As a Catholic, I feel blessed to have not one but two Madonnas in my life. I of course adore Mary the Mother of God but I also dig Madonna the performing artist! I blogged about Madonna and discernment a few months ago and yesterday was another great Madonna moment in history inspiring today’s blog post. While the Super Bowl game and commercials were entertaining, the Halftime Show was riveting!

At 53-year-old, Madonna can still rock the house big time! She did a cool collage of “Vogue,” “Music,” “Party Rock Anthem/Sexy and I Know It,” “Give Me All Your Luvin’,” and “Like a Prayer” and was joined by other top performers including Nicki Minaj (great voice), M.I.A. (gesture fail), LMFAO (first hamsters, now Madonna are grooving with them), and Cee Lo Green (who was also in a great commercial with his The Voice costars and Betty White). The visual effects were amazing too — thanks to Cirque Du Soleil and Jamie King.

Why is Madonna so awesome? Well, she’s a fabulous singer and performance artist. She is not only the Queen of Pop but she’s also the Queen of Reinvention.

Considered to be one of the “25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century” by Time for being an influential figure in contemporary music, Madonna is known for continuously reinventing both her music and image, and for retaining a standard of autonomy within the recording industry.Considered to be one of the “25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century” by Time for being an influential figure in contemporary music, Madonna is known for continuously reinventing both her music and image, and for retaining a standard of autonomy within the recording industry. (Wikipedia)

Madonna has done dance, music, acting, fashion design, film directing and producing, writing, and business. She sees what she wants and goes after it, trying it out, turning it around, creating and recreating it. If it doesn’t quite stick or it isn’t energizing for her, she moves on. I’ve got a lot of respect and admiration for this habit of Madonna’s. Reinventing oneself is something I think we all need to do now and again.

Who doesn’t love an invention? Think of the light bulb, which had never shined in all of history until Thomas Edison switched it on on Dec. 31, 1879. Think of lasers, helicopters, microchips, elegant equations like E = mc², and even modest wonders like batteries, Velcro, and air conditioning. We honor inventors, enrich them, ask them about the meaning of life.

Reinvention isn’t in that league. The tip-off is the “re,” meaning it’s been done before. If invention is the dazzling hit, reinvention usually begins as a miss. But a miss that is taken back into the workshop, rethought, reworked, and brought out for a second, third, or fourth try can change the world. The light bulb, for instance, only stayed lit after it hadn’t at least 6,000 times. Each time, Edison and his co-workers took stock of what went wrong, made improvements, and tried again. His invention was a serial reinvention. (by John Yemma, Editor for The Christian Science Monitor, February 5, 2012)

Reinvention is not annihilating what was or who we’ve been, rather it’s tinkering a bit and finding a new way to be most fully ourselves.

In  what way are  you inspired by Madonna? What might you need to bring back into the workshop, rethink, rework, and bring out again to change your life and perhaps the world?

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Join the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer at 6 p.m. CT in the chat room today.

It seems only fitting that we should blog about these nuns after having been at the movie theatre to see The Mighty Macs.

Sister Lucia Anne Le, OSB, Popcorn Master at Prayerfully Popped

The Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration have just launched a popcorn ministry: “Prayerfully Popped – Corn From the Cloister”. They have a fantastic website where you can learn about this new ministry … and order some popcorn! Visit prayerfullypopped.com.

The popcorn production will take place near the Tucson, Arizona, monastery, one of three monasteries of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. The other monasteries are in Clyde, Missouri, and in Dayton, Wyoming.

So why popcorn and why a monastery? Well, the sisters, like many religious congregations and people across the U.S. have to deal with these tough economic times. The sisters wanted to find a new form of ministry that would be in keeping with their life and spirituality and also bring in some income. So they reached out to University of Arizona Eller College of Management students asking if the students could take on the monastery as a class project.

With the help of the instructor and a Phoenix-based consulting organization, the nuns and the students did just that!

“We never really have considered going into the popcorn business,” Prioress General Sister Patricia Nyquist, OSB, says. “We are contemplative so our ministries have been in-house.… But the more we heard, we thought, this could be fun, and it certainly opens up a whole new venue of outreach for us.”

“It’s probably one of the most unusual (business ventures) because it’s not overtly religious,” Sister Joan Ridley, OSB, says. “But it does have the name ‘Prayerfully Popped.’”

“Everything we do we try to do prayerfully,” adds Sister Ramona Varela, the prioress of the Tucson monastery, explaining that working prayerfully means that you are singularly focused on the task at hand, much as you are when you pray. Christ is in our hearts so no matter what we do it’s all centered on a life of adoration and worship,” she says. (source: Cathalena E. Burch for the Arizona Daily Star, September 4, 2011)

Visit Prayerfully Popped at PrayerfullyPopped.com or call 800-939-8323. Be sure to check out flavors like pumpkin pie and rocky road!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone). The nuns will be at a cheesy nundisclosed location!

Sinéad O'Connor, Irish singer and songwriter

Dear Sinéad O’Connor,

First, let me say that I have a great appreciation for you as a musician and as an advocate for women. I love the song “This is Mother to You” that you did with Mary J. Blige in support of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS).

As a Catholic nun, I too share your passion for advocating for girls and women. My religious congregation, the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Sisters of Monroe, Michigan, works tirelessly on behalf of girls and women through education, advocacy, social justice and systemic change, mentoring, and more.

Now I’m wondering about a curious statement that  you made recently in a column for the Irish Independent (August 22, 2011): ”I am in the peak of my sexual prime and way too lovely to be living like a nun, and it’s VERY depressing.” While I am sure much support is pouring in to assist you in your search for a companion, I wish only to offer a bit of advice on your mischaracterization of nuns. To reduce the entire life of a nun to the state of not having sex is at best wrong, and at worst a gross offense to the countless women religious who have served and continue to serve people throughout the world, including yourself, I might add.

The life of a nun is the most wild and unforgettable adventure that a person will ever have. Whether a woman chooses to be a contemplative, cloistered nun or an active religious sister — she is continually ministering on behalf of the needs of the world, celebrating the joys and the beauty of life, and bringing a compassionate presence in the midst of sorrow and suffering. A nun’s life is one of savoring this good life that God has given all of us, and working tirelessly to change systems that degrade life, to mend broken hearts, and to call ourselves and all of us to our best selves.

I feel bad that this essence of a nun’s life has eluded you and that the joy and meaning that you seek seems to have been reduced to sex and a stubbily companion. While both of these things can truly be awesome, they are not what makes you who you are as a person. That starts from within.

My prayers are with you, Sinéad, and should you ever feel up for the adventure of being a nun, you know where to find us.

Sincerely,

Sister Julie

Join the nuns and friends for a LIVE podcast today at 5pm Central Time (USA).

The pope has arrived at the Madrid airport, and the World Youth Day pilgrims and media are already flocking to the plaza for welcoming the pope this evening (7:30 pm Madrid Time). We’ll be there too! During the afternoon, we’ll podcast LIVE, bringing you streaming audio and video segments of the action in the plaza. Then at midnight Madrid Time (5pm Central Time USA) we’ll podcast live from our mobile studio, describing the sights and sounds of the day! Hope you can join us!

Here are some of the sights we encountered yesterday:

Heraldos del Evangelio -- one of the coolest habits we've ever seen, complete with black leather riding boots and a chain around the waist!

Young Catholics from Korea talk to the nuns about their WYD experience

The Queen and King of Spain welcome Pope Benedict XVI to Madrid and World Youth Day 2011

Sister Lynn and Sister MaryAnn of the UK -- Sisters, Faithful Companions of Jesus

World Youth Day in Madrid totally rocks! It’s like a crazy awesome collage of prayer, friendship, and party – not to mention the fabulous coffee and cuisine (our own Consecrated Foodie has lots to say, for example, about the Jamon Iberico.)

We’ve met religious and young people from Malta, Philippines, Australia, Scotland, Brussels, Singapore, and even from our humble town of Chicago!

One of the big events of WYD is the Vocation Fair which is being held in Parque del Retiro, a beautiful park located here in the city of Madrid. There are over 5 dozen stands set up – from the Jesuits to the Catholic Boy Scouts and Girl Guides.

The Vocational Expo 2011 aims to help young people attending WYD to experience first hand the many vocations that exist within the Church and find encouragement in their search for God’s will in their own lives. It is also opportunity for religious families, movements, associations of faithful, and other church institutions around the world to present their charism to hundreds of thousands of WYD participants present in Madrid.  (WYD website)

We met up with an energetic group of WYD pilgrims from Cebu in the Philippines. The group all wanted to be on camera but elected Nelson to talk with us. Here’s our conversation with Nelson – along with some fabulous singing from the whole gang!

Singapore WYD group

Be sure to join us TODAY at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for a live broadcast tonight at 3 p.m. CST in the United States (your time zone) with highlights from today’s adventures in Madrid at World Youth Day. During the podcast we’ll take your questions and thoughts via our chat room at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

¡Hasta luego!

How times change! Today, while reading about the space shuttle Endeavour, whose final mission ended this morning, I came across this photo (at right). It shows the first call ever made by a pope to outer space. During the call, on May 21, Pope Benedict spoke to the crew of the Endeavour, which included two Italians. The pope applauded their dedication and courage.

Elsewhere in the heavens, I imagine Galileo smiling.

Sure, the 17th century was a long time ago, and Galileo has probably let bygones be bygones. Besides, the idea that the earth revolves around the sun has long ceased to be controversial. And our understanding of how to interpret the bible has changed a lot, so we look at verses like Psalm 104: 5, “You fixed the earth on its foundation, never to be moved” very differently than did people hundreds of years ago.

I’m encouraged by the photo! It reminds me that our Catholic Christian tradition is a living tradition, in conversation with the world around us, however delayed or timely that conversation might be.

Pope’s call to space: AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Nathan Lindstrom
Endeavour space shuttle: photo by NASA/Bill Ingalls

So we’re approaching May 21, 2011, which is reportedly the day that we will meet our Maker. Well, I got some good news, and some bad news. The bad news is that I’m not planning any last minute party or fulfilling any bucket list items between now and tomorrow night. The good news is I’ve already met my Maker!

That’s right. I’m kinda old school when it comes to God — I believe in the incarnation of God in our history and in our world. I believe in the activity of the Holy Spirit within each of us, the Church, and the world. I believe that God is closer to me then my very next breath. While I look forward to full union with God in the hereafter, I am also quite delighted with knowing and being in relationship with God here and now. I don’t “need” the rapture to meet my Maker as I’ve known my Maker for quite some time now.

Who do we think Jesus the Christ is anyways? Do we not believe that “Christ is the image of the unseen God and the firstborn of all creation, for in Christ were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and invisible” (Colossians 1:15)? And again in the Gospel of John we read Jesus’ words: “Whoever has seen me has seen Abba God. How can you say, ‘Show us your Abba’? Don’t you believe that I am in Abba God and God is in me? The words I speak are not spoken of myself; it is Abba God, living in me, who is accomplishing the works of God. Believe me that I am in God and God is in me, or else believe because of the works I do” (John 14:8-11).

I know these words of Scripture to be true because these are living words, words breathed by the Spirit at the beginning of creation, 2000 years ago during Jesus’ life on earth, and today in our midst. Every breath we take is a reminder that we not only have met our Maker, but that we are constantly in relationship with God who loves us and takes delight in us.

So while I personally am not expecting the rapture tomorrow (though if it comes before I have to clean the convent, I wouldn’t complain), I am grateful for the opportunity to think more deeply about how I am and we are in relationship with God here and now and later in the great beyond, when “God will be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

Lots of interesting things in the news about Catholic sisters and nuns! For your weekend enjoyment, check out the following nun stories:

Second time was the charm for Cebuano lass turned nun by Inday Espina Varona at ABS-CBNnews.com (April 27, 2011)

People do not need to be members of religious orders to live Pope John Paul 2′s message of hope. “You can be a lay minister, you can be in any kind of profession and still fulfill your Christian potential.”

Sister Maria said one lesson from Pope John Paul 2 is, that words are nothing if not backed by action.
“Witnessing is not just preaching,” she stressed.

Shareholder proposals companies don’t want you to see by Julianne Pepitone at CNNMoney.com (April 25, 2011)

The Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica filed a shareholder proposal in November asking AT&T to “publicly commit to operate its wireless broadband network consistent with Internet network neutrality principles.” It turns out that the St. Scholastica Monastery in Kansas owns more than $7,400 worth of AT&T stock. Other Catholic monasteries around the country joined the cause, filing their own requests. A few individuals also petitioned AT&T, including “Mike D” of Beastie Boys fame. AT&T did not respond to a request for comment.

So why do nuns care about such a geeky issue?

“Net neutrality can greatly affect underserved communities that have limited access to the Internet. We need to alleviate those social inequalities,” Kron [the contact person for the proposal] said, noting that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has published an open letter supporting Net neutrality. Unfortunately for the nuns and Mike D, the SEC granted a no-action letter on the basis that net neutrality is not “a significant policy issue.” Kron called the decision “shocking” and said the group “vigorously disagrees.”

Jane Lynch to play Nun in “Three Stooges” by Bill Belew at Examiner.com (April 29, 2011)

The actress will be playing the role of Mother Superior in the comedy flick. As usual Mother Superior has an orphanage, where Larry Moe and Curly live. Sean Hayes will be playing the role of Larry, Will Sasso will be playing Curly, while Chris Diamantopoulos will be playing the role of Moe.

The New York Times posted an interesting article on a group of Benedictine monks who, though cloistered, are hopping online in order to raise awareness about their monastery and their way of life. The monks of the Portsmouth Abbey in Portsmouth, R.I. are online and The Internet has allowed for communities that are enclosed to open virtual doors to the world. They are then able to reach people that might not ordinarily have bump into in and around the monastery.

“If 500 years ago, blogging existed, the monks would have found a way to make use of it,” Abbot Holmes said. “Our power is very limited. In the end it’s God who is calling people to himself and calling to people to live in union with him. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t do our part.”

For some, the technological approach to advertising and marketing may seem at odds with the image of an almost hermitlike monastic existence. Not so, say the monks. The use of technology and social media has been embraced even by the Vatican, which has its own YouTube channel and a Facebook page dedicated to the beatification of Pope John Paul II. (source: “Monks Embrace Web to Reach Recruits” by Tanzina Vega in The New York Times on April 17, 2011)

The monks of Portsmouth Abbey welcomes new members interested in becoming a monk or an oblate.

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone).

Here in the Chicago area, we’re getting snow, snow, and more snow! Plus the winds are whipping around, so that when I look out the window, it’s like looking at a snow-globe that’s just been shaken. I’m not real fond of snow, but I love to engage with nature. So this morning, which BTW is World Day for Consecrated Life, I put on a ton of warm clothes and went outside with Sister Julie.

If there are religious sisters, brothers, priests or other consecrated persons who have been an important part of your life, we’d love to hear about them! Please share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

Honus Wagner is now becoming a convent household name. A baseball card featuring Mr. Wagner was donated to the School Sisters of Notre Dame, a Catholic religious community based in Baltimore. The tattered 1.25 x 2.5″ piece of cardboard is expected to catch up to $200,000 at auction!

Wagner himself was a great treasure, and along with the SSNDs, baseball fans will remember him well into the future.

Wagner, nicknamed “The Flying Dutchman,” played for 21 seasons, 18 of them with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He compiled a .328 career batting average and was one of the five original inductees into baseball’s Hall of Fame.

The baseball card is also quite a treasure. It is a century old, having been produced sometime between 1909 and 1911. How did the nuns obtain the card?

The brother of a nun who died in 1999 left all his possessions to the order when he died earlier this year. The man’s lawyer told Muller he had a Honus Wagner card in a safe-deposit box.

When they opened the box, they found the card, with a typewritten note: “Although damaged, the value of this baseball card should increase exponentially throughout the 21st century!”

With baseball fans and sports news bureaus abuzz with the World Series and the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants, this is a good time to auction the card which is already up for bidding. The auction ends November 4.

What will the SSND sisters do with the money they receive from the auction?

“The money that we receive from this card will be used for the many School Sisters of Notre Dame who are around the world, who need support for their ministries for the poor.” (Sister Virginia Muller, SSND)

More info:

• Holy card! Nuns auctioning rare Honus Wagner (Associated Press, October 28, 2010) — source of quotes in this blog post
• Heritage Auction Galleries, the proud auctioneers of the card
• School Sisters of Notre Dame, Atlantic-Midwest province

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Today we celebrate one of Detroit’s own, Rev. Joseph Tobin, CSsR, a Redemptorist priest, who will become Archbishop Tobin tomorrow at a ceremony in Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. I am delighted for Father Tobin and for the Redemptorist community for whom we IHM Sisters have great affection as we were co-founded by a Redemptorist priest and carry the spirit of Saint Alphonsus (founder of the Redemptorists) with us always.

Father Tobin will become the secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic.

The Detroit Free Press has a nice article on our dear Redemptorist brother, Former Detroit pastor set to become archbishop by Patricia Montemurri (October 7, 2010). Here are a few quotes:

The papal appointment makes Tobin, 58, the second-ranking official in a Vatican department overseeing 750,000 religious sisters and 150,000 religious order priests. Tobin will manage a department that has come under recent criticism for an investigation into the lives of American nuns. Tobin has said the controversial inquiry, known as an Apostolic Visitation, has been poorly handled by the church.

“All I can say is that I’m the product of American women religious, not only as my educators in schools, but also as partners in ministry. I can’t betray what I know,” said Tobin, during a recent Free Press interview. “What I have is a very positive experience of working with women religious in Detroit and other parts of the country.”

Montemurri notes that Father Tobin was the leader of the 5,500-member Redemptorist order worldwide from 1997-2009, and hen traveled the globe to visit Redemptorists working in 77 countries.

When asked about the appointment of her sibling to the Vatican, Therese Tobin says, ““No matter what position he has, he treats people very well…. He’s very respectful. He doesn’t do a rush to judgment. I think it’s a great opportunity for him, and I think it’s great for the Vatican to put him in that position.”

Be sure to read the full article which includes the story of the phone call from the Vatican announcing the good news to Tobin and his family!

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The nuns had a wildly fantastic time with our guest Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson on last night’s In Good Faith program. Dr. Thompson, a historian, talked about the history of Catholic sisters and nuns in the U.S. She’s a great storyteller and left us all wanting to hear more! Thanks to our sponsors, you can listen to and download the recording for free! Be sure to join us next week for Digital Ministry, another free and valuable offering from A Nun’s Life Ministry.

Also, the nuns are on the road this evening and will not be having the weekly Ask Sister live show. We look forward to seeing you on Monday for prayer.

Mother Mary MacKillop, the Australian sister who will be beatified on October 17, was excommunicated by her local bishop. This is common knowledge. But the reason for that excommunication has just been revealed: she was pursuing a case against a sexually abusive priest.

Read Mary MacKillop: Patron Saint of Sexual Abuse Victims? by Father James Martin, SJ, on the America Magazine blog, “In All Things.”

More on Mother Mary MacKillop. Also, mark your calendar — Father Martin will be joining us here on A Nun’s Life Ministry for our In Good Faith live broadcast on December 2 at 8 pm CST (your time zone).

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

In her recent essay “When good (bad) things happen: Religious life in the wake of the investigation“, Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, hits a very key point about how we understand God and God’s relationship to us and the world. She also well articulates many of the positive effects of both the Apostolic Visitation and the doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Council of Women Religious (an organization representing 95% of women religious in the United States).

Read the article and let’s have a conversation here about our questions, concerns, observations and hopes. To start, here are just a few of the lines that struck me …

The “attribution of direct causality for mundane happenings to God can be a spontaneous reaction to bewilderment in the face of inexplicable evil and suffering, but it reflects bad theology and encourages worse spirituality.”

“God is not manipulating by some giant computer in the sky …”

“God is supporting us, urging us to the best responses to reality of which we are capable and even beyond what we think we are capable of, consoling us in suffering, sharing and affirming our joy, strengthening us in conflict, and enabling us to learn and grow through everything we experience no matter how tragic or overwhelming it may be. But this does not make God the direct and immediate cause of each event that happens in the universe.”

“In short, bad causes, whether natural disasters or accidents or stupidity or human evil, do not produce good results, but human beings dealing courageously and creatively with natural or moral evil can cause great good to emerge for themselves and others.”

“Many people … are beginning to realize that two Vatican investigations of U.S. women religious and their leaders … have nevertheless been the context for some very positive developments. These developments were clearly not intended by the investigations and certainly not caused by them. But God is not limited by human intentions …”

“Perhaps the most important development is the impetus … to articulate much more clearly the theology and spirituality that has developed in and energized the last 40 years of ministerial religious life in this country.”

“Are we taking time to interact with younger women who, as they were growing up, may not have known personally any sisters and perhaps thought of them as timid and domesticated “good little nuns” or “father’s little helpers” but who now are hearing and reading about educated and powerful women religious committed to a Vatican II church and a redeemed world?”

“Adversity often calls out of people conviction, strength and commitment that they were not conscious of possessing. That does not make adversity, especially gratuitous adversity caused by human beings, a blessing, even a “blessing in disguise.””

For more on Sister Sandra Schneiders, check out our recent interview with her on our monthly series In Good Faith as well as other articles we’ve written.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

On September 5, 2010, the United States Postal Service released a new stamp in honor of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Here’s the scoop:

The United States of America on September 5 honored Mother Teresa with a special stamp marking the 13th anniversary of Mother Teresa’s death.

The stamp features a portrait of Mother Teresa painted by award-winning artist Thomas Blackshear II of Colorado Springs, Colorado. The stamp was unveiled at a function in Washington.

“Noted for her compassion toward the poor and suffering, Mother Teresa, a diminutive Roman Catholic nun and honorary U.S. citizen, served the sick and destitute of India and the world for nearly 50 years,” the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) stated in a note.

The 44-cent stamp shows the humanitarian icon wearing her customary shawl and smiling. (source: Christianity Today)

Always good to see Catholic sisters and nun honored by the public. An important message is that the work of religious must cross boundaries — we do not serve only “our own” but tend to the needs of all people and all of God’s creation. Compassion, care, love, peace, justice — these know no boundaries.

Not sure why the USPS needed to say “diminutive” in their media advisory. Presumably it referred to her height and not her impact on the church and world.

You can purchase the stamp at USPS.com.

Interested in other nunly commemorations? Check out the Mother Mary MacKillop coin!

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Interested in using social media and the internet for your ministry? Join us for a live broadcast of our new Digital Ministry podcast this Thursday from 3 to 4 p.m. Central Time (your timezone). Our guest is Catholic social media maven Lisa M. Hendey of CatholicMom.com.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Just the other day a large vase of incredibly beautiful roses arrived at the convent, to our great surprise and delight. The flowers were a gift from the Divine. Really. The card that came with them said so. It was signed, “Love, Jesus.”

The roses truly brighten our day. Every time we see them, we smile. Partly that’s because we love a good mystery. (OK, so I tried to convince the florist to tell me if Jesus had another name, like a name on a credit card, but nothing doing. I think the florist enjoyed the mystery too!).

The roses also make us smile because they remind us of conversations we’ve had with people about images of God and their meaning.  On a recent Ask Sister podcast, we were asked about God imagery in religious life. Sister Julie and I don’t espouse the “spouse of Christ” image in terms of our relationship with God. For us, other images better express our connectedness with God. Sometimes the spouse imagery can tend toward the literal. Sister Julie and I don’t really expect Jesus to bring home flowers at the end of the day. But when roses appear, it’s really wonderful!

There is no doubt in our mind that the appearance of the roses was an act of God. Sister Julie and I will continue to admire the beauty of the roses – God’s goodness expressed through creation and in human creativity, kindness, and sense of humor!

BTW, Sister Sandra Schneiders has written a lot about the topic of spousal imagery in religious life. She’ll be with us on a live podcast this Thursday. (FYI if new to A Nun’s Life podcasts, they are basically like tuning into a radio program, but instead of broadcasting it on the airwaves, we broadcast it on our website. All you have to do is visit our website and make sure the volume on your computer is up.) If you have a question for Sister Sandra, please write it in the comment box.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

With two new podcast series starting in September, Sister Maxine and Sister Julie are bringing you the most interesting people and topics around spirituality, ministry, discernment, social media, vocations, and more!

In a few short weeks, we are launching two new monthly podcast series. These live, interview-style programs will be broadcast live on our website. You are invited to join the conversation with us and our guests via our chat room during the live show. You can also submit questions ahead of time for our guests.

Here’s a glimpse of the two programs:

In Good Faith features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. The program will run every first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. CST.

Our first show will be on September 2, 2010, and feature Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM. Sister Sandra is a leading authority on Catholic women’s religious life and a frequent contributor to Catholic periodicals, as well as a renowned author. She is professor emerita of scripture spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley where she teaches courses such as biblical spirituality, Christian spirituality and religious life.

On October 7 we’ll be talking with Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson, a professor of history at Maxwell School of Syracuse University, where she also holds appointments in the departments of religion, political science, and women and gender studies. Peggy is the leading expert on the history of women’s religious life in the United States.

We’ll be adding more information to the In Good Faith program page and our podcast schedule soon!

Digital Ministry focuses on using Internet technologies and social media for ministry. The program is a mix of things covering technique, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in everyday life on the Internet. The program will run every second Thursday of the month at 3 p.m. CST.

Our first show will be on September 9, 2010, and feature Ms. Lisa Hendey, founder and editor of CatholicMom.com, author of The Handbook for Catholic Moms: Nurturing Your Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul, freelance writer, and website designer. Lisa is one of the leading figures in Catholic social media today.

On October 14 we’ll be talking with Father Andy Alexander, SJ, and Ms. Maureen McCann Waldron, partners at Creighton University’s Collaborative Ministry Office and Online Ministries. Father Andy and Maureen have done extensive ministry in tending to people’s spiritual hunger in the digital world.

We’ll be adding more information to the Digital Ministry program page and our podcast schedule soon!

We are able to provide these programs free to listeners because of sponsor support. If you would like to sponsor In Good Faith or Digital Ministry, visit our Become a Sponsor page for more information.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

The Leadership Council of Women Religion (LCWR) held its national assembly this year in Dallas, Texas (August 11-14, 2010). The gathering was an opportunity for education, reflection on issues pertinent to religious life leadership, networking, prayer and celebration.

Among the highlights of the week were the following:

Our own Sister Margaret Brennan, IHM received the 2010 LCWR Outstanding Leadership Award. Sister Margaret, a theologian and former LCWR president, played a key role in the renewal of religious life following the Second Vatican Council. In her response she gave testimony to the founding spirit of LCWR and its continued ministry and mission. (Download the full text of her response GIFT… In gratitude … and awe: A Response)

Richard R. Gaillardetz, PhD of the University of Toledo, spoke on the fidelity of Catholic sisters to the vision of the Second Vatican Council, noting that the tensions sisters are experiencing with the church hierarchy have significance for those not in religious life as well. “The way you respond to the ecclesial tensions you are experiencing right now will be a witness to all Christians, instructing all of us in how to most fruitfully and productively respond to the inevitable ecclesial tensions that we undergo,” he stated.

M. Shawn Copeland, PhD of Boston College emphasized that the prophetic ministry of Catholic sisters is critical for the future of the church. Noting that the Catholic tradition is in crisis, she asked, “How are we to live in the presence of God in this time of disappointment and diminishment? What are we to do in a situation in which nothing seems to be moving forward, when life-giving possibilities for the future seem foreclosed or beyond immediate realization? In such a situation, prophetic ministry not only is needed, it is imperative.”

In her address to the assembly, LCWR president Sister Marlene Weisenbeck, FSPA urged the body to claim its role in the church. She said, “We do not have to mimic our founders to find the answer about how to articulate our ecclesial role. The Gospel will show us what to do, how we must act with the attitude of Jesus who emphasized an inclusive love of all in right relationships. We take our power from the Word of God.” (Download Sister Marlene’s full address Called to Hope as Prophets, Artists, Healers, & Lovers)

Before the close of the assembly, Sister Mary Hughes, OP of the Dominican Sisters of Amityville, New York, assumed the office of LCWR president for 2010-2011.

(sources: Leadership Council of Women Religious and Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; see also US Catholic article LCWR Members urged to maintain ‘hope in the midst of darkness’)

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

It is Wednesday morning and I am very, very tired! Sister Maxine and I have been at our IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan, for all of last week through the weekend — and what a celebration it was! We had Mission Unit meetings (clusters of about 12-20 IHM sisters and associates), retreat, talks by Father Tony Gittins, CSSp, Ask Sister special edition podcast from the Motherhouse, visitors from A Nun’s Life community in person, festive meals, prayer in solitude and in solidarity, cookies from Cakes by Stephanie (to die for), Jubilee Eucharistic liturgy and celebration, and the final profession of vows of nuestra IHM hermana Maria Antonia Aranda Diaz, IHM (more on her profession mañana).

It was truly a graced time, but I for one am exhausted! But it is a good exhaustion, one that reminds me that living life to the fullest, savoring every moment, working and praying and celebrating together — these all are good things that reflect who we are and whose we are.

For today, I’m going to catch up on some work and emails and sleep — but with lots of inspirations, ideas, and memories to accompany me!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

One of my favorite actors, Kathleen Turner, is currently starring as a Catholic sister in the play “High” at TheaterWorks in Hartford, Connecticut.

“High” Synopsis

SISTER JAMISON CONNELLY (Kathleen Turner) is a drug and alcohol counselor at a Catholic rehabilitation center, having successfully treated most who have sought her guidance. But when the Chief Administrator, FATHER MICHAEL DELPAPP (Michael Berresse), brings in CODY RANDALL (Evan Jonigkeit), a troubled drug-addicted hustler whom he assigns to her care, Sister’s unyielding convictions are ultimately tested.

HIGH explores our faith and the belief in miracles. And despite the medical statistics that prove only one-third of those afflicted with alcoholism and drug addiction will ultimately recover – the question remains: can people really change and do miracles still occur?

In an interview with Kathleen Turner, Joanne Greco Rochman of the Republican-American asked her, “So what’s a sex symbol like you doing playing a nun?” “I’m a foul-mouthed, nasty nun,” answered the actress with a devilish laugh.

The interview continues:

“The play has a lot to do with belief and redemption,” she explained. “It’s about surrendering one’s self to a higher power,” Turner said, adding that she was not sure whether or not she buys into this, but it’s something she wants to explore.

“I’ve listened to testaments and I know that this works for people. I don’t know how I feel about it all. I think I took the role in part because I want to pursue this faith issue. I am a faithful person, but not in organized religion,” she said. …. “It’s a fascinating concept to me,” said Turner. “If it’s true, then anyone can be healed.”

You can see another interview with Kathleen Turner on Fox CT:

I am VERY sad that I am not able to see this. I would love to see Kathleen Turner, number one, and number two, how this story of Sister Jamison unfolds. If you’ve seen it I’d love to hear what you thought (the play goes through August 22). If you know the producers, ask them if I can get a DVD!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Normally a pilgrimage is when people set out on a journey to visit sacred places and holy people. But this pilgrimage does it the other way around!

Catholic News Agency, Jul 15, 2010 – Relics of Blessed Mother Teresa are scheduled to visit several cities across the Midwest this weekend, as part of a tour of the United States and Canada. The tour is being held in anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the sister’s birth on August 26.

The relics are in the care of the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order founded by Mother Teresa, and include her sandals, crucifix and rosary, as well as a lock of her hair and drops of her blood contained in reliquaries.

The tour has already traveled through Boston and Baltimore, among other cities, and is scheduled to make stops in Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota in the coming days. (source)

In two days, Mother Teresa’s relics will be present at Saint Mark Church in Gary, Indiana, not far from Sister Maxine and me. Mass time is 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. We are hoping to make it there and if we do, we will share our experience with you. Has anyone else had the opportunity to see the relics?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

For a minute, I thought that the Chicago Tribune had discovered Sister Maxine flinging kitchen knives as she prepared for dinner, but no such luck.

Suburban Chicago nun skilled with blade by Casey Toner (Chicago Tribune, June 30, 2010) is an article about Dominican Sister Dorothy Solak who coaches fencing at Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights. The article explains how she got into fencing as well as her thoughts on the art of fencing. I also appreciate that the writer of this article included Sister Dorothy’s experience of being a sister. Here’s a quote from the article about her decision to become a nun.

Solak said she thought about becoming a nun when she was 13. The idea became more tangible when she started working full time.

“It’s like a nagging feeling you have, like there was something more I wanted to be involved in, that I would want to give my life to in a more intense way,” Solak said.

She joined the Dominican Sisters of Springfield in 1976 after she visited the Sacred Heart Convent in Springfield. She took her first vows in 1979 and her perpetual, or lifelong vows, in 1984.

“It’s more of a feeling within yourself, within your heart,” Solak said about her decision to become a Dominican nun. “I think it’s true in the same way if you find the right guy. You know it’s the right one for you. You can’t explain it intellectually. It’s a feeling, a feeling you are in the right place.”

Be sure to read the entire article Suburban Chicago nun skilled with blade. Share your thoughts with us!

And also, be sure to join us tonight for Praying with the Sisters LIVE podcast. We are on the road and staying the next couple nights with the Immaculata IHM Sisters in Pennsylvania. Last night two sisters joined Sister Maxine and I for our prayer podcast and a few others were in the chat room. Also this is our 100th prayer podcast episode! YEA! Not to be missed!

Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Sister Maxine’s first words to me were, “Tell folks in the chat room we’ve got to go because the storm is hitting.” The thunder rumbling overhead and the preternatural meowing of Sister Chloe the Convent Cat confirmed Sister Maxine’s warning to me. Her second words were, “I’m going outside to get a video of this!” The power went out for a good 30 seconds and then flickered on and off for a bit. Did this deter our storm chasing nun? No, more important in fact to get good footage!

So while I unplugged everything and readied Chloe’s tornado emergency bag (food, water, that sort of thing), Sister Maxine shot this video. It’s just minute before it got really dark and settled into a beautiful storm!

After the storm Sister Maxine took this beautiful shot.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE
… more info on that page.

I absolutely love this guy!

Have you ever come to a point in your life when you wanted to do more? More to help out those in need, more to develop yourself and most of all….more to make a difference? Well that time is now for me. My name is David O’Mara and I am just your average guy looking to make a change. I have spent years volunteering for one of the best philanthropic organizations in the United States, Real Options for City Kids, otherwise known as R.O.C.K. This is an organization that works tirelessly to help create physical and educational development programs for underprivileged kids in San Francisco. They have changed the lives of many young boys and girls and are about to help change mine.

I grew up in Modesto, CA and had the privilege of knowing someone who committed her entire life to helping others. My Aunt Claire was an educator, a missionary and most of all a wonderful role model for me and my family. She has spent her entire life working to better the lives of others. It is in her honor that I have made the decision to embark on this two month journey. I have left my job and will be riding my bike across America to raise money to support the R.O.C.K. cause. Am I a seasoned cyclist you ask? No. Have I done this before? No. Am I a little bit nuts? Probably. This is my chance, however, to make a change. I realized that I have the capacity to do something that could truly change the lives of others. Yes, it will be a challenge. And, yes, it is a big risk – but, if Aunt Claire taught me anything, it’s that the joy you get from enriching the life of someone else is worth every sacrifice that comes with it. Wish me luck! Here’s to you Aunt Claire…. – Dave O (from Dave’s website, Following Claire)

Now meet his 88-year-old great-aunt, Sister Claire O’Mara, OSU, an Ursuline nun and missionary. Writes Dave, “For most of her adult life, she was an educator and missionary in Latin America and in the Bronx. She dedicated herself to working with the poor and less fortunate wherever she was. She was always steadfast in her commitment to her beliefs and values. In 1995, New Rochelle College honored her, along with Rosa Parks, as a “Woman of Conscience.””

Dave is currently somewhere in Kansas on his trek from California to Washington, DC.

I highly encourage you to check out Dave’s website Following Claire and also to keep an eye on him via Twitter and Facebook. Please consider supporting Dave in his mission — he needs help along the way — donations, a place to stay, a cyclist to keep him company on the road, help spreading the word through the Internet and media!

Pretty cool guy, eh?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE
… more info on that page.

In May 2010, some 800 international women religious superior generals met in Rome under the auspices of the International Union of General Superiors (UISG) to ponder the twin themes of mysticism and prophecy. The following  statement was issued after the conference and “aims to express the spirit, intent and direction of the organization for the next three years through a series of public commitments” (Thomas C. Fox for NCRonline.org). Here is the statement in full:

“I know the fountain well that flows and runs… though it is night”
(St John of the Cross)

THE FUTURE OF RELIGIOUS LIFE IS IN ITS MYSTICAL AND PROPHETIC FORCE

“My soul is thirsting for God, the living God” Ps 42, 3

During this Assembly:

We, 800 superiors general coming from 87 countries, have quenched our thirst together at the Fountain of life, the God of Jesus Christ, source of our joy, our hope and our strength.

We commit ourselves to:

• Rediscover anew and listen to the Fountain which speaks in our hearts, through others and through creation.
• Draw water from the Source of our charism and rediscover the dynamism of our first call.
• Taste and share together the Word and the Bread.
• Promote a constant dialogue between the Word of God and the events which happen in our world.
• Invite others to come and drink at the Fountain.

“If you consider me a believer… come and dwell in my house” Acts 16, 15

Like Lydia, a listening and faith filled woman, we are invited to open our hearts and our homes and to remember the living waters of our baptism.

We commit ourselves to:

• Create a new style of mystical and prophetic life, open and hospitable, inclusive, respectful of differences and acknowledging the richness of other cultures and religions.
• Recreate the art of living in common, marked by deep human relationships, a listening heart, empathy and non-violence in order to be witnesses of Gospel values.
• Focus on initial and on-going formation in order to unify the mystical and prophetic dimensions of our consecrated life.
• Live in harmony with the whole Cosmos and to dwell respectfully on this Earth.

“Put out into the deep… and cast your nets…” Luke 5,4

We have become aware that we should not fear the night of the deep waters.

We commit ourselves to:

• Courageously identify the “nights” of the Church, of society and of our congregations.
• Discover the sparks of light hidden in the heart of violence, poverty and the lack of meaning.
• To open our eyes to discover new paths of light in the darkness of our world: in the precarious situation of women, the existential restlessness of the youth, the consequences of war and natural catastrophes and the extreme poverty which leads to violence.
• Offer as consecrated women a ministry of compassion and healing.
• Build inter-congregational networks at local and international levels, involving the laity in order to initiate different projects and to work for the transformation of unjust structures.
• Go beyond the frontiers of our respective charisms and to unite ourselves in order to offer a mystical and prophetic word to our world.
• Engage in truthful dialogue with the hierarchical Church at all levels in order to achieve a greater recognition of the role of women.

As Mary, let us remain awake and vigilant,
constantly searching for the Fountain that flows,
certain that It will be found, although it is night.

Click here for a PDF of the statement as well as more information on the 2010 UISG Conference.

What strikes you about this statement? What is something that you hear in this that you can incorporate in your own life? What does this say to you about the possibility of religious life?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake,
to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Just read a great article about Catholic sisters and nuns in the Diocese of Erie. Here are some quotes from the article and some commentary by yours truly:

Though their numbers are down and their populations aging, these nuns continue to serve in traditional ways and in new roles as needs arise.

“As long as we keep changing, we can keep being alive and vital,” Sister Mary Francis Becker said.

Catholic nuns today aren’t the stereotypical figures in black and white reigning over schools and hospitals.

Sisters continue to educate and nurture, but also work as administrators, environmentalists, chaplains, artists, census takers, missionaries, counselors, dietitians, social workers, writers, doctors, financial assistants, secretaries, graphic designers, reflexologists and massage therapists.

Sister Rose Anne Fedorko even worked for the FBI, retiring after a career at the Department of Justice that included helping with records in the fingerprinting division.

“As times change, they grow and adapt,” said Sister Mary Rita Kuhn, the Catholic Diocese of Erie’s vicar for religious.

A nun worked for the FBI? How awesome is that! In so many ways, these sisters shatter the “one-size-fits-all” image of women religious, the image that we all have the same look, the same schedule, the same theology, and the same ministry. If we all were exactly the same, how could we answer the diverse ways that God calls us to be in the world and church?

Even when membership is low, the women put their trust in God and accomplish much, giving hope for the future. In the 1800s, 35 Sisters of St. Joseph ran Saint Vincent Hospital, St. Mary’s and St. Joseph’s homes, and taught in eight schools, said Sister Leonie Shanley, who wrote about their history.

Yup, you read that right. THIRTY-FIVE sisters ran 11 institutions. So this business about declining numbers and small communities? Catholic sisters and nuns have always THRIVED even when it seemed like they were against all odds. You would be amazed to know what a faith-filled, ingenuitive nun can do with what seems like nothing.

“Serving God is tough.” But worth it. “I feel it’s a call from God,” she said. “If you ignore it, you have a really miserable life.”

It’s funny, you think that doing something tough for God is what is going to make you miserable. Yet, as the quote from Sister Jacinta Conklin, prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Elk County, points out, what is really miserable is tuning out God, not being open to God’s call in our life. I have found that when I am finally able to put aside my fears, distractions, and busy-ness and truly open myself to God’s call, I am surprised, renewed, energized for whatever God is calling me to.

So if you think becoming a Catholic sister or nun is just not adventurous enough or radical enough. Think again. You’ve got to be compassionate, courageous, daring, faith-filled, and creative beyond your wildest dreams!

Check out the whole article Catholic nuns in Erie region adapt to changing world by Dana Massing for the Erie Times-News (May 23, 2010). Kudos to the author of the article for a fine job.

Read and respond! What do you think?

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Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Sister Dorothy Stang “was Dot to her friends and family and Irma (Sister) Doroteia to the people in Brazil who took to calling her the ‘Angel of the Amazon’ because of her passionate support of poor farmers’ rights to the land and her protectiveness of the rainforest. Dorothy, a Sister of Notre Dame, devoted almost 40 years of her life to the people and land of Brazil. On February 12, 2005, two hired gunmen shot her six times thinking they had finally silenced this gentle, tenacious crusader for the poor.” (dorothystang.org)

Recent news from dorothystang.org, a website of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur:

NEWS from Brazil – 5/2/2010 – Rancher Regivaldo Galvao was found guilty of ordering the murder of Dorothy Mae Stang and sentenced to 30 years in jail. Sr. Jane writes, “The people gathered outside the courthouse at dawn, singing, praying and celebrating that for the first time in the history of Para, we have managed to bring everyone indicted for assassination of someone in a land conflict to trial, and even more convicted! His family, of course, is devastated…they were sure this would not happen….it never has. The people who came for the trial return filled with peace and hope to Anapu. Dorothy lives!”

4/13/2010 – A milestone victory: wealthy rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura has been convicted of ordering the murder of Sr. Dorothy Stang and was sentenced to 30 years in jail. “This conviction sends a strong message to the other masterminds that the impunity is ending,”says Sr. Rebeca Spires, who has worked in Brazil for 40 years.

Related articles:

• Sister Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN: Sister of Notre Dame de Namur: Humanitarian, Mystic, and Martyr, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur website, Ask an SND
• Conviction of rancher over killing of US nun in Brazil, hailed, Ecumenical News International (May 3, 2010)
• Sister Dorothy Stang, New York Times (May 3, 2010)
• Brazilian gets 30 years for U.S. nun’s murder, Reuters (May 1, 2010)

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Join the sisters for prayer today at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone). Praying with the Sisters is a live podcast where you can chat with us and others in A Nun’s Life chat room. All you need is an internet connection and a heart open to prayer.

http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote an interesting op-ed piece called Who Can Mock This Church? (New York Times, May 1, 2010).

It’s a tough read in the sense that he makes some rather pointed statements about the church’s sex abuse scandals and a church teaching or two. But, his message is that those who wish to “sniff derisively” at the church as a whole ought to first take a look at the “brave souls” who work tirelessly, and many times in very dangerous situations, to live truly the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Among the fine examples is Sister Cathy Arata, a nun from New Jersey. Kristof writes:

Photo by Nicholas D. Kristof/The New York Times. Sister Cathy Arata, a nun from New Jersey who now works with a Catholic project called Solidarity With Southern Sudan.

In the city of Juba, I met Cathy Arata, a nun from New Jersey who spent years working with battered women in Appalachia. Then she moved to El Salvador during the brutal civil war there, putting her life on the line to protect peasants. Two years ago, she came here on behalf of a terrific Catholic project called Solidarity With Southern Sudan.

Sister Cathy and the others in the project have trained 600 schoolteachers. They are fighting hunger not with handouts but with help for villagers to improve agricultural techniques. They are also establishing a school for health workers, with a special focus on midwifery to reduce deaths in childbirth.

At the hospital attached to that school, the surgeon is a nun from Italy. The other doctor is a 72-year-old nun from Rhode Island. Nuns rock.

Sister Cathy would like to see more decentralization in the church, a greater role for women, and more emphasis on public service. She says she worries sometimes that if Jesus returned he would say, “Oh, they got it all wrong!”

She would make a great pope, too.

Check out the full article and let us know what you think. What challenges you about the article? What insights popped into your mind?

Sister Mary Elizabeth Lloyd is runner and a member of the order of the Religious Teachers Filippini. Sister Mary Beth was featured on ESPN Page 2 in the article Sister Mary Beth is no ordinary nun by Jack McCluskey (April 26, 2010).

Sister Mary Beth is part of the crew of Lisa Smith-Batchen, an ultra runner who is on a mission to raise money for the Orphan Foundation of America, AIDS Orphans Rising, and the Caring House Project. Smith-Batchen is the first person to attempt to run 50 miles in each of the 50 states. And Sister Mary Beth is right there with her. “Sister Mary Beth, 61, will walk as far as she’s able — her goal is 20 miles a day — and provide support and encouragement as part of Smith-Batchen’s crew when she can’t help keep the pace.”

Click to see a video of Lisa and Sister Mary Beth on CNN

The image of “habit” is woven in throughout the article. Though perhaps unintended, it offers an interesting commentary on what a habit is and the power of every day lived habits, like Sister Mary Beth’s habit of generosity.

Let us know what you think of the article — and also what your habits are or ones you hope to develop within yourself for the sake of others.

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Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie for LIVE prayer podcast today at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone). You can share your prayer requests with us and the A Nun’s Life community. http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE

From the Leadership Council of Women Religious (LCWR) about one of my nuns …

We are very pleased to announce that Margaret Brennan, IHM, has been chosen to receive the 2010 LCWR Outstanding Leadership Award. The honor will be presented to Margaret at the LCWR assembly in August in Dallas.

Margaret, a Sister, Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe, Michigan, is a theologian, a former president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, and a professor emerita of theology at Regis College (University of Toronto), where she taught for 25 years.

She has made numerous contributions to the renewal of religious life and has been a courageous voice in the church. Novalis Publishing released her memoir last year, What Was There for Me Once.

At the assembly … we will commemorate Margaret’s life and celebrate her significant influence as an inspirational leader in the church and in religious life.

Read more about Sister Margaret Brennan on aNunsLife.org.

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Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie for LIVE prayer podcast today at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone). You can share your prayer requests with us and the A Nun’s Life community. http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE

The National Catholic Reporter just posted a story about Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, prohibiting the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Baden from advertising upcoming vocation recruitment events. According to the article Greensburg bishop denies women’s order recruitment request (April 14, 2010), the Sisters “operate out of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, where the motherhouse is situated. Greensburg is a neighboring diocese, where the sisters have a long history of service.”

Msgr. Lawrence T. Persico, vicar general of the Greensburg diocese, wrote a letter, dated April 8, to priests in the diocese, stating that no diocesan office, The Catholic Accent (the diocesan newspaper), nor any parish “would promote a vocation awareness program of any religious community that has taken a stance against the United States bishops by being a signatory of the Network document.”

Persico concluded his letter stating, “For future reference and for the sake of consistency, Bishop Brandt directs that any promotion and support of a religious community’s vocation awareness program must be vetted first through the Diocesan Office for Clergy Vocations.”

Following reception of that letter, Sr. Mary Pellegrino, congregational moderator for the Sisters of St. Joseph in Baden and a member of the leadership team, issued a statement regretting the decision.

“We are saddened by the decision to ban promotions of our vocations awareness program in the diocese of Greensburg, where our sisters have had a long and rich tradition of service, particularly in schools and parishes. In a letter to the vicar general, we have requested that the diocese of Greensburg officials consider reversing the decision regarding promotions of our vocations program.”

I find this kind of reaction from the bishop quite saddening. I am sad that he felt this was an appropriate action to take, and I’m sad that he’s made the people of the diocese responsible for carrying out his decision. At the same time I am very proud of my sisters for their commitment to the Gospel and to prayerful discernment. I am proud of their gracious response and their continued service of God and God’s people.

Though there are many “commentable” themes in this story, the one that keeps bugging me is the issue of disagreement. I get the distinct impression that somehow a sister’s duty is not supposed to be to God nor to the Gospel nor to the Catholic faith but to agreeing with the bishops.

Seriously?

Other comments, thoughts, questions?

Our very own Sister Maxine Kollasch, IHM, was interviewed on NPR program “Tell Me More” with host Michel Martin. A couple weeks ago, the program’s producer found Sister Maxine via A Nun’s Life Ministry and asked to interview her along with author Leora Tanenbaum, an observant Jew, and the Reverend Renita Weems, a minister ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The conversation was on women’s leadership in religion, though, as we soon discovered, it was steered specifically towards the “glass ceiling” and the ways in which women do not have access to the same roles or experiences that men do. Listen to the 15 minute segment by clicking the play button below (if the player doesn’t appear, here’s the direct link to NPR website).

This was an interesting topic, to be sure, and a timely one as March was Women’s History Month. It was fascinating to see the topic addressed across three different religious traditions. Sister Maxine did a great job, especially since she found out only moments before the show that she’d be asked about women’s ordination in the Catholic Church. Not an easy topic to address! But Sister Maxine did a great job and spoke well.

I think there’s an assumption among some that if ordination were open to women that Catholic sisters and nuns would of course take that “next” step. But that’s not the case at all. Ordination is not a “next” step or a “higher” calling, as if somehow an advanced progression along the path of holiness. However God calls a person is the way of holiness for them, no better or worse than any other calling. We have to unseat this assumption in our Catholic imagination because it does an injustice to God and to each one of us.

There’s also another assumption that the only way to fully lead within the Catholic Church is to be a priest. This is a tough assumption to address because on the one hand we know there are many ways to lead within the church. There are many leadership roles for women and men, lay and ordained. On the other hand, the structure of church leadership is built on ordination, specifically the ordination of men to the priesthood. For many women and men, this is a conundrum. And that’s an understatement.

Think about we as a church have thought about calling, especially with the Second Vatican Council’s affirmation of the universal call to holiness. What does your own call to holiness mean in terms of how you relate to everybody in the church? What questions does that raise for you? What surprises or insights?

Catholic? Feminist? That’s right. Catholic sisters and nuns were some of the first feminists in the U.S. and across the globe.

I just read an interesting post To “write women back into history,” include the first feminists: Women Religious by Linda Stamato, co-director of the Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, and a member of the graduate faculty at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University

Now before we go on here, let me clarify “feminist” because too often it is a word that is used to polarize and demonize women. As Megan Sweas, a young Catholic and feminist pointed out in an article she wrote last year for U.S. Catholic, feminists and feminism is often dismissed (usually with some amount of hostility, I might add) as “too radical, man-hating, or pro-choice”. I think she sums it up well and gives a good view of the challenges of and the connections between being both Catholic and feminist. I encourage you to read her article Catholic and feminist: You got a problem with that? (January 2009, Volume 74, Number 1; pages 23-25).

Back to Stamato’s article:

Roman Catholic Sisters built and managed hospitals, orphanages, and charitable institutions that served millions of people in America long before similar positions were open to women.  But Women’s History Month rarely mentions them or their contributions.  It’s time it did. The scope and quality of the institutions they created and sustained, and, indeed, their acts of mercy, manifest courage, conviction and selflessness, have been nothing short of extraordinary.

She goes on to mention some of the contributions of Catholic sisters and nuns which were detailed in Resolution 441 by U.S. House of Representatives. She writes of this resolution that it is “an action that applauds the social, cultural, and political contributions of Catholic Sisters in the United States, while at the same time recognizing that these women have led community lives dedicated to prayer and service, ‘fearlessly and often sacrificially committing their personal lives to teaching, healing, and social action.’”

Stamato also notes the traveling exhibit Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America which celebrates the history of American Sisters in the Roman Catholic Church and was created by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

There are other great stories of Catholic sisters and nuns in her article. She concludes saying,

On the 30th Anniversary of Women’s History Month, can’t we give new and special meaning to the theme, “Writing Women Back into History,” and include the first feminists? They deserve the recognition, this month, and every month, for what they have given: selfless service to those in need of an education, health care, support and inspiration. And for what they continue to do, much as they have done since they began their work centuries earlier. Truly, these are women of history. It is their lives too, their work too, their exercise of leadership, their legacy and their continued works of charity, generosity, caring and mercy that this month should also seek to acknowledge and respect.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

Today Wednesday is Nunday! Unorthodox, true, but these are unorthodox times, my friends! What with a new website design and new ideas in the works for A Nun’s Life Ministry, we thought we’d shake it up a bit!

And who better to feature today than Sister Rose Ann Fleming, SNDDeN, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, who was recently profiled in The New York Times.

Photo Credit: Barbara Johnson for The New York Times

In the article At Xavier, Nun Works Out Players’ Academic Side by John Branch (March 15, 2010) we meet Sister Rose Ann who is the academic adviser for Xavier athletics .

She was dressed not in a habit, but in gray Nike sweats with Xavier’s Musketeer logo and white tennis shoes. Her hair, nearly all white, is cropped above the ears. She wears a heavy gold cross on a chain around her neck, representing her order, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. She cannot help smiling when she talks.

“She’s not that nun you had in first grade that hits you across the hand with the ruler,” said [Xavier Coach Chris] Mack….

She rises at 4 a.m. for an hour of prayer and meditation. Then she usually spends an hour or more at the computer, often researching law cases that she takes on for Volunteer Lawyers for the Poor. (A law degree is one of several she holds, including Master’s degrees in English, business administration and theology, and a doctorate in education administration.) She exercises on an elliptical trainer, lifts weights and swims. Daily Mass is at 8.

By 8:30, she is usually in her office, overseeing two other full-time advisers and two volunteers who help her track Xavier’s 271 athletes in 17 sports.

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Join us for prayer tonight at 6:00 p.m. Central Time on this feast of Saint Patrick!
http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE

Australia will have its first Catholic saint in the person of Mary MacKillop, a Sister of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Mother MacKillop founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, a religious community that has ministered across Australia and New Zealand, including building dozens of schools for impoverished children in the Australian Outback in the 1800s. They are also committed to “care for the homeless and destitute both young and old, and Refuges for ex-prisoners and ex-prostitutes who wished to make a fresh start in life.” (source: Sisters’ website)

Mary MacKillop is not only a saint for Catholics but she is a saint for Australia. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd noted that her canonization is “a great, great tribute to her hard work in education” and “a great honor for Australia.” (source: Associated Press) She is even featured on a one dollar coin, the first of the Royal Australian Mint’s series featuring inspirational Australians.

This saint, like many saints before her, took her religious vows seriously and followed God even when it meant challenging the Church that she loved dearly. “She was a strong-willed advocate who sometimes got into trouble for challenging orthodox thinking within the male-dominated church. In 1869 she was excommunicated for inciting her followers to disobedience, though the bishop who punished her recanted three years later and she was exonerated by a church commission.” (source: Associated Press)

The Sisters themselves note, “Throughout her life, Mary met with opposition from people outside the Church and even from some of those within it. In the most difficult of times she consistently refused to attack those who wrongly accused her and undermined her work, but continued in the way she believed God was calling her and was always ready to forgive those who wronged her.” (source: Sisters’ website)

Blessed Mary MacKillop is, even today, “an example of great courage and trust in her living out of God’s loving and compassionate care of those in need.”

Mary MacKillop will be canonized on October 17, 2010, in Rome. The process of canonization is an expensive one, so please, keep the sisters in mind and consider donating funds to them.

Congratulations to the Sisters of Saint Joseph and all women religious, to Australia, to the Catholic Church, and to all whom Mary MacKillop inspired and will continue to inspire.

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Join us for prayer this evening during our live Praying with the Sisters podcast at 6 p.m. CST at http://aNunsLife.org/live .

I love watching the Olympics! It is one of my most favorite sporting events. Some day I’m going to find me a snowboard and ride a half pipe or do some snowboard cross.

Today we celebrate an Olympian who is now a Franciscan nun. Kirstin Holum was just 17 years old when she competed in speedskating at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. She took 6th place in the 3000 meter which was considered a great achievement and a sign for future greatness.

Kristin is now Sister Catherine and prayers, ministers, and lives in community at Saint Joseph’s Convent in Leeds, England.

Yahoo! Sports did a good article on Kristin’s journey and her life as a Catholic nun. Here are a few quotes from the article U.S. speedskater took leap of faith by Martin Rogers (February 14, 2010).

After completing an art degree, including a thesis on the Olympics at the Art Institute of Chicago, Holum joined the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, a faith whose mission is “work with the poor and homeless and evangelization.”

Based first in New York, Sister Catherine and her fellow nuns stepped onto the mean streets of the Bronx to work with some of the Big Apple’s most underprivileged children in areas steeped in gang culture. Such work and sacrifice in homeless shelters and soup kitchens gave her a deep-rooted sense of satisfaction that skating had never been able to provide.

Last year, missionary work took Sister Catherine to England, where she has found her previous life as an athlete a useful tool in providing some “street cred” when dealing with skeptical youngsters.

“When I give my religious testimonies, it is fun to watch the reaction of the kids when I tell them I was in the Olympics,” she laughed. “Their eyes get really big and they start paying a lot more attention. It is a great thing to share with them and it gives me a lot of pleasure to think back and talk about it.

“It is not exactly something you would normally expect from a sister. But I think it is good for people to see that members of the religious order can come from any background and any walk of life. It is all about your commitment to the message.”

See more photos of Catholic sisters and nuns at our Facebook page.

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Join us for prayer this evening during our live Praying with the Sisters podcast at 6 p.m. CST at http://anunslife.org/live .

A group of us were chatting on Facebook that it would have been great if Oprah had shared the story of other ways of living religious life on her February 9th show. So, we decided to draft an Open Letter to Oprah from younger women religious.

An Open Letter to Oprah Winfrey

February 16, 2010

Dear Oprah,

We are younger Catholic Sisters and members of Giving Voice, an organization made up of Sisters in their 20s-40s from all over the United States. We would like to thank you for highlighting the lives of Catholic Sisters on your Tuesday, February 9, 2010 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. No doubt, this was the first exposure of many of your estimated 7.4 million viewers to the lives of Catholic Sisters.

We are pleased that you were able to share the story of the Dominican Sisters of Mary. It is clear that they are very happy in their religious lives. For this we rejoice! We too are happy in our religious lives. Like the Sisters featured on your show, we joyfully live out our vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. We are women who find numerous ways to follow Jesus’ call to serve others while fully engaged in the world. For example here is a sampling of what some of us Sisters were doing on Tuesday during your show:

• Working as an instructional consultant with teachers of children with special needs in Harlem, NY
• Collaborating with other Sisters on how to serve people who are poor in San Antonio, TX
• Joining 200+ Catholics at the State Capitol to lobby for social service programs in Olympia, WA
• Preparing to teach a class on human dignity to teenagers involved in gangs in Tyler, TX
• Reading applications for a volunteer program with underserved populations in Baltimore, MD
• Wrapping up after teaching school all day in cities around the country

Our lives of ministry and service are grounded in our experiences as members of our religious communities. Prayer is also an essential component of our way of life. The very nature of our lives is communal, not independent. For this reason, we were disappointed and concerned by how we, as Sisters who are engaged in active ministry in the community, were presented on The Oprah Winfrey Show and on your website:

“Some sisters choose an independent path, which means they live alone, go to college, pursue careers and don’t wear a habit.”

We live in community with our Sisters, often in small groupings close to where we minister. We go to college to develop the skills needed to be effective agents of loving service to God’s people. We do not pursue careers, but seek to educate and transform the world as Jesus would. Our clothing is the least significant part of our lives, yet receives so much attention. However, most of our religious communities choose to dress simply rather than wear habits. We are called to be prophetic, giving voice to God’s love in the world.

We would love the opportunity to share more about our lives of prayer, community and ministry on a future episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. We would gladly speak with you, invite you to experience our daily service, or help broaden your viewers’ understanding of religious life in any way we can.

Visit the Giving Voice website to see the 40 signatures. I am glad to have had the opportunity to sign such a well articulated letter.

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Happy Feast of Ash Wednesday! Join Sister Maxine and me for prayer this evening during our live Praying with the Sisters podcast at 6 p.m. CST at http://anunslife.org/live .

Tune in this morning for the Oprah Show which features Oprah Winfrey chatting with some of the Dominican Sisters of Mary of Ann Arbor, Michigan and Lisa Ling’s experience visiting their “real-life nunnery”. It airs at 9 a.m. CST on ABC.

I am both delighted and a bit concerned about how this show will go. On the one hand I am delighted for the Sisters of Mary. This is an excellent opportunity for them to raise awareness about their particular way of living religious life. I am excited that Oprah is profiling the work of Catholic sisters and nuns, even if just one congregation, because it helps raise awareness about religious life and maybe even sparks the imagination of someone who is open to a vocation to religious life.

On the other hand, I am concerned about a few things. One is how the sisters will be portrayed. The promo for the show reads: “They’re young and have given up sex, careers and having children to become nuns! Lisa Ling spends the night in a real-life convent.” Now I’m all for a good sound bite to catch people’s attention, but I worry about this one. Sure it does grab attention, but it also conveys the messages (reinforced by the promo photos and video) such as you have to be very young to join, religious life is about “giving up” stuff, and nuns and sisters are not allowed to have a profession. I think this is the danger in profiling only one congregation because there is a huge diversity of ways of living as a Catholic sister or nun, and viewers might get the impression that that particular way is the only way. Now, I’ve only seen the promo stuff so maybe this will be addressed on the show.

A second concern. Already the show has paired two stories — nuns and geishas. A geisha is, according to Merriam-Webster, “a Japanese girl or woman who is trained to provide entertaining and lighthearted company especially for a man or a group of men”. It is difficult to miss the comparison to the image of nuns portrayed by the show. Both nuns and geishas have a particular “stance” in regard to men — nuns “give up sex” and geishas entertain men. Kind of a “good girl / bad girl” thing. Both nuns and geishas have a particular form of dress — geishas wear a kimono and nuns (in this case) a habit. While it is indeed a fascinating comparison simply by positing the two stories next to one another with no commentary, again there are messages being conveyed here.

Well the show is on soon! More later!

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone).

Sister Mary Daniel was a scholar, teacher and a woman of vision. She championed human dignity and justice for all; she was a strong advocate for those living in poverty. She confronted tirelessly the inequality of women in the Church and in the world. Her life and leadership demonstrate the power and influence of one person. Her prophetic message impacts religious and social change not only for this but for future generations. (from the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur)

Sister Mary Daniel Turner, 84, dies; led American nuns

By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 1, 2010

Sister Mary Daniel Turner, 84, the former superior general of the international Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and a national leader among Catholic religious women, died Jan. 27 at Holy Cross Sanctuary in Burtonsville. She had breast cancer that metastasized into bone cancer.

Sister Turner co-wrote an influential 1992 book, “The Transformation of American Catholic Sisters,” and was “a driving force for justice and church renewal before and after the Second Vatican Council,” which modernized the Catholic Church worldwide in the 1960s, the National Catholic Reporter said in its story about her death. In an interview last August with the paper’s editor, “the gentle but frequently provocative Turner lamented that Vatican clerics cannot accept women religious as moral agents.”

“I think the issues are wider than women religious,” she said. “It’s really a difference in values between the church of Rome and the U.S. church.”

Sister Turner appears in a video at the exhibit of “Women in Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America,” which opened Jan. 15 at the Smithsonian’s Ripley Center. Too sick to attend, she learned from another nun that the Vatican’s emissary to investigate American nuns had come to the opening ceremony. Sister Turner “simply suggested that her presence at the Smithsonian might be another opportunity for bridge building,” Sister Camille D’Arienzo wrote in an online memorial. “For decades, she had put her intellectual and spiritual gifts at the service of numerous religious communities. She was a visionary rooted in reality.”

She had ventured boldly into controversy before. In 1985, she was among religious leaders who, when asked their advice, urged a committee of bishops not to write a pastoral letter on women in church and society. The all-male, celibate hierarchy should not write about women without more extensive study, she and others said, noting that the bishops wrote a pastoral on economic justice, not poor people, and about racism, not black people.

While Sister Turner worked for female equality, she also “championed human dignity and justice for all; she was a strong advocate for those living in poverty,” the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur said in a news release.

Margaret Turner was born Nov. 21, 1925, in Baltimore and moved to Washington as a child. She attended Catholic elementary school and graduated from the now-closed Academy of Notre Dame, operated by the order she joined in 1943. She took her final vows in 1951 and graduated from what is now Trinity University in 1959. She also received a master’s degree in philosophy from Catholic University in 1962 and a master’s degree in theology from the University of Toronto in 1972.

She taught elementary school and was principal of St. James School in Mount Rainier in the 1950s, then was put in charge of newly professed nuns who were in college. In 1962, she became provincial superior of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, a province which at the time reached from New York to Georgia. Ten years later, she was made executive director of what is now called the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a group of about 1,500 top-level nuns who represent most of the 68,000 Catholic women religious.

Sister Turner was elected in 1978 to a six-year term as superior general in the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, an international group with provinces in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

After she completed her term, she worked with Lora Ann Quiñonez to write “The Transformation of American Catholic Sisters,” which reviewers described as “an important work that will enlighten and challenge.”

A prolific writer and lecturer, she gave commencement addresses in 1981 and 1989 at the Washington Theological Union. When Trinity gave her an honorary doctorate in 1984, it was because “in her unflinching search for truth she has empowered women to believe in the possibility of a transformed world that is inclusive, collaborative and pluralistic.”

In the 1990s, she was the administrator for Joseph’s House, a home for chronically ill homeless men. After her retirement in 1994, Sister Turner lived in a multi-generational, multiracial household where poor children who had attended the order’s schools came to live or to call a second home. She continued to consult with religious organizations until her death. (article source)

More on Sister Mary Daniel Turner in the National Catholic Reporter.

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone).

Since the Apostolic Visitation of U.S. Women Religious was announced, U.S. Catholic magazine has been researching, writing about, and publishing articles and blog posts about the inquiry itself and the responses of women religious themselves as well as from the Catholic community.

U.S. Catholic has pulled together a collection of all these materials on their website at http://www.uscatholic.org/womenreligious.

We’ve also done some blog posts on the topic of the Apostolic Visitation.

Though there hasn’t been much in the news lately about the inquiry into our life as women religious in the U.S., the process is still underway. I’m not certain but I think the process is now at the point of beginning to select which communities will receive an on-site visit. More later as info is made public. For now, please continue to keep U.S. women religious in your prayers as well as Mother Clare Millea, ASCJ, and Cardinal Rodé and all who are part of the inquiry.

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Please join us at 6:00 p.m. CST (your time zone) for Praying with the Sisters podcast, a ministry of A Nun’s Life. Visit aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

It is heart-warming to hear of and receive so many words of support for U.S. sisters from lay people, bishops, priests, and religious from across the globe. Most recently leaders of communities of Catholic women religious in Europe offered their support and encouragement. See the article European women religious send warm support to U.S. sisters in National Catholic Reporter (December 15, 2009). There have also been messages of support from sisters in Rome and in Asia and Oceania. Another powerful show of support is the Thank You, Sister campaign which received over 300 letters of support which will be sent to Mother Mary Clare Millea, Cardinal Franc Rodé, Cardinal Francis George, and Pope Benedict XVI as well as leadership teams of communities of women religious in the US.

The encouragement and support of so many people reminds me of stepping up and simply being present and in solidarity with another who is engaged in a tough experience. There are all sorts of ways that we can show our support, that we can stand up for another and stand beside another. How will we choose to do that today? Who will come across our path who needs a kind word, a breath of fresh air, a helping hand, or just a warm presence?

Welcome to listeners of The Catholic Channel on Sirius XM Radio. Sister Maxine and I were invited to be part of the program, JustLove, a conversation on the Church’s social mission. Today’s show is about new technologies of communication and we’re delighted to talk about our experience with many of these new technologies — blogging, podcasting, social networking, live chat, etc. The host is Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, the Executive Director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York.

We invite visitors to explore our site. We’ve got the blog front and center here. We also do daily live podcasts at 6:00 p.m. EST on prayer, listener questions, and special interviews. We also hang out daily in the chat room to talk with visitors. And if you are wondering if God might be calling you to a religious vocation as a religious sister or brother, as a nun or monk, as an ordained person, or a formal ministry in the church, visit our Vocation Forum.

Coincidentally, it was exactly 1 year ago today at exactly the same time that we were in New York City at the Sirius Radio studio and on Pathways of Learning, another show of The Catholic Channel. Sister Marie Pappas and Jackie LoFaro were both instrumental in helping Sister Maxine and me see the wonderful possibilities of radio shows for our ministry.

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Join A Nun’s Life community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST
(your time zone).

The magazine U.S. Catholic has just published three articles on U.S. Catholic Sisters. Each of them is a “must read”. I encourage you to take the time to read each one and then come on back here to offer your thoughts: what struck you? what do you have more questions about?

1) Entered into Evidence: Women religious respond to the Vatican investigation by Heather Grennan Gary, posted online November 24, 2009 and in the January 2010 issue (Vol. 75. No. 1, pp. 12-17).

This article represents a final report compiled from U.S. Catholic‘s recent survey of Catholic sisters. The survey, though acknowledge to be U.S. Catholic conducted its own “visitation” of sorts, and this final report compiles our findings. The “completely optional, unscientific online survey provided a forum for American women religious to assess the quality of their own lives, raise their concerns about the present and future religious life, and share their thoughts on the visitation process itself.”

Our sisters Angela Hibbard, IHM, and Mildred Baker, IHM, are quoted in the article.

2) Character Witnesses by Heidi Schlumpf, posted online November 24, 2009 and in the January 2010 issue (Vol. 75. No. 1, pp. 20-23).

This article offers the results of “an online survey of U.S. Catholic subscribers and website visitors about the Vatican visitation and doctrinal assessment of U.S. women religious elicited a record 1,700 responses and passionate, lengthy comments. Visitors came from all over the Internet-from both liberal church organizations and conservative Catholic blogs-to take the survey.”

3) The Sisters of Mercy aren’t McDonald’s by Sandra Schneiders, IHM, posted online November 24, 2009 and in the January 2010 issue ( (Vol. 75. No. 1, pp. 18-19)

If you read no other article explaining why Catholic sisters are responding the way they are, read this one. Sister Sandra Schneiders, whose sister I am proud to be, addresses two of the most oft-asked questions about the investigation of U.S. women religious:

• If religious have nothing to hide, why would they object to being investigated by the Vatican?
• Why should religious congregations be any more immune to surprise checks by the Vatican on their quality of life than a fast-food franchise is to a surprise check by the main office on the quality of its operations and products?

Sister Sandra offers analogies of our situation as women religious to ordinary situations that most people are familiar with. Again, a must read.

We look forward to your thoughts on these articles. What struck you? What do you have more questions about?

It has been a while since I’ve offered my thoughts on news items related to Catholic sisters and nuns. The story itself is unfortunate — Sister Mary Gabriel De Leon, a Franciscan sister, had her purse stolen while packing groceries in her car. Thankfully, Sister is okay, though understandably shaken up.

Beyond the story itself, there is much in the reporting of the story that fills me with a variety of emotions, from amused to perplexed. Here we go:

Headlines

Man Robs Nun, Earns Free Trip to Hell

I am rather fond of this headline even though it is theologically suspect.

Thief stole nun’s purse but not her faith

Not so fond of this one though nice attempt.

Quotable Quotes

“It’s worse than stealing candy from a baby.” – bystander

I’m not sure exactly what the parallel is here … nuns as helpless babies?

“Hal joins us live with reactions from the Sisters of the Convent.” – Fox

Granted, most folks don’t really know how to refer to us, our “religious garb”, or our dwelling places. Kudos to those who do try. This one was kind of a mash-up between how to name the sisters and how to identify their dwelling place.

“A Nun is robbed while fully dressed …” – KTLA TV

I’m sorry but this one just kills me. He of course finishes the sentence with “in a religious habit” but by then it’s just too late!

What I really like about this story is the story within the story. After the sister was robbed and later interviewed by the police for details, the officers decided to chip in to purchase Sister Mary a new purse, a scarf, and a gift card.

That earns them a free trip to heaven in my book.

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone). We’ll be keeping Sister Mary, her sisters, and the officers in our prayers. Right after prayer we’ll have our very first ever Food Podcast on the topic of Thanksgiving food, meal prayers, recipes, music, and more!

Here is a great blog post by Sister Rose Pacette, FSP, a Daughter of Saint Paul, called High on (religious) Life in National Catholic Reporter. Sister Rose attended a couple recent events on religious life. Here are a couple of quotes from her that I especially liked:

The vows are an extension of our baptism. The vows lift our spirits and set us free. Joyful simplicity, humble gratitude (from Notre Dame Sister M. Regina Robbins speaking on “Fruitful Poverty”)

“When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.” (Don Helder Camera quoted by Sister Donna Markham, OP)

On September 22, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution honoring Catholic Sisters in the United States. The resolution was introduced by Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and co-sponsored by 67 members of both parties.

Here is the full text of the US House of Representatives Resolution honoring Catholic Sisters:

H. Res. 441
In the House of Representatives, U.S.,

September 22, 2009

Whereas the social, cultural, and political contributions of Catholic sisters have played a vital role in shaping life in the United States;

Whereas such women have joined in unique forms of intentional communitarian life dedicated to prayer and service since the very beginnings of our Nation’s history, fearlessly and often sacrificially committing their personal lives to teaching, healing, and social action;

Whereas the first Catholic sisters to live and work in the United States were nine Ursuline Sisters, who journeyed from France to New Orleans in 1727;

Whereas at least nine sisters from the United States have been martyred since 1980 while working for social justice and human rights overseas;

Whereas Maura Clark, MM, Ita Ford, MM, and Dorothy Kazel, OSU were martyred in El Salvador in 1980;

Whereas Joel Kolmer, ASC, Shirley Kolmer, ASC, Kathleen McGuire, ASC, Agnes Mueller, ASC, and Barbara Ann Muttra, ASC were martyred in Liberia in 1992;

Whereas Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN was martyred in Brazil in 2005;

Whereas Catholic sisters established the Nation’s largest private school system and founded more than 110 United States colleges and universities, educating millions of young people in the United States;

Whereas there were approximately 32,000 Catholic sisters in the United States who taught 400,000 children in 2,000 parochial schools by 1880, and there were 180,000 Catholic sisters who taught nearly 4,500,000 children by 1965;

Whereas today, there are approximately 59,000 Catholic sisters in the United States;

Whereas Catholic sisters participated in the opening of the West, traveling vast distances to minister in remote locations, setting up schools and hospitals, and working among native populations on distant reservations;

Whereas more than 600 sisters from 21 different religious communities nursed both Union and Confederate soldiers alike during the Civil War;

Whereas Catholic sisters cared for afflicted populations during the epidemics of cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, smallpox, tuberculosis, and influenza during the 19th and early 20th centuries;

Whereas Catholic sisters built and established hospitals, orphanages, and charitable institutions that have served millions of people, managing organizations long before similar positions were open to women;

Whereas approximately one in six hospital patients in the United States were treated in a Catholic facility;

Whereas Catholic sisters have been among the first to stand with the underprivileged, to work and educate among the poor and underserved, and to facilitate leadership through opportunity and example;

Whereas Catholic sisters continue to provide shelter, food, and basic human needs to the economically or socially disadvantaged and advocate relentlessly for the fair and equal treatment of all persons;

Whereas Catholic sisters work for the eradication of poverty and racism and for the promotion of nonviolence, equality, and democracy in principle and in action;

Whereas the humanitarian work of Catholic sisters with communities in crisis and refuge throughout the world positions them as activists and diplomats of peace and justice for the some of the most at risk populations; and

Whereas the Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America Traveling Exhibit is sponsored by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in association with Cincinnati Museum Center and will open on May 16, 2009, in Cincinnati, Ohio: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

1. honors and commends Catholic sisters for their humble service and courageous sacrifice throughout the history of this Nation; and
2. supports the goals of the Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America Traveling Exhibit, a project sponsored by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in association with Cincinnati Museum Center and established to recognize the historical contributions of Catholic sisters in the United States.

Attest

Clerk.

The National Catholic Reporter has a new article posted by Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, called Discerning Ministerial Religious Life Today (September 11, 2009). In this article, Sister Sandra helps explain why it is that all nuns do not wear a habit, live in a cloister, or pray the horarium. Essentially Sister Sandra is filling a gap in people’s experience of women religious. Many people have had experience of or heard about sisters who live a monastic form of religious life and sisters who live an apostolic or ministerial form of religious life. But it’s not always easy to explain how we got the two or how the two are similar and how they are dissimilar.

This essay is also a kind of continuation of a discussion on religious life by Sister Sandra in recent publications: the essay Why they stay(ed), the personal email that NCR published, We’ve given birth to a new form of religious life, and the address she gave to the IHM Congregation, God So Loved the World … Ministerial Religious Life in 2009.

In this latest piece, Sister Sandra, a member of my own IHM community, responds to the question, What is ‘apostolic Religious Life’? which, as she notes, has been answered though often times with misinformation. The question appears in various forms, often around three main questions about lifestyle:

“Is culturally conspicuous, uniform garb (habit), fixed group dwelling from which members exit only by necessity and from which non-members are excluded (enclosure, cloister), and a daily schedule including shared meals, work, and especially the oral recitation of prescribed texts and vocal prayers, e.g., divine office, litanies, at several fixed times a day (horarium) essential to Catholic Religious Life as such?” The short answer is “no.”

The article goes on to provide a longer answer contextualized within history, scripture and theology.

This is a very important piece of writing and I recommend that you take a read, especially if you are considering religious life or know someone who is. Use it as a starting point to explore some of the issues and insights that Sister Sandra has raised. Whether or not you agree with what she has written, she has done a good job at naming the significant issues that can create confusion and misinformation.

Discerning Ministerial Religious Life Today
(National Catholic Reporter, September 11, 2009)

Please read the article and then join in the conversation below. (NB: The conversation actually got started on another post here so I moved those comment over here.)

Today we have a special guest post by our friend Moira Urich. If you like to travel and enjoy hanging with nuns and monks, this book may be for you!

Good Night and God Bless: A Guide to Convent & Monastery Accommodation in Europe: Austria, Czech Republic, Italy
By Trish Clark

If you’re expecting hair shirts and barren cells, this book will surprise you with entries describing modern guestrooms, occasional three-star-hotel-caliber amenities, and even thermal spring health spas run by sisters in Austria. Readers seeking solely spiritual sanctuary can limit themselves to the Spiritual Retreat entries. But the vast majority of lodgings are categorized as Open Houses, meaning open to tourists looking for simple but good quality accommodations at lower cost.

For those who want to see photos before booking, most if not all of the convents and monasteries either have their own web presence or are featured on travel sites. Good Night & God Bless is a good bet whether it’s your sole source of travel information or it’s a valuable starting point for those wanting to find out more online (for instance, more detailed maps). The book also offers information not easily found–or simply not found–on other websites.

The entries routinely provide information about:

• Contemplative or spiritual destinations in the vicinity, as well as pilgrimage sites
• Notable artworks in or near your lodging
• Off-the-beaten-path activities such as truffle-hunting excursions, outdoor markets, and day-long cooking classes
• Shops that feature hand-crafted goods
• Restaurants and cafes, in the Food and Drink section accompanying each entry

What other book about monastery lodgings would tell you where to find a great beer-bath spa in the Czech Republic? Or where to find an organic buffalo farm for tasting fresh Italian buffalo mozzarella? This book’s helpful tidbits of information, too numerable to categorize here, make it well worth your while.

Book review by Moira Urich

Greetings! I’ve been away from the blog and email for a few days. We had two IHM sisters — Marie and Rita — die in the last few days, one expected and one not — both heart-breaking. The two sisters who died also had blood sisters in our IHM community so please keep them especially in your prayers — Margaret and Marge.

Sister Maxine has been nunning the mics while I’ve been gone. She’s been leading our Praying with the Sisters podcast at noon Central Time. I’ll be back on the air with her today. Please join us for a pause for prayer. This week and last we’ve been praying the Angelus and taking prayer requests via our chat room. Beginning next week, we are going to shift the format a bit and use the scripture readings of the day as the basis of our prayer. We’ll continue to pray for your intentions. Praying with the Sisters is live weekly, Monday through Thursday.

And don’t forget about Nun News Roundup on Fridays at noon Central Time. Sister Maxine and I bring you the latest news on the nunfront plus our stunning commentary! We won’t have one this week due to unforeseen events but we will be back next week with our full lineup.

For information on our podcasts and how to listen in and join us, click on LIVE SHOW here or at the top of the screen.

Sister Sandra Schneiders’ essay on U.S. Women Religious and the Apostolic Visitation is a must-read essay for all Catholics, all people interested in Catholic sisters and nuns and/or in U.S. history, and definitely all those discerning religious life.

The National Catholic Reporter has just published an essay by Sister Sandra Sandra Schneiders, IHM, called Why They Stay(ed) (NCR, August 17, 2009). The essay addresses two sets of questions concerning U.S. women religious that are “roiling the waters” in and outside the church today:

1. Why are religious disturbed about the apostolic visitation?
2. What is the real motivation for this investigation?

What follows is the most lucid discussions on the topic of the Visitation that I’ve encountered. Not only does Sister Sandra address how the Apostolic Visitation is being received by many U.S. sisters and nuns as well as many priests, men religious, and lay people and why it’s disturbing, but she explains what the situation of women religious is and has been since around the Second Vatican Council.

I have to re-read the essay and will offer more thoughts. For now just want to make sure you have seen it. Please bring your questions, comments, and thoughts about this to the comment section below.

It’s like something out of a comic book — Nuns spy evil-wrongdoing in a quiet village and mobilize forces (“Wonder Twin powers ACTIVATE! Form of a holy vigilant!”) to swoop down from the heavens and accost said perpetrator to restore peace and tranquility to the land. “Hail, Sister Mary!!” shout the peasant people as the nuns drop the befuddled criminal at the doorstep of the jail.

I’m referring to the recent “quality” news reporting about two Catholic sisters who helped police catch a crook. Let me first say that I applaud and admire Sister Catarina da Silva, OSF, and Sister Connie Boulch, OSF, both Sisters of Saint Francis of the Holy Eucharist in Independence, Missouri. And yes, Mr. and Ms. Media Person, they have names. But don’t let a person’s name get in the way of reporting the facts of a nun running down a gun-toting madman.

Where was I? Oh yes, Sisters Catarina and Connie are awesome. They saw trouble and responded. My beef is not with them. Not at all. My beef is with those members of the media (not all!) who feel compelled to trivialize and belittle the lives of my Sisters so that they can link together as many ridiculous nun clichés as possible.

“Thou shalt not steal — especially within sight of a convent.” [Ironically the very next commandment is "Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor."]

“You can call it an act of God, or divine intervention. But, whatever you call it, one thing is clear: you don’t mess with nuns from the Sisters of Saint Francis.” [You can add to your list a blogging nun who finds this kind of reporting ridiculous and offensive.]

Sister Connie soon realized the man was not on a mission from God…. Not a man of the cloth, but a gun toting, tool wielding suspect who police think is responsible for two other burglaries in the area.” [It's just wrong, so wrong.]

And it doesn’t stop there. Bloggers and other social media folks have picked up on the story and had their fun. One blogger commented on the story next to which he posted a photo of a woman in sexy nun attire. Degrading on so many levels.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not adverse to a little good-natured fun with nuns. But much of this kind of reporting/writing dehumanizes the women who are nuns … reduces them to a laughable caricature, an object with no name, no dignity, no human agency. It makes me very sad to see people treated that way.

Enough of that. Let me tell you the real story — which some reporters did well at communicating, though others had it so buried in clichés that it was difficult to take seriously.

“He could have harmed us and he didn’t. Instead he chose to run, that tells me something about this young man,” said Sister Connie. (Fox News)

We’re in the business of saving souls,” said Sister Connie of the Sisters of St. Francis. “We’re not in the business of stopping crime.” … Sister Connie admits that the story is unusual and a bit humorous, but she says it’s also serious because it involves a young man who she and the rest of the sisters pray turns his life around. (Fox News)

“I will pray that his life changes so that he doesn’t come to the point when he needs to steal or he needs to break into people’s houses,” Sister Connie said. (Kansas City Star)

That, my friends, is the heart of the story. Two courageous women named Sister Catarina da Silva and Sister Connie Boulch who step up to the plate and act to protect the local community and to reach out to a troubled teenager. Two women who humbly but confidently redirect the cameras from themselves to the well-being of a young man named Cory whose dignity they did not forget. Two women who have the strength to challenge wrong-doing and the grace to believe in redemption.

Reminder — Lying Awake discussion – A Beginning

Let’s meet on the Discussion Forum today to see what we want to do, what topics we want to address. Should we go chapter by chapter or theme by theme? Should we remain loosey-goosey?

Date: Sunday, July 19
Time: 6-7 p.m. CST

I’ve got a few ideas that readers sent to me so I’ll float them by you. See you soon!

Father James Martin, SJ, has written a fine response to Paul Rudnick’s article “Fun with Nuns” in The New Yorker (July 20, 2009 issue). Rudnick’s article covers his efforts to get a screenplay (that would eventually end up as “Sister Act”) produced. But his attitude toward and descriptions of nuns is more than “slightly repellent” as Father Martin writes, it’s disparaging and insulting. It illustrates in bold relief negative stereotypes of Catholic nuns and sisters.

Pondering a possible screenplay using nuns, Rudnick muses that they can be “dictatorial, sexually repressed and scary.”  A grumpy elderly nun at a convent gift store looks like a “bat” or a “long fossilized chimp.”  “’I hate this!’ the chimp yipped,” he writes about the elderly woman who has taken vows of “silence, poverty and chastity” (fact checkers–you missed a vow: obedience) and has led what even she describes a “hard life.”  Rudnick admits that the prioress of Regina Laudis, which he visits to do a full two days’ research, is “kind and helpful,” but most of the article depicts the nuns—scratch that, all nuns–as at best cartoonish, at worst absurd.  “’Nuns,’ I declared,” writes Rudnick about his efforts to cajole studio execs into considering them attractive, “I’d do ‘em!”  (Later the same execs wonder which nuns in the upcoming movie are “f—able.”)

The nuns referred to are the sisters of the Regina Laudis monastery (read the A Nun’s Life post about Mother Delores Hart From Hollywood to Benedictine Monastery).

Do read Paul Rudnick’s piece Fun with Nuns (the link is to an abstract of the article — need to register for full article) and James Martin’s response The New Yorker Has Its “Fun with Nuns”.

Just got word that Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, will be a panelist on the NPR “On Point” program today, Wednesday, July 8. The topic is “U.S. Catholic Nuns and the Vatican” which will probably include discussion about the Apostolic Visitation. One of the other panelists will be Mother Mary Quentin Sheridan, RSM (Religious Sister of Mercy), who currently leads the Conference of Major Superiors of Women Religious, one of two women’s religious leadership groups in the United States (the other is the Leadership Council of Women Religious).

Also on the panel is Sister Mary Traupman, CDP (Sisters of Divine Providence), an attorney who helps senior citizens with legal work, and Laurie Goodstein, national religion correspondent for The New York Times. Goodstein wrote a recent article “U.S. Nuns Facing Vatican Scrutiny” (July 1, 2009) which included a misquote of Sister Sandra when it stated she “urged fellow nuns not to participate/cooperate in the study” — Sister Sandra has requested a correction.

Check your local station for the broadcast time of “On Point” is aired. You can also listen live on the “On Point” website 10am – Noon, 7 – 9pm (ET). The program will likely be available on the website after the broadcast too.

Sister Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM, has made public an important paper on Ministerial Religious Life. In the paper God So Loved the World … Ministerial Religious Life in 2009 Sister Sandra describes what Apostolic Religious Life is and how it is evolving (or has evolved) into what she has called Ministerial Religious Life.

Here’s my very brief outline of the paper — any inaccuracies here are mine and not Sister Sandra’s. It’s meant only to give you a sense of the topics in the paper and to encourage you to read the full paper. You really don’t want to miss it if you are at all interested in Religious Life.

Sister Sandra looks at the origins of Apostolic Religious Life (which “has had official canonical recognition since 1900 and existed for centuries before that”) and situates it both canonically (what does Canon Law say about this form of consecrated life) and ecclesiastically (how does Apostolic Religious Life as a lifeform fit within the structure of the Church).

She shows how the Apostolic Religious Life that is being lived today is still authentically religious life and at the same time “involves some very significant discontinuities with earlier understandings of enough of the constitutive dimensions of that life that it is really a new form in relation to traditional apostolic Congregations.” Two important aspects of this evolution are what Sister Sandra calls “the end of Religious Life as Total Institution” and the simultaneous “ministerial turn”. She looks at how both of these have affected our understanding and living out of the vows, community life, ministry, and public witness.

Once Sister Sandra has set the context she goes on to asks, “What has brought about this development and how do we interpret, evaluate, and appropriate it?” What follows is an excellent piece on the impact of the Second Vatican Council on Religious Life. She notes how “most Religious Congregations of women, especially in the developed world, did not read Perfectae Caritatis in isolation, as a kind of self-sufficient magna carta for renewal. They read it through the lenses of Lumen Gentium and Gaudium et Spes.” Note: Perfectae Caritatis is the document on the renewal of Religious Life; Lumen Gentium is the document on the Church affirming the universal call to holiness of all the baptized; and Guadium et Spes is the document on the Church in the modern world.

Sister Sandra then looks at the development of a new theology of world and the development of a new spirituality of world as a result of the shifts and the ongoing urgings of the Holy Spirit. Finally, she articulates some of the implications of these developments for vowed Religious Life.

Sister Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM, is one of my nuns and a leader in the study of religious life and of biblical spirituality. This talk was originally presented at our IHM Motherhouse for the Sisters and Associates of my community.

Read God So Loved the World … Ministerial Religious Life in 2009 and let’s get a discussion going about this. It’s an excellent paper, a good read, and definitely worth reflecting on.

Farrah Fawcett has another connection to nuns. She was taught by them! Check out an article in The Catholic Spirit about a Catholic sister who taught Farrah Fawcett when she was in first grade. Here are some quotes from the article “Nun in Farrah Fawcett’s hometown recalls her as ‘first-grader with pigtails’” (hyperlinks added).

Sister Patrice Floyd remembers actress Farrah Fawcett as “a little first-grader with pigtails” at Christ the King School in Corpus Christ, Fawcett’s hometown.

A longtime educator, Sister Patrice, a Sister of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, is a former principal of several Catholic schools in the Diocese of Corpus Christi. She said the Fawcett family lived across the street from Christ the King.

Sister Patrice said that when Farrah Fawcett and [Lee] Majors were in town, they often came by the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament Convent to see two of the older sisters who taught Farrah in school. Both nuns have since died. The visits were always in the evening and Fawcett wore a disguise, Sister Patrice said. “The press would go wild when she was in town.”

Many of the sisters knew the star, the nun said. Sister Collette Brehony, a Sister of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament who is now director of religious education at St. Gertrude Parish in Kingsville, had been her teacher at St. Patrick School, according to Sister Patrice.

“She was shocked the first time she saw her on TV,” the nun told the South Texas Catholic, newspaper of the Corpus Christi Diocese.

Prayers go out to the family and friends of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, two amazing iconic persons who died yesterday.

As I’ve been reading the news about both Farrah and Michael, I’ve learned a couple of interesting connections to each one and nuns.

Farrah Fawcett was in two episodes of my favorite nun sitcom The Flying Nun.

The first was “Marcello’s Idol” (airdate 10/15/69), in which a young boy leads the nuns to conclude he need a male influence in his life when he refers to the sisters as “guys”. Ms. Fawcett played “Lila” in this episode. The second was an appearance as “Miss Preem” in “Armando and the Pool Table” (airdate 1/23/70), in which the nun’s benefactor, Carlos Ramirez, donates a pool table to the convent.
(source: Examiner.com)

Michael Jackson appeared with a group of Catholic sisters at an orphanage in Tokyo, Japan.

After weaving through dozens of screaming adult fans outside the downtown orphanage, Jackson was ushered into a gymnasium where more than 160 children between the ages of 3 and 18 and nuns in gray uniforms waited.
(source: CBS News)

I will remember Farrah most for her Charlie’s Angels role as as private investigator Jill Munroe. And Michael, well, what can I say. The man was an awesome performer and transformed the world of pop music and dance. Two of my faves and absolute classics as both songs and videos: Billie Jean and Black or White.

Rest in Peace, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. You will be missed and remembered.

American fashion model and actress Heather Graham recently revealed that her parents threatened to send her to a convent when she was young.

The Hangover star has admitted that she almost became a nun and is relieved she became an actress instead.

Graham told the Daily Star: “When I was a child my parents threatened to send me to a convent. I’d have made a terrible nun.

“I’m a good Catholic girl in the way Madonna is in the sense that I’m not that good at all… I want to be vamping it up in short skirts and low-cut tops to the end.” (source: Digital Spy)

I always find these news items to be curious (e.g., Natalie Portman’s celibacy issues). It seems the contrast between the stereotypical docile/dour/suppressed Catholic nun and the rebellious/vivacious/sensual bad girl makes for great entertainment news.

Yeah, yeah, so readers get a few laughs at imagining a “bad girl” as a Catholic nun and the fantastic havoc and scandal she may have created within the holy confines of a convent. But please, must we play on bad stereotypes of Catholic sisters and nuns for a cheap laugh? Is it worth fueling a stereotype of nuns as docile/dour/suppressed in order to fuel an equally disturbing stereotype of women as “the bad girl”?

When I first read this news piece, I thought little of it. But it’s been weighing on my mind and heart because it seems so trivial but yet reinforces a negative message about Catholic sisters and nuns.

I want to tell Ms. Graham that if she only knew how many hell-raisers and “bad girls” have come to the convent — and stayed — that she would probably have seemed like a wall flower in comparison.

Nunday is back and to celebrate we have my own IHM Sister Sharon Holland. Sister Sharon is not only a legend, but a holy and gentle woman of God.

Sister Sharon, one of the first female lawyers to work at the Vatican, was recently presented with an award (a bronze statue created by sculptor Clay Enoch) from the Catholic Health Association (CHA) on April 23 in Rome. Sister Carol Keehan, president and CEO of CHA, presented the award, saying Sister Sharon was the association’s “greatest asset in Rome.”

The CHA Board of Trustees passed a resolution honoring Sister Sharon for her years of assistance to CHA and the U.S. health ministry at large. According to Ed Giganti, vice president of communications and marketing for the United States’ CHA, the board’s resolution proclaimed Sister Sharon “a champion of American religious congregations and their ministries” throughout her time in Rome.

Since 1988 Sister Sharon has worked as bureau chief of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life at the Vatican. In 2007 Sister Sharon was awarded the International Medal from St. John’s University in Rome. In the citation for that award , St. John’s called Sister Sharon one of the world’s leading canon lawyers and said she “models what is best about religious life.”

After getting word about Sister Sharon’s CHA award, journalist John L. Allen, a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and analyst for CNN and NPR, wrote, “Aside from being an accomplished canon lawyer and trailblazer for women at the Vatican, Holland is also a legend in religious life.” (source; hyperlinks mine)

Sister Sharon is retiring from her ministry in Rome and returning to Michigan this month.

Pictured: Lloyd H. Dean (CHA Board), Sister Carol Keehan, DC, and Sister Sharon Holland, IHM, holding the award.

I have often heard Catholic sisters and nuns say, “Join the convent, see the world” because many of us do travel quite a bit for ministry and mission. Along with that comes the always pleasant task of actually moving. You know what I mean — boxes, tape, clutter, dust, lifting, moving, renting, changing, bubble wrap, exhaustion!

Moving also gives one the opportunity for self-reflection, to think about what one is attached to, how simply one lives, what facilitates community and mission, etc.

As you might suspect, I am in the process of moving — like right at this moment. My computer is the last to go. In an hour I will be picking up our 17′ rental truck (the experience of driving that thing in Chicago will probably make for an interesting blog post!) in order to move out of my current abode and to a new house with another IHM sister where we can live and offer hospitality to our IHM sisters and others.

Chloe the Convent Cat is coming along with us, and as you can see, she’s a bit self-reflective too.

We’ve done a great job at sorting and donating stuff. It’s so easy to accumulate “stuff” so I’m hoping to keep things simple. I feel better when I have less clutter, less stuff to be distracted by. After traveling so much, I realize that most of what I need I can toss in a backpack.

What have been your experiences of “move”? What does living simply mean for you?

These days you can not only adopt children and animals but you can adopt highways, platoons, watersheds, and even microbes!

Now you can adopt candidates for religious life and ordained life! Thanks to an email from Jerri, I discovered that the Diocese of Joliet-in-Illinois as well as dioceses across the country have programs to encourage vocations to consecrated life and to support those who are in the process of becoming a religious or ordained. Jerri says that for the past couple weeks, there’s been an blurb about the program in the bulletin. It reads in part:

ADOPT A SEMINARIAN OR CANDIDATE PROGRAM: This program is an opportunity for the youth group, school, religious education class or parish to adopt a seminarian (a man who is studying to be a priest) or a candidate (a woman preparing to be a sister), and encourage them on their journey by writing letters. This type of encouragement would be greatly appreciated by the men and women in formation.

After receiving Jerri’s email I did some more searching around and found a recent article on the subject from Catholic News Service. “Programs to ‘adopt’ women in formation seen as vocations aid” by Jackie Taylor (March 23, 2009) has some more examples of how the program works and its benefits for both the adopters and the adoptees.

My only caveat to this wonderful program is that I wish it also encouraged vocations for men to religious life as well as other Church vocations like consecrated virginity and hermit life.

When vocations are promoted, we sometimes only focus on religious life for women and priesthood for men, as if two gender-based versions of the same calling. Not so. Ordained life is a distinct calling and can be to the priesthood or to become a deacon. Both forms of ordained life are restricted to men.

Religious life is a very different calling and it is open to both men and women. It includes sisters, nuns, friars, monks, brothers. In addition there are hermits and consecrated virgins — not sure if they technically fall in the “religious life” category but all of these are considered forms of “consecrated life.”

So in the ideal world, we’d have a parish bulletin with the headline “The Adopt-a-Sister-Friar-Priest-Hermit-Monk-Deacon-Nun-Virgin-Brother Program” but who would ever want to title something like that!!??

Hmmm … anyone interested in an Adopt-A-Nun’s-Life program?

Check out Psychology Today magazine this month for an interview with me about being a Catholic sister and about A Nun’s Life. It’s called “Mass Communication: God connects through a new medium” by Jessica Pilot in Psychology Today (May-June 2009).

While I’m not happy that my name is misspelled — VIEIRA, not VIERA — I am thrilled that they put the photo of me in full regalia on the front cover of the magazine.

Nah … I’m kidding, that’s not my habit although if it were, I’m pretty sure no one would mess with me or dare to suggest a nun stereotype in my presence.

I received an email from an A Nun’s Life reader alerting me to TIME Magazine’s finalists for the list of 100 most influential people of 2009. You can vote online for your top pick. Among the list of “leaders, artists, entrepreneurs and thinkers” is Sister Mary Scullion, RSM, a Sister of Mercy who ministers on behalf of homeless people in Philadelphia. According to the TIME profile on her, “over 95 percent of those who cycle through her Project H.O.M.E. program have never again been forced to live on the streets, a success rate which has made the program a model for dozens of other U.S. cities.”

It’s awesome that TIME is featuring a Catholic sister on their list of influential people. I’m proud of Sister Mary for the work she is doing and for representing nuns and the awesome work that nuns do throughout the world — from the cloister to corporate office to impoverished villages.

Check out TIME’s list and be sure to vote for Sister Mary!

VOTE NOW

I’m sure that rocker Jon Bon Jovi voted for Sister Mary!

For more info on Sister Mary, check out the Project H.O.M.E. website as well as various media coverage.

• Philadelphia Inquirer – Ask Sister Mary Scullion – Sister Mary questions about homelessness (February 26, 2008)
• Philadelphia Magazine – The Good Generation – Jon Bon Jovi and Project H.O.M.E. (December 2007)
• NBC News – Philly nun aims to end homelessness: Organization she founded has already cut homeless population in half (November 16, 2005)
• MSNBC The Daily Nightly – More About Sister Mary (November 15, 2005)

Tonight HBO2 will premiere the film, called “They Killed Sister Dorothy” at 8 p.m. EST (see HBO write-up). The film is a documentary about Sister Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN.

Sister Dorothy was shot and killed in 2005 in Brazil amid a dispute with ranchers over Amazon rain forest land she wanted brought under Brazilian government protection.

The 73-year-old Sister Dorothy spent three decades trying to preserve the rain forest and defending the rights of poor settlers. She and her community worked with the poor in the rain forest of the Amazon basin in Anapu, Pará, Brazil. When wealthy cattle ranchers began destroying huge areas of the rain forest to make way for grazing land, Sister Dorothy became active in the Brazilian government’s Sustainable Development Project, also called PDS. She also became a Brazilian citizen.

For more information visit www.theykilledsisterdorothy.com.

I will be writing a review on the documentary within the next couple of weeks.

There’s been some interesting articles about Catholics sisters and nuns in the news this week.

Black nun discusses her role in ‘60s rights movement by Chaz Muth for Catholic News Service (February 17, 2009)

As a black Catholic nun, Franciscan Sister Mary Antona Ebo risked her well-being to participate in the legendary 1965 civil rights protest in Selma, Ala. But she said her fears for her safety subsided upon her arrival, when a young black girl burst through the crowd and tossed her arms around her while noting she had never before seen a nun who shared her dark skin.

Be sure to check out the documentary film Sisters of Selma for more about Sister Mary Antona and other Catholic sisters who participated in the protest in Selma.

Sister Anne’s Hands (Picture Puffins) by Marybeth Lorbiecki (Author) and Wendy Popp (Illustrator) (Puffin Books, 2000)

This children’s book was recently mentioned by Pat McNamara of McNamara’s Blog: Musings of a Church Historian from Queens, New York. Publishers Weekly says, “An African American nun challenges the beliefs of her second-grade students in this thought-provoking picture book set in the 1960s.”

Surely, I thought, this must be a joke as I read a news headline saying that the word “nun” has been dropped from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. But it’s no joke. Lisa Saunders, a mom in Ireland, discovered that the new edition of the dictionary had dropped a bunch of words. Upon closer examination, she discovered that a number of Christian-related words were dropped including, “abbey, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, and vicar” (source: Catholic News Agency).

Interestingly, some of the new words in the latest edition of the dictionary reflect cultural shifts today such as the growth of new media. The dictionary now has words such as “blog” and “MP3 player”. A clever headline in the UK, notes the shift in the dictionary: “Clergyman blasts Oxford Junior Dictionary for replacing words ‘saint’ and ‘devil’ with ‘celebrity’ and ‘vandalism’” (source: The Mail).

So how are we to communicate our faith, our very selves, to children when the words we use no longer are definable? Will kids think that if it’s not in the dictionary, it’s not a real word or that it is somehow antiquated, no longer relevant?

Sister Patty Fawkner, SGS, a “Good Sams” Sister, has written a compelling piece about the disappearance of the word “nun” from the dictionary. Although I would like to quote every word of Where has the nun gone? because it’s a good piece, I’ll just highlight one significant quote and encourage you to read the rest of the piece.

Sister Patty wonders aloud in the piece if the removal of the word “nun” and related words is trying to say “something about the diminishment, in terms of numbers and influence, of various religious congregations.” A sobering thought, indeed, but Sister Patty doesn’t leave us there. She goes on and sheds new light on the meaning of declining numbers, showing that our response as nuns need not reflect the doom and gloom that the media associates with declining numbers. She writes:

It occurred to me, then, that the very decline of religious life carries an invitation for religious to live their lives with even greater integrity. Religious life, after all, is meant to be lived on the prophetic margin of both church and society, where status – even junior dictionary status – counts for very little but where seeking God and inclusive and compassionate love are intrinsic.

And religious life makes an invaluable contribution as it witnesses to the possibility of community in a world so desperate for relationships.

Further, religious life can offer to a sex-saturated world the example of celibacy that also promotes human flourishing. I am not speaking of life-denying celibacy, but that celibacy which believes that some people love best – deeply, generously and joyously – by making Jesus Christ the very centre of their life rather than any other person or project. (Source: Sisters of the Good Samaritan website)

Discernment is a topic that regularly comes up on A Nun’s Life. Last month I wrote a post called How is God calling you? and a few of you asked about continuing the conversation with a spiritual director. Well, I’ve been working on that and am pleased to announce that one of my IHM Sisters who is a spiritual director will be joining us this Sunday evening from 7-9 p.m. EST for a discussion on discernment and decision-making from a faith perspective.

Sister Mary McDevitt is an Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Sister from Monroe, Michigan. For many years, she worked in areas of spiritual formation within the IHM congregation and engaged in retreat work. Sister Mary taught history of spirituality and spiritual direction at a local seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan. There she assisted seminarians and lay men and women to complete their Master of Divinity degrees before they served as pastors, associates and staff in parishes. Sister Mary is now director of Visitation North Spirituality Center in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

In preparation for Sister Mary’s visit, I asked her to provide us with an overview of what discernment is and some concrete steps to help us figure out how God is calling us. Over the next few days, I’ll post her reflections on discernment and we can chat about it. Then on Sunday, Sister Mary will join us on the blog for a live discussion (like how we did the Doubt movie discussion).

Stay tuned for more on discernment and details about Sunday’s live discussion with Sister Mary. Feel free to offer any preliminary thoughts, questions, etc. on discernment or ideas of what you’d like to see Sister Mary address within the realm of discernment. And please spread the word about this event!

Since the news of the Apostolic Visitation to U.S. Communities of Women Religious, there has been much discussion and speculation about the Visitation and about the Catholic sisters leading the Visitation. One of those sisters is Sister Eva-Maria Ackerman, FSGM. Sister Ackerman is the spokesperson for Mother Mary Clare Millea, ASCJ, who was appointed Apostolic Visitator by the Vatican.

Sister Ackerman was recently profiled in the St. Louis Review, the weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis where Sister Ackerman has been director of the Office of Consecrated Life.

Sister Ackerman discusses her new role as spokesperson for the Apostolic Visitation.

“I’m grateful for having 12-plus years here to prepare me to understand how important the visitation is,” Sister Eva-Maria said. “I’ve learned a lot from religious, and I’ve been inspired by the generosity and dedication of so many and their witness. I’ve seen how even more important religious life is for the Church, and therefore an initiative like the one that is going to be taking place, with its intended goal of renewing the life of women religious, will only strengthen the Church. Religious life is really a gift in the heart of the Church, and the stronger, the more vibrant religious life is, the more vibrant the life of the Church.”

“I am in awe of what women religious have been able to do despite declining numbers and a higher median age. The communities are still vibrant in a lot of ways, but all of us can grow and renew with great energy. Nothing is impossible with God in this regard.”

I look forward to getting to know Sister Ackerman and Mother Millea as they begin this significant endeavor. Let us pray for both sisters and their work and for all communities of women religious in the U.S.

The Vatican has just announced an Apostolic Visitation “in order to look into the quality of the life” of women religious in the United States. The announcement was made public in a news conference at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, on January 30.

At the news conference, Sister Eva-Maria Ackerman, FSGM, of the Alton Franciscans (Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George) announced that Cardinal Franc Rodé (the Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life), appointed Mother Mary Clare Millea, ASCJ, superior general of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as Apostolic Visitator. In this role, Mother Millea will oversee the process of visiting and studying apostolic women religious communities (not cloistered or contemplative communities) and then submit a report to the Cardinal on “women’s apostolic religious life in the United States and on each of the congregations assessed.” Although there is no deadline for completing the Visitation and submitting a report, Mother Millea hopes to complete the task by 2011.

Sister Ackerman, who is Mother Millea’s spokesperson, outlined the process of the Apostolic Visitation: “First, Mother Clare will solicit voluntary input from the superiors general through inviting them to make personal visits with her in Rome or in the United States,” she said. “During the second stage, the major superiors in the United States will be asked for information such as statistics, activities and community practices. Selected on-site visits will be made during the third stage.” (Catholic News Service)

Says Mother Mary Clare Millea of the task ahead:

“I know that the object of this Visitation is to encourage and strengthen apostolic communities of women religious, for the simple reason that these communities are integral to the entire life of the Catholic Church, in the United States and beyond.”

The website of Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Women Religious in the United States has more information about the Visitation including the following:

• approach and goals of the Apostolic Visitation
• reference materials and news
• frequently asked questions

As I learn more about the Apostolic Visitation, I’ll be sure to let you know.

So many good nun stories this week. Treat yourself to some good news about Catholic sisters and nuns alive and well in today’s world.

Radical Love: The Sisters of Summit, New Jersey - a photo essay by Toni Greaves in Time Magazine. Greaves explores through photography and interviews why the nuns have chosen to lead a cloistered life. Sister Lauren Franko, age 22, talk about her discernment and choice to lead this life. Well done, Sister Lauren!

Sr. Mary Michael Retires from Teaching – a beautiful story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (January 29, 2009). Sister Mary Michael Burns is a Sister of Charity of Seton Hill. See photo below of Sister Lindena Brace with Sister Mary Michael Burns at her retirement party.

The Garden of Evil by David Hewson (Delacourte Press 2008) – okay so this book isn’t about a real nun, but it sounds interesting nonetheless. I just saw a review of this in the Galveston Daily News and it peaked my interest. The book features Sister Agata, an art expert who gets caught up in trying to solve a crime, and in so doing becomes a target herself (cue dramatic music).

Catholic Nun ministers at the Circus – Sister Dorothy Fabritze is a full-time circus worker and Catholic nun who holds religion classes, working across cultures, sharing the circus lifestyle.

There’s been a lot of media around the topic of declining numbers of Catholic sisters and nuns. Beyond the veil: Debate continues on why number of nuns is declining, a recent article from Catholic News Service, highlights a couple of arguments about why the decline in number.

“Italian Claretian Father Angelo Pardilla, author of Religious Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, said the principal cause for the decline was that many religious misunderstood the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and lost a sense of their identity.”

Father Giancarlo Rocca, a scholar of the history of religious orders, disagrees saying “the key is the emancipation of women. Previously, he said, the socially approved options for women were either to marry and have children or join a religious order. He said it was no surprise that the orders hardest hit were those founded to teach or to nurse — two professions previously open only to unmarried women.”

Sister Carol Regan, the superior general of the Holy Union of the Sacred Hearts and a member of the executive council of the International Union of Superiors General, agrees that “women’s movement and the broader choices it gave women also obviously contributed to changed attitudes about religious life.”

One thing I would like to add is that the huge numbers of women religious in the early to mid 20th century was a unique phenomenon in the history of religious life. When we look at the declining numbers, it is most often only in reference to the recent history of religious life, and not its full history. Most of our communities started with a handful of dedicated women who did not set out to bulk up with numbers of entrants, buildings, institutions, and other “measurables”. They started because they wanted to serve God and serve God’s people. They saw a need and they gave their life to helping meet that need. They fell in love with God and were compelled to follow the Spirit’s urging wherever it took them.

Sister Sister Christine Anderson, a Scottish member of the Faithful Companions of Jesus, says it so well in the CNS article:

She described as “rubbish” the idea that religious do not know who they are today.

“I think those who hung in there in religious life know why they are there,” she said. “The doors are wide open and they can walk out. Either you say they hung in because they are too scared to move — and that could be true in a few cases — but the majority have hung in because they are on this love quest,” a quest to find God and give themselves completely to him by serving the church and the poor.

The sisters may not be wearing a habit, but things have not changed as much as many people think, Sister Anderson said.

“People joined religious life because they were caught by God; they were grasped by God; they were seeking God in their own lives,” she said.

Have a read of the article and let me know what you think.

Beyond the veil: Debate continues on why number of nuns is declining
by Cindy Wooden for Catholic News Service (January 9, 2009)

It has been an exciting week in the world of nuns. Because this was National Vocation Awareness Week, many newspapers and blogs ran stories about Catholic sisters and nuns, brothers and monks and friars, and deacons and priests. Here’s a bit of what I found about sisters and nuns.

Seeing the Results by Ray Kisonas of the Monroe Evening News (January 13, 2009) – a great article that shows the impact that Catholic sisters have had and continue to have in education.

“This lady made such an indelible mark on my life,” said Ron Pickard, who grew up in Monroe and now lives in Tennessee. “She had an influence on all students and that’s why we have such a gathering here today. It’s wonderful we have her with us. I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”

Nun Explains How the Sisterhood’s Changed by a reporter for CBS Channel 7 in Wausau, Wisconsin (January 10, 2009) – I felt compelled to comment on this article

But she realizes everyone believes they are meant to do something, and sisterhood may just not be for everyone…. “I say listen to the Lord. He does not tap you on the shoulder – a vocation is a feeling. ‘This is what I want to do.’”

Inspired by the skating nun by Ernest Hebert for the Boston Globe (January 5, 2009) – Don’t know how I missed this piece!

These were Sisters of Mercy. They wore long black gowns from head to toe and what looked to me like giant white bibs. You could see their faces, but nothing else, not even their hair, so from a distance it was hard to tell who was who.

The sisters pushed the tall sister onto the ice. The sister began to glide, picked up speed, twirled, her black gown expanding. Long before the movie “The Flying Nun,” I had grasped the concept. It took me a full minute to realize that the sister was ice skating.

The Sisters of Charity of New York are joining us at A Nun’s Life this Thursday to talk about the movie Doubt. We’ll chat about the making of Doubt, which they served as consultants for (the Sisters of Charity are the ones portrayed in Doubt) as well as their impressions of the movie as a whole.

This “live discussion” is happening from 2 – 4 p.m. (EST) on Thursday here on A Nun’s Life. The discussion is like other discussions we’ve had here (e.g. Jim Martin, SJ, and Joan Wester Anderson) where the interaction is through comments back and forth on the blog. So all you need to do is visit around 2 p.m., read and offer comments/questions on that day. This is your conversation! You can email me or comment directly on the blog post of that day. You’ll have to update/refresh your screen to see new comments/questions.

If you have any preliminary comments or questions about the movie please write them in the comment section below. If you can’t join us on Thursday from 2-4, check in anytime later and you’ll be able to see the discussion.

Tomorrow I’ll post my review of the movie and my preliminary questions for the sisters and for you!

This Thursday A Nun’s Life is hosting a discussion about Doubt, the movie about a nun who confronts a priest after suspecting him of having an improper relationship with a student. The discussion will be here on the blog on January 8 from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. Eastern Time.

We will be joined by two Sisters of Charity of New York, the community of nuns who are featured in the film — Sister Connie Brennan, SC, the community’s archivist and Sister Regina Bechtle, SC. I am delighted and honored that they can join us and give us their impression of the movie, the making of the movie, and their experience as Sisters of Charity.

I just saw the movie with Sister Maxine Kollasch, IHM, so I’ll write up my own review of the movie and post it here prior to the discussion. I encourage you to see the move (or play) and join us for an online discussion about the movie, the Sisters of Charity, and other related topics.

If you have any questions now for the Sisters of Charity or Sister Maxine and myself, please offer them below and we’ll try to incorporate them into Thursday’s conversation.

Doubt is based on the play by John Patrick Shanley who also adapted and directed the movie version. The cast is stunning with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman,  Amy Adams, and Viola Davis.

So it’s Christmas time or you know a Catholic sister who is celebrating her Jubilee or a special day. You’re thinking to yourself, What in the world do I get for a nun? Maybe she’s your child’s teacher or principal, or maybe she’s a coworker or mentor, or maybe she’s your cousin or aunt. However you know her, you’ve got yourself a quandary because she’s a nun. And nuns are different, right? They’ve got rules about stuff like that, don’t they?

First let me say that it is VERY thoughtful of you to consider giving a gift. Whatever you give, will be meaningful because it is from you!

By virtue of our vow of poverty and our community life, nuns live simply. We generally don’t have a lot of stuff nor do we need lots of stuff. But there is no rule against receiving gifts (within reason) for personal use or for the mission and life of the community.

Tips for giving gifts to nuns

1. Help out with Sister’s ministry.

Ministry is very important to sisters. We often sacrifice our own personal resources in order to further our ministry. Giving a gift to help support a nun’s ministry is a welcome gift indeed. For example, I personally don’t really need anything, but I’d gladly take anything (money, volunteer help, technical consultation) that can help further the ministry of A Nun’s Life. Most nuns that I know are like that because we love the ministry that we do.

2. Keep religious gifts to a minimum.

Now just because we are nuns and dig God and our Catholic faith doesn’t mean that we only like or want religious-type gifts. In fact, in an informal survey of nuns, most specifically said they do not want religious gifts. My guess is that religious gifts are the only thing that people think nuns can receive so nuns get tons of religious stuff. Nothing wrong with this, but just know that nuns can receive and do appreciate non-religious gifts too.

3. Give homemade gifts.

I personally cannot resist gifts made by children. So if you are giving a gift to your child’s teacher, catechist or principal, consider having your child make something. This tip qualifies tip #2 because while Sister may have what she needs in terms of religious items, a handmade gift from a child (yes, adults too) is precious.

4. Give something that Sister can share with her community.

By virtue of our chosen lifestyle, we are community women. We live in community, we pray in community, we discern in community, and we hang in community. So it’s nice when we receive a gift that we can share with our nuns. Maybe it’s a plate of homemade cookies, or a 3-month subscription to Netflix, or a gift certificate to a local restaurant. It might even be offering to help the community set up wireless Internet on their computer(s) or teaching them how to use the Internet or a particular kind of software. If you are handy, offer to sew or do light carpentry for the sisters. Such gifts are invaluable to us.

5. Donate to a charity or cause that is dear to Sister’s heart.

Maybe your nun has a passion for supporting the troops overseas or for helping adults learn to read and write. Maybe she does the 3-Day Walk for a Cure every year. Whatever it is, consider donating to that charity or cause.

6. Give the gift of an Amazon.com Gift Card.

I know it may seem impersonal to give a gift certificate, but seriously, it is a great gift because Sister can choose what she needs. Maybe it’s the newest hip-hop CD or a specific book that will help her with her ministry.

7. Give cash.

Nuns may never, ever tell you this themselves, but I’m here to tell you that nuns do appreciate cash. It can be used for whatever it is that they need or care about. It helps every so often to have a spare $20 or something to eat out one night or to pick up a new book or to get that runny sink fixed once and for all. Giving to Sister’s religious community is also a very good thing. Like all Americans, nuns are also feeling financial hardship and would greatly benefit from donations.

Nuns: write in the comments below your suggestions and ideas about gifts.

The Flying Nun is an icon in many people’s imagination — whether Catholic or non-Catholic, whether you saw the originals or just the re-runs. The Flying Nun was a sitcomin the late 1960s starring a young comic Sally Field as Sister Bertrille, a novice with the Daughters of Charity who could fly. Admittedly I dismissed the Flying Nun image as an unfortunate stereotype that we Catholic sisters and nuns still have to tangle with. Inevitably I’m asked, once people find out I’m a nun, if I can fly. The answer (not counting biking or driving) is um, no.

But I think I have had a conversion, or at least the beginnings of one. This morning I read an op-ed piece that made me proud to share the word “nun” with the Flying Nun. The article “Fear of Flying Nuns – a feminist defense of a 1960s girlhood TV hero” was written by Melody Clark for OpEdNews.com. In the article Clark wonders aloud why it’s perfectly acceptable to have a flying Kansas farmboy (Superman, Smallville) but not a flying young female nun. (Her commentary here is exquisite.) While I don’t necessarily agree with everything in the article, it did give me a different way to think about the image of the Flying Nun.

Here’s a snippet from the article.

And Sister Bertrille was no “owned woman” like the female lead in I Dream of Jeannie (constantly clad in provocative attire while she refers to her male companion as “master”).  Or a housewife who was regularly “ordered” to do things by her husband as was Samantha on Bewitched. Sister Bertrille (whose “real name” was Elsie Ethrington) was not a nun but a novice and therefore not yet “married to Christ”. The only man in her life was her companion of choice (the wonderfully harassed while continually love struck Carlos Ramirez). Her life was her own. Her career was her choice. She owed her gift of flight to no one but destiny.

Quite simply, The Flying Nun is a sweet, lovely allegory for personal empowerment (especially for little girls … and for those of us who occasionally aspire to think like them)….

I encourage you to read the whole article which critiques reviewers who have cast aside The Flying Nun as “the worst TV show of all time”. Clark redeems the show as well as the image of The Flying Nun and in effect reclaims Sister Bertrille as a young woman who can inspire us even today.

Big news it seems in the entertainment world. Natalie Portman has been outed as having turned down the role of a young nun in the movie Doubt because she couldn’t wrap her head around the character being celibate. Playwright John Patrick Shanley explained: “We asked Natalie Portman, and Natalie was very interested but kept saying she had a problem. And we finally nailed down as to what the problem was: she basically said she didn’t understand celibacy.”

As you might suspect, I have a few words of wisdom for Natalie, as well as for Amy Adams who eventually took the role. Celibacy, my friends, is not an easy thing to understand especially in our society, but it is worth wresting with.

First things first: celibacy is basically abstaining from sexual relations. For people who take a religious vow of celibacy (as Catholic sisters and nuns do), the meaning of celibacy goes deeper than “merely” not having sex. Don’t get me wrong, not having sex is a significant choice and is not for the faint of heart. But it’s more than that for nuns. When we profess a vow of celibacy, we make a conscious choice of how we want to BE in the world, how we want to comport ourselves and how we want to relate to people and to the world. It means that we choose not only to not have sex, but also to not engage in sexual activity or to have “romantic”, exclusive relationships.

Whereas a married, sexually-active person gives herself/himself to a spouse and to a family, a nun gives herself to her relationship with God which is expressed through her relationship with her religious community (her “family”) and her mission (the way she serves the world). Being celibate leaves a nun “free” to go where God and her community calls her to go (having children and a spouse can make this more challenging). There’s also a counter-cultural dimension to the vow of celibacy. A nun testifies by her life that sex is not what it’s all about. Yes, sex is good, but even for healthy, sexually-active people, it doesn’t define a person nor constitute who she or he is.

Celibacy is not all that a nun is about — there is much more, though celibacy is definitely the first thing that might hit you! Celibacy is lived within a community of sisters who support one another in this lifestyle. We also profess the vows of poverty (simple living, holding all things in common) and obedience (to God and to the mission of the Congregation) which combined with celibacy shape a nuns life and help her live her life-long commitment to God, her sisters, and the world.

There’s lots more to say about living celibacy as a nun, but I’ll stop for now with an invitation: if you are considering playing a Catholic sister and nun, don’t get hung up on the celibacy part of it. It’s worth wrestling with and you can always come by A Nun’s Life for some insight and advice!

Blogging Nun Updates

Sister Macrina Walker, OCSO, a Cistercian monastic, is the author of the blog A Vow of Conversation. Sister Macrina blogs and reflects on her current theological reading as well as other topics on her “pilgrimage to the sources of Christian truth”.

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is a blog by Sister Amy Hereford, CSJ, a Sister of Saint Joseph. Sister Amy is in a degree program in Canon Law at the Catholic Univerisity of Leuven.

Sister Colleen Clair, FMA, a Salesian sister, write the blog Happynun Thinks Aloud … a Salesian Sister’s Take on Stuff. Sister Colleen has some great photos. Be sure to check out her Flickr links.

You can find these blogs listed now on Blogs by Catholic Nuns.

A Nun’s Life Updates

A Nun’s Life launched a new page called How to Become a Catholic Nun. So many folks have asked me questions around this that I thought I’d pull together a page just for you! I’ll be updating the last part on formation soon.

The Vocation Forum is doing well. Vocation Forum is a place where you can explore vocations to religious life. This forum is for those who wonder if religious life is for them and for those who are actively discerning religious life. Check it out and meet others who are discerning their vocation.

Requests

If you write or know of a blog by a Catholic nun (or woman in discernment) please let me know. I like to keep my Blogs by Catholic Nuns up-to-date so you can easily find other blogging nuns. Only requirements are that the blog be updated regularly and that the blog not be entirely anonymous.

Send in your Nun Photos!! I continue to host “Nunday” on Mondays here at A Nun’s Life. We need more submissions from you! Read Nun Photos – Got em? Send em! for details. Click to see previous Nundays.

Nunday is here! And we’ve got some cool stuff today. The Oblate Sisters of Providence are featured in the December 2008 issue of Ebony magazine! RUN, don’t walk, to your nearest convenience store and pick up a copy! The story and photos are fabulous.

The article is called “Walking with God” and was written by Kevin Chappell with photos by André F. Chung. The article starts with the single sentence paragraph: “At first, Virginie Fish ignored Him.” The story goes on to tell a bit about Sister Virginie’s vocation story, mentioning that she has now been a sister for 62+ years of which Virginie says, “It is a life of excitement, adventure, dedication.”

The article goes through some of the history of the Oblate Sisters of Providence and where they are ministering today. My friend Sister Marcia Hall, OSP, is also featured in the article. Sister Marcia is a former sociology professor who joined the Oblate Sisters 10 years ago. Says Sister Marcia, “I feel very strongly that I was called to be here, called to do the work that I am doing now.” Sister Marcia is now the vocation director for the Oblate Sisters of Providence.

Nun costumes. Good, bad, or ugly? I’ve received a few emails from people wondering if it is respectful to wear a nun costume for Halloween. As always, the answer is “it depends.”

First I’d like to just mention a little bit about Halloween itself. Though Halloween is “a mixture of pagan, Christian, civic, and cultural influences” it does hold opportunities to celebrate one’s faith and Christian values. See “Celebrating Your Values on Halloween” at FindingGod.org for more info and practical suggestions. Halloween (“hallow” as in “blessed” or “holy”) is also the eve of All Saints Day, a great day in the Church because we celebrate all of those saints of God, living or dead, who are part of our big family of faith through Jesus Christ. Traditionally children have dressed up as their favorite saint and today many continue this tradition. Today of course, we extend this tradition to children’s favorite heroes too.

So, in this context, it is perfectly acceptable for a child to wear a nun or monk costume because she or he is living the best of the tradition of Halloween. It is a chance for children to emulate the people around them (nuns that teach them at daycare or a friar helping out at the soup kitchen) or the saints they read about. This is also a great opportunity for parents to teach their children about these ways of life and explain the respect that the should have when dressed up as a nun, sister, monk, priest or saint. For example, be sure that rosaries aren’t slung at fellow trick-or-treaters. Parents could also teach their children how to say a prayer of blessing so that the children have concrete ways to really get into their character. As a Catholic nun, I personally would be honored to see children respectfully and joyfully wearing nun costumes!

Now, here’s the other side of nun costumes: adults wearing nun costumes. Pretty much all of the above information applies to adults. If you are going to a costume party and the wearing of a nun (or other religious) costume is done out of genuine respect, than I don’t think there is a problem with that.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of adults wearing religious costumes at Halloween are purely for pranks, shock value, and laughs. This is indeed offensive and unacceptable. Rarely are such costumes created or worn respectfully. Do a quick Internet search for “nun costume” and you’ll see that most of the image results are of nun costumes that look like lingerie and come with descriptors such as sexy or naughty. In addition, some pranksters wear nun costumes and pretend to be pregnant or they partner up with guys in priest costumes so as to look like a romantic couple. Others wield rulers or don boxing gloves. There is NOTHING respectful about these costumes. They participate in the worst of nun stereotypes and are offensive to Catholic nuns and the Church. I’d like to tell these people to “grow up” but even children have better sense and than these folks.

Now, for those of you whose children are dressing up in nun costumes or other religious or saintly garb, I’d LOVE to see pictures and post them on my blog for All Saints Day, November 1. Send them to me via email at “post(at)anunslife(dot)org” (no quotes).

Slate.com, the online news magazine, has an interesting but highly questionable assessment of consecrated and monastic life in the article A Monastic Kind of Life: How Catholic religious communities are trying to attract young people again. Have you read it? If not, it’s a must read. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

As for me, I found the article not only questionable but just plain wrong. Here are my thoughts.

1. The terminology is totally off. Monasticism is one form of consecrated life. Not all nuns, sisters, brothers, friars or priests live a monastic life.

2. Even though folks are quick to note the decline in numbers for consecrated life, they fail to note that the comparison is always to the early- to mid-1900s when there were 50+ people entering mainstream communities a year. But that time period is not characteristic of consecrated life throughout the history of Christianity. In fact that time period is more of an aberration because the history of consecrated life has never seen that kind of influx before nor possibly again.

3. Consecrated life was never meant to be a life for the masses. The viability of consecrated life is not dependent on numbers. True, some communities do end up disbanding but that too is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit just like the community’s founding was. We are not here to create a legacy but to do the work of God and live the Gospel in this particular vocation.

4. The article says, “The mission of many orders has become simply caring for their aging populations as they sell properties and consolidate with others.” I beg to differ. We always have and always will live our mission AND care for our sisters. There is nothing new about caring for aging populations, selling property, collaborating, and combining congregations. What is new is that we have such large numbers right now because of the major influx from the early- to mid-1900s. We have to be a bit more creative perhaps in how we care for our sisters and deal with our assets, but other than that, we remain vibrant.

5. What the heck is this?

For a time, the life of Catholic religious orders became about social justice issues, psychological issues, peace studies, interreligious dialogue, the ecology movement—everything and anything, seemingly, except the central proposition: that one can know a loving God and be transformed.

I am deeply offended by this statement. It reveals the author’s lack of understanding about consecrated life and about this period of history in the Catholic Church. Read the Vatican II Church Documents, spend time with religious who lived through this time period, and then perhaps you will understand that religious have been and will continue to be centered around a life and mission based on being in relationship with a loving God and working towards the transformation of ourselves and the world.

6. The jump from discussing consecrated life through Vatican II to the recent foundation of Clear Creek Monastery suggests that only newer communities are faithful to the Church and attractive to young people. While the growth in the monastery is great, the newer communities have not stood the test of time to see if young people stay, how new communities will grow and change as all religious communities before them have. It is exciting to see newer communities and the ways the Holy Spirit continues to inspire people. But make no mistake, the Holy Spirit is alive and well in established religious communities who continue to live out their charism according to what Vatican II called the “signs of the times”.

Well, that’s my two cents (or three) on the article.

Your thoughts?

Sister Marguerite Dynski is a Catholic nun, cancer survivor, paraplegic, and doctor. She belongs to the Sisters of Saint Joseph in Rochester, New York. Her story is described a bit in an interview the ABC TV channel 13 in Rochester.

The interview comes shortly after Marguerite’s participation in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. There are many such walks, runs, fund-raisers and other events this month as October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Check out the video of Sister Marguerite by clicking on the photo to the right (the link takes you to the channel 13 website where you can see the video). Even though it’s a short segment, I felt such a light and peace coming from this Sister. Next time I’m home to visit my family in Rochester (my home town), I’ll have to look up Sister Marguerite and see if she’ll do an interview for us here at A Nun’s Life!

Today is Day 5 of the novena in honor of Saint Teresa of Avila. (Link to previous days and full text of the novena) Please keep these two intentions in your mind and heart as you pray this novena:

For all those who long to draw closer to God …

For all those who are poor and vulnerable …

You can pray via the audio (MP3) or the text or both.

Let us pray …

Audio - Novena in Honor of Saint Teresa of Avila – Day 5
(from Meditations from Carmel)

Opening Prayer
O most kind Lord Jesus Christ! we thank Thee for the great gift of humility which Thou didst grant to Thy beloved Teresa; we pray Thee, by Thy merits, and by those of Thy most humble spouse, to grant us the grace of a true humility, which may make us ever find our joy in humiliation, and prefer contempt before every honour.

Our Father …

Hail Mary …

Glory Be …

Closing Prayer
Saint Teresa, pray for us: That we may become worthy of the promises of Jesus Christ.

Let us pray: Graciously hear us, O God of our salvation! that as we rejoice in the commemoration of the blessed virgin Teresa, so we may be nourished by her heavenly doctrine, and draw from thence the fervour of a tender devotion; through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

Wall Street is not a pretty place to be these days. Like many of you, Catholic nuns and sisters (as well as other religious communities) have been keeping an eye on the stock market and economic crisis. The ups and downs of the marketplace can have a profound affect on our finances as well.

It may be surprising to some to think of nuns having Wall Street savvy. It is not only true but it is absolutely necessary in order for us to continue our mission and care for our sisters, especially those who are older. Although many of us nuns are good wage-earners, we also have to have smart and ethical investments. Some have asked me why nuns have to be concerned about finances when “nuns are supported by the Church”. Well, there in lies the problem. Although many parishes and individual Catholics have been very supportive and generous, overall most religious communities do not receive automatic financial support from the Catholic Church. (I think an exception is diocesan congregations — anyone know?) The Church is not responsible for our pensions, retirement, costs of living, bills, etc. It’s up to each congregation to take care of itself and find it’s own sources of income and financial security.

Aside from sisters’ salaries, congregational assets (land and buildings), and investments, we rely on the generosity of our friends and benefactors. A significant fund-raising campaign is the Retirement Fund for Religious which helps many congregations support and care for our retired sisters, brothers, and religious order priests. Catholic News Service recently published an article about how the slide in Wall Street stocks is affecting the Retirement Fund for Religious.

In addition to national fund-raising, each congregation has to do its own fund-raising. Sometimes its through raffle tickets or golf outings or a straight-up, humble request by a sister during a mission appeal.

So while we sisters must always keep an eye on Wall Street and make good choices regarding our investments, we also rely on folks like you to help us out so that we can care for our retired sisters and continue the liberating mission of Jesus Christ.

I just found an article from yesterday’s Detroit Free Press with two great nun photos. Remember that news story about the nun who “fights cussing with cussing” at her school? Well, she’s in the news again, this time with pink hair and headstands! Jim Schaefer’s article “A few minutes with: A nun with shocking pink hair” (September 28, 2008) has great pictures (linked below) and gives us a glimpse into the life of another real Catholic sister.

Sister Kathleen Avery, OSM, is a member of the Servants of Mary (aka Servites) of Omaha, Nebraska. The sisters’ mission is to manifest “God’s compassionate presence in the spirit of Mary”.

Sister Kathy Avery, 65, of St. Clair Shores stands on her head Friday in front of her students. Photo by WILLIAM ARCHIE/DFP

Avery, principal of St. Clare of Montefalco Catholic School in Grosse Pointe Park, was delivering on a bet she made to encourage summer reading. She also bet she would dye her hair. Photo by WILLIAM ARCHIE/DFP

Interestingly, the reporter Jim Schaefer commented, “You don’t sound like the stereotypical nun” to which Sister Kathleen responded, “Well, I think I’m still a pretty good nun.”

Sister Bernie Galvin, cdp, is a Catholic nun belonging to the Sisters of Divine Providence of San Antonio, Texas. She’s been in the San Francisco newspapers because she recently retired from Religious Witness, an organization which she founded to help people who are homeless. Here’s what Heather Knight of the San Francisco Chronicle writes about Sister Bernie today:

Sister Bernie Galvin, a Catholic nun and former junior high school teacher turned homeless advocate, founded Religious Witness with Homeless People 15 years ago and has been a regular City Hall presence ever since.

She’s fought against sweeps of homeless people and against city efforts to hand out tickets for crimes like camping on the sidewalk and holding an open booze container. She famously held a three-day memorial service in 2005 for the nearly 2,000 homeless people who had died over 18 years in the city.

But she’s exhausted herself in the process and following the recent deaths of her mother and sister, she needs a break. She is leaving her organization to spend a year in solitude – likely at a retreat praying, reading and painting.

“Whatever feeds my soul,” she said.

She’s leaving Religious Witness permanently, but not retiring. She’ll be back in some fashion, she told supporters in a letter.

“This sabbatical year is not to be construed as ‘retirement,’ ” she wrote. “For me, the age of 75 years is much too early to consider retirement, for heaven sake!”

Blessings to Sister Bernie on her year of sabatical. Our prayers are with you.

Photos of Catholic sisters and nuns are difficult to come by here in the World Wide Web. The Internet collection of nun photos is abysmal. We are tired of looking for images and coming up with caricatures of nuns and erotica. Neither speak the truth about the women who are Catholic sisters and nuns or about the vocation of religious life.

With your help, we want to change the face of nun imagery on the web. Our goal is two-fold: provide a repository of images for all to see and use, and get a glimpse of what nuns are like today from YOUR perspective. Who are the nuns that you see and know?

So here’s what you need to do:

1. Email us a nun photo (can be one nun, many nuns, whatever). If your nun image is already online, send us a link. In either case, in order for us to post the picture for Nunday, we need your permission to distribute the photo and assurance that the persons in the photo are okay with having their image made public via the Internet.
2. Write a few details about the photo such as the date and location taken, a description of the photo, and the name and congregation of the nun(s).
3. Tell us your story in relation to the image. (e.g., Sister Gabriel was my 7th grade teacher and taught me how to do a handstand.)

It will be helpful for many people to have good, authentic images of Catholic sisters and nuns. What do you get back? First and foremost the satisfaction of beginning to change the face of nun imagery on the web. You also get your nun photograph published on a widely-read website for all to see!

While we may not be able to publish everything that is sent to me, we’ll do our best. We highly encourage all you religious communities to send stuff too.

And for everyone who has a blog or website or who comments on blogs, forums, online articles, etc.: the more you link to these authentic nun photos, the more the photos will be ranked higher which has the effect of pushing the other unsavory nun images to the back.

Together we can give the Internet real visual images of Catholic sisters and nuns.

Sister Catherine Pinkerton, CSJ, a Sister of Saint Joseph of Cleveland, Ohio, gave the closing prayer on one of the nights of the Democratic National Convention. Sister Catherine has ministered for the past 24 years, with Network, a national Catholic social-justice lobby in Washington, DC. See the Cleveland Plain Dealer for more info. Very proud of the Sisterhood!

I wonder if the Republicans will have a Catholic nun speak at their convention. The only nun news I’ve read in regard to the Republican National Convention is the arrest of a 78-year-old nun protesting the war at the RNC.

Sister Maria Loyola, IHM, whom I first came to know via photographs of her “surfing”, died on Sunday. Her niece Janet wrote to let me know because of the blog post I had written about her and the Nun’s Beach Surf Invitational.

My condolences to Janet, Andrea and their family, to the IHM Sisters of Immaculata, to David the photographer and all who were touched by Sister Loyola’s life and love of life.

Cheers to all who spoke out against the Miss Sister 2008 beauty pageant! Here’s the MSNBC article in which Rungi announces that he’s cancelled the contest: “No nuns on catwalk as priest stops ‘pageant’”

Well, I guess that means I can put away my swimsuit and tap shoes!

My prayers are with Father Antonio Rungi — I thank him for his concern and support for Catholic nuns and sisters but I’m awfully glad that this endeavor never hit the runway — virtual or otherwise.

A beauty contest for nuns? Forget that. How about a real demonstration of the life, ministry, community, prayer, skill, and passion of Catholic sisters? I’m talking some 3-on-3 basketball. Lace up your high-tops, ladies, we’re hitting the courts!

Think that’s crazy? Not at all. Nuns aren’t just a pretty picture or a nostalgic memory — we are alive and well, actively praying and living in today’s world. Whether we are contemplative nuns or apostolic nuns, we are Catholic women embracing life fully, ministering to the needs of others, and being a prayerful, compassionate presence in the world.

After reading about Miss Sister 2008, I and some of my readers started envisioning what sort of thing we might do instead of a beauty contest. What would be a cool (and respectful) way of helping people to get to know Catholic sisters and nuns and to understand a bit more about what a vocation to Catholic religious life is like?

Chuck got us started playing off of my suggestion about 3-on-3 basketball:

“The problem is that Vatican City never sends athletes to the olympics. I want to see a team of weightlifting nuns. Or Nuns curling at the winter games. That would shoot down some stereotypes.”

So give us some more ideas … there’s got to be some great ways Catholic sisters and nuns can breakdown stereotypes and replace them with a more compelling image of who we are.

An Italian priest is organizing an online beauty pageant for Catholic nuns “to give them more visibility within the Catholic Church and to fight the stereotype that they are all old and dour.”

Are you kidding me? A reader of my blog sent me a link about this story. At first I thought the beauty content was a joke, but when I started reading the article and then another person sent me the same story from MSNBC (so it must be true ), I was astounded.

Here’s a snippet about the “Miss Sister 2008″ contest:

The “Miss Sister 2008″ contest will start in September on a blog run by the Rev. Antonio Rungi and will give nuns from around the world a chance to showcase their work and their image.

“Nuns are a bit excluded, they are a bit marginalized in ecclesiastical life,” Rungi told The Associated Press after Italian media carried reports of the idea. “This will be an occasion to make their contribution more visible.”

According to the article, people who visit Rungi’s blog can “vote for the nun they consider a model.” The rest of the brief article includes additional information such as Rungi’s assessment that “being ugly is not a requirement for becoming a nun” and that the beauty contest will not have nuns parading around in bathing suits. Great.

While I applaud Rungi’s desire to promote the good work that Catholic nuns are doing, I am appalled by the technique with which he is doing it. Granted, maybe something got lost in translation, but the whole idea is offensive to me as a Catholic nun. Here are some thoughts of the top of my head:

1. All Catholic nuns are not old and dour. I for one am neither of those, and frankly, if I were, so what? God calls whomever God desires — the young, the old, the sweet, the quiet, the energetic, the thoughtful. Religious life is so diverse and can encompass all sorts of personalities, passions, and callings.
2. Pitting nuns against one another in a contest is just plain wrong. If we’re talking a game of 3-on-3 basketball, that’s a different story. Why not create a blog that profiles different sisters and celebrates each of them instead of making it into a contest which is just plain weird?
3. Honestly, is a beauty contest the best way to address the “marginality of nuns in ecclesiastical life”? By having a beauty contest, Rungi is reinforcing the far deeper stereotype that a woman’s worth resides in how she looks and that she is only really capable of measuring up against other women.
4. Catholic nuns and sisters are doing extraordinary things for God, the Church, and the world. We do not need to showcase ourselves: we live our charism day in and day out. Even the so-called dour nuns do this! It’s that commitment to living religious life fully that is what is attractive to other people.

I know you have thoughts running through your head so please join the conversation with me and other readers and offer your thoughts.

After reading a post about sci-fi nuns in a forum, I wondered why the sci-fi nun is so compelling to people. Frankly I think real nuns are way more cool than fictitious nuns. Write a novel about a nun’s quest for justice, a religious community’s care for abused children, a nun’s dedication to community and poverty in a society that values individualism and consumerism. Now that would be awesome.

To highlight the diversity of how nuns have given radical witness to the gospel and to the goodness of life, here’s a sampling of news stories from just the last few days …

Nun spent her life fighting for the homeless and against war and nuclear arms – “Faith was Flats protester’s arsenal” by Virginia Culver for The Denver Post (August 10, 2008)

Nun gives life to teaching and hospital work – “Beloved Sister Cecilia turns 95″ by Brenda Levins McCorkle for The Daily News Online (Longview, WA) (August 9, 2008)

Carmelite nun Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta) martyred 66 years ago – “The Life and Death of a German Jewish Christian Nun by Roderick Strange for The Times Online (UK) (August 8, 2008)

Nun ministers in and around New Orleans – “Marking an Anniversary: Congregation celebrates nun’s 50 years of service” by Eva Jacob Barkoff for The Times-Picayune (New Orleans) (August 7, 2008)

Would love to hear your comments (especially my sci-fi buddy Jen!)

Did you ever hear about the Hollywood actress Dolores Hart, a movie star of the 1950s and 60s. She is purported to have given Elvis Presley his first movie kiss during the movie King Creole in 1958. Shortly after playing Saint Clare of Assisi in the movie Francis of Assisi, Hart entered a  Benedictine community of cloistered Catholic nuns at the Monastery of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut. In 2001 she was elected Prioress (assists the Abbess of the community) of the community. She is the only nun to be a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (givers of the Oscars).

A few interesting interviews with Mother Dolores Hart, OSB.

Dolores Hart: How a movie actress left Hollywood for a contract with God by Barbara Cloud, for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (April 08, 1998)

Excerpt:

… she never saw herself as a nun.

“It was not a lifelong dream,” she said. “I did not grow up wanting to be a nun. I wanted to be an actress. If it had ever been suggested I would one day be a nun, it would have been the last thing on my mind. It was a million to one shot I would ever be a nun.”

… Mother Dolores calls her life as a Benedictine nun “an island of enclosure.” It is a monastic life that includes prayers at several hours of the day, including 2 a.m. It is a structured life with little time for much else than handling chores on the farm and woodlands involving 359 acres. The land maintains the community, the group of 40 women of various professional backgrounds.

From the Glitter of Hollywood to the Quiet of a Convent by Barbara Middleton for National Catholic Register (July 10-16, 2005)

Excerpt:

… [After starring in the movie Francis of Assisi], I met Pope John XXIII, and he was very instrumental in helping me form my ideas about a vocation.

When I was introduced to the Pope, I said, “I am Dolores Hart, the actress playing Clara.” He said, “No, you are Clara!” Thinking he had misunderstood me, I said, “No, I am Dolores Hart, an actress portraying Clara.” Pope John XXIII looked me squarely in the eye and stated, “No. You are Clara!” His statement stayed with me and rang in my ears many times.

Hollywood star turned nun helps Waterbury group by Tracy Simmons for the Republican-American (May 31, 2008)

Excerpt:

… She found herself asking what life is about. Hollywood gave her everything she wanted, she said, she was even engaged to Los Angeles businessman Don Robinson. She told him, however, that she wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do and called the wedding off six months after the engagement. “It would make a heck of a good movie wouldn’t it?,” she joked.

She told him she had to go to Bethlehem to visit the convent again. “I walked up to the hill (on the 400-acre property) and I thought to myself this is it. I’ve got to do this,” Hart said. Six months later she announced that she “had an affair to take care of.” “They thought it was a guy,” she laughed.

She arrived at the convent in a limousine. “I arrived at Regina Laudis in style.” But she said the transition wasn’t easy.

“It was the hardest thing possible. The first seven years I wanted to quit, to turn around,” she said. “But when the seed finally sprouted and I knew God was there and it was the right thing to do, I don’t think there was anything in my life that made me happier and I would never, ever change my mind.”

The Washington Post published an interview today with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi whose book Know Your Power just came out. The interview, “Nancy Pelosi Airs Some Clean Laundry in ‘Power’” by Libby Copeland (July 29, 2008; Page C01) mentions that Pelosi’s mom always wanted her to be a nun …

Your mom wanted you to become a nun.

Oh, definitely.

When did she stop pressing that?

She always pressed that. From being a little girl, she would always be talking about how she wanted me to be a nun. . . . It was always something that she thought would be a beautiful life, free from the hardships of life — and prayerful and making a contribution to society.

My mother was a very devout Catholic. One of my brothers went into the seminary, and oh my, she was as happy as she could be. He didn’t stay.

I do like the line about being a nun means being “prayerful and making a contribution to society” although this is something that all people are called to do and I trust that Pelosi is doing this in her life and ministry right now as Speaker of the House. What is not so accurate is that being a nun does not mean that we can ever “be free from the hardships of life.” Nuns — contemplative ones or cloistered ones, or ones in the world, apostolic ones — are never separate from the world and its hardships. We experience them just as much as others and in fact we have to be in tuned with them so as to be able to truly meet people where they are.

I’d love to hear from Pelosi about how she lives a “beautiful life” that is “prayerful” and allows her to make a contribution to society. What she is doing, as are all our public servants (underscore servants) is a real ministry, or at least is supposed to be because they are serving people and hold the common good as an important value.

Sister Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN, was a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who was killed in February 2005 because of her work with and on behalf of the people of Brazil. She had lived in Brazil for over 40 years ago and worked with the Pastoral Land Commission, an organization of the Catholic Church that fights for the rights of rural workers and peasants, and defends land reforms in Brazil. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur have a web page dedicated to Sister Dorothy Stang.

There was a lot of news coverage recently because one of the persons responsible for her murder was acquitted. Then this article came out about Sister Dorothy’s brother, David Stang — “Nun’s Dream Lives On” by Colleen O’Connor of the Denver Post. Though the story emerges from the terrible tragedy of Sister Dorothy’s death and the ongoing oppression of the poor in Brazil, it is filled with hope and with light.

Dorothy’s murder had a profound affect on her brother David. According to this article, the murder “thrust David — blissfully retired and tending his coin and stamp collections — smack in the middle of an international drama of land wars and death lists.”

[David] Stang, who is studying Portuguese, has traveled to Brazil nine times, attending all the trials. He has trekked deep into the rainforest to visit Dorothy’s grave and to sleep in the bed where she spent her last night….

Over the past three years, he has met with Brazilian politicians and embraced countless farmers who grieve the loss of Dorothy.

And he has worked with journalists from CNN and international newspapers to keep her story alive. A week after the murder, he traveled to Brazil with Denver independent filmmaker Daniel Junge to be part of his documentary “They Killed Sister Dorothy,” which won first prize at the South by Southwest Film Festival and will be featured this fall at the Denver Film Festival.

“I think it’s incredibly brave for someone in his stage of life to really put himself out there in the way he has,” Junge said. “I don’t think he planned to spend his retirement this way.”

The investment of time, however, helped the prosecution, said Brent Rushforth, the Washington, D.C., lawyer who represented the Stang family at the trials.”His presence as a representative of the family, and keeping the spotlight on the story, is one reason why the Brazilian guys have done their job,” he said….

Stang, who calls himself “the living spokesperson for Dorothy,” … vows to keep her legacy alive, even if it means spending time with people such as Henri des Roziers, a French priest in Brazil who, according to local journalists, has a price on his head of 100,000 Brazilian reais — about $38,000, or twice the amount allegedly paid for Dorothy’s murder.

When des Roziers invited Stang to attend the opening of a new school named for Dorothy in Xinguara, at the heart of the violent conflict, he didn’t hesitate. The trek included two airplane flights and a four-hour drive in a pickup truck on rutted jungle roads deep into the frontier, where he was greeted by hundreds.

“The workers wore hard hats and were standing at attention. The kids came out in their uniforms. Everyone sang songs. There were hugs and tears. If I’m a symbol of pride to them, then, yes, I’ll be there.”

Do read the full article in the Denver Post and check out the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur’s web page dedicated to Sister Dorothy Stang.

Found this article about Sister Mary MacKillop on Zenit.org

Sister Mary MacKillop Featured on Coin
1st of Inspirational Australians Series

SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 9, 2008 (Zenit.org) – Australia is honoring Blessed Mary MacKillop, who will likely be the country’s first saint, by featuring her on a collector’s coin.

Senator Nick Sherry, minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law, launched the Sister Mary MacKillop coin Tuesday.

The $1 uncirculated coin is the first of the Royal Australian Mint’s series featuring inspirational Australians, which commemorates unique Australians who have made an extraordinary contribution to the nation.

“As the Australian people’s saint, and someone who could be called Australia’s saint in waiting, Mary MacKillop is a fitting choice for the first coin in the Inspirational Australian series,” said Sherry.

He explained that Royal Australian Mint coin designer Vladimir Gottwald depicted MacKillop as “guiding future generations.”

“Mary was an exceptional Australian woman who stands as an example of great courage, trust and compassion, and as our first saint, she will forever inspire our nation,” said the senator.

Mary MacKillop was born in Victoria in 1842.

She founded the Order of the Sisters of St Joseph, the first religious order to be founded by an Australian.

Under the sister’s guidance, the order established schools and charitable institutions across Australia and was devoted to the care of orphans, neglected children, the homeless, sick and aged. She died in 1909.

Pope John Paul II beatified Sister Mary MacKillop in 1995.

To order the coin go to the Royal Australian Mint.

I am delighted to announce that one of our own blogging nuns, Sister Susan Rose Francois, CSJP, will be professing first vows in October. Sister Susan is currently a 2nd Year Novice with the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Peace and is the author of the popular blog Musings of a Discerning Woman. Sister Susan was one of the first people who linked to my blog, helping me to get started. She’s also one of the nuns behind the web ring (a network of websites) SisterBloggers.

I am very happy for Susan and think it’s way important to celebrate these moments — both for Susan and for religious life! Being a nun is a fabulous way of life and everytime a person commits to the life, it reaffirms my own life choice and my love of God and serving others. I think it is also an inspiration to people to know that religious life is alive and well and continues to be a viable way to live joyfully and radically, to be fully human, to serve God and others.

Be sure to visit Sister Susan’s blog — recently she wrote a great post about an article in America magazine– Religious Life in the Age of Facebook. I highly recommend you read the article and Susan’s post, especially if you are a religious and/or vocation director. (The America article is in the July 7, 2008 edition, available online only to subscribers.)

Blessings to you, Sister Susan, and upon the Sisters and mission of your community.

Having recently begun swimming in Lake Michigan again (same place I trained for last year’s triathlon), I was delighted to read an article about a fellow swimming nun.

Sister Eileen McCarthy, SSND, is a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in the Atlantic-Midwest Province.

The 75-year-old nun took up swimming after she was no longer able to run. Next summer Sister Eileen will participate in the National Senior Olympic Games in San Francisco.

“Swimming Nun, 75, To Go For The Gold” (June 30, 2008 on thebostonchannel.com) is a short article about how Sister Eileen came to swimming and how she went from a novice swimmer to placing 10th and 12th at the national level.

Cheers to Sister Eileen! You are an inspiration.

The Senior Olympics is a wonderful event and I encourage you to find out more, especially if you are a senior athlete.

It’s not often that nuns get a mention in the world of pro cycling. Emma Pooley — who rides for Team Specialized and is a contender for the British Olympics cycling team — details her experience riding the Tour de l’Aude on Cycling Weekly’s blog. Here’s a snippet of her post:

Stage 1, Gruissan, 3.9 km prologue
Friday, May 16

It wasn’t an overly technical course but I cornered like a nun in a habit (actually that’s not fair; a nun would at least have had faith), and in a short little time trial like that you can lose a lot of time…

Sadly I could not comment on the post because no comments are allowed. So I will write my comment on my own blog.

Dear Emma,

First and foremost, congratulations on being a top cyclist! Your diary about riding the Tour de L’Aude inspires me to keep pushing through my own difficult rides. And congrats on being in the top 10 at the Montreal World Cup. Way to go!

Now, regarding your comment about having “cornered like a nun in a habit,” permit me to offer a few comments.

As a Catholic nun and road biker, I find that most cycling nuns (and there are a number of us, for example, visit Sister Sandy at Nunsuch blog) do not wear a habit when riding. There are issues with chain grease getting all over our skirts, flying strings of rosary beads jamming our Campy drivetrain, heat rash from wearing the veil under our helmets, and other such inconveniences. Normally we wear the habit of a cyclist — a nice wicking jersey, classic spandex shorts, a sturdy yet lightweight helmet, and cushy gloves. Yes, we even have clipless cycling shoes and slick-looking sunglasses.

And when we do hit those technical corners, we rely not only on our faith but on our skill as cyclists. This skill far supercedes our choice of habit for the ride. Whether we are in nun habits or cycling habits, we know how take a corner. No flapping scapular is going to slow us down. So next time you write about a time when you really rocked it out and deftly handled technical corners, be sure to mention that indeed you rode “like a nun.”

Blessings,
Sister Julie