Dear Allison,

The contact you will have with your family as a nun will vary from order to order. Writing, phone calls, visits from your family, visits to them, will all vary according to the spirit and mission of each order or congregation. So, when you find an order that you think God may be calling you to, get to know them first and then find out what their particular practice is as regards contact with your family.

Consider also that most orders have different regulations for novices, nuns still in formation and perpetually professed engaged in their apostolic work, which means that the amount of contact can change over time. Here, too, all you have to do is ask.

But don't put the cart before the horse. First find out what God wants you to do, and you can be sure he will give you the grace to do whatever that is, even if it seems difficult to you now.

God bless,

 - Fr. Anthony