Expert: Griff Ruby - 5/26/2007

Question
Dear Griff,


                      I understand the fact that, If the convent seems to me a viable alternative to marriage because marriage seems so out of reach, that is no reason to be a nun.  A person should be a nun because they love God and seek His glory and want to help out in His cause, not because one has nowhere else to go. Your right most people think that if the guys dont find them attractive enough they automatically think I should be a nun. I want to be come a nun for God because I love God and seek His glory and want to help out in His cause, not because one has nowhere else to go. I want to get married to God and I have GRACE from God. I dont want to go for worldly issues but for God for his will. That is why I have a calling its to become a nun and a canonized saint it may take a lot of study and worship but I am ready for God! I am a knight of God ready to take on the world to spread his word and help to serve those who need my service. I also was healed by Jesus Christ he healed my foot from five major planters warts on my left foot and a cyst too. He said I will make you great in the kingdom of heaven. This was three years ago from this coming sunday on Petecost. I now speak in tongues its not gibberish, it sounds like a type of hebrew. It stuck with me ever since. It sounds like you know that Mel Gibson movie Passion of Christ the hebrew language well that is what it sounds like. I learned it from no one but God. It is the gift of the Holy spirit.  

Answer
If there is anything constructive to learn from the Pentecostalists (clearly you are influenced by them), it is the ability to ask God for a miracle.  Sometimes I can't help wondering if only we Catholics might have a tremendous number of significant miracles if only we thought to ask for them.
The "praying in tongues" thing however is a total sham.  When Paul prayed in a tongue, it was simply his native Hebrew (or Aramaic), which no doubt sounded much like an "unknown tongue" to his gentile converts.  But when he prayed to God he had no interest in having others understand what he was saying.  And in the Mass, such Hebrew was also used, and then Greek, and finally Latin.  You see traces of the Hebrew in such words as Amen and Hosanna, and Greek in the Kyrie eléison.
As for the Passion movie, the language used by the Jews among themselves is Aramaic (looks like Hebrew, uses the same letters, but is a different language, like English and German).  And I can actually make out a word or two here and there.  For some reason the movie has no one speaking in Greek, which is how the Jews talked to the Romans and vice versa.
Since you have an interest in Hebrew, a good thing to do would be to start learning actual Hebrew.  A good way to learn Biblical Hebrew would be to obtain a Hebrew-English Interlinear Bible (look up "Interlinear Bible" on Amazon) where the original Biblical Hebrew is presented alongside the English words for each Hebrew word, as well as a running text along the side of the page (in most cases).  And there are books on the Hebrew language by which one can learn it.  This could be a very useful thing; you could become a scholar, and that could make you a real asset as a teaching sister (nun).