In my own life, when I told my parents that I was planning on entering religious life, my mother asked, “What are we going to tell the neighbors?” You would have thought I had told her I was planning on moving to a brothel. This was not a violent response, but not warmly accepting either. (Years later, though, at the time of my final vows, she told me, “I feel better about your being in the Cenacle, because I can tell that they love you.”)