Here’s a recent story about Sister Carrie Flood, IHM, a young woman who professed vows with the IHM Sisters of Scanton, Pennsylvania, on July 27. (Click here to see how the Scranton IHMs are related to my IHMs.) Be sure to follow the link below to the article to read about Carrie’s journey to religious life. And here are a few quotes from the article with Carrie’s reflections on religious life.
Congratulations, Carrie!
Nun at 41: A sister’s journey led her to service
by Lawn Griffiths
September 21, 2007
East Valley Tribune (Phoenix)
Many people look at Catholic religious life, as priests or nuns, “in terms of what you can’t do,” such as not being able to marry or have children or being financially prosperous, she said. Instead, “we learn about the vows in terms of what you are invited to do,” Flood said. “The vow of chastity invites us to try to love everyone equally, meaning it is not so much not having children because we are actually called by our vow of chastity to love all of God’s creation, to love all people. Our vow of obedience just calls us to listen to the voice of God and the movement of the Spirit in our lives.”
Only one other woman went through the training and took the vows with Flood.
That there aren’t more women entering religious life isn’t necessarily discouraging, she said. “I wasn’t around” in the years when as many as 50 or 60 women would enter convents for training, “so I don’t have any sense of loss.”
“I think there are a lot of misconceptions that you have to be a special person,” Flood said. “I am not very special. I listen to rock music and watch ‘The Simpsons,’ and I am just a normal person. God has called me to be his presence in the world and to be a witness to the kingdom, so that is what I am here to do, and I hope I can fulfill that.” …
“We call out jobs ‘ministries,’ ” she said. Days include going to Mass each morning and gathering in the evening at St. Ephrem’s Convent in Brooklyn with 11 other sisters for dinner and prayer. Nuns in her house dress simply, and only older ones wear veils. …
"She wrote the way she lived: on the fly, without retrospect, always on the way, climbing higher."
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A lot of ordinary women may enter the convent, but after years of service some of them trully become extraordinary. We pray that God will bless you to be one of those women.
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