The New Orleans paper, The Times-Picayune posted a great story this week — Young lawyer fights for social justice on her way to becoming a nun (January 29, 2012). The article is about Alison McCrary, a young woman who is a lawyer and in the process of becoming a Catholic sister with the Congregation of Saint Joseph. Alison lives with a community of St. Joseph sisters near Bayou St. John.

You might be wondering, A nun AND a lawyer? But of course! Justice and Catholic nuns go hand-in-hand!

Alison sees her role as a lawyer fighting for social justice meshing perfectly with becoming a nun.
“People have such a misconception of what nuns are,” she says. “We’re supposed to run into the world, not out of it. Our eyes are wide open, and our sleeves are rolled up.”

…

“There are so many struggles of the poor and oppressed,” she says. “If I’m not engaged in some kind of social change, then something is wrong.” During an internship with the PeaceWomen Project at the United Nations in 2005, she met impressive women doing the kind of work she wanted to do. “I found out they were lawyers,” she says. “I was inspired by what they were doing, and that planted the seed for going to law school.”

…

She entered the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law in August 2007. During her work as a paralegal and volunteer activities as a law student, she met several Sisters of St. Joseph and saw the important work they were doing, and she felt called to become a nun. “I met Sister Helen Prejean and Sister Lory Schaff and all these incredible women who were living the gospel values, and I thought, ‘I want that,’” she says.

She started meeting with a spiritual advisor, and after finishing law school and passing the bar in May, 2010, she took the first step to becoming a Sister of St. Joseph on Aug. 15, 2010. “I knew I had to find the beauty in the middle of all the struggle,” she says. “My decision is something I feel at peace with.” In a world that values money, power and sex, she is ready to live the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. “I believe our vows have a lot of meaning,” she says. “I feel like I’m called to that commitment.”

As you read Alison’s story, what strikes you? What gives you something to think about in terms of your own life?

Today we are pleased to introduce you to today’s guest blogger: our friend, Sister Michele Fisher of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

This past week, the Sisters in my local community and I had the grace of hosting a group of students from the Newman Association of Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.  They were seeking to do a Winter Break Mission Trip and their first requirement was to stay with a religious community and try to find service opportunities sponsored by religious communities. Imagine that!

Our contact started almost nine months ago when I received an e-mail from their president. Strangely enough, the e-mail went into my SPAM folder. Good thing for them that I give my SPAM folder a thorough review before deleting it!

Over the course of months following that initial e-mail, the plans for our week together began to take shape.  I know that there was prayer and discernment taking place at both ends of the state (we live in Philadelphia, on the eastern part of Pennsylvania and they are from the northwestern corner of the state). But God had us covered! As the week of the students’ arrival got closer, I began to have all kinds of thoughts – anything from “Did I find the “right” service experiences for them?” to “What if they don’t like the meatloaf?”

Last Monday evening, when I got the call that our long-awaited visitors had arrived, my heart did a little dance and I begged the good Lord to “take the wheel!” I could tell by the joy with which we greeted one another that this was going to be a special week.

The greatest joy for me was watching how freely they related to one another, to the Sisters and to the people that they served during the week. In their simple smiles, willing gestures and even in their tiredness at the end of the day, they filled the place with the fragrance of God.

When they drove past the convent after bidding us all farewell, there was a bit of sadness in the cold January air. We will miss our dear young friends! Thank you, dear friends, for your example of love in action, faith in practice and boundless trust in the goodness of God!

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There will be no prayer leader today but please feel free to meet at 6 p.m. CT in the chat room to connect with the A Nun’s Life Community. We will have prayer leaders Wednesday through Friday for the week.

Here’s your chance to do your holiday shopping AND help out A Nun’s Life Ministry. We’ve partnered with iGive.com so that whenever you use their search engine or shop at stores that have signed up with them, A Nun’s Life gets a donation!

Here are some stores that you may be using already (plus there are many, many more!):

Click here to begin at iGive.com. Many thanks for all the ways that you support our ministry! You can also donate directly to A Nun’s Life or become a corporate sponsor.

I never met Sister Valsa, but she is my sister and yours. My heart breaks for the congregation, family and friends of Sister Valsa John, SCJM, a Sister of Charity of Jesus and Mary who was killed a week ago. See Stephanie Nolen’s piece for the Globe and Mail – Activist nun who fought Indian mining companies brutally murdered (November 17, 2011). Here are some quotes:

Sister Valsa, 52, was from Kerala in south India, and 24 years ago took her vows as a member of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary. She was one of the remarkable breed of Indian religious figures who are grassroots social activists, who immerse themselves in the most marginalized and impoverished communities and work on literacy, basic health care and human rights. Sister Valsa said she did Jesus’s work by teaching the aboriginal people – known in India as adivasi or “tribals” – about their rights to their land….

Sister Sudha [Varghese, her close friend], who attended the funeral Thursday, said most who knew Sister Valsa believe it was people from the Santhal community, in the pay of the mining company, who killed her. “This is what the companies do: they divide people. When people are this poor, when someone gives them a little money, they can do anything,” she said. “Valsa knew it, and so many times we asked her to leave. But she said, ‘These are my people and I cannot leave them.’ ”

While the proverbial jury’s out in terms of who is actually responsible, news sources tend to name the coal company or possible local people who were angry with Sister Valsa for reporting to police the rape of a woman in the village.

Said Bishop Julius Marandi of Dumka, “Her violent death was a terrible shock and a great loss to the Church. We seek justice, but while we mourn this loss, our mission for the poor, the weak and voiceless will continue, strengthened and renewed by the blood of Sister Valsa, who now intercedes for human rights, justice, dignity and hope of these people.” (source: AsiaNews)

I’ve been reflecting a lot on Sister Valsa’s life and her death. No one knows where one’s vocation will lead — for some, to be a person of compassion, for others a teacher or a missionary or a parent. For all of us, our vocation leads to our death — not directly, perhaps, but in one way or another we find in our death that final statement of how we have lived our life. For some, one’s vocation necessarily entails facing death. I remember my own Sister Alice Baker, IHM, talking about her trip to the Holy Land. She talked about having to discern the possibility of her own death because she was going on a peace mission in a volatile region. I can’t even pretend to know what that means.

I lead a relatively peaceful existence with no threats to life other than the usual ones that all of us human beings face. Sure, I’ve had my share of “close-calls” but I’m intact for the most part! I am blown away by those like Sister Valsa and Sister Alice and so many others who have faced the real possibility of death. For some like Sister Valsa, death has come directly as a result of living fully one’s vocation.

You know, I’ve always wondered why in Compline — night prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours — the last prayer always reminds us of death. “All powerful God, grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.” I think it may be a reminder of our ultimate source and end in God and a reminder to take to heart our vocation. Not sure, but I will definitely keep pondering.

How do you understand “a vocation unto death”?

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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

Here we are, October 31. To those in the United States and a few other shadowy places, it is the dark night of the souls a.k.a Halloween. But to everyone else, it’s just an ordinary, non-scary day where everything seems normal …. or so they think.

Through the ministry of A Nun’s Life, now EVERYONE can experience the drama of

… TERRIFYING concepts like discernment, docility, and diffractometers (“Noooooo, anything but the D words!”)

… nuns whose off-key attempts at singing will HORRIFY you and make you CURSE the day you came into the world wide web

… CREEPY SPIDERS crawling all over our website in search of information on the activities and metadata of those CRAZY nuns

… and all kinds of awe-inspiring God CANDY and perhaps even a few TREATS along the way!

Spider Man + Flying Nun = SPIDER NUN! Spider Nun says, "Donate Now!"

Give to a ministry that tries to make you smile even on a day when, at any moment, we could be overrun by ZOMBIES.

DONATE NOW by clicking FUNDRAISER or the SPIDER NUN photo!

And, join us tonight for prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) today … prayer will be necessary because then we are going to have a special guest on air with a VERY DRAMATIC kickoff to the FUN!raiser! It’s all happening at aNunsLife.org/live!

DISCLAIMER: Although many songs were killed in the making of this ministry, no nuns, spiders, zombies, or potatoes were harmed.

Announcing the first annual A Nun’s Life Ministry FUN!raiser! The nuns are going to put the “FUN” in fundraising! Be sure to tune in to aNunsLife.org all this week and then on our “dramatic” kickoff on October 31, Halloween night (6 p.m. CST) and throughout the FUN!raiser November 1-9.

The theme is “All Saints, All The Time” which ties in perfectly with the official start on November 1, All Saints Day. We’ll focus on saints and saintly topics throughout the FUN!raiser. We’ll also have special events including an iPad 2 Giveaway, live broadcasts with religious rock stars Sister Sandra Schneiders and Father James Martin on the saints, a 9-day novena meditation on the saints, a “pawcast” featuring Sister Chloe the Convent Cat and her furry, scaly, feathery friends, and more! For more info on the FUN!raiser and to donate, check out the official FUN!raiser HQ at anunslife.org/fundraiser.

This is an opportunity for you to support A Nun’s Life Ministry, to say, “Yes, this ministry makes a difference in my life and in the world. I want to play a part in ensuring it keeps on rockin’!” A Nun’s Life has been there when you’ve secretly researched becoming a nun, when you hit a low point in life, when you wondered about what extreme unction had to do with anything, when you wanted friends to connect with on ideas and issues important to you, and more.

Now we need your help. Your financial support helps ensure that you can listen to our daily podcasts; read about Catholic nuns today, spirituality and theology, religious life, and living the Gospel in daily life; interact on an engaging discussion forum; pray daily with a community of faith that spans the globe; and more.

A Nun’s Life is an innovative ministry with a compassionate presence that encourages people to connect more deeply with God and one another and to live fully one’s vocation in life. We are online pilgrims — women and men, young and old, who strive to live the Gospel and seek God through faith, ministry, and community. For more information about the ministry, check the links below or peruse the A Nun’s Life Ministry brochure.

And please, SPREAD THE WORD! Invite your friends, your pets, the organization where you work, your neighbor’s mother-in-law, your cousin’s doctor, and the guy in front of you in line at the grocery store!

Sister Julie and Sister Maxine are going to World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain! World Youth Day is an experience with people worldwide and with the Pope. It is celebrated every three years in a different country. This year it will be celebrated in Madrid from August 16th to 21st, 2011.

We received a grant to go to Madrid with our broadcast equipment and two broadcasting professionals from our A Nun’s Life community. We’re going to connect with, listen to, and record the stories of young people and religious from across the globe. We’ll explore how people experience God’s calling and the many different ways this calling is incarnate!

Not only are we going to record video and audio, but we are going to BROADCAST LIVE from World Youth Day! That’s right, you’ve seen us broadcast live every weekday from the A Nun’s Life Studio, now witness the MOBILE STUDIO in action! Our main broadcast days will be August 16, 17, and 18. Now there is a bit of a time difference with Madrid being ahead by 7 hours as compared to Chicago (e.g., 12 noon in Chicago is 7 p.m. in Madrid). Check your time zone!

We don’t know exactly what the schedule is but we’ll be sending updates via Twitter, Facebook, and our A Nun’s Life eNewsletter … so be sure to follow, friend, and/or subscribe!

We’ll send another update soon and are in the midst of creating our NL-WYD webpage.
08/08/2011 UPDATE: NL-WYD webpage now available at anunslife.org/wyd.

If you are going to WYD, be sure to let us know and maybe we can rendezvous in Madrid. If you have special prayers that you’d like us to tuck beneath our mantles, let us know too. Use the comment section below!

And please spread the word that BROADCASTING NUNS ARE GOING TO WYD!

Today is World Refugee Day, and the message that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has for the world is this: ONE THING. Do just one thing to help people who are refugees. That one thing might be to learn something new about refugees.

Visit the UNHCR webpage DO 1 THING and make a choice to help by learning, spreading the word, or giving. I visited the website and in the section “learning,” I tried the Against All Odds game on the UNHCR website as a way to learn more. The game lets you experience what it is like to be a refugee. While I knew it was not going to be a “fun” game, I was not prepared for how horrible it feels … and this is just a game.

It’s important to that we all know the basics. I found it so helpful, for example, to talk with our Ask Sister guest, Eilis McCulloh, about her experience volunteering with the Franciscans and collaborating with the Lutheran’s ministry to help resettle refugees (see AS075 … audio download will be up by tomorrow but for now you can watch/listen to the video). Here are some basics that we should all know:

• what is a refugee or displaced person?
• why are they forced to flee their homes?
• what happens to their family, community, possessions?
• what options do they have?
• what does resettlement mean?
• why should I care?

Here are some places to explore answer to these questions:

• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
• Jesuit Refugee Service
• World Church Service
• Catholic Diocese of Arlington
• Catholic Relief Services
• International Rescue Committee

What other sources of information or ways to do ONE THING would you recommend?

Here in the United States, we celebrate the national holiday of Memorial day. Wrote former president Bill Clinton in a memo on the White House Program for the National Moment of Remembrance,

“Memorial Day represents one day of national awareness and reverence, honoring those Americans who died while defending our Nation and its values. While we should honor these heroes every day for the profound contribution they have made to securing our Nation’s freedom, we should honor them especially on Memorial Day.”

Let us also remember those women and men who have pursued and died for peace, justice, and freedom. I think of people like Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who was killed because of her work with and on behalf of the people of Brazil; and Daniel Pearl, an American journalist writing for the Wall Street Journal who strove to build “bridges between diverse cultures” and who was kidnapped and killed by terrorists. I am also reminded of my own nun, Sister John Clement Hungerman, IHM, a remarkable woman and educator.

On this day of remembering, please add  the names of others who have given their life and their death to the pursuit of peace, justice, and freedom … and then join us tonight for a litany of heroes and martyrs during our prayer podcast at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone).

I love that Catholic sisters and nuns are increasingly present on the Internet and in social media and networks. Sister Maxine and I have seen astronomical growth since we first began in 2006 with blogging and social media and then adding a forum in 2008, podcasts in 2009, an iPhone app in 2010, and a newly updated forum in 2011. What’s next?!

When we started, there were very few nuns around but today I’m happy to see them in many areas of the Internet, social media, and technology! In fact, there is now a nun who develops software applications, commonly know as “apps”. Sister Catherine Wybourne is a Benedictine nun of Holy Trinity Monastery in Oxfordshire county in southeast England.

Rather than turning to traditional bake sales to raise money for the monastery she founded along with two other Benedictine sisters seven years ago, Wybourne is setting her sights on software application sales, and developing two apps for the iPhone.

She says one app will focus on the rule of Saint Benedict and will be free, and other is an app to help parish priests. The nun wouldn’t elaborate more on the idea, except to say she can’t believe nobody else has thought of the idea before.

“We are going to charge for our apps because we are in the middle of a fundraising campaign and we are trying to get people to get hold of the idea of philanthropic investment,” Wybourne said, sounding more like the banker she was for a few years before entering religious life in 1981. “So it would not be a good idea on the one hand to say please invest in us, and on the other, give everything away for free.” (source: Apple and the App-Making Nun by Margaret Rock, May 11, 2011)

You can find Sister Catherine on Twitter @DigitalNun and at Holy Trinity Monastery.

What other areas of the Internet, social media, and technology do you think nuns should get into?

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We are delighted to announce that YOUR forum is here! The A Nun’s Life Community Forum is up and running and ready for you to use!

Carry on conversations inspired by the blog, podcasts, or chat room or strike up a new conversation about something of interest to you! We invite you to check it out, register (it’s free and easy!), and start exploring!

You’ll have lots of folks around to hang out with and to help navigate the new forum. We’d like to introduce you to two of the NL Community Forum moderators: Marsha West and Marguerite Krupp. Both have been members of the NL community for a while and both have professional expertise in facilitating the online community experience. We are truly blessed. Our thanks go out to them and to all the folks who have helped along the way including KCMayrie, Dominic our forum designer, the folks at vBulletin.org, and the Holy Spirit!

To access the forum, simply go to anunslife.org/forum or click on the menu item FORUM at the top of every page or on the home page of this website. For those of you who were members of the A Nun’s Life Vocation Forum in the past, we have integrated the forum within this one — to join the Vocation Forum, you must be discerning and request access from Sister Julie or Sister Maxine. Details are on the forum.

Let us know what you think, and any ideas, questions, inspirations you have about the forum itself or the A Nun’s Life Community! And be sure to spread the word far and wide inviting people to check out the new forum. Use the handy social media links below or send an email or shout from a rooftop!

Here at A Nun’s Life Ministry, we’re often asked about what the vow of poverty is and how it is lived both personally and as a congregation. While a significant aspect of the vow is that we hold all things in common and don’t personally own anything, there are other dimensions too. The recent news story about nuns challenging Goldman Sachs over pay, for example, highlights in bold relief the justice nature of the vow of poverty.

According to The Guardian, four orders of Catholic sisters, investors in Goldman Sachs, have requested a review of the bank’s remuneration policies. The orders are the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Boston, Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, the Sisters of Saint Francis of Philadelphia (who also recently questioned McDonald’s about its responsibility for child nutrition), and the Benedictine Sisters of Mount Angel.

As shareholders, the nuns requested a report that would include:

“1. An evaluation of whether our senior executive compensation packages (including, but not limited to, options, benefits, perks, loans and retirement agreements) are ‘excessive’ and should be modified.

2. An exploration of how sizeable layoffs and the level of pay of our lowest paid workers impact senior executive pay.

3. An analysis of the way in which fluctuations in revenues impact: a) the company’s compensation pool; b) the compensation of the company’s top 25 senior executives; and c) the company’s shareholders.”

So what does this all have to do with vowing lifelong poverty in a religious community? In this case, the vow of poverty compels us to call into call into question — responsibly, as the sisters have done — business practices that are unjust. We, like others who choose to live the Gospel, are committed to the just distribution of goods, to caring for those who are economically disadvantaged, and to changing structures that perpetuate the disparity of rich v. poor. (This of course takes us into yet another dimension of the vow of poverty and that is living simply and care of God’s earth … but that’s for another blog post).

I am encouraged and challenged by the sisters for taking a stand and calling the company to accountability — not with unkindness or rashness — but with a genuine sense of care and respect both for the company and for those who work for the company. This civil discourse is notable, especially when various reporters sensationalize the story by using uncivil language such as “a pack of angry nuns” … trash-talking indeed. The sisters call us to expand how we understand stewardship to not just how we handle our own shekels but how we as a human community care for one another.

What are your thoughts on this story? What questions and thoughts does it raise in you?

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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.

The Sisters of Saint Francis of Philadelphia are spearheading a proposal for McDonald’s Corporation that they respond to the public health concerns and data about the effects of fast food on the health of children. The Sisters are joined by a number of other religious communities including Benedictines, Dominicans, and BVMs as well as other health, financial, and educational organizations.

The Franciscan Sisters are shareholders in McDonald’s, owning more than $2,000 worth of McDonald’s stock, which gives them the right to make such a proposal.

PROPOSAL NO. 11: Advisory Vote on Shareholder Proposal Relating to a Report on Children’s Nutrition

WHEREAS, the contribution of the fast food industry to the global epidemic of childhood obesity and to diet-related diseases, such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease, have become a major public issue …

RESOLVED: Shareholders ask the Board of Directors to issue a report, at reasonable expense and excluding proprietary information, within six months of the 2011 annual meeting, assessing the company’s policy responses to public concerns regarding linkages of fast food to childhood obesity, diet-related diseases and other impacts on children’s health. Such report should include an assessment of the potential impacts of public concerns and evolving public policy on the company’s finances and operations.

For more information, read the full text of the Sisters’ proposal to McDonald’s as well as a story National Public Radio ran about the Sisters’ proposal.

I’ve read a number of comments on blog posts about this proposal and was struck by a few who thought it was odd that the nuns were shareholders at a corporation, especially at McDonalds. The nuns, some commenters implied, should stick to the classroom and out of the world of business and politics. Well, I got news for these folks. Caring for people and God’s creation and educating people around Gospel values must happen at all levels of society — on the immediate, front lines and at the systemic level. We need to tend to the wounds of the sick and influence health care police. We need to teach children in the class room and have a voice in the public sphere to be sure children are protected and cared for.

The Franciscan Sisters of Philadelphia, for example, are not only working on behalf of children and health as shareholders at McDonald’s, but they help run and teach at Mother Seton Academy which offers tuition-free alternative middle school education to the underserved population; they provide housing and support services for women and children; they run a family counseling center to help individuals, couples, and families; and so much more.

So charge on, my Sisters, and know that our prayers are with you as you walk into that board room.

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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.

Ralph Ellison, an American author, was born on this day in 1914. I remember the first time I read Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man. I was in college, an English major. Ellison’s writing was much more sophisticated than my comprehension at the time, but the book still made a deep impression on me.

I was intrigued by his ideas about identity—ideas that were controversial in the late 1940s when he wrote them. Ellison suggested that African Americans had an active role in shaping U.S. culture and defining their own identity. Other African American writers at the time had a different opinion. They suggested that African Americans, as a result of oppression over generations, had lost their cultural foundations and their sense of identity. Two different viewpoints. Two different takes on the world and life. Great writers like Ellison expand our perspectives. Thank you, Ralph Ellison!

For more information about Ralph Ellison, visit the PBS website.

Are there writers who helped you look at the world in a broader way? Please share their names and their works in the comment box below.

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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.

Canadian foreign correspondent Stephanie Nolen will rock your world. She was featured last night on the CBC radio show, “Ideas” which broadcast The 2010 Dalton Camp Lecture in Journalism. While I was innocently running errands with my nun, I became totally absorbed in her words as well as the stories and images of the women that she met in some of the most remote, violent places on the earth.

Stephanie, the South Asia correspondent for the Globe and Mail, delivered her talk, “Shrapnel, Snakes and Blistering Rage: On the Occupational Hazards of a Foreign Correspondent,” on September 29, 2010, at Saint Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. She offers her audience, including many budding journalists, five rules (or six if you count the one about always carrying waterproof matches in case you need to set your foot on fire after a snakebite) for journalism. These rules are in fact very good guidelines for anyone who seeks to engage the world, to pursue truth, to give voice to our own stories and the stories of those who have no voice.

Listen to Stephanie’s talk, Shrapnel, Snakes and Blistering Rage, courtesy CBC Canada and check out their web page for this Ideas episode on the 2010 Dalton Camp Lecture.

Also be sure to read Stephanie’s profile on her website where you’ll discover her patron saint and how many languages she can flirt in. Don’t miss her dispatches including one from the Democratic Republic of Congo called “The War on Women” and others on AIDS in Africa, surviving rape, and children in the midst of war.

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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.

YAY for NUNS! A Nun’s Life Ministry and our Benedictine friend, Sister Christine Ereiser, are mentioned in this article from Ad Age Digital. Check it out!

What Nuns, Yes Nuns, Can Teach You About Social Media
The Sisters Are Tweeting, and Using Social Media for Social Good
by Bernhard Warner

Warner highlights the following things nuns can teach folks about social media:

• Ethics.
• Commitment.
• The power of doing.
• Values.
• The power of listening.
• The power of creativity.

For prayer today, visit our Praying with the Sisters page for a recording of today’s readings and reflection.

We love the Genesis readings from last week, especially the parts where God says, “Let there be …” and then light oceans, earth, vegetation, creatures, and other things appear. God speaks a word, and the word becomes incarnate!

No Quincy students were injured in this renovation. Bruises and sore muscles excluded.

A Nun’s Life Ministry has had its own day of creation — a new office space. Until now we’ve been operating happily out of our convent dining room but the ministry is beginning to grow beyond that space and taking over our kitchen, living room, and even Chloe the Convent Cat has had to downsize in order to accommodate the growth of A Nun’s Life! Lest microphones and computers and various gizmos take over the whole of the convent, we discerned that it was time to get an office of our own.

We are so excited for this new moment in A Nun’s Life history and we look forward to the many new surprises up ahead. As we move into our new space, many of you have asked how you can help. Some of you have helped with painting and with moving Sister Mildred the File Cabinet. Some of you have shared your expertise, prayers, and sheckles. Upon a number of people’s urging, we were asked to put together a wishlist of things needed for the office and ministry. Thus was created the A Nun’s Life Wishlist via Amazon which you can access easily at aNunsLife.org/wishlist. You can also donate directly to the ministry via PayPal at aNunsLife.org/donate. A Nun’s Life Ministry relies on the support and encouragement of you, the NL community. Thank you for being co-creators with us!

For prayer today, visit our Praying with the Sisters page for a recording of today’s readings and reflection.

Thanks to Eric Simpson over at The Huffington Post for introducing me to Mother Maria Skobtsova, an Orthodox nun and martyr. In his article Those Who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness Will be Filled (The Huffington Post, January 24, 2011), Simpson discusses the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. In doing so he gives examples of real life people who have had a great passion for God and compassion for the world. One such person, Simpson notes, is Mother Maria Skobtsova, “an aristocrat who became an intellectual, an intellectual who became a nun, a nun who became a subversive force for love.”

She sought to make straight that which had been made crooked among the poor, in prisons, in insane asylums because she saw every human being as intrinsically valuable, as an “icon of God.” In 1942, when Jews were being rounded up in German-occupied Paris, Maria managed to organize the rescue of children who she smuggled out of the sports stadium in garbage bins with the help of garbage collectors. She did not relent in her work on behalf of the oppressed even though she was aware she was under Nazi surveillance.

Finally, she was sent to the concentration camp at Ravensbruck, where, still burning with the holy passion and hunger for righteousness, a desire that had become a flame of love, she continued to assist and care for those who were suffering with her. She nearly made it to the end, and even as Russian troops were advancing on the camp, she put herself in the place of another woman condemned to die, and died in her place. Her hunger and thirst for righteousness was satisfied as she herself became righteous, and, like Christ, she become one who helped others in the cause for justice.

Mother Maria, also known as Saint Mary of Paris, is one of the few examples I know of an Orthodox nun. Her life as a monastic was unusual in that she was a contemplative who was allowed to live outside of the monastery. Her rented house became her convent, a place of hospitality for those in need and a place of spiritual conversation.

See OrthodoxWiki for more info on Maria Skobtsova and also check out Ask Sister podcast episode AS056 for an interesting discussion about monastics working outside the monastery from a Benedictine perspective.

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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.

The Sisters of A Nun’s Life wish you a blessed Christmas. May the new life of Christ be with you and all of your family and loved ones. We hold you in our heart and in our prayers.

One of the members of our online community here made this video for us last Christmas and we loved it so much we are posting it again. Enjoy!

Now you can become one with the nuns with your very own A Nun’s Life apparel and accessories. Shop A Nun’s Life Gift Shop today! All proceeds benefit A Nun’s Life Ministry, helping people discover and grow in their vocation, that is, their life’s calling, by engaging questions about God, faith, and religious life.

These one-of-a-kind items are perfect for gifts for others and for yourself! Don’t miss the classic “Equipped for Mission” T-shirt featuring original artwork by the fabulous artist Anni Betts.

We’ve also got “Nuns in the Hood” Hoodies, pens and pencils, WWSD sticky pads (what would Sister do?), and more.

This is our first venture into offering A Nun’s Life stuff. We welcome your suggestions and ideas about the gift shop and about items you’d like to see here!

And don’t forget … spread the word!

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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.

We were so inspired by web guru Avinash Kaushik‘s suggestions about using connecting one’s blog with Twitter and Facebook that we did some tweaking to our website. Look for the following icons on every page.

Please try these out, especially the Facebook and Twitter ones. Find a page on the website that you’d like to share with your friends and followers. You’ll also notice a Tweet counter and a Facebook Share counter. These are to get us all motivated to tweet and share the love!

Here’s what each icon does:

• Share on Facebook – Share with your Facebook friends any aNunsLife.org page and ask them things like, “Did you know that nuns keep grilled cheese sandwiches in their pockets?!”
• Tweet the article – Click on the Twitter icon at the end of the article in order to share it with your Twitter followers. For example, invite followers to join you in the chat room.
• Save the Fave on your computer – Whether they are your “favorites” or “bookmarks” just click here and boom! it’s saved on your Internet browser.
• Save the Fave on Google – Similar as the above, but uses Google’s web-based bookmarking service as opposed to saving it on your local computer.
• Print the page – Even though we like saving trees, we know printing happens. This is nice and printer-friendly. The same click will also give you the option to save the page as a PDF.
• Email your buds – Email a friend or two or ten whenever you come across some juicy or inspiring tidbit here at aNunsLife.org.

What other ideas do you have for helping us keep connected with you and reaching out to others online .. or offline!?

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Happy Feast of Saint John of the Cross! 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.

Happy IHM Founders Day. Since our congregation’s founding in 1845, the IHM Sisters of Monroe, Michigan have been committed to issues of justice, peace and sustainability. This commitment is rooted in the mission of our founders Louis Florent Gillet and Theresa Maxis Duchemin to respond to the world’s most pressing needs.

In order to create a more just, peaceful and sustainable world, the IHM community promotes peace and non-violence; solidarity with the materially poor; economic justice and the development of an ecological consciousness.

Our IHM Justice, Peace, and Sustainability Office has created a short video highlighting how IHMs are working in these areas. We invite you to watch this video and to share the link with your friends. The video is on YouTube and also on our IHM website.

We also encourage you explore our Justice Peace and Sustainability pages on the IHM website. There you will find a variety of pages on topics ranging from Haiti to human trafficking, climate change to the consistent ethic of life.  Each page includes a description of the issue, stories of IHMs in action, prayer materials, resources and recommended actions you can take to act in solidarity with IHM Sisters and Associates.

Many thanks to Sarah and Nancy in our IHM Justice, Peace, and Sustainability Office for their care and ministry!

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Read the past 4 years of IHM Founders Day posts at aNunsLife.org!

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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 am getting ready to head to a national conference on vocations here in Chicago so I thought for today, I’d highlight some “oldies but goodies” of stuff we’ve had on A Nun’s Life website. These are some of my favorites.

VIDEO: Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM, on Are you open to being surprised by God?

BIKE ADVICE: Ride Like a Nun … Sister Julie offers advice to a world-class cyclist Emma Pooley who currently rides for Cervélo TestTeam.

STORM CHASER: Sister Maxine, the Storm Chasing Nun … not sure what she wouldn’t do to get good video footage!

ROADKILL: Can you find Sister Julie’s unfortunate reference to Fried Roadkill? Yup, it’s that unpredictable when you’re doing a live broadcast!

NUN ON A PLANE: Think Snakes on a Plane was a good flick? I think they should make Nun on a Plane. Even better.

BABY MEDITATION: Eat. Poop. Play. Sleep. Rinse. Repeat. Inspired by my little nephew, Simon.

Let us know via the comment box below what some of your faves are and why! Note: You’ll find many “odd” ones in the category “random writing“.

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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 seven verses of Al-Fatiha, the first sura of the Qur'an.

I admit, I am a lover of books. I do not wish them to be burned or otherwise destroyed. I am particularly fond of books about the Sacred. I reverence the Hebrew and Christian scriptures of the Bible in a particular way because I am a Catholic Christian. But I also respect the sacred books of other traditions, inluding the Qur’an of our Muslim sisters and brothers.

While not a scholar of biblioclasm, I have a general sense that whenever books are burnt, things do not go well. Wikipedia (which is probably backed up so many times that it can’t be burned) has a long list of book-burning events that make me simultaneously sad and horrified. Undoubtedly, the Florida pastor whose Qur’an burning event was just canceled (praise God) will be listed here among other book burning events that sadly were successful. And lest we think the pastor is just one person, we can easily assume that others have this attitude.

As we approach the memorial of 9/11, I suggest a humble alternative to burning books. Educate yourself. Read books. Expand your mind and your heart. Cherish diversity. Allow love and respect for people to dominate all conversations, arguments, and disagreements. It’s not easy. But it’s totally possible.

Here’s a stunning example of how an open heart can be transformative not only for oneself but for our world.

The Healers of 9/11
By Nicholas D. Kristof, Op-Ed Columnist for the New York Times

This weekend, a Jewish woman who lost her husband in the 9/11 attacks is planning to speak at a mosque in Boston. She will be trying to recruit members of the mosque to join her battle against poverty and illiteracy in Afghanistan.

Read the rest of the article, The Healers of 9/11.

On today’s bike ride meditation, I took a country road and thought about God’s good creation, and how we are part of that. I meditated on the second account of creation in Genesis (Gen 2: 4-17), where God creates the human from the earth. Then God breathes the breath of life into the human.

Breathing is a creative act by God, one that I’m really grateful for as I bike, and as I live for that matter! So for today, I will be especially conscious of how I am God’s breath in the world. I will try to be a stellar representative of the Good Creation all day, in all my words and actions. That’s easier to do sometimes than others. So, if I’m tempted to be impatient waiting in a line somewhere, or to get frustrated if my work projects don’t go as expected, I’ll take a deep breath and remember how it feels to be part of the Good Creation.

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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 IHM Community has been meeting since yesterday and we’ve been privileged to have with us Father Anthony Gittins, CSSp, a member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spiritans).

Gittins is a professor of mission and culture at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Illinois. For the past twenty-five years he has with and among homeless women on the streets of Chicago and in a shelter. For seven of those years he was part of Genesis House – a community where women struggle to escape from prostitution (from CTU website).

Here are a few of my thoughts from the presentations (any inconsistencies are mine, not Gittins):

MISSION. Gittins has been talking about mission and what it means to today. He started off by saying that mission is not what we do, it’s not even what the church does … mission is what GOD does. So it can be difficult to define “mission” exactly because it is caught up in the mystery of the triune God which we can never really fully comprehend or explain.

EVANGELIZATION. Evangelization is often connected with mission but again, it’s neither ours nor the church’s. Evangelization is the work of Jesus Christ. This is more than mere proclamation. Jesus’ evangelization certainly included proclaiming the Good News but to really understand what evangelization means, we have to look at the WHOLE of Jesus’ life. So let’s look at what Jesus does … he walks around, talks with people, receives from others, serves, asks questions, teaches, cries, rejoices. In all of these things Jesus evangelizes.

DISCIPLESHIP. So what are we to do if mission belongs to the Trinity and evangelization belongs to Jesus? Our job is discipleship. All we can do (and all is everything) is learn from Jesus, learn from what Jesus does. We cannot just pick one or two things of that Jesus did and say it’s mission — that’s just making up our own thing. We are called to learn from Jesus’ whole life. “If you want to be my disciple you have to do it my way; I’ll show you how; walk around with me day by day.”

Gittins says that we do not have a mission, but that God’s mission has us. What does this mean for you?

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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 International AIDS Conference is underway in Vienna this week. Over 20,000 people from more than 180 countries are there. Some of the news from the conference is very encouraging, such as the report about a new gel that shows great promise for protecting against HIV.

AIDS activist and singer (one of my favs) Annie Lennox calls funding for AIDS research a “human rights issue.” See http://www.annielennox.com

The study was conducted among South African women by two South African researchers. South Africa has one of the highest AIDS rates in the world. The Wall Street Journal said that the gel is unique in that “it is the first time an HIV-prevention method controlled by women, who bear the brunt of the epidemic in Africa, has been shown to work.” There’s still a lot of clinical work to be done in regard to the gel, and hopefully it will be successful. If it is, women in South Africa and around the world will be better able to protect their own health.

In the meantime, I continue to pray for the people at the conference who are working to end the stigma and the suffering of HIV/AIDS. I also pray for those who are directly affected by HIV/AIDS – people who have AIDS, their families and loved ones, their communities.

I especially keep in mind my friend Tim, who died of AIDS several years ago. May he rest in peace. Please mention other people affected by AIDS for whom you’d like to pray.

For prayer and reflection resources about HIV/AIDS please see the website of my IHM Sisters.

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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.

Are you ready for A Nun’s Life Ministry 2.0? Like the Kindom of God it is “already but not yet”! We’ve redesigned the site, added a new podcast series (plus another new series on the way), started broadcasting via a live video stream (“I see nuns!”) for Praying with the Sisters and Ask Sister, and upgraded the chat room. Plus we’ve done lots of behind the scenes things with technology and organization.

Tomorrow you will experience yet another new moment in A Nun’s Life history. Sister Maxine (whom many of you know via the podcasts and various events) will be joining me as a blogger! Sister Maxine will be blogging right here every Wednesday about anything related to a nun’s life — which covers just about everything! I am delighted to have my IHM sister and A Nun’s Life partner as a sister blogger. To welcome Sister Maxine, please be sure to stop by the blog tomorrow and join in conversation with her, me, and other visitors!

Let us know what you’d like us to write about on the blog or talk about on the podcast! What social media or form of technology would you like us to use or use more of (see icons at the top of the sidebar for links to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and RSS)?

Our mission continues to be helping people discover and grow in their vocation, that is, their life’s calling, by engaging questions about God, faith, and religious life. Through this we also raise awareness about who Catholic sisters and nuns are today. Your prayers, support, and donations are greatly appreciated.

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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.

Sister Paula Gonzalez is a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati and the founder of EarthConnection. She was recently featured in the Cincinnati Enquirer in the article Nun marries science, spirituality: Teaches that all life is sacred and connected by Shauna Steigerwald (July 11, 2010).

A few of my favorite quotes from the article …

On vocation:

… the daughter of two teachers was “a curious little kid” who learned to read at an early age, skipped first grade and was bumped from third grade to fourth, finishing that grade level when she was only 7. She came to the College of Mount St. Joseph on an academic scholarship in 1948, graduating with a bachelor’s in biology in 1952 at age 19. But even at that young age, Gonzalez knew that her life’s calling lay in religious service. She entered the Sisters of Charity two years later, in 1954.

“It just hit me like a ton of bricks, and that was it,” she said. “All of a sudden, I knew.”

On care for God’s creation:

Much of Gonzalez’s reverence for the natural world was instilled by her father, who was raised on a farm and taught his own family to grow food. From his Spanish heritage, he taught her the concept of “La tierra es bendita,” “the land is holy.”

“My father was truly a person of the soil, which got through to me,” said Gonzalez, who calls her own garden her “spiritual director” and cites her spirituality as another contributor to her concern for the planet.

What do you think of the article? What are ways that you recognize “all life is sacred and connected”?

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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.

Please consider offering a donation to A Nun’s Life for our continued ministry. See the blog post We need your help.

A Nun’s Life Ministry is the home of daily blog posts and live podcasts; a community of spiritual seekers and friends; the Vocation Forum for people exploring God’s call in their life, the Community Forum for 24/7 conversation on topics of your choice; resources on discernment, becoming a Catholic sister or nun, prayer, spirituality, Catholic faith, and religious life; connections to religious communities across the globe; and last but not least, “the nuns” – Sister Maxine and Sister Julie (and don’t forget Sister Chloe the Convent Cat!).

We’ve recently crossed the 1,000th blog post mark, added a brand new podcast on ministering using social media, redesigned the website, and planned a few more surprises! We are growing and expanding to continue to serve the online community, to raise awareness about the adventure of religious life, and to walk with people on their spiritual journeys.

We are at a critical moment in our growth and we need your help to continue so this ministry. As we grow we need to tend to our budget for all the stuff that makes A Nun’s Life possible. Please take a moment and donate to A Nun’s Life Ministry.

There are two ways you can donate now:

1. Donate with a credit card or PayPal account:

2. Send a check to A Nun’s Life Ministry:

A Nun’s Life Ministry
PO Box 44
Steger, IL 60475

For any donation above $10 we will send you a highly collectible   A Nun’s Life bumper sticker that can be affixed to pretty much anything! Just make sure to include an address we can send it to! (Colors are a bit more purplish than what is shown in the image.)

Please know that any support you can offer is greatly appreciated. Be part of this exciting, innovative way of living the Gospel today!

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.

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.

We are delighted to announce dates for our new Digital Ministry Podcast! More details on topics for each episode will follow. (NOTE: Initially, this podcast was called Social Ministry podcast)

The Digital Ministry Podcast focuses on using Internet technologies and social media for ministry. The podcast will be a mix of things covering techniques, 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 Digital Ministry Podcast will begin on Thursday, September 9, 2010, at 3 p.m. Central Time and be held monthly on the second Thursday. It will be a 60-minute live broadcast which you can access at http://aNunsLife.org/live. We also have a chat room for you to use during the broadcast in order to connect with one another and with us.

The current schedule for 2010 is as follows:

• Thursday, September 9 at 3 p.m. CST
• Thursday, October 14 at 3 p.m. CST
• Thursday, November 11 at 3 p.m. CST
• Thursday, December 9 at 3 p.m. CST

Check out our full podcast schedule and join us for other podcasts such as Praying with the Sisters, Ask Sister, and Feature Podcast.

Also, we have also created a discussion forum for you to interact with one another any time of the day or night! Visit our Community Forum and look for the topic “Digital Ministry Podcast Listeners.” The forum is available now.

If you’d like to be on our mailing list for more information about the Digital Ministry Podcast and other A Nun’s Life Ministry news, enter your info below:
** If you’ve already signed up for the podcast via this blog post, then no need to sign up again!

If you have ideas for possible topics or persons to interview, let us know! Comment below!

What will you do to make the world a better place today? Let us know using the comment box below!

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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.

My Nun’s Life
by Sister Pat Aseltyne, IHM

Greetings from my “nun’s life”, a life that has almost completed the journey (65 years of Vowed Commitment). Sister Julie and I belong to the same IHM Community. Sometimes we think that we must be at total peace before we can believe that the Spirit is with us. If this were so I would not be completing this amazing nun’s life journey.

My life has carried me far and near; from Monroe County, Michigan, where my father happened to have grown up to Chicago, Washington D.C., and back to Michigan. The best part of the journey has been relating to so many people in so many ways — as a teacher, a school principal, a counselor, and now as coordinator of an outreach program.

At present, I live and minister in Houston, Texas. My worship place is Rice University Catholic Student Chapel. My ministry place is with a small agency called Casa de Esperanza de los Niños (House of Hope for little children). The people I meet here are from economic extremes; the rich and the poor and the Casa staff in between. As we touch one another’s lives we get that feeling of wanting to become a part of life together. So, those who have an over abundance, wish to help us to help others who are under nourished in so many material ways. Most of the poor among us seem to have an inside track to the Heart of God where they find so much comfort in their dire circumstances.

The rich wish to connect with me because my life takes me into the midst of poverty; usually to places where most people do not wish to go. They know that I know who the needy are. The poor wish to connect with me because they know that I care about them and so there is a mutual love that inspires courage. I find it difficult to put this into words because the truth is so deep in our souls once we experience this mutual desire to see one another as equals – each in need of something that the other has and wishes to share.

As I think back on joys and struggles in life I realize the place of the Spirit. Most meaningful to me has always been Jesus’ word that he would send His Spirit to nourish our Spirit. Though we may seem old to others, we are still young in Spirit. I do have a quandary about why others expect us “oldsters” to slow down just because we keep adding numbers to our age. Remember the song, “Young at Heart”? That is exactly how most of us want to be perceived. So, please keep this in mind when you meet up with someone who looks like they are a little “withery” or “dithery” in mind or body or both.

What do you hear in Sister Pat’s words that can apply in your own life? What Word from Jesus or one of the saints or holy people of God nourishes you, inspires you?

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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.

Taking off your outer garment
by Sister Paula Cooney, IHM

I was recently privileged to share a reflection by Ron Rolheiser, OMI on “Creating Sabbath Space in Our Lives” with a group of elder women religious. His suggestion was a new and challenging insight into Jesus’ washing of the feet at the last supper.

The gospel of John tells us, “Jesus, knowing that he came from God and was going back to God, took off his outer garment…” Jesus was able to let go of all the stuff that wasn’t really essential – his outer garment – to minister to the other.

So we asked ourselves: “What are the “outer garments” that we think are essential that keep me from freely washing the feet of the “others” in my life? Democrat/Republican? Gay/Straight? Islamic/Christian? Pro-life/Pro-choice? Pro-immigration/Anti-immigration?

One of the sisters reflected, “It wouldn’t be so difficult if everyone would become vulnerable but it’s really hard if you are the only one doing it.” Another shared, “If I could only remember that “the other” is just like me – one who has come from God and is going back to God!”

I wonder what our world would be like if everyone “took off their outer garment?”

Paula Cooney, IHM, is an IHM Sister who is currently in ministry to the retirement community of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Orange, California.

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Check out a clip from a video of Ron Rolheiser, OMI, on
Creating Sabbath Space in Our Lives.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone). Praying with the Sisters is a live podcast where we pray the scriptures together and our prayer requests via the chat room at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

My Greatest Peace Teachers
By Alice Baker, IHM

In reflecting on the question, who are my greatest peace teachers, I’ve come to a simple conclusion; they are all those persons in my life who are Risk-Takers for Peace. So many have touched and inspired me to “step out of the box.” Risk involves just that, and much more. For me, it implies one is grounded in a deep faith and trust in the One who calls — God. For me, Jesus is my prime example of a risk-taker: facing the powers of darkness all around Him with courage and compassionate love. There are many others, too, such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, John XXIII, Dorothy Day, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, Catherine of Siena. Each one had to listen to that inner voice of Truth that called them to speak their truth to power, risking all. Facing misunderstanding, making mistakes, and suffering through consequences only made them stronger and more courageous workers for peace.

For me, peace work calls me out of myself, stretches my limits, and challenges my status-quo thinking. Never did I dream I would find myself marching for migrants’ rights in the Yale-Croswell-Lexington, Michigan, area in the late 60’s. Nor did I ever see myself driving overnight to a march in support of Daniel and Philip Berrigan and the “Harrisburg 7” in Pennsylvania in the early 70’s. Or did I ever think I would be involved in rallies to save our Catholic schools and parishes in the inner city of Detroit in the 70’s and 80’s. In the last two decades, I’ve found myself responding to peace demonstrations at the School of the Americas, in Ft. Benning, Georgia, and at the nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. And, one of my most recent challenges came when I found myself in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a member of the Michigan Peace Team in the summers of ’02 and ’04. In all of these peace experiences I find hope from the community of peace activists with whom I walk. Though some immediate effects may not be positive, I know, and believe, the long term effects will always be with me. I have been stretched, challenged, and changed, and have made long-lasting friends for peace.

In Webster’s thesaurus, the word “risk” as a verb or action word can mean: to run a risk, take a chance, lay oneself open to, gamble, do at one’s one peril, go beyond one’s depth, lay oneself open to, go through fire and water, skate on thin ice, fish in troubled waters, live in a glass house, or leap before one looks. Without exception, I am thankful for the many unnamed people in my life that fit these descriptions. They have been present with and touched me deeply. They are Risk-Takers for Peace. May I continue together with them to run the risk – for peace.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall – always! (from the movie “Gandhi”)

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Who are your greatest peace teachers and why?

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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.

A Nun’s Life Ministry will be launching a new podcast soon! The Digital Ministry Podcast will be on using Internet technologies and social media for ministry. We’ve been using these things for 4 years now and get many questions asking us “how’d you do that?” The new podcast will be a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance our capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. (FYI: Podcast was initially called Social Ministry Podcast)

This podcast is for anyone who ministers online or who uses the Internet to connect with people: vocation directors, youth ministers, online community managers, religious communities and parishes, webmasters for religious organizations, churches and parishes, individuals, and more!

This is a place where no question is too foolish and everyone can share their wisdom and questions.

We’ll share our experience with blogs, podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, equipment, software, consultants and collaborators, books and resources, and interacting with people online. We’ll also interview folks across the social media landscape who can provide expertise, insight, and concrete help on a variety of related topics.

Here are some of the kinds of things we’ll talk about:

• How to get people to comment more on your blog
• Can one really do ministry “virtually”?
• What can I do to spread the word about my website?
• What are some good, solid Catholic organizations that I can go to for help or direct my visitors to?
• What is podcasting and how could it benefit my ministry?
• How do I start a blog?
• What would Jesus do with today’s Internet technology?
• Is it important for me to know what SEO is?
• Which social networks should I belong to?
• What do I do if I get negative comments?
• What is the difference between Twitter and Facebook and blogging?
• Can an iPhone or Blackberry really help me minister better?
• How do I explain to my community/organization why this online stuff is important?
• How do I manage all this online stuff AND still do my regular job?
• How do I care for and nourish my online community?

We’d like to hear from you! If you’d like updates on this podcast by email, click the SIGN UP button below.**  We just need your first name, email (never made public), and check the Digital Ministry Podcast box. If you wish, please let us know your other info, such as ministry position, organization, and website. If you are interested in being an underwriter of this podcast, please contact us for more information.
** If you’ve already signed up by commenting below or emailing me prior to June 14, 2010, then you’ve already been signed up!

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?

Our friend Yvette from the A Nun’s Life Community found this gem. The song is called “I Only Ask of God” by the multinational, hip hop trio Outlandish.

Outlandish is made up of friends Isam Bachiri Azouaoui (Danish born, Moroccan decent), Waqas Ali Qadri Danish born, Pakistani decent), and Lenny Martinez (Honduran born, Cuban decent). They seek to give voice to “the world we live in”. They represent religious diversity (Muslim and Catholic) and proficiency in multiple languages with lyrics in English, Urdu/Punjabi, Danish, Spanish, and Arabic.

The message of this particular song “I Only Ask of God” is powerful. Here’s the first verse:

I only ask of God
He won’t let me be indifferent to the suffering
That the very dried up death doesn’t find me
Empty and without having given my everything

What happens if we truly made this our prayer?

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Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie for prayer. You can listen to our live podcast and offer your prayer requests at http://anunslife.org/live today at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone).

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You can download music from Outlandish at Amazon.com or at iTunes.

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

Happy Earth Day! First is a beatiful photo Sister Maxine took of her nephew with a calf. Also we have some link joy for you! Let us know of other cool links to share.

 
A Catholic Earth Day:

• If You Want Peace, Protect Creation by Pope Benedict XVI (January 1, 2010)
• Going Green: For the Sake of God’s Creation by Mary Jo Dangel in Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine (October, 2007)
• Why Catholics Care for Creation by Sister Joan Brown, OSF, in Catholic Update (October 2008)
• Earth Day 2010 Prayer by Sister Jean Coughlin, IHM

Cool Earth Day Stuff:

• Earth Day E-Cards by CatholicGreetings.org
• Ecokids Canada’s environmental destination for kids
• Earth Day 2010 Song created and performed by 13-year-old Leia Schwartz of Florida
• 3 Cool Ways to Celebrate Earth Day with your Family
• Earth Day Recipes
• Green Your Gardening

The Origin of Earth Day:

• History of Earth Day by Earth Day Network
• Earth Day at 40: How it began, where it is going by John Roach for National Geographic News (April 22, 2010)

The Core Issues of Earth Day:

• Advocacy
• Climate Change
• Conservation and Biodiversity
• Education
• Energy
• Food and Agriculture
• Green EconomyGreen SchoolsRecycling and Waste Reduction
• Sustainable Development
• Water

What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day?

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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

I was wondering about the occupational options open to nuns. Specifically, could somebody be a physician and a nun?

- Maria

A Catholic sister or nun can engage in any occupation or job, including that of a physician. However the choice as to which kind of work or ministry to engage in is discerned according to the mission of the congregation and the needs of the world. Because each community has a particular mission, it might happen that particular occupations will fall outside of that mission proper. Also, communities which are cloistered or semi-cloistered would have additional limitations to working outside of the monastery because their primary ministry is prayer and contemplation.

As mentioned, the choice of what kind of work to do is made through discernment with others in the sister’s community. It is a very intentional discernment that takes into account the mission of the community, the needs of the community, the needs of the world, the sister’s gifts and passions, and most importantly the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

If you are thinking about what it might be like for you to be a sister or nun, I encourage you to get to know a community and, when ready, to chat about this with the vocation director or another sister whom you know in the community.

In my IHM community, for example, our mission is centered around “the liberating mission of Jesus Christ”. Traditionally we have focused this mission around education. So many of us are involved in “traditional”educative endeavors such as teachers, catechists, and professors. We also express our educative mission through ministry as writers, care givers, justice advocates, church leaders, editors, administrators, bloggers, counselors, missionaries, lawyers, doctors, and more.

In what other occupations have you seen sisters or nuns? In what way is that occupation a ministry? If you are a sister, how did you discern that call?

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Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie for evening prayer
at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone)

Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, is a Sister of Saint Joseph and has worked tirelessly against the death penalty. She wrote Dead Man Walking which became a film directed by Tim Robbins and starring Susan Sarandon. Because the book and film provoked much discussion and debate about the death penalty, Tim Robbins and Sister Helen began offering the stage play for college and university students as a way “to further widen the circle of public discourse on the death penalty”. Their project is called The Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project.

Here are some selections from a blog post by Rose Mohan, a BFA student at Naropa University, who is learning the role of Sister Helen Prejean:

I thought I was going to have to tone down my feistiness in order to be able to play a nun. Turns out, I have to find new heights of grit in order to be able to do justice to the character of Sister Prejean in Dead Man Walking. In almost every scene, Prejean manages to slice through what she perceives to be someone else’s delusions. She really holds her own with those hard-shelled prison men. I’m still working on getting there; sanely. One day after rehearsal I was so fired up that I had to walk out of the building jumping and punching the air.
…

I have learned so much in this process already. I grew up mildly Christian and when I go to church it still leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t want some old white guy telling me what to do, as if he understands faith better than I do. A lot of the messages are beautiful but there is no way anyone can convince me that the church provides the only way to God.

Sister Prejean is so refreshing to me because she is not afraid to openly question her faith, to form her own relationship to God outside of the church, to trust her own sense of what is right. It takes a lot of strength to hold one’s faith and be able to question at the same time. But if we are not willing to question, how can we learn?

I also really appreciate her humanness. My acting teacher expressed that she is a gritty, tenacious woman first and a nun second. Throughout the play we see that Prejean makes mistakes, feels afraid, experiences loneliness, questions the authority of the church and her own involvement in prison work and expresses dislike for someone she is trying to help. She is just an ordinary person who has made a commitment that has changed the orientation of her life. I am taking some cues from Prejean — how to not back down, how to be curious, how to continue when you don’t know.

(Do I have to be a nun? post from the Naropa BFA Performance News blog)

It is very cool to see how learning about Sister Helen and playing her can be such a transformative experience. I also like how Rose describes what I would call a “vocation” to performance. It strikes me as being very similar to the calling of wanting to give one’s life to something more, something that is bigger than us like “truth” and “goodness” and “beauty” … and God.

I am beginning to understand why people devote their lives to performance. It is like following an elusive and beckoning beast to try to convey something that means something, something that makes sense of all the somethings that happen to a person. We keep trying to hit something that is the ultimate truth, but of course, that is impossible, and yet it also doesn’t feel far away. It is like truth is already there just watching you try to make a model of it and you can always feel how close you come. I hope that we will capture some part of truth in what we are making.

For more information about Naropa University’s performance of Dead Man Walking as well as other actors’ thoughts, check out Tim Robbins play coming to Naropa in the Boulder Reporter (March 26, 2010).

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

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

In the spirit of Lenten anticipation, we welcome you to the “almost but not yet” new website at aNunsLife.org!

It’s “almost” because the new structure and design are up and running. It’s “not yet” because, well, the it’s not finished yet. We’ve got links and articles to add, a couple of new gizmos to find, and lots of stuff to test–you get the idea. We hope you’ll be part of the process. Let us know what you think about the look, the content, and the navigation of the site. Got suggestions or ideas? We’d love to hear them! Send us an email.

Peace,
Sister Julie and Sister Maxine

A Nun’s Life Ministry — building community in the context of faith and prayer.

Praying the Stations of the Cross is common custom during the season of Lent. It is prayer in which we remember the scenes of Jesus’ passion and death. It is begins with Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane and takes us through the way of the cross, Jesus’ death on the cross, and his burial.

The custom of praying the Stations of the Cross originated with pilgrims who went to visit the Christian holy places of Jerusalem. Of course not everyone could make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem so the good Franciscans created outdoor stations that could be walked and prayed so that people could meditate on the passion and death of Jesus. Eventually people started incorporating the stations within the church building itself.

And now, the Stations of the Cross is as close as your phone. Ave Maria Press recently launched the Stations of the Cross, its very first application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is free for download and is based on the popular John Paul II’s Biblical Way of the Cross by Amy Welborn and Michael Dubruiel.

It’s not just an app … it is a “prayer companion”and I have to say, it really is. The artwork by Michael O’Brien is stunning and is a prayer itself, even without the words. The actual interface of the app is elegantly simple which allows one to be truly present to the meditation without the distractions of trying to figure out how to navigate or dodging advertisements which are common in other free apps. I love having this on my phone and it has become a daily prayer for me. I can also go “old school” with it and take it with me on a hike so that I have both the stations and the sense of pilgrimage.

The Stations of the Cross application is available in the iTunes App Store. You can find out more on the Ave Maria Press website. Ave Maria Press is a ministry of the Indiana Province of the Brothers of the Holy Cross.

What other holy apps do you have on your mobile device? What are some of your favorite customs or experiences around the praying of the Stations of the Cross?

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Join the sisters for evening prayer tonight at 6 p.m. CST and every Monday through Thursday at http://anunslife.org/live

Check out this article Heeding founders’ call, women religious combat racism by Kate Childs Graham in National Catholic Reporter (Feb. 27, 2010). Here are some selections (links mine) …

In 1945, when Mary Paul heard God’s call to religious life, she could not enter any community of women religious in her hometown of Philadelphia, including the Sisters of Mercy. Not because her vocation was untrue, but because she was a person of color. At the time, women of color in the city were referred to three orders: the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore, the Franciscan Handmaids of Mary in Harlem, N.Y., or the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans — communities comprised mostly of women of color. Paul entered the Baltimore order. Her story is the story of many other women of color who were refused entrance to so-called “white” communities.

…

The Sisters of Providence engaged an organization called Crossroads. Founded in 1986, Crossroads provides ways to understand and combat institutional racism, while establishing structures of accountability to people of color. The organization offers a series of trainings that “provide a framework for institutions that are striving to achieve antiracist and anti-oppressive transformation.” They also help institutions analyze any internal policies and procedures that maintain white privilege, and create antiracism teams that “build an intervention strategy to dismantle these oppressive systems.”

The Sinsinawa Dominicans and Sisters of Mercy have also turned to Crossroads. For all three communities, the journey with the organization began with a two-and-a-half day training, “Analyzing and Understanding Systemic Racism,” which explores the history of racism in the United States, how racism still exists in institutions today, and how this affects people of color and white people.

This first training for the Sisters of Providence was in 1997. “We weren’t just addressing personal prejudice,” said Sr. Jenny Howard. “We all have prejudice about something. What made it different for us was that the definition was: Personal prejudice plus misuse of power by systems and institutions equals racism.”

…

However, the work goes much deeper than providing trainings. It is also about looking at power and privilege and the structures that keep white privilege in place.

“As a white person, I am so accustomed to access,” Howard explained. “Any motel, any restaurant, any neighborhood. Yet I know that experience is not the same for some of the other members of the antiracism team. I will never forget the day, when one of our persons of color from our team said to me, ‘Jenny, you can think about racism whenever you want to. I have to think about racism every day of my life.’

“I haven’t done anything to earn these opportunities, these rights, these freedoms, this access,” Howard said. “So, how can we use this power of privilege in a positive way to work together for racial justice?”

Read the whole article Catholic Sisters Combat Racism.

What are you thoughts this?

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

Happy Nunday! Here at A Nun’s Life Ministry we celebrate some Mondays in a special way — Mondays become Nundays when we have photos of Catholic sisters and nuns to share with you. We invite you to submit your own photos of sisters and nuns that you know along with a little description. For more info see our post about Nunday.

Today’s Nunday photo is of Sister Barbara Valuckas, SSND, a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame since 1958.

As you might guess from the photo, Sister Barbara has a bit of broadcasting in her background. She worked as an educational television teacher and producer and later received degrees in Radio, TV, and Film, and in Instructional Technology and Communications. In addition to these ministries, Sister Barbara has also worked as a facilitator and a consultant and as a leader in her congregation. Sister Barbara now works with Pilgrim Ministries, Inc., a facilitation ministry she began for the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

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To see all the photos of Catholic sisters and nuns and links to their stories, visit the A Nun’s Life Facebook photo album. If you’ve got a photo and story (how you know Sister) of a real Catholic sister or nun, check out the details on submitting your photo for consideration.

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

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 .

Diversity of perspectives and opinions are always welcome here. We encourage dialogue even when it includes agreement or disagreement with us or with one another. When doing so, it is helpful to keep in mind the way in which we agree or disagree with one another.

Agreeing and Disagreeing in Love
Commitments in Times of Disagreement

from the Mennonite Church (Español y English)

“Making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3), as both individual members and the body of Christ, we pledge that we shall:

In Thought

1. Accept conflict. Acknowledge together that conflict is a normal part of our life in the church. (Romans 14:1-8, 10-12, 17-19; Romans 15:1-7)

2. Affirm hope. Affirm that as God walks with us in conflict we can work through to growth. (Ephesians 4:15-16)

3. Commit to prayer. Admit our needs and commit ourselves to pray for a mutually satisfactory solution (no prayers for my success or for the other to change but to find a joint way). (James 5:16)

In Action

4. Go to the other… Go directly to those with whom we disagree; avoid behind-the- back criticism. (Matthew 5:23-24; Matthew 18:15-20)

5. In the spirit of humility… Go in gentleness, patience and humility. Place the problem between us at neither doorstep and own our part in the conflict instead of pointing out the others’. (Galatians 6:1-5)

6. Be quick to listen. Listen carefully, summarize and check out what is heard before responding. Seek as much to understand as to be understood. (James 1:19; Proverbs 18:13)

7. Be slow to judge. Suspend judgments, avoid labeling, end name calling, discard threats, and act in a non-defensive, nonreactive way. (Romans 2:1-4; Galatians 5:22-26)

8. Be willing to negotiate. Work through the disagreements constructively. (Acts 15; Philippians 2:1-11)

In Life

9. Be steadfast in love. Be firm in our commitment to seek a mutual solution; be stubborn in holding to our common foundation in Christ; be steadfast in love. (Colossians 3:12-15)

10. Be open to mediation. Be open to accept skilled help. If we cannot reach agreement among ourselves, we will use those with gifts and training in mediation in the larger church. (Philippians 4:1-3)

11. Trust the community. We will trust the community and if we cannot reach agreement or experience reconciliation, we will turn the decision over to others in the congregation or from the broader church. (Acts 15)

12. Be the Body of Christ. Believe in and rely on the solidarity of the Body of Christ and its commitment to peace and justice, rather than resort to the courts of law. (1 Corinthians 6:1-6)

Adopted by the General Conference Mennonite Church Triennial Session and Mennonite Church General Assembly, Wichita, KS, July 1995 (Mennonite Website)

It is Monday which means NUNDAY! Yup, we’re back with photos of Catholic sisters and nuns in our never-ending campaign to help folks get to know real sisters and nuns and to change the face of nun imagery on the web (which, if you haven’t noticed, is heavily populated by nun caricatures and erotica).

Sisters and nuns and lay folks from across the world have been sending us photos and wonderful stories. Today we are featuring a photo from our friend Sister Lovina Pammitt, OSF, a Franciscan Sister of the Sacred Heart.

The photo is of Sister Mary Barbara Hassler and Sister Patricia Ann Murray and was taken during an outreach ministry week in Danville, Illinois.

Sister Mary Barbara works as the Religious Formation Coordinator at Saint Joseph School in Libertyville, Illinois and is the Novice Minister for the community.

Sister Pat has been the Director of Religious Education at Saint Charles Borromeo Church in Fort Wayne, and recently moved to West Virginia to work in social service ministry.

To see all the photos of Catholic sisters and nuns and links to their stories, visit the A Nun’s Life Facebook photo album. If you’ve got a photo and story (how you know Sister) of a real Catholic sister or nun, check out the details on submitting your photo for consideration.

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

Life is more interconnected than we sometimes give it credit. There are “coincidences” and little reminders throughout ordinary life that can speak to the whole of our life. In yesterday’s post Gym Ministry, Father Greg made a comment about just this thing when he wrote, “Lots of connections between our “gym life” and the rest of life!”

So what for you are some of those other places that speak to you of your whole life? This is an important question because sometimes in working out the “smaller” or seemingly less significant aspects of life, we find we are changed, deepened, transformed.

Writer and friend Vinita Hampton Wright, whose birthday we celebrate today (Happy Birthday!), echoes this same thought in a recent post on her blog Wisdom Tree. She speaks about the creative process of writing and how writers necessarily tap into their own story — indeed their very soul — as they go about their work. Even though Vinita writes about writing, her words can also to apply to other “works” and experiences which engage us day to day. When we face our own story — even in a gym weight room or interacting with customers or sitting at the kitchen table, or staring at a computer screen — we can tap into our soul and allow a seemingly mundane moment or task or even a significant moment to be transformative. That is the activity of the Spirit of God working around us and within us.

Writes Vinita, “So, please, receive the story of yourself. Listen to it, care for it, write it if necessary. Say yes to life–and thus yes to creative movement.”

P.S. For more on Vinita and writing and faith, see our blog post On Writing Spiritually.

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Join us tonight for prayer at 6 p.m. CST at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

Winter has been cold, too cold to hop on my bike and cruise around the corn fields, so I signed up at the gym. A New Year’s resolution? Perhaps that too!

Cross-trainers, tread machines, circuit training equipment, pool, and lots of exercise mats means lots of fun for me! It also means getting in shape and staying in shape.

I like to keep to myself at the gym, doing my cardio or laps without much interaction with folks around me. Got my music playing in my ears to keep me motivated and a focused look on my face, both of which send the message that I’m not up for conversation.

But in the few short weeks that I’ve been going to the gym, I’ve become a Chatty Cathy (a classic doll – I’d post a picture but they are kind of freaky and would give me nightmares). Last week it was the ladies in the pool (they were preparing for aqua jazzercizing Tae Bo or some such thing), then it was the lady who forgot her towel and so i gave her mine, and yesterday it was the woman with the freakin awesome knee high socks. She also happened to be the one who got her butt kicked by her trainer as it was her first day at the gym. I totally sympathized with her and encouraged her to hang in there.

I appreciate that God called me out of myself and am trying to be more open to the ways I can connect with folks at the gym — even a smile is appreciated when you feel like you can’t finish that last lap or that last hill on the stairmaster. People have done that for me.

Any ministry experiences at the gym? What about other unexpected places to be called to minister?

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Join us tonight for prayer at 6 p.m. CST at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

We continue to pray for the people of Haiti and ask that you please remember them during your prayer throughout the day.

Please join us in prayer (written by Sister Camille Brouillard, IHM):

We grieve O Loving God, for the people of Haiti,
Who continue to suffer the ravages of nature over and over.
Hear the cry of your people,
Touch the hearts of those with abundance to hear their desperation
and come to their aid.
Be with those who grieve the loss of loved ones, homes, churches,
markets and employment.
Touch their hearts with some hope for a better tomorrow.
Send your angels of mercy to be with them.
Amen.

If you are able to donate, consider the following credible organizations.

• Catholic Relief Services
  

  Sister Michele Denton, IHM, in Haiti in 2009

• Mercy Corps
• Save the Children
• Fonkoze (Haiti)
• Red Cross
• World Food Programme (United Nations)
• Partners in Progress (Haiti)
• Doctors Without Borders

You can even text message a donation using your mobile phone. The Red Cross in conjunction with the U.S. State Department set up this service. Text “Haiti” to #90999 to donate $10.00. You’ll receive a text message saying “To confirm your $10 donation to Red Cross Int’l Response Fund reply with YES. Reply HELP for help or visit RedCross.org.” Once you respond YES, you will be charged $10 on your wireless bill. I just made my donation using this method.

The IHM Sisters (my religious community) has also set up an emergency fund. Those wishing to make donations can send a check made payable to the IHM Sisters with a note in the memo line indicating that the donation is for “Haiti Earthquake Relief.” Checks should be mailed to:

IHM Sisters
Attn: Haiti Earthquake Relief
610 W. Elm Avenue
Monroe, Michigan 48162

Greetings and happy Monday after Christmas! I’m hanging out in the Buffalo, New York, airport with free Boingo wireless (thanks, Google!) and about 45 minutes before we start boarding.

I had a wonderful Christmas with my sister and her family, my parents, and friends and family. And Sister Maxine is headed back from her family home too and will be picking me up in Chicago. We’ll both be on the air tonight at 6 p.m. Central Time (click for your timezone) for our regularly scheduled Praying with the Sisters Podcast. Join us!

Speaking of podcasts, I am delighted to announce that A Nun’s Life Podcasts are now  available on iTunes! Right before Christmas we worked with Cliff Ravenscraft of PodcastAnswerMan.com on creating an RSS feed for our podcasts and submitting it to iTunes. With his help we were approved and are up and running on iTunes! He also helped us with a few other bits of technology to help us improve our podcasting skills and technology. If ever you need help with podcasting, definitely check out Cliff and tell him Sister Julie sent you!

Here’s our iTunes link: A Nun’s Life Podcasts on iTunes

We only got a couple past ones up but will have other soon. Be sure to subscribe. If you are not an iTunes user, you can also use these links:

This is only the first of enhancements to our ministry that we’ll be bringing to you. We’ve got some other cool stuff planned and, as always, will maintain the hospitality and warmth of A Nun’s Life! And I’ll be back to blogging on a regular schedule!

Peace and all good things to you!

As A Nun’s Life Ministry grows, I’ve begun learning more and more about entrepreneurship and what it’s like to grow an organization from the ground up! I recently picked up Martha Stewart’s  book The Martha Rules: 10 Essentials for Achieving Success as You Start, Grow, or Manage a Business because she’s not only a great source of creative ideas for food, gardening, and organizing, but she has such a good entrepreneurial spirit and insights.

A Nun’s Life Ministry is becoming a bit of an entrepreneurial enterprise. We started as a humble blog with no anticipated readers and now we’ve grown to a website with podcasts, a blog, live chat, a forum, and lots of links and resources. As I write this we are engaged in a process to redesign our website to make it easier to get around and to participate in our community here. We are also planning “offline” ways of connecting as well as more online ways.

We are actively seeking — and receiving, thanks be to God! — grants and donations to help our ministry grow so that we can continue to be present to you in the same ways and in new ways! We’ve got a faithful reader who donates $5 each month religiously, and we’ve got others who make one-time donations when they can. And we’re beginning to look at other ways such as offering both tons of free stuff (the blog, articles, podcasts, etc.) and a subscription service to additional podcasts, articles, etc. to help cover the costs. Our goal is to turn A Nun’s Life Ministry into a self-sustaining ministry. If you have any ideas, or in-kind gifts or services, or financial help that you’d like to use to help us grow, we’d love to hear from you.

And of course, let us know what you’d like to see, listen to, and experience at A Nun’s Life Ministry?

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Join A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone). Tomorrow is the Ask Sister Podcast. If you have questions for us, please email them to us at sister (@) anunslife (.) org.

Much can be said (and written) about seeking God’s blessings and seeking God’s ways. Countless questions about God and directed to God have been uttered — what is the meaning in life, my life? how can I give my life to God? what is God like? where is God? does God hear me, notice me?

Sometimes, when pursuing one of these Big Questions, we stumble upon blessings that we did not intentionally seek. For example, way back when, I spent time discerning how God was calling me to use my gifts in the world as a Catholic sister. I was happily committed in my life as a sister but was still trying to find my place in the world in regards to form or context of ministry. Through prayer, conversations with my sisters, retreat, and simply trying new things, I began moving toward a kind of “answer” to what I was seeking. In the midst of all that discernment, that “figuring out” where God was leading me, there were some unexpected blessings.

Like blogging.

I started a simple little blog more as a hobby and to learn more about Internet technologies. I had no expectations for the blog other than it would help me learn a few tricks. I certainly did not expect that I would be working full-time with the A Nun’s Life website and community some 3+ years later! The blog was one of those blessings I stumbled upon while I was trying to pursue this other question of what work I wanted to commit myself to as an IHM Sister. It seemed irrelevant at the time, a mere distraction, yet it was and continues to be a great blessing that has taken me, and my original question, to a new place.

What “blessing stumbled upon” have you had in life? In what ways is God calling you to not necessarily answer your original question but simply to live out of the new place in which you find yourself?

Footnote: Thoughts today inspired by Teresa of Avila (p. 62) and my nun Sister Maryfran Barber, IHM.

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Join Sister Maxine, the A Nun’s Life community, and me for Praying with the Sisters podcast at 6 p.m. Central Time tonight (your time zone).

The community here at A Nun’s Life is growing each day! Many of you read our blog posts, join our podcasts, interact with one another in our chat room and forum. As we actively plan for the future, we’d love to have your input on what you like, what you’d like to see more of, and new things you’d like us to try. Our ministry is for you so your input is invaluable! Please take a moment to jot down a couple thoughts on one or more questions using the comment box below (or replying by email if you are an email subscriber).

1. My favorite part of A Nun’s Life Ministry is …..
2. I would love to see more on ….. (particular topic)
3. It’d be great if A Nun’s Life used more … (particular kind of social media, e.g., twitter, video).
4. I would tune in every single week to a podcast by nuns if the podcast was about … or resembled the NPR show …. or had a format like …
5. For a live podcast, the best time of day is ….. and my best day of the week is ….
6. I’ve listened to one of your podcasts (Praying with the Sisters, Nun News Roundup, or a special interview) and I would encourage you to …

Many thanks for you input! I know it’s not always convenient to do a survey like this, but please know how helpful it is to us. Feel free to provide us with any other helpful feedback.

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Join us for prayer today at noon Central Time at http://anunslife.org/live.

Amidst all the discussion on and reality of the Apostolic Visitation of U.S. Catholic Sisters and of the doctrinal assessment, there are some really cool things out there that affirm the beauty and adventure of religious life and the women who living this life here in the United States. Here are a couple of examples:

• Women and Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America – “a traveling exhibit sponsored by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in association with Cincinnati Museum Center. It reveals the mystery behind a small group of innovative American women who helped shape the nation’s social and cultural landscape.”
• Thank You, Sister – a letter-writing campaign by “those of us who have been served by or served with women religious to stand in support and express our gratitude for these women who have given us so much.”

A Nun’s Life Ministry is in full support of Catholic sisters and nuns. Our ministry is devoted to connecting with people, to helping folks discern their vocation, and to presenting accurate and authentic information and images of Catholic sisters and nuns in today’s world.

Sister Maxine and I were recently at a Catholic conference in Chicago and gave out “I support Sisters and Nuns” buttons. We still have some left and are offering them now for a small donation of $3 a piece. Donations above and beyond that goes 100% into our ministry. Our goal is to get these buttons circulating across the country and beyond. Supplies are limited but if we have any $ left over, we’ll print another round.

How do you get your button? Send us your name and address, # of buttons, and donation via PayPal with a click of the donate button. It’s not necessary to have a PayPal account to use PayPal. There’s an option to donate via credit card or bank account. (Sorry in advance for the huge donate link … can’t seem to get it any smaller):

Thanks in advance for your support of Catholic Sisters and Nuns.

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.)

Sister Maxine and I have made some tweaks to our Praying with the Sisters podcast (Monday through Thursday at noon Central Time / UTC-5). We originally prayed the Angelus, a favorite prayer of both of ours. However, as we went through the first couple weeks and had some feedback from folks, we have decided to switch to praying the Scripture of the Day. For more information on the podcast and the prayer, click on Praying with the Sisters podcast.

All podcasts (Praying with the Sisters, Nun News Roundup, plus occasional interview podcasts) will be available for listening or download shortly after they are aired live.

I am just beginning to resurface after IHM Community Days and have no idea where to begin! I have a major backlog of email, mail, comments, laundry, phone calls, household chores, errands, etc. Yikes!

I’ll get myself together sooner or later!

In the meantime I have a few ideas about which I’d appreciate having your input as Sister Maxine and I move forward with growing A Nun’s Life. Here they are in no particular order:

1. ¿Hablas espanol? We are very aware that Spanish is a major language in the United States (not to mention in other countries). We’re in the process of expanding our own ability to understand the language and are wondering if the A Nun’s Life community has ideas around this. Would it help to have a translation button or some posts written in English and Spanish? What else? Any suggestions around good resources for using Spanish on websites?
2. Donations accepted. A Nun’s Life Ministry is moving toward becoming a full-time self-sustaining ministry. We are currently brainstorming ways to offer new stuff (e.g. podcasts) and to financially support the ministry. The blog of course will always be as it is — no ads, no commercials, no fees. But as we expand, we have to find ways to fund stuff. So a couple questions … would you be okay with a “Donate” button on the home page (currently it’s tucked away here)? What other ideas do you have that could help us with revenue generation so that we can continue and grow A Nun’s Life?
3. New Features. As mentioned, we are working on a podcast series that is going to be awesome (once we figure out the logistics)! What else would you like to see A Nun’s Life offer? What would help you or interest you or excite you?
4. Topics and Issues. What kinds of topics and issues would you like us to address? We write on a variety of things here and are always open to addressing the things on your mind and heart. Let us know!

I am deeply grateful for each one of you. It is always a delight to work on A Nun’s Life because we have the opportunity to get to know you and to engage with one another around faith and life.

In light of the article and the very good discussion about Catholics and the Culture of Hate, I thought I’d post another link from our friend DavidK. It’s a “code of conduct” for commenting from Sojourners, an organization dedicated to articulating “the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.”

I will express myself with civility, courtesy, and respect for every member of the Sojourners online community, especially toward those with whom I disagree—even if I feel disrespected by them. (Romans 12:17-21)

I will express my disagreements with other community members’ ideas without insulting, mocking, or slandering them personally. (Matthew 5:22)

I will not exaggerate others’ beliefs nor make unfounded prejudicial assumptions based on labels, categories, or stereotypes. I will always extend the benefit of the doubt. (Ephesians 4:29)

It’s not a bad idea to include a similar “code of conduct” for posting and commenting on A Nun’s Life. Plus I think it would be great if we could get a “federation” of Catholic bloggers who would support and promote such a code. I like the biblically-based approach that Sojourners takes. What are your thoughts on this? What would you add/change? Are there some positive statements that can be added?

Thanks to Father James Martin, SJ, for this article – “Pope Hopes Excommunicated Nun Might Become Saint (America, July 9, 2009).

Mother Mary McKillop, the foundress of the Australian-based Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, was, in 1871, officially excommunicated by her local bishop, on the grounds that she “‘she had incited the sisters to disobedience and defiance.”  That same church leader, Bishop Sheil, had earlier invited her to work in Adelaide, where she and her sisters would eventually set up schools, a women’s shelter and an orphanage, among their many works….

In April of this year, in an extraordinary gesture, Bishop’s Sheil’s successor, the current archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, made a public apology to the Sisters for their foundress’s excommunication.  Standing before her statue, said that he was “profoundly ashamed of the Bishop’s actions in driving the Sisters out onto the streets.”  McKillop was beatified (the next-to-last step for canonization) by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

This is an interesting article in its own right but also in light of the swirling news about the Apostolic Visitation to some U.S. women’s religious communities. There is a great variety of speculation, study, interpretation, experience, and plain old ignorance about the Visitation. Sadly, some in the Catholic blogosphere have used this opportunity to slander individual Catholic sisters and nuns and congregations with accusations that sound pretty much like the ones Mother Mary MacKillop received. I am reminded of the words of Saint Augustine (which someone had posted elsewhere as a rebuke to slanderous comments) — “In essentials, unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity.”

I’d love to hear your comments about Father Martin’s piece, Pope Hopes Excommunicated Nun Might Become Saint. The article goes a lot deeper than the headline suggests and includes the fabulous line “Musty stories of dead nuns?” How can you resist wanting to know how Father Martin slipped that line in??

Just came across a new-to-me blog by Catholic Sister — Sister Helen Prejean: Talking about life, death, New Orleans and social justice. You can now find this blog regularly in my listing of Blogs by Catholic Nuns. Sister Helen is a member of the Congregation of Saint Joseph and has done a lot of work around the injustice of the Death Penalty and has worked with many people on death row.

Any other blogs that you are aware of that I can add to the list of blogs by Catholic nuns? My basic criterion is as follows:

• blogs by women religious and those women who are formally in the process of formation AND
• blogs which are currently active and not anonymous

Any that are listed that are no longer updated? Any links that are wonky?

While we are on the topic of soliciting feedback, anything you’d like to see more of on A Nun’s Life? topics? media (e.g. video, podcast, etc.)? guests?

Would appreciate your input!

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.

Catholic sisters and nuns live in community in a wide variety of ways. Often we only think of community as living under the same roof, that is in “the convent” or “the monastery” but community actually takes many forms. Simply living under the same roof does not make a community. Likewise, living singly does not mean you are living alone or without community.

Since I’ve been an IHM Sister, I’ve lived various configurations of physical proximity but in all of them have striven to live deeply our IHM community life. I’ve lived singly with few IHMs around me because of the demands of my ministry; I’ve lived with 5 other sisters; I’ve lived with one other sister; and I’ve lived on our Motherhouse campus with nuns everywhere! Each way of living calls forth different aspects of living community.

Because our community like many others is ministerial based, our choices for community life are necessarily diverse so that we can respond to people’s needs. I’ve been told stories about how our sisters years ago heard the news that babies in Korea were dying because there was no one to hold them in the orphanages. The infants needed human cuddling to live and to grow. Our mother superior immediately sent nuns to Korea to minister by “simply” holding the babies. Didn’t think about the fact that we had no convent there or that there were only a handful of nuns she could send. She saw the need and knew that we could help.

I’ve also been thinking about a friend of mine who is in the national guard. She is stationed hours away from her home and family. She lives singly on base and gets together with her family whenever possible. Though certainly a struggle, her marriage and family life is not any less real or authentic. It is now expressed in new and different ways.

Today’s world is full of so many ways to live community and family life. While some of us live this community through physical proximity, many of us also experience community and family in ways that go beyond this proximity. In what ways do you experience this kind of community or family life?

It’s been a week since we opened the new convent. “New” merely refers to the fact that it’s new as a convent, but in actually it’s an old house with the normal and not-so-normal problems associated with old houses. Take the pipes for example. All corroded. Had to be replaced which delayed our ability to move in. Monday and Tuesday night we ended up with stuff in the truck and ourselves at a local hotel courtesy of the realtor. Moved in on Wednesday. Started cleaning on Thursday only to discover that the base of the lower kitchen cabinets was like a science experiment gone wrong with mold creeping up from the edges. Needless to say, it’s a mess and our move in experience is less than desirable. Still, it’s fixable and we love the house and neighborhood. As soon as the rehabbers get through replacing the offending cabinets, the convent will be in good shape.

As we work with the rehabbers, I am reminded of our IHM Sisters who in the 1930s oversaw the building of our 380,000 square foot building. I wonder how they did it all. We just have a small old house in need of rehab, but they had to start from scratch, put their vision into concrete — literally, and know enough about building, construction, electrical, plumbing, finances, environment, health care, residential living, etc. to build a home for our sisters and create a physical symbol of our IHM life. In just the last few days, I’ve learned a lot about this stuff, and I’ve also learned a bit about the guys working here like their family and why they like/dislike this kind of work, and for the young guys who cut our lawn, what their hopes and dreams are for their own futures.

True, our priority is fixing this place and getting rid the petri dish that is our kitchen, we also are about being present to people no matter where or how we meet them, even if we are the ones who are in need at the time. This is something I have taken always seen in my sisters, especially my nun Joyce who has such a beautiful way of working with people. She doesn’t see “a maintenance person” or “a secretary”, she sees a person full of dignity and light who is using her or his gifts, earning a living, supporting a family, ministering to others. Though shy by nature, I think always of Joyce when I encounter workers of any kind — and I remember to cherish them as she does and as Jesus shows us time and again in the Gospels.

How have you cherished a worker lately?

A prayer for peace in honor of Memorial Day by Pope John Paul II …

Mary, Queen of Peace, we entrust our lives to you.

Shelter us from war, hatred and oppression.

Teach us to live in peace, to educate ourselves for peace.

Inspire us to act justly, to revere all God has made.

Root peace firmly in our hearts and in our world.

Amen.

For whom would you like to pray this day?

Summer is here and that means bicycle riding for me. Having grown up with bikes, taken bike day trips with my family, commuted by bike, ridden mountain bike trails and long stretches of open road, I feel very much at home on a bike.

I got an inside view of the world of bikes when I worked at a bike shop early in my nun life. Yes, I worked at a bike shop as a Catholic sister! It’s an interesting story and the short version is that I had done my MA in theology on the theologian Karl Rahner, SJ, whose fundamental belief is that we can directly experience God at any time, any place. At the time, I was in need of a part-time ministry and so I reasoned that if God is in all things, then surely God is in a bike shop. Why not do ministry there? I loved bikes, and I loved working with mechanics (my dad and brother are engineers), and I wanted to interact with ordinary folks in ordinary moments. So after consulting with my nuns, I applied for a summer job and managed to beat out the competition (a handful of high school boys). It was one of my best experiences of formation — learning how to be with people, to minister with them outside the ordinary or obvious places of church ministry.

In the bike shop, you meet a lot — I mean a lot — of characters from every economic bracket, educational level, age, culture, etc. Each person has a story, and when you see them that way, you find there are so many opportunities for being present to them. And often, a bike marks a significant moment in their life. Why? Because ultimately, it’s not about the bike, as Lance Armstrong noted. A new bike or a repair to a bike is often loaded with meaning. One guy lost his job and couldn’t afford to drive so he needed a bike to get around. A mom and dad bought their child’s first bike. A woman’s husband was emotionally abusive (we saw it first hand in the store) and she wanted a bike to get out of the house more often. A young woman bought a road bike for her first triathlon marking her journey to feel better about herself.

My bike is also a marker of significant moments in my life. It is priceless because of the stories attached to it — both good times and bad. I am highly protective of it and take good care of it. When I first moved to Chicago I went through at least 4 different bike shops until I found On The Route Bicycles, bike guys whose expertise I trusted and who showed care about “the story” that people have with their bike or bike riding.

What significant moments does your bike (or similar thing) hold for you?

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.

Yesterday’s post on the question Is the habit the answer to vocations recruitment? drew a lot of discussion and perspectives. I want to pull out of there an interesting sub-conversation about what it means to be counter-cultural. In context, the comments are about the extent to which clothing/accessories of nuns are counter-cultural.

But the very concept of “counter-cultural” is understood in many different ways, and, as Jean notes, “I think you have to first talk about what and which cultures one seeks to counter.” My first stop, as always, is a dictionary or encyclopedia, just to get the basic meaning of the word.

Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. A general example would be a competing, dissenting culture that wishes to change the nature of, or at least the dominance of, a predominant culture in a particular society. (Wikipedia)

Now I’ve mentioned in past posts that being a nun is being counter-cultural. But I don’t spend a lot of time consciously thinking about the link between the two. I don’t think that one is a nun in order to be counter-cultural. The counter-cultural part is a kind of by-product of the fundamental desire to serve God and live the Gospel. I don’t wake up in the morning and say, “I wonder how I can subvert mainstream culture today” rather, I wake up and say “Thanks be to God” (… and shortly thereafter, “I need coffee.”)

So say more about this counter-cultural thing … doesn’t necessarily have to be in regard to nuns’ clothing/accessories … but what does it mean to be counter-cultural? Does it always have to be publicly displayed? Does it reside in a single act or belief or is it more of a collective thing? Would you describe yourself as counter-cultural? Why or why not?

Question from Janelle …

Hi Sister Julie, I am considering becoming a nun because I think God might be calling me. Right now I am only in high school but I thought I should look in to the religious life. All my life I have thought about becoming a Chef and have loved to cook. I also love to help people but the problem is I can’t stand blood or needles and I don’t think I would like to be a teacher. I know being a nurse or a teacher is the most common things nuns do. I think by learning more about what nuns do and praying a lot I can decide whether or not God is calling me to that life. So I was wondering what other things do nuns do? – Janelle

Dear Janelle, Thank you for writing. Being in high school is a good time to see what religious life and being a nun are all about. It’s also a good time to explore your talents and your dreams of what you’d like to be and do in life.

In terms of religious life, you are already beginning to get to know about religious life and nuns just by visiting A Nun’s Life! I encourage you to also “run into” sisters or nuns in your parish or local community. See #2 of How to Become a Catholic Nun — Meet Nuns (includes how to do nun surveillance).

If you love to cook and want to learn to be a chef, I say go for it! Remember that the gifts and attractions that you have (such as loving to cook) are also God-given and are as much a part of your vocation as a choice of a life commitment.

Now, can you be a chef and a nun? Absolutely! I for one would volunteer immediately to live on mission with you! Traditionally teaching and nursing have been common ministries for Catholic sisters, and these are still two important ways we continue to serve God and God’s people. But we are also involved in many other kinds of work that span careers both within the Church and in non-Church spheres such as medicine, law, publishing, advocacy, social services, policy, etc.

It depends partly on the particular mission of a religious community. Sometimes the mission is focused on caring for children, for example. So all of the ministries of the sisters somehow will reflect that mission. But it could mean being a court advocate for orphans, or tutoring the children of migrant workers, or teaching children how to choose and prepare healthy meals! If you choose to become a chef, there will be many ways that your training will be invaluable as a form of ministry. If you are considering a cloistered community, a chef-nun might be invited to run the monastery kitchen or to work with the monastery’s “store” (e.g. monasteries that make bread, beer, cheese, etc. to sell). I’m not a cloistered nun so I’m not sure how exactly they would work this, but I’m sure that whatever gifts a woman comes with, there will be a way to use those gifts.

So the upshot is that nuns can pretty much do anything that serves the mission of their community. You may find that because of your gifts and attractions that a particular community resonates more with you. That’s why it’s good to explore a variety of religious communities. The Holy Spirit will be with you all the way, guiding you and helping you to embrace your call, whatever it may be.

Finally, I encourage you to check out the Vocation Forum here at A Nun’s Life. It’s a place to hang out with others who are considering religious life or thinking about their life’s vocation.

Sister Suzanne Jabro, CSJ, is a Sister of Saint Joseph of Carndelet (Los Angels Province) and the founder of Get on the Bus, a free transportation ministry that unites children and their caregivers with a parent who is in prison.

Not only does Get on the Bus offer free transportation, but they provide “travel bags for the children, comfort bags for the caregivers, a photo of each child with his or her parent, and meals for the day.” On the way home children receive “a teddy bear with a letter from their parent and post-event counseling.” All this is provided at no cost to the family.

This year Get on the Bus is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It started when Sister Suzanne and other members of an interfaith delegation visited a state prison to see how they could help female inmates. It came down to one thing: the women, some of whom had been separated from their children for 9 years, wanted to see their kids. Sister Suzanne knew that the effects of separation for both a parent and a child were traumatic and that reuniting them could bring not only some healing but also help with the imprisoned parent’s rehabilitation.

Sister Suzanne got her nuns on board and eventually they were able to get together a bus with children from nine families to visit their mothers on Mother’s Day. This Mother’s Day, reports Good Housekeeping, “48 buses, sponsored by churches, synagogues, and other agencies, will bring children from all over California for Mother’s Day visits.”

I encourage you to read the entire Good Housekeeping article, A Mother’s Day Gift by Nicole Gregory (May 2009) which tells the story of Sister Suzanne and Get on the Bus. Also, learn more about the program at the website Get on the Bus.

What I love about this story is that Sister Suzanne exemplifies nuns on mission — she saw a need and she did everything she could to meet that need, even when faced with obstacles such as lack of funding and a reluctance to help incarcerated parents.

… for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me … (Matthew 25:35-36)

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)

Nunday has arrived and today we have not one, but two Catholic sisters from the Congregation of the Humility of Mary, a religious community of women based in Davenport, Iowa. From their website:

Like the woman in the gospel who lights a lamp to search for lost treasure, we seek the will of the Spirit in the signs of the times.

Motivated by compassion and justice, we give ourselves wholeheartedly wherever the needs are greatest.

Sister Marilyn Schierbrock, CHM, standing, is a neighborhood advocacy coordinator in downtown Davenport, Iowa. Here she is helping neighborhood women to establish a community garden.

Sister Cathleen Real, CHM, has been personally trained by Al Gore to provide education on climate change and the threats it poses to humanity and the planet as a whole. From a faith based perspective Sister Cathleen utilizes materials from The Climate Project training, including evidence of temperature increases, the serious consequences of global warming and recommendations for taking action to lessen the impact on the earth.

For other Nunday features, see the A Nun’s Life Facebook photo album. If you’ve got a photo of a real Catholic sister or nun, check out the details on submitting your photo for consideration.

Make a difference — Vote for the earth by turning off your lights tonight at 8:30 p.m. local time for one hour. One flick of the switch will signal your vote to care for the earth and to say no to global warming. This is a global effort — learn more at EarthHour.org.

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.

Today’s Nunday has an honorary nun guest — Brother Chris Valka, CSB, of the Congregation of Saint Basil. And yes, we have his picture! Chris recently spoke on Faith in Cyber Communities at St. Joseph’s College, University of Alberta, and was written up in the Western Catholic Reporter.

Valka presented historical highlights of the Church’s mostly positive views on communications.

“History not only gives us perspective, but it also conveys the optimistic stance the Church takes towards media. The Church has never seen the media as an obstacle,” he said.

People who cannot find answers at the institutional Church of brick and mortar are searching for answers in other places, including the cyber community. This gives people worldwide a place to gather and ask life’s tough questions. In spite of the great distance between them, they can debate, discuss and live out the answers.

Be sure to read Brother Chris’s other observations and ideas about new media and the Catholic Church in the article New media can break through barriers.

I had the pleasure of meeting Brother Chris back in 2007 when he interviewed me for his podcast series Conversations with Macrina:

A Discussion About Religious Life (June 23, 2007)

What do you think we religious should be doing online? Would you like us to do more with new media such as podcasts, live discussions, etc.? Give me some ideas about what would interest you, what you think would be helpful to people.

Nuns are amazing women. They minister to the whole world — sometimes by traveling to the far reaches of the globe, sometimes by their powerful prayers from within a monastery. There is no place that we Catholic sisters and nuns will not go to minister to God’s people and to tend the precious world that God has entrusted to our care.

Today’s Nunday photo is a powerful reminder of this. My blogging friend Sister Susan Rose Francois of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Peace sent this photo and story of her nun, Sister Eleanor Gilmore.

From Sister Susan …

Sister Eleanor Gilmore, CSJP, is retiring from her health care ministry to the people of El Salvador. Sister Eleanor has lived in San Salvador since 2001 when she founded the Paz Salud health ministry which brings volunteer doctors and nurses to staff temporary health clinics for the poor of El Salvador. She had previously ministered in El Salvador during the civil war. From 1988 to 1993 she worked with Jesuit Refugee Services to coordinate health care in the capital for people from the repopulation villages. This was all the ministry she began after she “retired” from community leadership.

I was privileged to visit Sister Eleanor in El Salvador two summers ago. As we toured around the countryside, she would meet families that she had helped during the Civil War. It was as if she was a member of their family – they would embrace and catch up on all their news. Occasionally she would also tell us more grim stories – but always with a sense of humor. Like when we drove by the police station where she’d been held overnight. Or the Jesuit Refugee Service house she was staying overnight at in El Salvador – she had some appointments in the City the next day – only to be awoken during the middle of the night by police commandos who arrested her (again). Life was dangerous during the war to be sure, but she felt called to be there with the people.

Another Sister has taken over the ministry in El Salvador. Sister Eleanor will be returning to our west coast headquarters for some much needed rest and relaxation.

In response to my post about the movie Nun of That, Sister Louise O’Rourke, PDDM, sent me a link to a video she created following a 2-week intensive course of video production in 2004. Sister Louise is a Catholic sister of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master based in Ireland.

Sister Louise’s goal in creating the video was to challenge the stereotypes of young people toward religious and vice-versa. I think she did a great job. Sister notes that not only is she a real sister, but she did all her own stunts! Also, she notes to ignore the 1st minute of the video as it was the first video exercise she had to do.

Excellent job, Sister Louise! Thank you for sending this. You show that nuns are real people who are dedicated to God and who live and minister as film producers or ninjas while at the same time being contemplative, relevant, joyful, smart women of faith.

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.”

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!

Good day and welcome to our special feature “Monday is NUNDAY”! I’m Sister Julie, host of A Nun’s Life, and a Catholic sister belonging to the IHM Sisters of Monroe, Michigan. On today’s program we have a nun guest hailing from the Sisters of the Divine Savior, otherwise knows as the Salvatorians. Please welcome Sister Elizabeth “Liza” Segleau, SDS.

Sister Liza has a masters degree in behavioral health and ministers as a social worker and counselor. She lives in a rural, mountain town in Arizona called Show Low. Sister Liza currently works for a private practice but is actively working with the director to set up a nonprofit counseling/outreach center called Gabriel after the archangel.  Once Gabriel is up and running, Sister Liza will work there fulltime. Says Sister Liza, “This is certainly walking out on a limb and trusting in God’s providence. I have not been involved in a start-up in quite some time. So enthusiasm, trust, joy, strength and patience will be required. Your prayers will be appreciated as we gently go about getting Gabriel started.”

The photo of Sister Liza is from when she ministered at Catholic Charities in Milwaukee. She served as an outreach working in their immigration program.

For more on Sister Liza and her Sisters, check out the Meet Sisters page of the Sisters of the Divine Savior website.

Send in your photos of real Catholic sisters and nuns. See more photos of sisters and nuns who have been featured on Nunday at A Nun’s Life.

Rev. Michael A. Renninger and the Catholic Diocese of Richmond are doing some innovative vocation work on online. Behind the Collar is a website where people can have “an inside look at life as a priest”. Father Renninger, the diocesan vicar for vocations, worked with an advertising agency to develop a campaign to be present online to young men who are discerning a vocation to the priesthood and to give a “behind the scenes” look at the life as a priest.

Behind the Collar features an array of social media in order to give young men multiple doors through which to learn about a vocation to the priesthood. There are videos and podcasts of informal chats between “Father Mike” (as he’s known online) and seminarians discussing priestly life, family reactions, celibacy and more. There are links to Behind the Collar on the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace. And there are frequently asked questions about become a priest.

The website is a very good example being present to young people online and using the media and language that young people are familiar with. Kudos to the Diocese of Richmond! My prayers are with you.

Learn more at the Behind the Collar website and also in a recent article in the Richmond Times, Online campaign helps recruit priests in Virginia.

Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, recently gave a conference on Media and Evangelization and how the Catholic Church is committed to using new media.

What I found particularly intriguing was how the Archbishop framed his remarks about communication. He referred to the work of the late Cardinal Avery Dulles on the theology of the Trinity in order to illustrate his thoughts on communication and how such a theology is foundational to how we connect with others, especially via the new media

The Trinity is, of course, one of the great mysteries of our Catholic faith. The One God is at the same time three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Many mystics and theologians of our faith have looked to the Trinity as a model of how to relate to and communicate with God and one another. The Archbishop quoted Dulles on what this relationship and communication “looks” like within the Trinity:

“The Trinity is communication in absolute, universal perfection, a totally free and complete sharing among equals. In generating the Son as word, the Father totally expresses himself … the Holy Spirit completes the intradivine process of communication” (The Craft of Theology: From Symbol to System).

Although this particular quote doesn’t make mention of it, love is key to Dulles’ understanding of the Trinity and of how the Triune God communicates among the three Persons as well as to all of creation. For example, Dulles writes:

“Within the Trinity the Spirit is the subsistent love breathed forth by the Father and the Son. He is the personal bond of union expressing and sealing their mutual love, and proceeding from them” (The Catholicity of the Church, 45).

Key messages about the nature of good communication can be found in both of Dulles’ quotes:

• Good communication is “a totally free and complete sharing among equals”.

• Good communication is the generation of not only words (information) but of a word about who we are; we express ourselves, give ourselves to others when we communicate with them.

• Love proceeds from good communication.

What does this mean in this age of mass communication where we can relate to and communicate with others immediately and through huge variety of media? Do we treat others as equals when we are communicating with them, especially when we are hidden behind the veil of anonymity? Are we attentive to how are words are expressing how we are? Do all of our communications (yes, even that 140 character tweet on Twitter) express love? I’m not talking about sentimental love, but a love that Saint Paul so well articulates in 1 Corinthians 13.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Let’s talk more about this. What key messages do you hear in the Archbishop’s conference or in Dulles’ theology of the Trinity? How can we make the blogosphere, especially the Catholic blogosphere, more of a place where good communication is the rule, not the exception?

Other thoughts, ideas, wonderings …

Today’s Nunday photo and story come from a recent visit of IHM Sisters to Haiti. The IHM Sisters of Monroe together with the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the Immaculata IHMs, and the Scranton IHMs, have a corporate commitment to care for the people of Haiti. Here is our corporate statement:

We, the Oblate Sisters of Providence and the IHM Sisters, impelled by the Gospel, stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, in their struggle for dignity, life and human rights both in Haiti and the United States.

You can read more about the Haiti Project on our OSPIHM.org website.

Periodically sisters go to Haiti to help, some stay for a short time, others for a while. Sister Michele Denton, an IHM sister from Monroe, was recently in Haiti with The World Community for Christian Meditation, an organization founded and led by Benedictine monks.

You can read about Sister Michele’s experience in Haiti at our IHM website in the article Sister Bears Witness to Haitian Struggles.

Send in your photos of real Catholic sisters and nuns.

See more photos of sisters and nuns who have been featured on Nunday at A Nun’s Life.

The Vatican has just published a message from Pope Benedict XVI in anticipation of the 43rd World Day of Communications.

New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship (January 24, 2009) is the theme for this year. Writes the Pope,

The new digital technologies are, indeed, bringing about fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human relationships. These changes are particularly evident among those young people who have grown up with the new technologies and are at home in a digital world …

Pope Benedict addresses the digital generation and offers to them (and to all of us) ideas of how to use the new technologies for good “to promote human understanding and solidarity.”

These technologies are truly a gift to humanity and we must endeavour to ensure that the benefits they offer are put at the service of all human individuals and communities, especially those who are most disadvantaged and vulnerable.

While noting the many practical benefits of the new media and technologies, the Pope points out that the digital communication ultimately reflects our fundamental human desire to relate to one other.

This desire for communication and friendship is rooted in our very nature as human beings and cannot be adequately understood as a response to technical innovations…. When we find ourselves drawn towards other people, when we want to know more about them and make ourselves known to them, we are responding to God’s call – a call that is imprinted in our nature as beings created in the image and likeness of God, the God of communication and communion.

Pope Benedict encourages people “Who are active in the emerging environment of digital communication to commit themselves to promoting a culture of respect, dialogue and friendship.” He then goes on to explain what each of these three elements mean and concludes with an appeal to young Catholic believers to mirror the great Apostles and disciples of the early Church who brought the Good News of Jesus to the world by living the Gospel and proclaiming the Good News to all in the digital world.

I highly recommend reading the full text of the Pope’s message. What does it mean in terms of how we use Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, blogs, forums, text messaging, and other social networking technologies? How are we (Catholic sisters, parents, teachers, catechists, vocation directors, priests, and other Catholic leaders) present on these social networking sites and using the new technologies? Let us know what you think about the Pope’s message and what it’s call is to you.

P.S. Pope Benedict also just launched a Vatican YouTube channel. Read more at the LA Times.

Celebrate Inauguration Day at my nun Sister Mary Bea Keeley’s blog, IHM Calling. Sister Mary Bea invites people to IHM nuns and friends share your experience of today’s Inauguration Day.

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Question from Therese …

Dear Sister Julie, First of all, congratulations on a beautiful website, and thank you for the chance to ask a question of a real live nun!

I’m in a “helping profession,” and find that often times doing a good job–or even a great job, isn’t enough. The expectation is for us to be “perfect.” This means satisfying people with a broad range of expectations, some of which I’m not always aware of.

Relatedly, I find that my own flaws (many of which I’m not aware of) come to the surface to surprise me (smack me in the face, more like).

I know that I’m “technically” doing a good job. The question is do you have to deal with the expectation (when encountering laypeople) that a nun must be “perfect,” despite the fact that we all are also human and make mistakes? How do you cope when someone you are trying to serve is disappointed in you because you don’t meet their notion of the “ideal”? (Sorry if this is a strange question)

Dear Therese, Thank you for writing! I’m glad you stopped by. Let me first reassure you that you are not alone in terms of what you are feeling. I think many in helping professions experience what you described so well. Needs rarely come packaged in neat, discreet boxes. They are often jumbled together and come spilling out when we encounter someone who is there to help. A visit to a physical therapist for an ankle injury, for example, might cause one’s deep hurt at not being able to run to surface in unexpected ways. Sometimes it’s clear what’s happening, other times, not so much.

In answer to your question, yes, I do have to deal with the expectation that a nun must be “perfect” — and interestingly it’s not just from lay people but from anyone, including myself! A Catholic sister or nun is often expected to be perfect in charity, holiness, virtue, and prayer. We are expected to always be perfectly present to others at all times, whether we are at our “day job” or standing in line at the grocery store. I have had the experience of going to the doctor for my own checkup and end up listening to his personal concerns and spiritual questions! But, even in the grocery line or at the doctor’s office, I’m still a nun. I’m not “off duty” because being a nun pervades all that I am, 24/7. I don’t stop being a nun when 5 p.m. hits, just like my sister is never not a Mom.

Honestly, I don’t always cope well but I am learning. An important first step is for me to know that I don’t have all the answers — and to be okay with that. When I bump into someone who expects me to be perfect, I try to acknowledge my own personal feelings (Hello?? You’re the doctor here. You’re supposed to listen to my aches and pains!) and also to move beyond them to a place of genuine compassion. Sometimes that means spending a little time with someone around their concerns. Or sometimes that means graciously refocusing them on the needs I can help them with or redirecting them to others who can help with the other needs that spill out.

In the end, as you know, not everyone will be satisfied. Not everyone will thank you or even recognize that you are trying your darnedest to help them. But don’t be discouraged. You are doing good, and the Spirit helps bring all good endeavors to grow and prosper, even if we are not there to see the fruits!

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.

The time has come to bid farewell to 2008. In honor of 2008, I have gone through all my blog posts of 2008 and have chosen one from each month that is a personal favorite of mine.

January – Living Simply — the closet tells the story

February – Nuns Minister via Running

March – Being a Nun is a Life, not a career

April – Portrayals of Nuns in Film and Popular Culture

May - Join the Convent, See the World

June - Ride Like a Nun

July – Letter to a Young Religious

August – A Nun, a Lutheran, and the Perfect Storm and Miss Sister 2008 – a beauty contest for nuns??

September – What God Sees

October – Nuns Just Want to Have Fun

November – The Secret Life of Bees and Images of Mary

December – Flying Kansas farmboy versus flying Nun

What topics or posts were most memorable to you?

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.

September and October have been a wirlwind of activity for me. Let’s see … I’ve traveled to Iowa, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. I’ve seen the Fall colors change in varying degrees in all of these states. I’ve prayed, played, presented, listened, worked, prayed some more, hiked, explored, laughed, and communed with God, with others, and with the great outdoors. It’s been a trip, literally and figuratively, and hopefully in a couple weeks things will settle down. So I’ve been a bit remiss in responding to emails (hang on — if you’ve written to me, I’ll be in touch soon!) and writing about various happenings.

One such happening was my delightful visit with Catholic Mom extraordinaire, Lisa Hendey. Lisa is the woman behind the popular website CatholicMom.com as well as the blog Catholic Mom Moments and Catholic Moments Podcast. Lisa is doing a tremendously good work for Motherhood and for spreading the Good News online. Lisa has an intelligent and compassionate Catholic presence online.

I first met Lisa online in one or another social network that we both were on. While plurking one day, I saw that Lisa was going to be visiting Chicago (she lives in Fresno … probably a lot warmer there right now than here in the Windy City). I invited her to visit and she accepted! Lisa came to Loyola Press where we chatted, toured the place, had lunch and did a podcast.  It was pretty awesome. Having had a few weeks to reflect back on our visit, what remains with me is a sense of spiritual companionship — being with someone where there is a meeting of spirits. Lisa’s active engagement in online ministry and use of new media is a blessing to me personally as well because it’s helpful to have ministerial colleagues in this vast World Wide Web. Online ministry is like a new mission land, a frontier to be explored and to be present on and to reflect the light of Christ. Plus, creating and sustaining an online ministry on a shoe-string (read: no) budget, finding time amidst other responsibilities, dealing with wonky networks and technical issues, etc. — all these can be a huge challenge for those of us in the digital missions. I’m glad to have Lisa as a friend in these adventures!

I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of Lisa online and hopefully for an occasional visit here at A Nun’s Life.

To catch a bit of Lisa’s and my time together, listen to Lisa’s Catholic Moments podcast for a conversation between the two of us.

Today is Blog Action Day: Poverty. Bloggers, podcasters, and videocasters across the globe are addressing the issue of global poverty so that together we can raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. A Nun’s Life blog is participating today by hosting a discussion on poverty in light of faith by using Jon Sobrino’s book No Salvation Outside the Poor. This morning, I’d like to start off with a simple” question:

What does “no salvation outside the poor” mean to you?

Special Note:
For those of you on Plurk or Twitter, Denise205 will be covering the comments on A Nun’s Life throughout the day.