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Wearing a traditional blue and white habit from head to toe, Sister John Mary is at once peaceful and intense. She warmly welcomes visitors into the quiet convent tucked between a church and a Catholic school in Toronto’s east end.

She sings softly during a midday prayer, one of four she attends each day. “Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.”

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Sister John Mary has no possessions and wears a ring to signify her marriage to God. She’s one of the Sisters of Life, a convent of young, ultra-conservative Catholic nuns that was founded in New York in 1991, and arrived in Canada in 2007.

In today’s world, choosing to become a nun obviously takes strong conviction. Choosing to become an orthodox, habit-wearing nun takes something more — that perhaps comes with the passion of youth.

At the age of 29 — young for a nun in modern times — Sister John Mary committed herself to lifelong vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. The habit that she wears, sews and washes herself is a sign of her commitment in what she calls today’s “post-Christian culture.”