In this article on religious vocations, a nun uses her attachment to jewelry as barometer of her spiritual condition--and notes what her earthly sisters gained from her spiritual calling:

"I had enough rings for every finger and loads of jewelry," [Carol Derynioski] said.

After learning on the Web about the Monastery of the Mother of God in West Springfield, a community of contemplative Dominicans, she contacted them. Last August she entered the monastery and in February she took the white veil of a novice and the name Sister Maria Gianna of the Divine Mercy.

With a laugh she said she made her three sisters very happy when she gave up all her jewelry. "I have found the pearl of great price," she said. "And whatever it took, I was willing to do."