to leave her community, and go on to renew her vows as a nun in The Order of the Transfiguration, a new type of ecumenical Christian order, with interfaith perspectives, in which she finally finds peace, equality and joy in the spirit

But it is also the fascinating story of an educated modern woman, a mature religious, a musician and liturgist who goes through a profound spiritual awakening and transformation in Christ. She discovers the primordial and universal Christian Mysteries of spirit-communication, spiritual healing, and the God-given human potentials for positive visionary experience, intuition and creativity. She is now able to use these as an everyday part of her ministry and charism for uplifting and helping many souls through spiritual counseling, devotional music and song.

Today, Sr. Leona Hartman, O.Tr. has combined all of this with ordination to the priesthood in the Old Catholic succession, in a Catholic Rite Community within the International Council of Community Churches, an affiliate of World Council of Churches.

From Chapter 7 
Mission Life Experiences 
"...On Earth, NOT as it is in Heaven"!

I continued to write the spiritual director, but very quickly a directive came to all the Sisters that "Spiritual Direction outside of the confessional was not allowed, except to your Superior." I was grateful for the lift I had experienced from Father, but the connection was severed immediately. This meant that God and my confessor were my only outlets.

One day, my twenty-one year old brother visited me. Sister Flossie invited him to recreation. The Sisters sat in a semi-circle around the piano. I played a piece on the piano, and my brother was asked to speak. He gave a wonderful lecture on the gold-mine operation and then we were dismissed. My brother seemed stunned and remarked, "They are all the same - not one out of line." He went to join the army. I wonder if the army line was any straighter than ours.

Once a week, I drove with the students to take music lessons in the city. After the lesson I walked to another of our Community houses and waited for a ride. Often I waited from ten a.m. until three p.m. and the Sisters used to invite me to lunch. Sister Flossie quickly put a stop to that and said, "You are not to talk to the Sisters or eat with them."

One day, Sister Flossie asked me to put on a recital for the Infirmary Sisters. I played 'The Blue Danube' which the sisters loved. Sister Flossie reprimanded me, "That is not one of your assigned Study pieces and so you wasted time to learn that piece."

Since Sister Flossie did extensive studies in Scripture, I was expected to attend her classes. "Obedience is better than sacrifice," was a common theme. Another stressed topic was, "Man was made to think, therefore, ignore the emotions as they cannot be relied on." I raised my hand and asked, "Why did a recent master tell us, "'If you don't feel devotion when you pray, then pray for emotion'"? That is the last question that I dared to ask as it was bad news for me.

An occasion arose when five of us attended a weekend Conference on Liturgy. Soon after, a notice on the board announced a meeting for one hundred Sisters. Unknown to me, it had to do with Liturgy. I arrived and was told by Sister Flossie that I am to give a report on the conference. I had not taken notes with me and I felt tricked so I quickly prayed to the Holy Spirit, jotted down a few notes, and spoke. The Sisters clapped, and I couldn't believe my ears when Sister Flossie said, ""You did rather well."

The next day the nurse came to give me some medicine. Sister Flossie saw this and asked what that was for. I told her it was for stomach ulcers. She looked astonished and asked, "Why do you have ulcers?" I told her, "I guess it's because I haven't done anything right on two years." "But I told you yesterday that you gave a good talk," and she covered her head and cried. As for my other companion, her health broke down. When she went away for a rest, Sister Flossie was complaining that she would have so much work to do now. I just replied, "You're lucky, she's been very loyal to you." She just looked shocked.