A Change of Habit: A Spiritual Journey From Sister Mary Kateri to Sister Mary Vodka - Revised edition

A Change of Habit recounts Patty Ptak Kogutek's spiritual journey beginning at age seventeen in the 1960s, when she enters a convent. Driven by deep guilt, she seeks to obey the Catholic Church and please both her earthly and heavenly father. However, she finds no happiness in religious rites and rules. Her time in the convent coincides with changes in religious life brought about by Vatican II, including changes to names and attire. After seven years, she leaves the convent but discovers that the habits of poverty, chastity, and obedience persist into her married life. She eventually confronts these ingrained patterns and works to break free from them. Through her journey, Kogutek finds true spirituality by listening to the God within and releases the destructive habit of guilt. She shares seven secrets to guilt-free living learned through her experience. Rather than a simple story of escape and happiness, the book examines how deeply duty becomes embedded in a person's life. Spanning forty years, it documents personal reinvention and shows that change is possible at any point in life.