One Woman's Extraordinary Journey of Faith, Hope, and Clarity
June 13, 2011
Johnson, a writer and Fellow of the MacDowell Colony, left the Missionaries of Charity in 1997. She overshares the 20 years she spent as a nun under the direction of Mother Theresa. As Sister Donata (a name meaning "freely given"), Johnson lived obediently in poverty and chastityâmost of the time. Yet she was chafed by the rules more than by her blue-edged sari. For her, Jesus' words, "I came that you may have life, and have it to the full," meant she had to leave: "my faith left my soul cold." She profiles "Mother" beyond the myth and provides chilling reports of vicious, bullying nuns. She details her growth from a teenager obsessed with the ideal of Mother Theresa into an adult who needed touch and privacy and eye contact, all forbidden by Mother. Johnson writes candidly of self-flagellation, humiliation, and her furtive exploration of her sexuality. Johnson "recreated" the first half of her story, going back to her adolescence and her initial decade as a nun, from her memories; it's tedious compared to the intense, believable second half that includes her last years of working with Mother Theresa. The epilogue, covering her life after she left the order, teases with riches never mined.