Former nun writes book about leaving church, finding path to happiness

In her recently released book, “Voices of the Heart: A Journey of Faith, Hope and Love," Lambert Pestana shares her compelling and inspiring story.

“It’s a story about choices. Some aren’t easy and others are very difficult, but we do have control over how we look at what happened: Do we choose to be bitter or better, to blame or to bless,” she said.

Lambert Pestana’s autobiography unfurls in her early childhood in a large family in poverty-stricken rural Maine amid alcoholism and spousal abuse. Her mother, a devout Catholic with seven children and very few options for supporting herself and her children in the 1950s, at one time considered killing her children and herself as the only means of escape. Her mother’s brave decisions, unwavering faith in God and lifelong kindness and generosity served as a role model for Lambert Pestana and cemented the bond between mother and daughter.

“She was a woman of beauty and grace. I look at those experiences and I will never say they were a blessing, but they blessed my life,” she said. “It made me what I am today. I understand what it’s like to go through hardship.”

In the book, Lambert Pestana explores her own journey as a nun with the Sisters of St. Joseph that would lead her to teach, minister to troubled teens and, after the death of her mother, to become a chaplain with the pastoral care team at St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, Mass.

“Through my experiences of walking through the darkness of death I came in touch with the need to be with the dying. I was able to be with them and hold them,” she said. “The greatest gift was just to be with them.”

Before she made her own difficult decision to leave the Sisters of St. Joseph, Lambert Pestana said she was the kind of person who wore a mask of cheerfulness and optimism. At times she was also the self-deprecating humorist while avoiding the questions of faith and Catholicism that simmered beneath the facade. But her 25-year struggle to bring about changes in the religious order and her own self-described quest for perfection eventually led to Lambert Pestana’s departure from the religious order and her chaplain position at St. Anne’s Hospital.

We all have choices, as Linda Lambert Pestana knows only too well. At a young age she joined the Sisters of St. Joseph, and throughout her 40-plus-year journey she faced soul-searching, difficult decisions that would ultimately lead to happiness and fulfillment.

In her recently released book, “Voices of the Heart: A Journey of Faith, Hope and Love," Lambert Pestana shares her compelling and inspiring story.

“It’s a story about choices. Some aren’t easy and others are very difficult, but we do have control over how we look at what happened: Do we choose to be bitter or better, to blame or to bless,” she said.

Lambert Pestana’s autobiography unfurls in her early childhood in a large family in poverty-stricken rural Maine amid alcoholism and spousal abuse. Her mother, a devout Catholic with seven children and very few options for supporting herself and her children in the 1950s, at one time considered killing her children and herself as the only means of escape. Her mother’s brave decisions, unwavering faith in God and lifelong kindness and generosity served as a role model for Lambert Pestana and cemented the bond between mother and daughter.

“She was a woman of beauty and grace. I look at those experiences and I will never say they were a blessing, but they blessed my life,” she said. “It made me what I am today. I understand what it’s like to go through hardship.”

In the book, Lambert Pestana explores her own journey as a nun with the Sisters of St. Joseph that would lead her to teach, minister to troubled teens and, after the death of her mother, to become a chaplain with the pastoral care team at St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, Mass.

“Through my experiences of walking through the darkness of death I came in touch with the need to be with the dying. I was able to be with them and hold them,” she said. “The greatest gift was just to be with them.”

Before she made her own difficult decision to leave the Sisters of St. Joseph, Lambert Pestana said she was the kind of person who wore a mask of cheerfulness and optimism. At times she was also the self-deprecating humorist while avoiding the questions of faith and Catholicism that simmered beneath the facade. But her 25-year struggle to bring about changes in the religious order and her own self-described quest for perfection eventually led to Lambert Pestana’s departure from the religious order and her chaplain position at St. Anne’s Hospital.

“Leaving religious life was the hardest decision I ever had to face. A piece of me was dying, and I needed to make a choice,” she said. “I had to face the fear within me and what others were going to say. But no one else can make decisions for us. We have two voices we can listen to: fear or love.”

Lambert Pestana, married for 14 years now to her husband, Louie Pestana, and a mother to Pestana’s daughter, Jenn, and her granddaughter, Julia, said she’s found a happiness she never expected.

“I never, ever thought I’d get married — it’s not what I intended,” she said. “Louie Pestana’s my hero and the love of my life.”

A bereavement and spiritual counselor in private practice today, Lambert Pestana said she hopes the book as well as a CD recording of a song she wrote, sung by Morgan F. Llorens, will inspire others to face their choices head on and live life to the fullest.

“When we fall we don’t believe we can get back up. But we can,” she said. “ I have a real passion for life and for living and celebrating every moment. I think a lot of people get caught up in the business of life and they miss the moment.”