This Easter vigil, I was honored to be a sponsor for a friend who is now fully Catholic. YEA! The deal was sealed as she was anointed with the oil of chrism.

“In treating the rite of Confirmation, it is fitting to consider the sign of anointing and what it signifies and imprints: a spiritual seal. Anointing, in Biblical and other ancient symbolism, is rich in meaning: oil is a sign of abundance and joy; it cleanses (anointing before and after a bath) and limbers (the anointing of athletes and wrestlers); oil is a sign of healing, since it is soothing to bruises and wounds; and it makes radiant with beauty, health, and strength.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1293)

This Easter Monday morning there’s been a new twist to this whole anointing thing. I’m staying here in Monroe at our IHM Mothership and frankly couldn’t sleep very well. So I was sorting through my stuff and settling into my room (just here for a visit while Sister Maxine and I get our new office and convent together — see A Moving Experience for details). And lo and behold on the guest towels are stitched these words: BE ANOINTED.

It caught me off guard. Maybe it’s because it is only 4:13 in the morning or maybe it’s because of the boldness of the command. The words are strong, powerful, compelling, and they are directed right at me. BE ANOINTED.

I’m not sure just yet what these words mean for me personally this day, but I do know that they are a reminder to me and to you that each and every day we experience our own anointing from God. There are the wonderfully rich moments as in the receiving of chrism oil and the oils of the catechumens and of the sick. And there are the other sacred moments when we are anointed in a special moment with our God.

When I saw the towels this morning, I thought instantly of a time in my life about 10 years ago when I had just in the beginning stages of chemotherapy — I had had my head shaved and for the first time I experienced raindrops falling on my bald head! BE ANOINTED.

Another thought was when I was driving home from work one windy day. All of a sudden the white blossoms from a tree cut loose and were dancing around the street alighting upon my car and everything in sight. BE ANOINTED.

These moments of anointing can happen at the most random, unexpected times. They can happen in good or tough times and in the ordinary stuff of everyday life. In what ways have you experience a random act of anointing?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer and chat
tonight at 6 p.m. CT at aNunsLife.org/live.

And BE SURE to join us for a live broadcast of “In Good Faith”
on Wednesday with our guest, Prof. Sister Patricia Wittberg, SC.
More info on the In Good Faith page.

Question from Ed …

Hello, What is the best book on Our Lady? Something not too sweet / saccharine on the one hand, nor too dry / academic / theological on the other. I don’t that about much about Our Lady and want to learn more. Thank you.

Annunciation by He Qi, 2001

First, of course, consult Scripture! That is our primary source for what we know about Mary.

Second, I must confess that I tend to swing towards the more theological side of things but I think you’ll find some some of that very accessible and engaging.

Third, talk to Mary herself! We are blessed to live in and with the Communion of Saints meaning holy people like Mary are with us always. So spend some time in quiet and be open to Mary’s presence with you. Sometimes it is helpful to use Scripture as an entry way to prayer in this regard. Take a passage with Mary in it and imagine that you are in that scene (the Nativity, in the Temple for Jesus’ Presentation, at the Wedding Feast of Cana, at the Cross, etc.). Allow your imagination to wander and interact with the people and things in the scene. Praying with your imagination is a great form of prayer!

And finally, BOOKS and articles!

The best book I know on Mary by far is Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints by Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson. Now it does have that word “theology” in it, but I have to say, you just might want to give it a whirl. As a first step, perhaps, read this review by Nancy Hawkins in America magazine: Spirit-Filled Companion (June 9, 2003). I love this book because it gives us a real-life sense of Mary that takes account of her real-life circumstances and tries to free Mary from some of the unfortunate accretions of her story over time. Another way to see if you’ll like this book is to read Sister Elizabeth’s article for Catholic Update in 2001: In Search of the Real Mary.

The next place I’d go for resources on Mary is over to my friends at Loyola Press. Loyola Press is a Jesuit ministry and have a fantastic collection of writers and resources on all things Catholic. I used to work there and can say from personal experience that they have a great grounding in theology and the faith. Their materials are top notch. Here’s a few on Mary I’d recommend (en español tambien):

• Mary: Jesus’ Mother–And Ours: Six Weeks with the Bible (Catholic Perspectives) by Kevin Perrotta
• Mary and the Saints: Companions on the Journey in the “Catholic Basics” series
• Mary, The Compassionate Mother: A Part of the Somos católicos Series by Virgilio Elizondo

Ed, I’m sure the A Nun’s Life Community has a bunch of suggestions too so check back here to see the comments folks leave on the blog post here! Blessings to you!

The first time I heard music by the group called the Dogma Dogs was in theological school. My professor, seeing the students drift off a bit in the middle of our two-hour afternoon class, cranked up the song “Lent.” Next on the playlist was the dance tune, “21 Ecumenical Councils,” followed by the rock classic, “Pharaoh.” It was the comic break that we needed!

The songs are actually for helping children learn about their Catholic faith. But for adults, the songs have a cleverness that makes them funny, sort of like a “Grammar Rock” for religion.

So have a listen to the Dogma Dogs clips below, but beware — you might hear the words “Lent, Lent, Time to Repent” replay in your head all day.

Click PLAY below: Dogma Dogs, “Lent”

Click PLAY below: Dogma Dogs, “21 Ecumenical Councils”

Click PLAY below: Dogma Dogs, “Pharaoh”

Do you have a song recommendation for Lent or other seasons in the church year? We’d love to hear about them!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer and chat tonight at 6 p.m. CT at aNunsLife.org/live.

Also a reminder — “Ask Sister” has moved to Wednesday evenings at 6 p.m. Central Time. “Ask Sister” is a live broadcast where we talk with listeners about faith, community, ministry, prayer, and many other topics!

Lent is a wonderfully fertile time for the soul. What do Catholic sisters and nuns have to say about Lent? Here are a few selections from across the nunosphere. What nugget of wisdom strikes you?

Lenten Reflections: Ash Wednesday – Sister Mary Zirbes, Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls

What Should I Give Up For Lent? – by Sister Margaret Dorgan, Carmelite Nuns of Eldridge, Iowa

“And we are [Jesus'] messengers who convey love and comfort to those whose emotional reserves are so depleted. In our fragile world, no age is free of losses. Christian compassion reaches out wherever we see sorrow. And Lent can be a time for opening our eyes to the sadness we have not paid that much attention to in our own small circle.”

Lent and Vocation Discernment – by the Dominican Nuns of Ireland

“Lent is always a very fruitful time for those extra little ‘nudges’ that God gives… So for those of you who are discerning your Vocation, embrace Lent this year as a particularly graced period for discernment!”

Gracious, Spacious, and Precious: Lent 2012 –  by Sister Denise Wilkinson, Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana

“I’m exploring notions about making my prayer deliberately mindful of those persons and beliefs that are different from mine; prayer mindful of those who consistently fall under my radar and attention because I’m simply not paying attention to the people and issues of Earth. Mindful of the all-encompassing embrace of Providence, I will consciously widen my own embrace of the other, the least, the oppressed.”

And don’t forget to see what the nuns here at A Nun’s Life have to say about Lent!

We welcome again writer Kerri Leigh Power as our guest blogger today.

Two years ago, my husband’s elderly mother passed away, and we spent several days cleaning out the house where she had lived for sixty years. As we sorted and packed belongings, deciding what to donate and what to keep in her memory, we unearthed many hidden treasures from her long life. Among them were three colourful little cans that I found in the bottom of a dusty cookie jar.

I wasn’t familiar with them, but my husband told me they were Lenten offering cans left over from his boyhood in the ‘60s. The idea was to put the money you would have spent on candy or other pleasures during Lent into the jar, and then offer the donation at Easter.

I was charmed by the cans and the images of Jesus that seemed to belong to another time. I was also reminded of my own years in an all-girl Catholic school. I’m sure the nuns did their best to teach us about the meaning of the Lenten season, but as kids we made a game out of Lent — gossiping about who was giving up what, or trying to outdo each other by claiming that we would give up something unthinkable, like Coke, or even chocolate.

Recently I’ve begun to explore my own long-buried Catholic roots. Now, for the first time in my adult life, I’m entering the season of Lent consciously, and wondering what it means. Should I give up something I enjoy? Will this deepen my relationship with God? How can my sacrifice become more than a surface act of self-denial, and take me into deeper spiritual terrain? I look forward to exploring these questions in the coming weeks and seeing what new and unexpected treasures turn up.

Do you find meaning in making a sacrifice during Lent?

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Continue the conversation using the comment area below AND tune into Ask Sister tomorrow night where the nuns go live on the topic of denying oneself and taking up one’s cross. And be sure to join the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer at 6 p.m. CT in the chat room today.

On Sunday I had the privilege of being part of the Rite of Sending, the Rite of Election, and the Call to Conversion which were celebrated first at Saint Clement Church where my friend is in formation to become a Catholic and later in the day at Holy Name Cathedral, the home parish of all of us Chicagolanders.

In the course of the celebrations, I had an opportunity to mingle and talk with the newly Elect (formerly “catechumens”, people being baptized for the first time) and the Candidates (person coming from another Christian tradition or renewing their own Catholic faith). I was so moved by their commitment and their palpable joy in this moment and in their journey toward full communion with the Catholic Church. They are a fantastic group of women and men, with a most excellent good shepherd in their primary catechist, Christina Bax, Pastoral Associate and Director of Evangelization at Saint Clement.

Cardinal George presided at The Rite of Election and Call to Continuing Conversion and gave a scripturally robust homily that was so encouraging to those gathered. And I was struck once again by these words of the Rite which the Cardinal proclaimed with such solemnity: “Christ’s body, the Church, recognizes your desire.”

Here’s some photos from the celebration. As we enter into the Lenten journey toward Easter, let us pray that with the Elect and the Candidates, we too might hear God’s call to conversion, “strive courageously to reach the fullness of truth,” and faithfully live our baptism.

Holy Name Cathedral

Francis Cardinal George

Christina Bax holds high the Book of the Elect

The Cardinal with The Elect and The Candidates

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

Today is the feast of St. Scholastica (d 543 CE), a remarkable woman who has influenced spiritual seekers to this day! Among her life’s work was the founding of a monastery of nuns just a few miles from the monastery established by her famous brother, Benedict.

A year ago, Benedictine sister Lynne Smith described St. Scholastica’s life and ministry during an Ask Sister podcast. We’re delighted to offer this recording of Sister Lynne’s story of St. Scholastica!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

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

Kateri Tekakwitha stained glass window by Debora Coombs in St. Mary

Let’s hear it for the Mohawk Valley area of New York state! From that area of the world not one but TWO soon-to-be saints have emerged (not counting myself who was born a mere 3 hours away).

“The Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk Indian, spent most of her life here during the 17th centurY. About 200 years later and 40 miles to the west, the Blessed Mother Marianne Cope began a religious life that focused on providing medical care in central New York and the Hawaiian islands.

On Dec. 20, Pope Benedict XVI certified miracles attributed to the two women, the final step toward sainthood. The women’s canonization is expected to happen this year.

When they are elevated to sainthood, they’ll be among just 12 of the Catholic Church’s thousands of saints who either were born in America or ministered in what is now the United States.” (source)

While many may be familiar with Kateri, let me fill you in a bit more on Mother Marianne. She belonged to the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities.

“Mother Marianne Cope’s roots in the Mohawk Valley began in Utica, where her family settled in 1840 after emigrating from Germany the previous year, when she was a year old. A factory worker until she joined the Franciscan sisters in Syracuse in the early 1860s, the young nun worked as a nurse and hospital administrator, helping to found two hospitals — St. Joseph’s in Syracuse and St. Elizabeth’s in Utica — that are still in operation today. Under her direction, no one was denied medical care, according to Sister Patricia Burkard, general minister of the Syracuse-based Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities.” (source)

Marianne Cope in a 1883 photo provided by the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities

She was “the only one of 50 religious leaders to respond positively to an emissary from Hawaii who requested for nuns to help care for Hansen’s disease patients on Kalaupapa.” This earned her the title “beloved mother of the outcasts.” The place where she went was a settlement on Molokai island run by Father Damien who was recently canonized a saint in 2009.

“Marianne was known for demanding money from the government to help the leprosy patients. She wasn’t “afraid to pursue anything for her people,” said Sister Davilyn Ah Chick of Honolulu….

The nuns said Marianne is credited with having a school built and teaching women and girls to sew and garden. She was also a source of support during a time of much suffering, which included abuse, families forced apart and the banning of pregnancies, [Sister Rose Annette] Ahuna said.

Marianne died there of natural causes in 1918.” (source: Hawaii nuns describe life of soon-to-be saint, Jan. 2, 2011)

We look forward to the canonizations!

I have always been fascinated with icons and iconography. I love the colors, the gold leaf, the aliveness, and the mystery of icons! It is a great blessing to have one of my own IHM Sisters as an iconographer because I get to hang around her studio, learn from her, and be in the presence of sacred art!

During our Fall Fundraiser, Sister Nancy Lee graciously allowed the A Nun’s Life film crew into her studio where she explained how icons are made and what they mean.
We did an 8-part series of videos which are available for free here and on the A Nun’s Life Youtube Channel. Part I is below and the others you can find at anunslife.org/iconography.

Part I: Becoming and Iconographer

Visit at anunslife.org/iconography for all 8 videos!

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer tonight and every weekday at 6 p.m. Central Time at aNunsLife.org/live.

Happy Advent! Throughout the world many parishes have begun fully using the new Roman Missal with the start of the new church year yesterday. So how did it go for you?

At the parish I went to (I was away from my home church during the Thanksgiving holiday), the experience was a bit mixed. I was very excited to experience this new moment but it wasn’t quite what I expected. Turns out that the changing of the words was indeed an interesting experience with some members using the new translation (there were copies for everyone) and others just responding with the former translation. In addition some were not responding at all which is a problem no matter what translation is used! I faithfully followed the instructions in my booklet but I have to say I missed a few correct responses because the rhythm of the former translation just came so naturally! All in all, it wasn’t a big shocker. It was the community at prayer and worship.

As we proceed with the implementations of the new translation of the Roman Missal, I have to keep reminding myself that this is not the last word either for the liturgy or for the Church as a whole. While I am displeased with some of the wording (some new, some which was retained), I have to remember that no translation is equal to the Word, and no translation is finally determinative of who we are, what are theology should/should not be, how we are to be in the world. The final word resides alone in Jesus the Christ. This commitment to the Word of God, along with the treasure of the Catholic faith, impels us to be people of Gospel love, of social justice, of compassion, and of prayer. And just as the beatitudes are right along side the woes in Luke’s Gospel, we must be on guard against being judgmental towards one another, against complacency, and against collusion with unjust and anti-Gospel behavior and systems. It is this commitment that must ring true in every choice of words — liturgical or otherwise.

The words that did stand out to me at yesterday’s liturgy were not those of the new or old translation but those of faith. The liturgy at the parish I went to began not with a restlessness over the new translation but with the announcement that a baby would be baptized. The welcoming and the sacrament of baptism put in bold relief what the liturgy is really about. Yes, the words are important, but a commitment to Jesus Christ in and through the community of faith is at the very top. With a few humble gestures and poignant words, in the little bundle of life of a child, we remembered who we are and whose we are.

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer tonight and every weekday at 6 p.m. Central Time at aNunsLife.org/live.

Saint Cecilia by Ellen Chavez de Leitner

Today is the feast day of Saint Cecilia! Although we know little about Cecilia’s life, she remains an inspiration and ever-popular saint in our Catholic faith. She is known particularly for being a patron saint of music. Here’s why:

The Acta of Cecilia includes the following: “While the profane music of her wedding was heard, Cecilia was singing in her heart a hymn of love for Jesus, her true spouse.” It was this phrase that led to her association with music, singers, musicians, etc.” (source)

Here at A Nun’s Life, we have a great fondness for Saint Cecilia. Many of our podcasts open with the song “Bits and Pieces” which features Saint Cecilia prominently. The song is written and song by the fabulous folk group, Wild Carrot. Here’s the first verse and chorus:

Bits and Pieces
(Pamela Temple; © 1998 Chocolate Dog Music (BMI))

I’ve got a box crammed with pictures of places I’ve been
and my backpack is worn at the seams.
I’ve got letters written in foreign tongues from friends who think
my tongue’s a foreign tongue too.
Stories, yeah, I’ve got some of those
Tell me how much time can you spare
I’ve seen profiles in purple suns and weavers in the mountains
I’ve held the hands of hard­lived lives

And I’ve got Bits & Pieces, Bits & Pieces
I’ve gathered
I want them to sew themselves together
While I sleep
And I call on St. Cecelia
St. Cecelia
Send me, send me
a song …

So in honor of Saint Cecilia we invite you to share a verse or two of your favorite song which you sing in your heart out of love for God!

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer tonight at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone). Just go to aNunsLife.org/live.

Sunday’s liturgy was beautiful as our church welcomed catechumens and candidates who are moving toward full communion with the Catholic Church. As a sponsor, I had the awesome privilege of sitting in front with my person. As I knelt during the Eucharistic prayer, I was overwhelmed with the beauty of the liturgy, of common prayer among the People of God, and of Christ’s presence in and among us.

And then I realized that this would be the last time I celebrated Mass this way. My parish community and every Roman Catholic Church in the English-speaking world will begin to use a revised translation of the Mass at the next Sunday liturgy which coincides with Advent and the new Church year.

Although I’ve experienced the English translation of the Mass my whole life, using the vernacular (the language of the people instead of Latin) is a relatively new experience — as in only about 40 years old. Since then, scholars have learned much about the experience of the celebrating the Mass in English as well about translations from the original Latin.

“This new translation will employ the best of what we have learned about translation and liturgical language in two generations of celebrating the Liturgy in the vernacular. It will provide an opportunity to reflect ever more deeply on the eucharistic celebration that lies at the heart of the Church’s life.

In accord with the rules for translation established by the Holy See, the revised translation follows the style of the original Latin texts more closely, including concrete images, repetition, parallelisms, and rhythm. The English used in the Mass texts is more formal and dignified in style. Where possible, the texts follow the language of Scripture and include many poetic images. In addition, the third edition contains prayers for the celebration of recently canonized saints, additional prefaces for the Eucharistic Prayers, additional Masses and prayers for various needs and intentions, and some updated and revised rubrics (or instructions) for the celebration of the Mass. (source: Ten Questions on the Roman Missal by the USCCB)

Like many Catholics, I am not sure what to expect from this third translation of the Roman Missal. I am looking forward to the emphasis on the language of Scripture and use of poetic images. While I like the familiar languages and images of the current translation, I am excited by a renewal of intentionality at Mass because we will each have a heightened awareness of what we are saying and doing as we learn how to pray in a new way together. At the same time, I am disappointed that a more rigorous formality has been introduced and that there is still pieces of language that are exclusive of women (“for us men and for our salvation”) and images of God that are overwhelmingly masculine. If indeed we are moving closer to Scripture then we in fact should be including along with Father and King the many different images of God including that of Mother, Lion, Lover, Baker Woman, Sower, and many more. I hope and pray that parish leaders will carefully implement Roman Missal 3.0 and at the same time be sensitive to necessary adaptations.

For now and for this week, however, I will cherish my last Mass with the current Roman Missal. Roman Missal 2.0, you’ve been my constant companion. I have celebrated with you, cried with you, and witnessed some of the most beautiful landmarks of my Catholic life with you. You were there when my siblings married their spouses, my nephews were baptized, and my parents renewed their vows. You were there when my friends became Catholic or were ordained or got married or when we celebrated their Mass of Resurrection. You were there when my IHM sisters celebrated Jubilee and when I professed my vows as an IHM Sister. I am grateful for you, Mass 2.0. Goodbye.

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer tonight at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone). Just go to aNunsLife.org/live. Also we’ll give an update on the Fall FUN!raiser and announce the winner of the Grand Prize iPad 2!

Molly of Audramo

Happy Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi! We celebrate this day mindful of all of God’s good creation. One of my nuns sent me the lyrics of a new hymn that was composed for the Humane Society by Pastor Carolyn Gillette of Limestone Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware. The Humane Society is running a contest inviting people to take the lyrics and create a video performance that will then be featured on humansociety.org. Click here for a PDF of the lyrics and sheet music.

The lyrics of this beautiful hymn are our prayer of thanksgiving this day for Saint Francis and all of creation.

O God, Your Creatures Fill the Earth

Ameraucana Max of LeeAnn and Stan

O God, your creatures fill the earth with wonder and delight,
And every living thing has worth and beauty in your sight.
So playful dolphins dance and swim;
Your sheep bow down and graze.
Your songbirds share a morning hymn
To offer you their praise.
You made the pets we welcome in—
They’re wondrous blessings, too.

Button of Kbart and Marg

With paws and whiskers, wings and fins,
They offer praise to you.
O Lord, you call us to embrace
These creatures in our care.
May we show kindness, love and grace
To all pets everywhere.
You made the creatures on each farm;
You know the things they need.
May they grow healthy, safe from harm,
And safe from human greed.

Chloe the Convent Cat reenacting the bible verses of the lion laying down with the lamb

Just as a shepherd loves the sheep,
You know their joy, their pain.
Lord, bless the animals we keep;
May all farms be humane.
Your creatures live in every land;
They fill the sky and sea.
O Lord, you give us your command
To love them tenderly.
We’re called to have dominion here—
To care for them always.
By loving creatures you hold dear,
We offer you our praise.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for evening prayer and chat at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone) today at aNunsLife.org/live.

The saints as CEO? Picture this: Saint Francis of Assisi advising financial officers, or Catherine of Siena offering conflict resolution inservices. About 15 years ago author Laurie Beth Jones came out with Jesus, CEO (Hyperion, 1996) followed six years later by Jesus, Entrepreneur (Crown Business, 2002) and a smattering of other applications of Jesus to the business world and everyday life.

Now, we’ve got the saints weighing in! I just read a review by Philip Delves Broughton for the Los Angeles Times about the new book Mother Teresa, CEO: Unexpected Principles for Practical Leadership by authors Ruma Bose and Lou Faust.

Broughton says that the authors lay out eight principles based on the life and work of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta:

1. dream it simple, say it strong
2. to get to the angels, deal with the devil
3. wait, then pick your moment
4. embrace the power of doubt
5. discover the joy of discipline
6. communicate in a language people understand
7. pay attention to the janitor
8. use the power of silence

These are definitely worth pondering, though beyond these thoughts, Broughton’s values the brevity of the book. In the end he writes:

“[T]o get a real sense of the joys and travails of Mother Teresa as CEO, I recommend her private writings, which show how lonely it was at the top.”

While I don’t know what it’s like at the top, I concur 100% that the writings of Mother Teresa and the saints themselves is what will really help us in not only our business life but also everyday life as well. My saint of choice (which probably comes as no surprise) is Saint Teresa of Avila.  Reading her writings as well as those of other saints like Mother Teresa give us a sense of the person and her interior life from the inside out — rather than from the outside in which often happens when we read about a saint rather than reading the saint herself which, I might add, also means walking with that saint and praying with her.

What have you learned from walking with Mother Teresa or another saint? How does that help you in your professional life or personal life?

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Join ministry business partners Sister Maxine and Sister Julie and A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone).

Blackbelt of the Catholic News Scrum, Audra Turnbull guest blogs about her experience on the A Nun’s Life Media Team for World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain.

I have a confession to make: when I was invited to go to Spain with Sister Julie, Sister Max and Melba, I tried to read about Saint Teresa of Avila but I failed. I never found the time to read any of her books. I was just going to have to go into Avila with an open heart.

Convent Door at the Monastery of the Incarnation, Avila

Our plane touched down in Madrid, Spain at around 7 o’clock in the morning and we immediately drove to Avila. After checking into our hotel room we decided to go into town and take a look around. We ended up spending the entire day inside Avila’s famous medieval walls. As we walked around it became apparent to me that I would have no trouble learning about Teresa of Avila — her influence and spirit was everywhere. Over the next couple days we toured many “Teresa sites”.

We walked through the door of the first convent she entered. I sat outside that door and pondered at how nervous, scared, calm and excited she must have been that day. At that moment I was starting to become a little bit closer to her.

Saint Joseph the Tattletale at the Monastery of the Incarnation, Avila

As we walked through the museum we came upon a scary-looking-to-me statue of Saint Joseph. Legend had it that Saint Teresa told the statue to keep watch of the convent while she was away founding other convents. When she came back Saint Joseph would tell her if any of the nuns misbehaved. I really liked how this saint ran her convents.

We then toured a church that was built on the site where she was born. As I walked through I thought that she must have been a VERY holy person to have a church like this built in her honor. Then hit me- she was holy because of one thing: she loved God with all her heart. This love let her be open to whatever God was calling her to do. I think this is the greatest lesson Teresa taught me.

Countless times I thanked God for showing me this great saint in this way- walking in her footsteps while hearing stories from the people who loved her. That was exactly how the early Christians learned about God.

So I want to thank Saint Teresa for being so gracious in letting me walk in her shoes for a couple of days. I also want to thank Sister Julie and Sister Max for telling me her stories. And of course Melba, for teaching me how to get into a media scrum.

Audra is a professional weather girl for a radio station in western Illinois. She is also an avid polka fan and sometimes author of the blog theawkwardcatholic.blogspot.com.

Happy Feast of the Assumption! A Nun’s Life community member Marla Thurman wrote today’s blog post in honor of the feast day.

Assumption of Mary (14th c.) housed in Ávila Cathedral museum; photo by Lawrence OP on Flickr

I was directing a retreat for 22 college students when Pope John Paul II died. The theme of our retreat was “I Hope You Dance,” and suddenly everyone stopped rejoicing and became somber. I allowed a couple of hours for sadness, but then I pushed on with the joyful tone of the retreat.

“Should we be having a good time?” a student asked.

“If we believe what we say we believe, yes,” I told her. “If we truly believe that Heaven is the reward for those that do good, and if we believe that Heaven is amazing and beautiful, of course we should be having a good time! The pope is in Heaven experiencing more joy than he ever did on this earth. We should be celebrating!”

The feast of the Assumption of Mary is about just that. Sometimes referred to as “Mary’s Heavenly Birthday,” the Assumption is when we celebrate that Mary’s body and soul were taken up into heaven. Most Church discussion on the Assumption, which was not official Church doctrine until 1950, says that Mary actually died here on earth before being assumed, but it is “okay” with the Church to believe she never died. The issue isn’t forced because Church leaders know it is more important for us to understand where she ended up. To celebrate Mary’s entrance into Heaven is only right. No other person deserved Heaven more.

The custom of celebrating that transition from earthly life to everlasting life is what makes sense for Catholics as a hopeful people. When my best friend died of inflammatory breast cancer in 2001, a prayer card at her funeral read:

Marianne Tillman
Born September 30, 1949
Born to Eternal Life August 1, 2001

I see these announcements at most funerals now. As Catholics, we do hope for a life after this one, we do hope in Heaven. And if we believe that Heaven is joy, how could we not celebrate going there? When we lose those we love and are filled with grief, can we not also rejoice in the belief that they truly are in a happier, more beautiful place?

The Assumption of Mary has many theological implications, most far beyond my ken, but I acknowledge the feast with thanksgiving that there is, indeed, something more for all of us after this life, and it is a wonderful thing to hope for. While no one wants to rush, a “heavenly birthday” can only be awesome.

"We get these backpacks if we go? I'm TOTALLY there!"

World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid, Spain, is just around the corner and we’re a little fixated on our preparations both spiritually and logistically! From which Teresa of Avila book to bring to finding WIFI from which to do live broadcasts, we are on a mission.

And that mission includes YOU! That’s right, you. First, a bit about our crazy awesome mission: We’re going to connect with young people and religious (i.e., sisters, monks, nuns, friars, abbesses, ordained religious, priors, etc.)  from all over the world, listen to their stories, and bring them back here to A Nun’s Life as well as to Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and whoever will listen ( … Hi Mom! … ).

We’ll be interviewing people on the street, at various WYD venues, and wherever we meet them, and we’ll be asking them about their experiences at WYD and also about calling and what it means to them live into their calling.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to help us prepare by telling us what you want to know from the folks we encounter and about the places we go. Give us a sense of questions and topics you’d like us to bring up.

Here’s what you do:

1. Write your name, email, and website (if you have one) in the comment section below (for people who subscribe to our blog posts by email, you must first go to our website at http://anunslife.org/2011/08/08/nuns-in-spain-day-1/).
2. Tell us what you’d like us to talk about, ask questions about, or explore whilst in Spain and at WYD.

Now don’t be shy. You may always read but never write in, or you may be terrified of the certain fame that will accompany posting on a nunly website, but rest assured, your identity is safe with us and your soul is safe with God.

Bring it on!

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Join the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone). This will be an adventure prayer experience, at least for us, because we will be testing for the first time our Spain Studio, that is, a backpack’s worth of broadcast equipment!

Guest blogger Regina Heater writes of fish and prayer and Magis in honor of the Feast of Saint Ignatius which was this past Sunday. Saint Ignatius is a great companion for those who are drawn to deepening their spirituality and who are discerning their life’s path.

Inigo the Fish

I am a big Ignatius fan, although I didn’t know very much about him until last winter when I read the book The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything by Fr. James Martin.

I’m such a big fan, I named my fish Inigo. This is my fish: (OK, I also named him Inigo after Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride. But he’s a Betta, a Fighting Fish, so Inigo fits him well, as both of his namesakes are warriors. But I digress.)

I could tell you all about Ignatius and why he’s awesome, but Fr. Jim has done that really well in a video from the Who Cares About the Saints series, so I’ll encourage you to watch the video for the basics about Ignatius.

There’s a lot of things I love about Ignatius, but I’ll share with you three things of Ignatian Spirituality that have particularly impacted me:

1. The concept of Magis.
Magis is doing more, the greater for God. At the heart of the Spiritual Exercises is this question: “What have I done for Christ? What am I doing for Christ? What ought I to do for Christ?” In other words, what have I done, what am I doing, and what more can I do? It’s never a question of comparison with others, or a quest to be superlative. It’s simply an encouragement to extend yourself for Christ.

2. Contemplative in Action/Practicality
I love the inherent balance in Ignatian Spirituality. There’s a time to pray, there’s a time to work, there’s a time to play. Ignatius encourages spiritual directors to adapt the Exercises to the needs of the retreatant.  And Ignatius understood that things take time, and failure happens. We’re not all Spiritual Superstars. Sometimes we have to take baby steps. And, Ignatius knew that not everyone was called to religious life; he wanted everyone to be able to seek, find, and experience God in their specific circumstance.

3. The Examen
I like to think of The Examen as a kind of “check yourself before you wreck yourself” practice. Francis Xavier encouraged Jesuits to prayer it twice a day – mid-day and before sleep. Ignatius has a suggested way for praying it, but with the advisement of Sister Kathie Budesky, IHM, the director of Visitation North Spirituality Center during this Ask Sister podcast, I’ve adapted it. Here’s how I pray the Examen at the end of the day.

For more detailed information and assistance in exploring the Ignatian Way, consider these resources:

• Ignatian Spirituality (from Loyola Press):
  http://ignatianspirituality.com/
• dotMagis blog:
  http://ignatianspirituality.com/dotmagis-blog/
• Picturing God: reader-submitted images of the Divine
  http://picturinggod.ignatianspirituality.com/
• 3-Minute Retreat:
  http://www.loyolapress.com/3-minute-retreats-daily-online-prayer.htm
• Pray-As-You-Go from the Irish Jesuits:
  http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/ (This was how I first started praying the Scriptures each day. Be sure to also click on the “Review of the Day” which is a fantastic way to sort of “toe in” to the Examen.)
• Way of Ignatius (also from the Irish Jesuits):
  http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/wayofignatius.htm
• Other6: offers a way to share with others where you found God and where you need to find God each day.
  http://www.other6.com/

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

Today is one of IHM Congregational Feast Days … Saint Alphonsus of Liguori. We’ve invited our IHM Sister and A Nun’s Life friend Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM, to reflect with us on the life of this saint.

Alphonsus Liguori, the Saint we honor today: Nobleman, Lawyer, Hospital Minister, Preacher of Missions, Chaplain, Artist, Musician, Poet, Man of Letters, Mystic, Spiritual Director, Founder, Friend of the Poor, Moral Theologian, Superior General, Bishop, Saint and Doctor of the Church.  Obviously, Alphonsus was a very gifted person about whom each of us might want to know more.

Saint Alphonsus’ life extended through most of the eighteenth century (1696-1787).  Basically, he was committed to preaching missions, along with the Redemptorist Order that he founded, among the abandoned rural poor around Naples, Italy.

There is so much to say about this great man but in this reflection, I want to emphasize his friendship with the poor, who in turn befriended him leading him to a deep and transforming union with God.

“It is evident that fidelity to the promptings of the Spirit was what led St. Alphonsus to leave his world in order to assume that of the poor and most abandoned, just as it is fidelity to that same Spirit that has led some religious to choose to live among, with, for and out of the world of the poor. They embrace the physical, geographic, and human situation of the poor as a focus of their encounter with God.”

~ Jorge Colon Leon CSsR

In this context, says, Father Leon, the poor are seen as a theophany, for in them the transcendent God makes himself present, causing us to question our bourgeois attitudes, calling us to consider whether our ministry choices-personal, community, or worldwide are really in line with call of the Gospel. There is a strong link, insists Kevin Dowling, CSsR, between allowing ourselves to be called by the poor or evangelized by the poor and explicit, prophetic and liberating proclamation of the Gospel to the poor.

My own IHM congregation of Monroe, Michigan was founded by a Redemptorist priest, Father Louis Gillet CSsR.  His zeal for poor, educationally deprived girls challenged him to establish a Catholic school in 1845 on the River Raisin frontier in Monroe.  That school still exists today in the form of a consolidation referred to St. Mary Catholic Central.

But more than beginning a school for poor girls, Fr. Gillet, needed women religious to staff this school, so he thought, if I can’t find them, I will make them.  Thus, began the establishment of the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1945.  Our charism explicitly calls us to serve the most abandoned wherever we find them.

So I ask myself and you, the reader, to ponder: In the light of the Gospel, in what ways can I be involved in action to break down the sense of isolation and alienation among the poor and marginalized in my area or situation?  How can I actively participate in poor people’s organizations and movements which focus on economic and political structures and systems? How can I personally live in unity with the poor from the faith perspective that we are one community in Christ? How can the Nunslife community as a group express some form of solidarity with the poor and marginalized?

The following is a link to all the 111 writings of St. Alphonsus which are available to the reader at no cost.  Though the eighteen century language might not be the readers’ style, the beauty of his words and mystical expressions of his deep love for God is quite profound.  Celebrate this great feast and treat yourself to some beautiful writings of a very talented and great saint.

~ Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM

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The Sisters are back in the NL Studio! Join them and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone)

Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Martha and invite you to enter into her story with our guest blogger and friend Marguerite ….

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, Jan Vermeeer Van Delft, 1654-5

Among other things, Saint Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus, is the patroness of single laywomen, butlers, cooks, dietitians, servers, homemakers, innkeepers, travelers, and of the village of Villajoyosa, Spain, which annually celebrates a 250-year old festival commemorating Martha’s resucing the village from an attack by Berber pirates in 1538. According to legend, Martha came to the rescue of the townsfolk by causing a flash flood that wiped out the enemy fleet, thus preventing the corsairs from reaching the coast.

I’ve always admired Martha’s spunk in the Gospel stories found in Luke and John, even though I think that Martha often got the short end of the bargain, as when she asked Jesus to tell Mary to give her a hand in the kitchen, and Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better part. Here’s Martha with a houseful of company, and who’s going to feed and take care of them if she doesn’t? On the other hand, what good Jewish woman who keeps a kosher house is going to let all those big fishermen muck about in her kitchen?

She wasn’t shy about making her feelings known, even to Jesus. When their brother Lazarus died, both Martha and her sister Mary were grief-stricken. But while Mary wept, Martha went out to meet Jesus when He arrived at their house, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now, God will give you what you ask.” (John 11:21,32)

And when Jesus arrives at the tomb of Lazarus and commands that it be opened, the ever practical Martha says, “Lord, he’s been in there for four days. There will be a stench!”
(John 11:39-40)

But have you ever wondered what happened to Martha, Mary, and Lazarus after the Resurrection?

Orthodox tradition says that Martha’s brother Lazarus was cast out of Jerusalem in the persecution against the Jerusalem Church following the martyrdom of St. Stephen. His sisters Mary and Martha fled Judea with him, assisting him in the proclaiming of the Gospel in various lands. The three later moved to Cyprus, where Lazarus became the first Bishop of Kition (modern Larnaca). According to this tradition, all three died in Cyprus.

Saint Martha and the Dragon

But there’s another story, this one from Provence. According to the 13^th century “Golden Legend,” around 48 A.D., Martha, Mary, and Lazarus left Judea and went to what is now France, and there they converted the people to the faith. Martha preached to the people, and she was “courteous and gracious to them.” Now, keep in mind that this is a legend, but one with an interesting lesson to it. According to Provençal tradition, after the ascension of our Lord, when the disciples were departed, Martha with her brother Lazarus and her sister Mary and many others, were put into a ship without sail, oars, or rudder, which by the conduct of our Lord they came all to Marseilles, and after came to the territory of Aix, in Provence.

Saint Martha and the Tarasque, from a 15th century manuscript

The legend relates that Martha went to Tarascon on the Rhone River, where a terrible dragon, the Tarasque, lay hiding in the woods and lurking in the river, “perishing those that passed by and drowning ships.

At the behest of the people in the region, Martha went into the wood, and found Tarasque eating a man. She cast holy water on the dragon and showed to him the cross. Tarasque was overcome, and while he was standing “still as a sheep,” she bound him with her own girdle, and then he was slain with spears of the people.

According to the story, Martha and Mary lived out the rest of their days in Tarascon, and were daily occupied in daily prayers and in fasting, and thereafter gathered together a great convent of sisters and built a fair church in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Martha’s tomb is located in the crypt of the local Collegiate Church in Tarascon.

I’m intrigued by the legend of Saint Martha and the Dragon. She did not slay the dragon, but rather incapacitated it by the sprinkling with holy water. My mother, my great-aunts, and my cousin Martha tamed many of their own personal dragons (and those of the family, too) by means of prayer and sprinkling with holy water and by the power of faith—and never missed serving up a good meal! I think that the Marthas of this world are still out there, taking care of people, facing down a variety of dragons, speaking their minds, and continuing the work of Jesus in a host of practical ways.

Who are the Marthas in your life, and how do they influence you?

Credits: Wikipedia: Saint Martha

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The Sisters are attending congregational meetings and will be podcasting from the IHM Mothership in Monroe, Michigan. Join them and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your timezone)

We are honored to welcome again guest blogger and friend, Lisa Burke …

July 26th is, liturgically speaking, the feast of St. Ann and St. Joachim. Growing up it was a popular day to celebrate St. Ann with parish festivals and fireworks (the St. Ann feast in Hoboken, NJ is legendary). With a grandmother named Anne, it was also a day to give special thanks for her and to remember the ways in which she mirrored St. Ann(e).

Ten years ago when I relocated to the central part of New Jersey, I found myself at the Church of Saint Ann, the parish where I have since been a member. Each year the parish holds a preparatory novena for the feast that is a combination of the traditional novena and a parish renewal wherein a guest preacher – often a priest, not always – leads us in a series of reflections. When my work scheduled allowed me greater involvement in the nuts and bolts of parish life, the Novena Committee was the first activity I officially joined. Since then, I have had the standing privilege of “authoring” the daily general intercessions for the nine days of the novena. Having the opportunity to pre-pray the readings and themes of the novena has provided an additional layer of engagement with the feast that we celebrate today.

Catholics, for the most part, are probably pretty familiar with the Feast of the Holy Family that is celebrated on the Sunday after Christmas, a day set aside to honor the Holy Family into which Jesus was born, a family that provides a model for families today, regardless of their specific composition. But in reality, there was an earlier Holy Family of Nazareth, the family into which Mary, the immaculate conceived Mother of God was born, the family of Ann, Joachim, and Mary.

While it is common to relate to Ann and Joachim as the grandparents of Jesus and the parents of Mary, I think it is beneficial today, particularly in an era where diversity in the composition of families is more prominent and (unfortunately) sometimes more contested, to consider the first Holy Family of Nazareth.

Much of what we believe about Ann and Joachim comes to us through tradition based on the Protoevangelium (or Infancy Gospel) of St. James. In our minds, we understand Ann and Joachim to be somewhat older, perhaps around the age of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, who tradition holds was the first cousin of Ann (or at least that is what I recall learning). So here we have the first Holy Family of Ann, Joachim, and Mary.

To understand the family, it is important to understand Ann and Joachim as individuals, as a couple, and as parents. Faithful, prayerful, devout. These three powerful adjectives tell us a lot about them. Trusting, confident, and hopeful. These three adjectives tell us a lot as well. But let’s think, too, about what we don’t often focus on, the preoccupations, concerns, and worries they must have had as they raised Mary and as they grew older. Clearly faith and, yes, spirituality (although that would not have been a common term at that time) were essential components of their lives. I can see them in my mind’s eyes participating the rituals and worship of the Jewish tradition on a regular basis. I can see them relying on the Scriptures of the Torah, and I can hear them engaging in the psalms as their way to connect with the Most Sacred G-d. I can imagine them working daily and toiling to sustain a home where G-d was all and all lived for G-d and one another. I can see Ann and Joachim raising their daughter to be a woman who would be betrothed to a man of G-d. Could they ever have imagined that she in fact would be the Spouse of G-d and bear in her own body the Savior of the World?

In that way, Ann and Joachim are beautiful models for parents and caregivers today. They provide us with real life people who dealt with all the unknowns life has to offer and faced the uncertainties of life with trust, faith, confidence, hope, and surrender.

It’s really impossible to appreciate fully the Holy Family (of the New Covenant) who we celebrate at Christmas without getting to know better the first Holy Family of Nazareth, and it’s limited in meaning to honor the Holy Family of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus if we don’t recognize the Holy Family of today, the families in which we find ourselves, whether they are blood families, spirit families, religious families, or chosen families.

Today, join me in taking time to contemplate the family of Ann, Joachim, and Mary and what treasures of faith and wisdom that Holy Family offers me and you. Today, join me in considering how the Holy Family of Ann, Joachim, and Mary made possible – and in fact was essential to – the Holy Family of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. Today, join me in thanking God for the Holy Family of Today, the many Holy Families, I have encountered in my own life. Today, join me in lifting up in prayer the rich diversity of families who comprise the one human family where all are made in the image and likeness of God and all are invited to “Love one another as I have loved you.”

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The Sisters are attending congregational meetings and will be podcasting from the IHM Mothership in Monroe, Michigan. Join them and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your timezone)

Today’s blog post is from our friend Sister Hildegard Pleva, OSsR, a Redemptoristine contemplative nun from New York. You can find Sister Hildegard at the blog Contemplative Horizon.

In the final days of my first long private ten day retreat in the monastery, a retreat in preparation for being received into the novitiate, a note was slipped under my door. The prioress, Sr. Moira, was asking if I had a preference for my name in religion. In the past, sisters and nuns routinely had their named changed by their novice mistress or prioress sometimes with consultation and sometimes without. The names of saints, frequently those with significance for the charism of the congregation or order, would be substituted for their baptismal names. In addition, particularly in contemplative monastic orders, a predicate would be added to the name. The Little Flower had two predicates – Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face! In the mid-1960s the documents of the Second Vatican Council reiterated the primacy of our baptismal call therefore many sisters and nuns returned to the use of their baptismal name, the name by which they were called into the life of Christ Jesus.

Sr. Moira’s request to me was a very kind one. I had already given the issue some thought. I wrote back to her, “As if the name of Hildegard (my baptismal name) is not long enough, I would like to add ‘Magdalen of the Resurrection’ to my name if the space offered on whatever document has room enough.” On the last day of my ten day retreat my novice habit was blessed in the sacristy before Mass. The next morning I appeared in chapel wearing that habit (a burgundy jumper and white blouse) and the white veil of a novice (an option in our monastery) ready for Morning Prayer which was the setting for being received into the Novitiate. There followed a procession to the Formation Room (place for instruction during Novitiate) where a special blessing was given by the Prioress and the community.

Why Hildegard Magdalen of the Resurrection? I entered this monastery eleven years ago today. I looked upon Mary Magdalene as the patroness of the process of my formation and integration into this company of women. Evidence indicates that Mary Magdalene was a mature woman when she joined the company of Jesus. Her past has been the subject of great conjecture. But surely it was varied and unlike that of the other women who followed Jesus. I imagined that it took her a while to fit in. She would help me to ‘fit in.’ I was also influenced by the image of the Magdalene presented in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar. There is such a haunting quality to the words of her soliloquy, “I don’t know how to love him…” I was learning the contemplative monastic way of loving Jesus. In addition, my baptismal godmother’s name was Madeline. I was not given a middle name at baptism but when I entered a small Catholic girl’s academy for high school the sisters insisted that I have one and I chose Madeline. My godmother was a creative, joyful, generous woman who had achieved a great deal in her life while overcoming poverty, lack of formal education and personal strife. She too was a role model.

Each year I marvel at the frequent mention of Mary Magdalene in the Easter liturgies and in the Mass readings of the Easter Octave. This is a major contribution to the transformation of her reputation from that of repentant prostitute to the Apostle to the Apostles. It is unfortunate that her person as been conflated with that of the woman who anointed Jesus at Bethany and the woman caught in adultery. Today, scholars agree that these are probably three separate people. That makes it so much more interesting!

I pray that Mary Magdalene will intercede for all women striving to make their way in the company of Jesus.

A guest blog post by friend and writer Marla H. Thurman

Has anyone else ever noticed that if Mary comes to visit, a person’s chances of becoming a saint increase exponentially?

The Blessed Mother has quite a history of seeking out the small and disenfranchised. She has appeared to children, to laborers in the fields, and to humble priests and nuns all over the world.

It should be no surprise, then, that in the thirteenth century Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patroness of the Carmelites, appeared to an 84 year old hermit who lived in the hollow of an oak tree.

And yet, people doubt the story of Simon Stock.

The meeting of the saint and the Mother of God is one disputed by church leaders. Perhaps there never was a Simon Stock, lately a saint. Maybe the story is just a tool the Carmelites used to encourage a devotion to the Blessed Mother.

Real or legend, Simon Stock is a beautiful example of how to live out one’s vocation. He prayed without ceasing. He was unconcerned with material goods. He devoted himself to being like Mary. When he and his Carmelite friars were persecuted by government and church officials, Simon turned in complete trust to Mary to save them all. And save them she did. Not only did they survive that earthly persecution, they received a promise from Our Lady herself that if they persevered in their vocations they would absolutely go to Heaven.

The promise still stands, not just for the Carmelites, but for any and all of us who listen to God’s call and respond to the best of our abilities. We can’t all see Mary, and we can’t all be canonized, but we can sincerely strive to be all God intended. Our Lady of Mount Carmel wouldn’t ask for less.

Note: Primetime, an ABC news magazine, had a story Wednesday, June 22 about Mary appearing at a Pennsylvania tree stump! Maybe she was looking for the next Simon Stock! Check out “The Miracle Mysteries” on Hulu from ABC

A guest blog post by friend and writer Lisa Burke, New Jersey

In the journey of Discernment (yes, discernment with a capital D) to figure out the big life questions, “Who am I called to be? How I am called to live the Who that God has made me? Where and in what ways I am called to serve and consecrate myself?” we can become surrounded by many inspiring role models and attractive ways of life. As we encounter people who have expanded their baptismal consecration through the profession of the evangelical counsels, namely poverty, chastity, and obedience, through religious life, we find ourselves often times wondering if we can live up to the example of Sister A, or Sister B, or Sister C. While seeking to replicate the good examples of people who inspire and motivate us is a beautiful thing, we need not seek to be or copy another person’s life. As St. Francis of Assisi said to his young followers as he lay on his death bed, “I have done what was mine to do. May Christ now teach you what you are to do.” Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said to a woman who lived life with multiple sclerosis, “What you can do, I cannot. What I can do, you cannot. But together we can do something beautiful for God.”

Both of these statements are profoundly powerful and liberating. The realization that each of us has our own unique call, our own identity in the heart of God, is a beautiful realization. It allows us to accept the opportunities for grace, transformation, service, and love that come to us each and every day, knowing that God has given us those encounters in order to live out what is ours to do.

Today the Church honors the life and call of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. I first “encountered” Kateri when I was a child. My middle sister is named Kathy, and while she was named for a paternal aunt of ours, my mother held Kateri as a kind of patron for her. Kateri was a Mohawk-Algonguin woman who lived 24 short years from 1656-1680. A beautiful young woman, her life was scarred with crosses from a very early age. Despite the difficulties she lived, Kateri sought to live God’s love at every moment. After having converted to Catholicism, she was ostracized and outcast by the non-Christian members of her community. She eventually moved to a community of Native American Christians in Quebec. There she lived a life of prayer, sacrifice and ministry to the infirm and elderly. One year before her death, she made a vow of chastity, an expression of her consecrated virginity. On April 17, 1680, Kateri, in the words of Catherine of Siena, “closed her eyes to this world and opened them to the next.” Her final words were, “Jesus, I love you!”

“Jesus, I love you!” is what our journeys of discernment are about, figuring out how God dreams for us to express most fully our love for God and experience most fully God’s love for us as we let our lives be poured out as bread and wine for a world that is hungry and thirsty for God. As many of in our community look to religious life and seek to identify the congregation/community to which they are called, the group of women (or men) among whom they can best live out their baptismal call and religious consecration, bear in mind that even when all or many members are engaged in the same or similar ministry or way of life, each of us still our own work to do.

As all of us, regardless of where we are in life, seek to live out God’s dream for us on a daily basis, I leave you with these words of John Henry Newman (Meditations & Devotions), which have always been a source of inspiration and encouragement to me as I have endeavored to discern both the big and small questions of my life’s journey.

God has created me to do him some definite service;
He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another.
I have my mission;
I never may know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next.
I have a part in a great work;
I am a link in a chain,
a bond of connection between persons.
He has not created me for naught.
I shall do good, I shall do His work;
I shall be an angel of peace,
a preacher of truth in my own place,
while not intending it,
if I do but keep His commandments
and serve Him in my calling.

Our friend Father James Martin, SJ, sent us a link to a video from the newly released DVD, ”Who Cares about the Saints?” produced by Loyola Productions. This video is of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–1897).

Who is the Little Flower?
What does the life of a 19th-century Carmelite nun,
cossetted by her parents, nourished on a diet of overheated Catholic piety,
and cloistered for the last few years of her short life,
have to say to modern-day men and women?

SOURCE: Who Cares About the Saints? (Therese of Lisieux) from Loyola Productions

So, who is the Little Flower to you? What experiences have you had in getting to know her and praying with her?

On this holy feast day we have a guest blogger, Regina Heater …

When I first went back to Mass – to the Easter Vigil – after a time when I was deeply, deeply wounded by people whom I trusted and loved and depended upon – I cried through most of the Eucharistic liturgy. It felt like coming home, and it felt like I just might heal after all.  And yet, as I went to receive Communion, at that Mass and the ones that followed, I would wonder – what exactly did I believe? Was I accepting Transubstantiation? Consubstantiation? Mere symbols? When I bowed with the priest, as the words triggered memories of bells rung by altar boys (how I wanted to ring those chimes!), what did I believe? Was it Christ? Was it bread? Was it blood? How could it be bread yet God? Doesn’t that defy physics? Does it matter? What did everyone around me believe?

And yet. I could not deny that there was something - something - Real and Present with me in the ritual. I used to think that what made Communion special was the community, gathered to commemorate together the Lord’s sacrifice.  I’ve participated in some beautiful rituals – con-celebrating the blessing of the elements, (the setting from the Iona Community is particularly wonderful), distributing the elements, singing the common songs (One Bread, One Body… Let Us Break Bread Together), celebrating World Communion Sunday with breads from many nations. Amazing, wonderful rituals.

And yet. In my heart, deep within my soul, I yearned for something more.  I learned in time that it is a combination of the gathered community and the Real Presence of Christ in our Eucharist that is the more I sought. It is knowing that our Eucharistic feast is merely a prelude for our experience of the Eucharist in the world.  At Mass, we experience the Real Presence of Christ; outside of Mass, we are Eucharist for the world. We aren’t merely bringing Christ to the world, we ARE the Presence of Christ to everyone we meet. We are holy and living sacrifices.  We are the bread, we are the cup, we are what brings nourishment and refreshment to the world. We are the instrument of grace to people around us, even as our commemoration of the Eucharist is a means of bringing grace to us. We are, literally and figuratively, the Body of Christ.

We sing a song at my church that begins with the Agnus Dei and transitions to a beautiful prayer about communion.  It is called “Lamb of God/Taste and See,” composed by Tom Kendzia. I often find myself humming it after Mass, sometimes through the week. It is a reminder to me to give thanks at all times, that God is Real and Present with me and with all those around me.

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord,
oh taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Let the lowly hear and be glad, let us glorify his name,
together let us praise God’s name.

Glorify the Lord with me, together let us praise his name;
from my fears God has set me free.

On this holy feast day of Pentecost, we have a guest blog post from our friend,
Regina Snyder Heater.

I don’t know about you, but the Holy Spirit was not given much time in my faith formation. The emphasis was on Jesus, and if you read the Creeds and the prayers of the Christian tradition, you’ll see there is precious little devoted to the enigmatic Holy Spirit (there are more mentions of Mary than the Spirit in our Common Prayers listed in the Compendium.) Even during my theological studies, the Spirit was not given much mention. (For example, it was only last year that I learned what a Paraclete is.)  It seems we only devote out attention to the Holy Spirit when it’s Pentecost and Confirmation (time to sing Veni, Sanctus Spiritus unless your choir/orchestra is up to O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe, BWV 34, (O eternal fire, o source of love) a glorious cantata by Bach).

There’s even confusion about whether the Spirit is Spirit or a Ghost, a She or a He or an It.  Perhaps it’s because the Spirit scares us, with wind and tongues of fire and promises of visions, which our mystical counterparts like Hildegard embraced with abandon, yet are frankly a little scary, at least in my mind.  And yet Hildegard really seemed to “get” the Holy Spirit, to the point that it makes me a little sad to think my own inhibitions perhaps get in the way of experiencing all that the Spirit offers to me in Christ.

In John 14, Jesus tell us “the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit whom Abba God will send in my name, will instruct you in everything and she will remind you of all that I told you.”  The Greek word used here, parakletas, means “one called to the side of” which is why this is also translated as Advocate and Counselor.  It’s interesting to me that the Holy Spirit is both called and sent. We can call upon the Holy Spirit to assist us in whatever we are facing, so that we might be animated and sanctified, that we might build the Church.   If we live in the Spirit – if we live an animated life – we will not only see visions of a world where the Kin-dom of God exists in the present, we will also know the Fruits of the Spirit: love (charity), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness and self-control.  Those are things I want in my life, and so I will sing with our friend Hildegard and all Christians on Pentecost:

Come Holy Spirit, creator, come/from your bright heavenly throne/come take possession of our souls/and make them all your own…

Other great contributions from Hildegard about the Holy Spirit:

You are called Comforter,
gift of the highest God,
found of life, fire, love,
and spiritual unction.

Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit, bestowing life unto life,
moving in All.
You are the root of all creatures,
washing away all impurity,
scouring guilt,
and anointing wounds.
Thus you are luminous and praiseworthy, Life,
awakening, and re-awakening all that is.

"Elizabeth Greets Mary," part of Dark and Beautiful, An Exhibit of Paintings by Fr. Jim Hasse, SJ, at the Marian Library of the University of Dayton

Today is one of my most favorite feasts of the year: The Visitation which is proclaimed in Luke 1: 39-56.

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’

My soul proclaims your greatness, O God,
and my spirit rejoices in you, my Savior.

For you have looked with favor
upon your lowly servant,
and from this day forward
all generations will call me blessed.

For you, the Almighty, have done great things for me,
and holy is your Name.

Your mercy reaches from age to age
for those who fear you.
You have shown strength with your arm;
and have scattered the proud in their conceit;

you have deposed the mighty from their thrones
and raised the lowly to high places.
You have filled the hungry with good things,
while you have sent the rich away empty.

You have come to the aid of Israel your servant,
mindful of your mercy—
the promise you made to our ancestors –
to Sarah and Abraham
and their descendants forever.

And Mary remained with her for about three months and then returned to her home.

What is a significant moment of “visitation” in your own life? How did this experience lead to a “magnificat” of praise to God?

Last night at Sister Maxine’s graduation from Catholic Theological Union, Sister Mary Collins, OSB, received an honorary doctorate in theology.

Sister Mary Collins, a Benedictine sister of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas, is one of the premiere liturgical theologians of North American. As a “lecturer, writer, and editor, Mary Collins has been a pioneer figure in the liturgical renewal in the United States since Vatican II. She has attended to critical questions in liturgical theology, language, practice, and spirituality.” (source: CTU honoris causa announcement)

It was a true blessing to see and listen to Sister Mary. It reminded me of a piece she had written a while back on anamnesis, “corporate memory” … on remembering who we truly are.

Anamnesis is biblical language which was long ago taken up by the church and recently recovered as liturgical language…. Anamnesis speaks about a distinctive kind of human remembering. In common speech we are more likely to talk about its opposite, amnesia.

We are familiar with the disorder of clinical amnesia, a diagnosis given to name a memory lapse of a crucial kind. The amnesiac is not the person who has misplaced her glasses one time too many. She is the person who has forgotten who she is. She has lost her conscious awareness of the basic relationships that give her her identity. The amnesiac cannot answer when asked whoa re you? where have you come from? where are you headed? who are your parents? have you any family? where is your home? what kind of work do you do?

“Anamnesis” and “amnesia” come from a common Greek root. The biblical and liturgical use of the word is “anamnesis” rises from a perception that there is a disorder analogous to clinical amnesia that plagues the human community. To be human is to be threatened with spiritual amnesia. At the level of our spiritual identity we do not remember for long who we really are. Those ultimate relationships that give us our spiritual identity slip from consciousness all too easily, and we lapse into noncomprehension about our deepest identity.

(Mary Collins, OSB, Contemplative Participation: Sacrosanctum Concilium, twenty-five years later published by The Liturgical Press, 1990, p. 55)

In celebration and honor of our graduate, Sister Maxine, and all the women and men of Catholic Theological Union who have given their lives to “faith seeking understanding … consider this: What are some of the things that help you remember your deepest identity? What are the relationships in your life that are woven into that identity? How do you return from periods of amnesia?

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Blessings this Good Friday. This poem was written by Rosemary Blake, a poet who was studying theology at the same time I was at Regis College in Toronto. She is from Australia and now lives in Toronto, Canada. One Good Friday, Rosemary gave us this poem which I have treasured. It’s now published in her book of poetry, Wintering.

Good Friday

Always I remember in Easter Week
the sudden storms; the dark
on Friday after church, as if the weather
had been specially arranged.

Summer was over and autumn
with its random dry winds
was beginning.
You could feel the warm soil
and parched grass close.

But after the service,
after the cool stone quiet of the aisles,
you were always astonished
by the way the storms came
dark and sudden from the northwest,
startling the paddocks

As though a figure on the rough beams
really hung there.

~ Rosemary Blake in Wintering

Lent, being a season of anticipation, is a great time to line up my reading list for this spring and summer. One of the newest books on my list is Cultivating Soil and Soul: 20th Century Catholic Agrarians Embrace the Liturgical Movement (2009), by Michael Woods, S.J. Being an Iowan by birth and a Midwesterner for much of my life, I couldn’t resist a book about the land, rural life, and worship.

I came across the book in my research on movements that influenced the directions of the Second Vatican Council. The liturgical movement came from Europe to the U.S. in the 1920s. Virgil Michel, a Benedictine monk of St. John’s Abbey in rural Collegeville, Minnesota, played a key role in it. The movement sought to give Catholics a more participative role in the liturgy. This eventually led to things like missals (which enabled people to follow the Mass in English at a time when all Masses were said in Latin) and the presider facing the people during liturgy, among many other changes. It also aimed to make a stronger connection between liturgy and daily life, especially in regard to the need for social justice.

Ok, I won’t say too much more about the book, otherwise I’ll be tempted to start reading it right now! But here’s one last tantalizer—a description on the back cover that says:

“Even before Vatican Council II, individuals like Virgil Michel and Catholic social movements like the National Catholic Rural Life Conference attempted to promote greater social justice by reconnecting rural life in the U.S. with the liturgical life of the church. …The introduction of devotions, sacramentals, ritual, music, dance, poetry, and dramatic performances helped farmers rediscover the sacramental character of the soil and all the elements of agrarian life that emerge from it.”

I think this book will be pretty close to the top of my reading list. Its closest competitor at this point might be Leslie Tentler’s Catholics and Contraception: An American History (2004). I don’t have my fiction reading list in much order yet, but I’m pretty sure that Tillie Olsen’s collection of short stories, Tell Me a Riddle, will be at the top of that list.

What’s on your reading list for this year? We’d love to hear about ideas for great reading – please share them 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.

Today is the first day of Lent, one of the major feast days of the Church. Traditionally it has been a time of “repentance.” It is not a time for guilt-inducement, to think about all the things we’ve done wrong or could have done better and feel bad. It’s an opportunity to look at our life in relationship with God, and make some real and positive change.

One of the practices that I’ve heard people say they’ll be doing this Lent that appeals to me is to greatly reduce multitasking. They’ve talked about it as being being present to one thing at a time. For example, to not read a book while watching TV and checking Facebook messages. For me, the focus will be on reducing “mental multitasking,” so that when I spend extra time talking with someone, I’m not also, in the back of my mind, worrying about phone calls I have to make, the paperwork piling up on my desk, and the meetings I need to prepare for. I will repent of my distractions.

It would be a way to make a fresh start, to begin again. Lent gives us this opportunity to reinvent, to recreate ourselves into the persons that we are called to be by virtue of our baptism. It is an opportunity to tap into that which makes us most uniquely and fully who we are.

And we do not so this alone. With us is our Christian community and the communion of saints and holy people who have gone before us “marked with the sign of faith.”

Let us keep one another in prayer during this sacred season. If you would like the A Nun’s Life community to join in prayer for persons or situations in need of a sacred reinvention, please comment 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.

Today is the feast day of Saint Genevieve of Paris (512). I came across this stunning icon of her and wanted to share it with you. The symbols associated with her are beautiful:

• a loaf of bread because she was generous to those in need
• a coin suspended around her neck symbolizing her consecration to God
• a candle which it said she used as she walked to church at night and which stayed lit despite the devil’s attempts to extinguish it
• the clothing of a shepherdess because she grew up tending to flocks

Saint Genevieve icon by Howard Anderson. Oil and metal leaf on linen and wood 34" x 48" Located at Saint Genevieve High School, Panorama City, CA

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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 Christmas season brings with it all sorts of individual, family, and community customs and rituals. Today on this holy of days, please share your favorite customs and rituals with the A Nun’s Life community. Does it have to do with food, decorations, people, events, outreach? Tell your story!

Sister Julie: My sibling sister gathers the family at her house after church. The house is filled with trays of cookies, including my Aunt Linda’s famous pizzelles, appetizers, and holiday cheer. This year my brother and his family are in town and my cousin is home from Iraq!

We exchange gifts with the extended family and then as the night draws to a close and it’s just me, my sibs, and spouses and children, we open one gift before bed. The next morning, all heaven breaks loose as the nephews stir up the family for Christmas morning goodness! Coffee, stockings, gifts, and total children sweetness!

Sister Maxine: For my family, Christmas Eve is a little different each year. I have five siblings, so the family gathering is literally a moveable feast from year to year. We often have a light dinner together on Christmas Eve, then the kids open gifts from their godparents. After that, we have the Reindeer Games — a marathon event consisting of Rummy, Scrabble, and Monopoly that goes late into the night.

Then we bundle up to go home. I usually stay with my mom. Driving through rural Iowa on a clear, cold night is a great experience. The sky glows with millions of stars, and their light sparkles on the snow-covered fields. For a moment, we imagine how the magi felt.

On Christmas morning, my mom and I are usually up early. We have coffee together and greet the new day dawning.

Advent is now in its twilight as Christmas and new life begin to dawn. As Advent draws to a close, we celebrate the last of the “O Antiphons” of the Advent season, “O Emmanuel”, God-is-with-us.

The “O Antiphons” are seven liturgical stars in the Advent season. They begin on December 17 and end today on December 23. Each antiphon is a name of Christ representing an image or attribute of Christ from scripture.

• Dec 17: O Wisdom (Isaiah 11:2-3)
• Dec 18: O Adonai (Isaiah 11:4-5)
• Dec 19: O Root of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1-10)
• Dec 20: O Key of David (Isaiah 22:22)
• Dec 21: O Rising Dawn (Isaiah 9:2)
• Dec 22: O King of the Gentiles (Isaiah 2:4)
• Dec 23: O Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14)

As we move from Advent to Christmas, what is the antiphon that is on your heart and lips? For me it is O Wonder! as I am overwhelmed again and again by the awesomeness of God and the surprises that God always inserts into our lives. And I treasure the great gift of wondering of being open to new possibilities and imagination and creativity!

This morning, I tried to imagine a life free from sin. It was a lot harder than I expected.

My ponderings were inspired by today’s feast day, the Immaculate Conception of Mary. According to Catholic doctrine, from the first moment of Mary’s existence, God preserved her from original sin and filled her with grace. Doctrine tells us that Mary remained sinless throughout her life.

What caused my difficulty was that I equated a sinless life with a perfect life. After all, if I never sinned, wouldn’t my life be perfect? Even if the people around me weren’t perfect, shouldn’t sinlessness protect me, so that stuff like anger or violence or greed wouldn’t impinge upon my perfect life?

Then I thought about Mary. She was sinless, yet her life was far from perfect. At one point, Mary faced the prospect of being single mom in a culture that looked down on unmarried mothers. When she was ready to give birth, she and Joseph were on the road, not with family who could help with the birth and the new baby. Her son Jesus was a great guy, but the ups and downs of his life greatly affected Mary, and she stayed with him through it all. Despite her sinlessness, Mary was one of us – a person who experienced joy and sorry, who cared for her family and neighbors, and who loved deeply.

So, maybe a sinless life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Not that I have to worry about it. Sorta like water under the bridge on that one. But Mary shows me that what matters is not a sinless or a perfect life. What matters is the fullness of life—the ability to embrace my own humanity and that of others, with all its eccentricities, joys, weaknesses, and challenges.

What message does Mary have for you today? Happy Feast Day!

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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.

Happy Feast of All Souls! Today we pray in a special way the words of the liturgy in which we call to mind all who have died: “Remember those who have died and have gone before us marked with the sign of faith … May these, and all who sleep in Christ, find in your presence light, happiness, and peace.”

In this spirit of remembering and of prayer, we invite you to listen to this reflection sent in to us by A Nun’s Life friend “Kbart” who often visits with us in the chat room each evening for prayer and conversation. Kbart recorded this during a drive through an area “full of colorful trees, farmlets with horses and chickens and a bridge over a dam.”

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

As we listen, we are invited to remember and to pray with those dearly departed who have touched our lives. After listening, please write the name of a loved one who has died in the comment box below. We will take these names to prayer with us tonight and read each of them. You are invited to join us for this prayer at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone). The prayer is broadcast live right from our website at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE or click the “Listen Now!” button on any page of our website.

Happy feast of All Saints. In honor of today’s holy day, I want to share with you a reflection on All Saints from my mentor, the great Catholic theologian Karl Rahner, SJ. Rahner asks, what mystery, what “word peculiar to itself … has been spoken by God into the Church and is intended through it to reach into our hearts” this day?

When we celebrate All Saints we have in mind chiefly those saints who are anonymous, the unknown saints who have not made any general impact in the Church and are not mentioned in her praises….

We celebrate in our hearts the fact that we can say: “there are some who actually have arrived, who are perfected, who are already in a state of blessedness, who have attained their due measure of perfection and have not wasted their lives, [persons] to whom something improbable has happened: to be drawn out of and beyond themselves in love, persons in whom one does not find emptiness and hidden egoism when they are stripped bare and exposed to view, persons who have not wept in vain, who have found life through death and the eternal kingdom through loss, persons who by the everyday conduct of their ordinary lives have achieved a dimension of life which is to an undreamt of extent absolute and of such value … ‘once for all’, and that it is worthy never more to perish for all eternity….

We might add, therefore, as a further message which this festival has for us, that God can make all into saints, into miracles and masterpieces so full of unexpected blessedness that one’s heart can be transfixed with delight at them a whole eternity through….

Certainly we celebrate All Saints sub una veneratione, and therefore the unknown saints as well, those who lived quietly in the land, the poor and the little ones who were great only in God’s eyes, those who go unacclaimed in any of the rolls of honour belonging to the Church or to world history … those nameless saints who are consecrated in silence and upon the private altars of our own hearts….

In the praise of All Saints, however, we are celebrating the Church herself, who, even though she is made up of ourselves, and therefore remains the Church of sinners, of the poor and insignificant, of the despondent and exasperated sinners, is still the Church of the saints, the Church which is so beloved by Christ with a love unto death — almost, one might say, a fierce love — that she can no longer escape this love. In all the saints we praise the power of that grace which, so to say, makes use of [people] in order to bring about our salvation, which gives what it demands, which sets us free for that liberty in which we are the freed and the blessed.

Karl Rahner, Theological Investigations, Vol. VIII: Further Theology of the Spiritual Life 2. Trans. by David Bourke (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1971) pp. 24-29.

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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 following homily on the Feast of Saint Teresa of Avila was written by Sister Margaret Brennan, one of our IHM sisters, a theologian, and wise spiritual director.

Teresa of Avila
Homily by Margaret Brennan, IHM
October 15, 2010 (print)

“To be a woman in the Church is enough to make my wings fall off …” so wrote the Carmelite nun Teresa of Avila, Teresa of Jesus, the Carmelite during the aftermath of the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century. Church officials in Spain in the attempts to enforce the teachings of the Council, and to stem the tide of the Protestant Reformation, forbade the reading of any spiritual books by current authors who advocated and taught the prayer of recollection … especially to women. The Index of 1559 also banned from them, all vernacular translations of the Scriptures “Let them stick to their spinning … lest they be deceived.” “Never mind,” retorted Teresa, “Hold fast daughters, they cannot take the Our Father and the Hail Mary away from us …”

In this misogynist climate of reform, Teresa Ahumada de Cepeda, now Teresa of Jesus, the reformer of the Carmelite Order, set out not only to restore the original fervor of the nuns, open new foundations of monasteries of men as well as women throughout the whole of Spain, but to encourage her sisters and the friars as well to seek the full heights of prayer, lead simple lives of joy in community, and above all, to pray for the Church which for her was the living Body of the Risen Christ.

And so it was that, while always walking in the shadow of the Inquisition, she wrote some of the most important spiritual literature in the Catholic Church. The Interior Castle, her masterpiece written during the time that she was confined by the Apostolic Delegate to remain in a single monastery, to make no new foundations and described her in his words as

“… a restless gadabout, a disobedient and contumacious woman who invented wicked doctrines and devotions, and … leaving her cloister against the mandate of the Council of Trent has gone about to teach others as though she were a ‘maestra’ in contradiction to the teaching of St. Paul who had forbidden women to teach.”

Teresa’s often quoted phrase, “I am a daughter of the Church,” rather than a statement of pride and even presumption were actually her dying words. Still under the shadow of the Inquisition but still not condemned, they were, in a way, a sigh of relief. “In the end, I am (still) a daughter of the Church.”

On October 14, 1614, Teresa the woman, became Teresa the beatified – the first step toward sanctification – 35 years after she had been the object of examination and scrutiny, and only 17 years after some theologians had recommended that all her writings be burned.

As IHM Sisters, devotion to Teresa came to us through our Redemptorist heritage and in particular through the written testimony of Saint Alphonsus whose first publication was a novena to Saint Teresa and who never tired of saying that she was his first and best teacher of prayer … and who he quotes more than any other Saint in his writings.

At the beginning of Redemptorist documents and all the letter of Alphonsus were the initials JMJT – Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Teresa. And for many, many years how often all IHMs wrote these same initials at the beginnings of letters, both personal and professional, only adding that of Alphonsus. JMJAT

From these two doctors of the Church, teachers of the spiritual life, may we continue to draw a love for the Church even in and perhaps all the more in its hours of challenge. St. Alphonsus was a great champion against the false doctrine and excessive rigor of Jansenism, a spiritual director of gentleness and compassion in the practice of the love of Jesus Christ committed to the poor and to the simple people of his time as well as today. Patron of Spiritual Directors.

Teresa, daughter of the Church, stern critic and ardent lover of its life and mission, offers us both inspiration and courage as we face scrutiny even as she did … and above all encourages us to trust our lives to God, to take seriously and to reverence the authority of the Church, but not always so seriously those who exercise it.

The texts of the liturgy on this, her feast, offer us a fruitful commentary on a life singularly blest by God and honored by the Church. They offer us as well the same promise of Jesus that Teresa knew.

In the thought of St. Paul expressed in his letter to the Romans, the hope for what she could not see, the waiting with endurance finds echo in our own lives.

In our own way and in our own time, with her and with St. Paul, we know and believe that the Spirit, who searches hearts, still intercedes for all of us, prays for us, shows us how to wait with endurance, and indeed, teaches us to pray.

The Gospel passage from Jesus’ gentle yet empassioned last discourse to his disciples reminds as, as it did so deeply in the life of Teresa, that to be rooted in Him as the vine in the branch … will mean times of pruning to bear fruit that will last. In many ways, the apostolic visitation of our lives rather than a source of anxiety has provided a deeper rooting, a strengthening of our ties to one another and to promoting the kind of Church that Teresa saw and served so well.

As IHM Sisters we are blessed indeed to have two doctors of the Church, renowned for their teaching on prayer, their practical sense, as patrons, models and advocates.

And finally … As we enter into this liturgy let us call to mind the words of Teresa on this her feast day … let us take them to heart … as we take up another day of life.

“Remember that you have only one soul, that you have only one death to die, that you have only one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and that there is only one glory which is eternal. If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.“

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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.

A favorite IHM custom of mine is the prayers of the faithful during Mass during which time we remember by name our sisters who have died on or near that day. The name of the sister is read along with the year that she died. This custom reflects a profound sense that are sisters who have died are still truly with us albeit in a new way. As an IHM community, we trust in their love and prayers as we continue God’s mission as IHM sisters.

I was thinking about this custom because today we have a long list of saints to celebrate. We celebrate not only the memory of them and how they lived the Gospel, but we also celebrate how they continue to be with us, encouraging us on our journey, praying with and for us.

We are blessed to have 6 new saints in our midst! On October 17, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI canonized the following women and men:

• Saint Mary MacKillop (1842-1909), an Australian religious and first Australian saint
• Saint André Bessette (1845-1937), a Canadian religious
• Saint Stanislao Soltys (1433- 1489), a Polish religious
• Saint Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola (1845- 1912), a Spanish religious
• Saint Giulia Salzano (1846- 1929), an Italian religious
• Saint Battisat da Varano (1458- 1524), an Italian religious

In addition to these newly minted saints, we celebrate today the feast day of the North American Martyrs, Jesuit missionaries who were martyred in the 17th century.

• Saint John de Brébeuf (1649)
• Saint Noël Chabanel (1649)
• Saint Antoine Daniel (1648)
• Saint Charles Garnier (1649)
• Saint René Goupil (1642)
• Saint Isaac Jogues (1646)
• Saint John de Lalande (1646)
• Saint Gabriel Lalemant (1649)

We give thanks for all those saints (canonized or not) who have gone before us and who continue to be with us on our journey.

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

Today we celebrate Saint Teresa of Avila, a saint that is near and dear to my heart. Here’s a short piece I wrote in honor of the feast for Take Five For Faith, a publication by our friends over at TrueQuest Communications.

With God you’re never alone

Prayer can be lonely at times as we struggle to feel the nearness of God’s presence. It’s a comfort to know that even the great saint and doctor of the church Teresa of Avila also struggled with loneliness. No matter how much or how intensely she prayed, she’d sometimes feel a distance between herself and God. Using the words of the psalms, Teresa wrote, “I have watched and become as a sparrow alone on the housetop” (Psalm 102). Though suffering the pain of loneliness, Teresa assures us that God is right there with us and can use even our emptiness as a vehicle of grace. When you are like a sparrow alone on the heights, crying out into the vastness of the sky, what calls you away from the edge?

TODAY’S READINGS: Ephesians 1:11-14; Luke 12:1-7
“Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

In the Catholic tradition, today we celebrate the feast of the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. Michael, whose name means “who is like God?” is the chief archangel. The feat he is most known for is driving Lucifer out of heaven.

Michael the Archangel. A 13th-century Byzantine icon from the Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai.

Saint Michael is the archangel I’m most familiar with, because that’s the name of the grade school I attended. That was many years ago, but the song we sang in his honor is still lodged firmly in my memory: “Saint Michael, Archangel, defend us in battle, and lead us to our Lord.”

Back in 5th grade, the use of militaristic language in religious songs didn’t catch my attention the way it does now. Even so, it was the art work depicting Saint Michael that most boggled my religious imagination back then. In school, we had a giant statue of Saint Michael standing over Lucifer and holding a long spear to his head. It freaked me out. I couldn’t name it then, but now I understand that it was because of the association between religion and violence.

As an adult, I can look at things differently. Where I can find meaning in the feast of Saint Michael is in what the archangel symbolizes: that good is more powerful than evil. When I think of Saint Michael this way, he’s not an image of violence but a symbol of hope. Happy feast, Saint Michael!

What are some of the images and symbols of Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael that are meaningful to you?

Giotto's Birth of Mary in the Scrovegni Chapel (Padua, Veneto, Italy) ca 1305

Today we celebrate the birth of Mary. Although scripture says nothing about the circumstances of her birth, it is rich in stories about her adult life. The stories are the source of lots of images and titles for Mary. One of the best known is Theotokos, the God-Bearer.

I love this particular image of Mary and what it symbolizes. For Mary, “God-bearing” wasn’t a one-time event. It didn’t end when Jesus was born. Mary witnessed to God’s goodness and kindness with her whole life. Scripture tells of many times when Mary stepped in to help others, sometimes asking her son to lend a hand too, as in the wedding feast at Cana. She cared for the people in her life and was a faithful friend, mother, and wife. To me, the image of Mary as God-Bearer reminds me that we all have the capacity to be “God-bearers” through the compassion and love we extend to others. So, my birthday gift to Mary is the extra special attention I’ll give to being the best God-bearer I can today.

What images of Mary have special meaning for you? How will you celebrate Mary’s birthday?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question from Sally about Lady Gaga’s video “Alejandro” … see my earlier post Lady Gaga and her use of Catholic and nun imagery.

I’m also curious of the controversial un-catholic video and meaning of that song so I researched. [I found a site that] could be of help though there are indeed several interpretations. It shows the “satanic” elements in the video. Personally, I somewhat felt disgusted. Children usually get drawn to her music because the beat is really cool but there are hidden meanings which might be opposed to catholic teachings, and the videos are really obscene-too sexual and violent-which may be too much for young minds to bear and understand. It may seem to be an ordinary video for them but their perception of sexuality,which is one of God’s precious gifts to us, may be subconsciously distorted….

As Catholics, what then could we do with these things??

First let me say, the video in general is not my cup of tea. And, it is not something I’d want my young nephews or cousins to experience. That being said, I also wouldn’t want them to experience some great masterpieces of religious art that include images of violence, sex, and religion too! It’s just not something they ordinarily can appreciate (in the artistic sense) or comprehend, as you put so well. I’m not trying to equate Lady Gaga with Caravaggio but I do want to give a little room for art (low or high) to provoke, inspire, challenge, create. Such art, however, must be appropriately available but, perhaps, not mass marketed to impressionable minds and hearts.

What can we do? First, each of us has to be aware of how our own actions, beliefs, and attitudes about sex, violence, and religion are shaping those around us. Impressionable persons may be affected by music videos to an extent but more so by the people they are around 24/7 and the people they love and trust and the organizations that are guides for them in their life. I see this happen in my nephews, and I am so grateful for the way that their parents have loved and raised them.

Second, we must be willing to experience and talk about the things to which impressionable persons in our lives are being exposed. We must be grounded enough, self-aware enough to be able to enter into discussion about it or even to make a couple of well-placed comments. This does not mean blanket condemnation of artistic expression because often that is read not as love and care but as “you don’t get me” or “you don’t care about me”. It means being able to understand why the person is attracted to something, in this case a song and video, affirming the good that we see (e.g., the “Alejandro” video has some great choreography and dance), and engaging the more questionable images and words used (e.g., do you think that the relationships shown are good and life-giving?).

Third, although we are dealing here with artistic expression, we must be very clear about “real life”. We must take a firm stance against all acts of rape, murder, discrimination, and any form of violence. These are never acceptable and we must take due care to protect the life and dignity of every single person and community.

Personally I am not fond of any images, however artistic, that portray rape or murder or violence. Even as an adult with a decent grounding in life, I find those images devastating. At the same time, I know that for many people in the world, this is their lived experience. When I am confronted with these images, it leads me not to bury my head but to pray, to be in solidarity as much as I can with people who have experiences such as rape, or discrimination because of gender or sexual orientation, or who live in fear of violence to themselves or to their loved ones. I live in hope that my life and my responses will be ones of compassion and help in navigating the good and the tough aspects of life.

Where do you stand with all of this? What experiences have you had that can shed some light on this? We’d especially like to hear from those of you who are parents or caregivers for young ones and deal with this every day.

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

Today we celebrate the feast day of Saint Jeanne de Chantal who, with Saint Francis de Sales founded the Order of the Visitation of Our Lady, or Visitation Nuns, in 1610.

Stained Glass window from Visitation School, Mendota Heights, Minnesota

Saint Jeanne was an amazing woman — a wife, a mother, a spiritual mentor, and a religious. Her life is a testimony to faith, to love for God, to service of others, and she opened herself to being personally transformed through all of the events of her life.

Her life experiences “opened her heart to her longing for God and she sought God in prayer and a deepening spiritual life. Her commitment to God impressed Saint Francis de Sales, the bishop who became her director and best friend. Their friendship started before they even met, for them saw each other in dreams, and continued in letters throughout their lives.

With Francis’ support, Jane founded the Visitation order for women who were rejected by other orders because of poor health or age. She even accepted a woman who was 83 years old. When people criticized her, she said, “What do you want me to do? I like sick people myself; I’m on their side.” She believed that people should have a chance to live their calling regardless of their health.” (source)

I like Saint Jeanne, I like her a lot because of her deep commitment to God. She opened herself to be “more than”, to acknowledge but not get stuck in the contrarieties of life nor the conventions of life! She opened her door to people who were poor, even when she was living on a tight budget. She forgave and even befriended the person who killed her husband. She founded a religious community for those thought too old or sick to be a religious, a community which celebrates its 400th anniversary this year.

We have much to learn about following Christ from Saint Jeanne de Chantal. And thankfully for us, we have not only her life witness but some of her writings and sayings! Here are some great quotes.

Follow your own way of speaking to our Lord sincerely, lovingly, confidently, and simply, as your heart dictates. (Source: Letters of Spiritual Direction (Classics of Western Spirituality))

In prayer one must hold fast and never let go, because the one who gives up loses all. If it seems that no one is listening to you, then cry out even louder. If you are driven out of one door, go back in by the other. (Source)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You may notice that many Catholic sisters and nuns have the name “Mary” included in some form in their religious name. In a recent edition of our IHM Archives News (May 2010), our intrepid archivist Donna Westley looked at this custom in the IHM tradition. (Today we use our baptismal names as our religious names so “Mary” or its derivations are present only if it was originally part of one’s baptismal name). Here’s some of that article along with additional details I gleaned from my email conversation with Donna.

Why take on a religious name? A new name in religion signified a commitment to a new way of life. For more info, check out our earlier blog post responding to Lou’s question What is the reasoning behind a nun or sister choosing a religious name?

Why the name “Mary”? Our IHM Congregation has a special devotion to Mary which has manifest itself in various ways throughout our history up to today. Co-founder Father Louis Florent Gillet, CSsR wrote about our special relationship with Mary in the original IHM Rule of Life: “The principal Patroness of the Institute will be the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Immaculate, whose feast is celebrated the eighth of December.” The dogma of the Immaculate Conception had just been issued in 1854, just 9 years after our congregation’s founding.

The earliest commentary on the constitutions and customs that Donna found was written by Mother Gertrude Gerretsen (1864-1869). She writes:

“Devotion to the Mother of God has always been dear to religious persons. But as this congregation is immediately under her protection and as she is (under God) its principal protectress, the sisters shall always have the warmest and most affectionate devotion to her; regarding her in a special manner as their Mother and the great model they are obliged to imitate, that by her intercession and under her powerful protection they may be enabled to fulfill the obligations of this holy Institute and implant Jesus Christ in the hearts of the children they are charged to instruct.”

Mother Gertrude goes on in detail about specific devotions: rosary, novenas, celebration of feasts, the month of May, etc.

What was the Sister Mary custom with IHM Sisters? The name of Mary, although not always spoken or written at the beginning of our religious names, was always formally there until 1920.

Indeed, a page in co-founder Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin’s Notes Regarding the Foundation supports the longstanding nature of this practice. Referring to receptions and professions, she says.

“I will now give the religious names of those 12 Sisters: Igidius, Johanna, Gerard, Liguori, Agnes, Anthony, Ignatius, Xavier, Stanislas, Colette, Gertrude, Clara, it is not necessary to say that every one had the name of Mary preceding the other name as it is customary with us.”

Looking over the religious names of members in our IHM congregation from the beginnings in 1845 and up to the 1920s, it appears the majority of sisters had a single name, preceded by Mary, Maria, Marie, or just the letter “M.”

In 1920, Sister Margaret Mary (Anna) Look was the first Monroe IHM to have a name that did not have “Mary” at the beginning. In a letter written to archivist Celeste Rabaut, IHM, on November 9, 1984, Margaret Mary explained, “St. Margaret Mary was canonized in May 1920. I was received into the community July 22, 1920, and given the name Sister Margaret Mary—coveted by many previously but not given out because ‘Mary’ preceded all names up to that time.”

After Margaret Mary, others began to have Mary, Marie, or Maria as the second part of their name.  We also began to see Latin names like Cor Mariae, Beata Maria, Maria Pacis as well as titles like Marie de Lourdes and Mary de Montfort, Marie Rosary and Mary Immaculate given as religious names.

In the Marian year (1954) almost all the postulants received were given a name with Mary, Marie, or a title of Mary — not just that initial “M.

If you have a Mary naming custom in your community or personally, let us know!

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seriously?

Other comments, thoughts, questions?

The Violence of Love is a free eBook containing simple, beautiful meditations from Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador, who was martyred for his faith and for being a fearless defender of the poor and suffering.

The Violence of Love is a collection of Romero’s words, many challenging to our understanding of what it means to live the Gospel. Spend some time with this book, especially during this day and season that we celebrate the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

Here’s a selection from the book:

How I would like to engrave this great idea
on each one’s heart: Christianity is not a collection of truths to be believed,
of laws to be obeyed, of prohibitions.
That makes it very distasteful.
Christianity is a person,
one who loved us so much,
one who calls for our love.
Christianity is Christ.

- Oscar Romero, November 6, 1977

The Violence of Love eBook is available for free download from The Plough publishing company. You can download it in English or Spanish and in a variety of formats. If you’d like to buy a print copy, click here for Amazon.com.

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Sister Maxine and I keep you in our prayers and
pray that you have a blessed Triduum and Easter season.

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

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

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

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

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

In this year’s message to young people, Pope Benedict XVI reflects on the World Youth Day 2010 theme: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17).

Pope Benedict XVI urged young people to follow their dreams, dedicate their talents to the common good, and grow in love and faith. The pope told the world’s young Catholics to not let life’s difficulties lead to discouragement. “Instead nurture in your heart great hopes for fraternity [sic], justice and peace. The future is in the hands of those who know how to seek and find strong convictions in life and hope,” he said in his message for World Youth Day 2010. The Vatican and most dioceses around the world will mark World Youth Day on Palm Sunday, March 28. In his message, released in Italian and French by the Vatican March 15, the pope asked young people to build a more just and fair world. Changing the world for the better does not have to mean “performing heroic or extraordinary acts, but allowing your talents and potential to bear fruit and committing yourself to constantly growing in faith and love,” he said. (source: Catholic News Service)

Pope Benedict writes that the situation facing the young person in Mark’s Gospel is one that faces all youth. He speaks of the importance of taking the time to build one’s “project of life”.

“The season of life that you are immersed in is a time of discovery: of the gifts that God has lavished upon you and of your responsibilities. It is, moreover, a time of fundamental choices to build your ‘project of life.’” The Pope urges youth not to be fearful in answering the question: “What must I do, so that my life might have full value and full meaning?” “To discover the ‘project of life’ that can make you plainly happy, start listening to God, who has a design of love for each of you,” writes the Pope. (source: Catholic News Agency)

What steps have you taken in your “project of life”? What are some of the road blocks and scenic views that you’ve encountered?

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Join Sister Julie and Sister Maxine for evening prayer at 6 p.m. CDT
at http://anunslife.org/LIVE.

As a celibate, non-sex-having, vocationally-engaged person, I was intrigued by and a bit apprehensive of an article by Jamie Manson entitled Celibacy: Neither healthy nor helpful for the future of vocations in National Catholic Reporter (March 11, 2010).

Although Manson states somewhat parenthentically that she is “not suggesting that celibacy is wrong or unhealthy” and that “for some individuals, this choice is very life-giving”, I get the distinct impression from the entire article that such a choice would be fundamentally against the very nature of “today’s young adults”. Hmmm.

At the old age of 38 and a member of that old-fashioned Generation X, you can take my two cents for what they’re worth. First I concur 100% with the universal call to holiness. There is no such thing as a “higher” calling. You can slap the label “consecrated” or “ordained” or whatever on the calling but it’s still not any better or worse than any other calling. However God calls you is what is most fulfilling for you. True, we still have many remnants of pre-Vatican II ideas and those continue to affect how people understand their own calling and that of others.

I feel badly that Manson and others continue to experience an undervaluing of their desire for a “healthy, loving, committed sexual relationship” and their desire to devote their lives “to the service of the gospel”. But I don’t think changing a recognition of the value of celibacy in consecrated life is going to change that. I think that the problem is that the church (magisterium and people of God) hasn’t yet fully committed to the idea of the universal call to holiness. Even Manson herself seems to feel that the only way that people can be recognized as seeking “a healthy, loving, committed sexual relationship” and “being fully and authentically committed to bringing the life of God into the world” is through consecrated life. Otherwise, why the concern about being “banned” from consecrated life?

I guess I’m confused a bit (which happens at the old age of 38) because I fundamentally agree with Manson about vocation and calling, but there are so many negative celibacy over- and undertones in the article that I’m left wondering (a) if she really understands celibacy (celibacy is a far richer concept and experience than simply not being involved in a sexual relationship) and (b) what she’s really trying to say. Is it that religious life, consecrated virginity, the eremetical life, and other forms of consecrated virginity should lift the celibacy requirement?  Is it that there should be an additional form of consecrated life that recognizes the value of sexual relationships? Is it that the church still has a long way to go in truly promulgating the universal call to holiness? Is it that celibacy is fundamentally unnatural for young people today and into the future? Is it that celibacy’s only value is for the quirky few who find it life giving?

Well, those are a few thoughts from one quirky Gen X-er. What do you think?

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Join two celibate women and others for prayer tonight at 6 p.m. Central Daylight Time at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE (note: due to Daylight Saving Time our broadcast has shifted to UTC-5)

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 at iTunes. 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

Happy feast of Saint Katharine Drexel, foundress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Saint Katharine was canonized on October 1, 2000, by Pope John Paul II. Here is a bit about Katharine Drexel from the Vatican website.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States of America, on November 26, 1858, Katharine Drexel was the second daughter of Francis Anthony Drexel and Hannah Langstroth. Her father was a well known banker and philanthropist. Both parents instilled in their daughters the idea that their wealth was simply loaned to them and was to be shared with others.

On February 12, 1891, she professed her first vows as a religious, founding the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament whose dedication would be to share the message of the Gospel and the life of the Eucharist among American Indians and Afro-Americans.

Katharine left a four-fold dynamic legacy to her Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who continue her apostolate today, and indeed to all peoples:

• her love for the Eucharist, her spirit of prayer, and her Eucharistic perspective on the unity of all peoples;
• her undaunted spirit of courageous initiative in addressing social iniquities among minorities — one hundred years before such concern aroused public interest in the United States;
• her belief in the importance of quality education for all, and her efforts to achieve it;
• her total giving of self, of her inheritance and all material goods in selfless service of the victims of injustice.

For more information about Saint Katharine, check out the following resources:

KatharineDrexel.org
Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament
SQPN on Saint Katharine Drexel
National Catholic Reporter article on Katharine Drexel (March 3, 2010)

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

My dear friend and IHM Sister Margaret Brennan recently published her memoir, What Was There for Me Once (2009 Novalis) and last week National Catholic Reporter published a review of the book called “A life of change and renewal” (February 19, 2010).

In Sister Margaret’s book, we find not just a memoir but a compelling and insightful story. Kilian McDonnell, OSB, remarks, “Here is a story of a young girl, sister, novice mistress, elementary and high school teacher, president of the congregation, and university professor in the midst of rapid social change.” Sister Margaret “had a major part to play in developing women’s religious, academic, and spiritual lives in the second half of the 20th century.”

Here are a few quotes from NCR’s review of the book:

This preconciliar church experience was fulfilling and made sense to her — and she embraced it. Of religious life as it approached Vatican II, she writes: “While I was entirely happy in the traditional model of religious life as it had been lived for hundreds of years, I was open to the coming changes.”

The Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary were among those religious who were quick to internalize the Vatican documents and the new theologians appearing on the scene. “To use the framework of [Jesuit theologian] Bernard Lonergan, I would say that for me the change from the traditional model of religious life to the Vatican II model was a process of conversion. In involved a real change in worldview, in horizon.”

“To keep the question of God — and God’s questions — high on the horizon of the world is worth the gifts of our lives,” Brennan says. And, without a doubt, her memoir attests to this purpose.

There are many things I love about this book — most especially to hear the voice of one of my sisters, one who was instrumental in my own vocation and religious life. I also love the way she writes with grace and a confidence in the providence of God. Sister Margaret also fills a huge gap in the Catholic and popular imagination about nuns and sisters. Kilian McDonnell notes this well writing that the book takes us through “the passage typical of many women’s religious apostolic communities from monastic models to religious forms more in keeping with their original active charism.”

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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 .

Yesterday at the gym I was doing my cardio and right across from me was a older man on the stationary bike. He was cruising along reading a magazine. I noticed that he had a rosary around his neck. I have never worn a Rosary around my neck because it was not part of my Catholic upbringing and it seemed to tread close to being disrespectful. I remember in high school going to the mall with friends and seeing a Rosary hanging with “the other jewelry” and I almost bought it just to redeem it.

Prayer for healing at St. Agilolph's shrine

So as I watched this guy, I tried to figure out what he was all about. Was it a sign of his faith? Was it random? Did it match his other accessories? No chance I was going to figure it out. But it got me thinking about what the deal is with wearing a Rosary around one’s neck. Since I doubted this information would be in the Catechism, I turned to my next source of information: the Internet.

Here’s what I found about why people wear a Rosary around their neck:

• a fad for some younger folks who aren’t particularly religious
• people need a sign of something holy nearby (e.g., troops, prisoners)
• to  show that one is Catholic
• a cultural custom among people of Mexico
• a person with memory issues can easily find it
• a gang symbol for some gangs
• a desire to emulate singer Madonna
• to show respect for Mary

Apparently this is not a recent phenomenon. The blog Paternosters notes that wearing Rosaries is at least centuries old. Some for social status and some for religious purposes too. There’s a series of blog posts dedicated to this: If you’ve got it, flaunt it, Rosaries on belts, Tying one on, Ring around the collar, Loops, drapes and dangles, Just hanging around, and What did Margaret mean?

Bono from U2 wears and displays the Rosary given him by Pope John Paul II

To further contextualize the question of wearing a Rosary around one’s neck, keep in mind that many of us hang Rosaries or Rosary-esque items from ourselves and our cars all the time! A rosary hanging from the rear view mirror of a car (presumably a Catholic car) or a bed post, a Rosary ring or bracelet, a Rosary keychain, and I’ve even seen Rosary tattoos.

From the variety of Catholic perspectives I’ve seen on this, it seems the general consensus is that so long as it is done with respect, it is okay. And, I suppose, even if it is done without respect, is it possible that God might still take that as an opportunity to bring some good in the world? Yeah, I kinda think God is capable of that!

Have you encountered this custom of wearing a Rosary around the neck? What do you think?

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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 .

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes! I wanted to post a reflection about Mary today but I’ve run out of time! Headed to the Motherhouse to visit with my IHM Sisters and to collaborate on some projects.

So I turn over the blog post to you — Who is Our Lady of Lourdes? What meaning does she have for you this day? What other names for Mary are particularly meaningful for you and why?

What would you write if someone asked you to reflect on your Catholic or spiritual identity? What would you zero in on as a key story, insight, metaphor, or image that could illustrate the vastness of what it means for a person to be Catholic or to belong to a particular spiritual or religious tradition?

This was the gift and the challenge given to a number of young Catholic women by editors Kate Dugan and Jen Owens. The result, over the course of 3 years of imagining, researching, organizing, writing, editing, and publishing is the book From the Pews in the Back: Young Women and Catholicism.

I am honored to have an essay included in this collection. Initially I was planning on writing about my journey into vowed religious life as a Catholic, but the more I pondered the questions that Kate and Jen posed to us, the more I realized how profoundly formative being Catholic is for me. So I wrote instead about being a kid with a dad in the folk group (ensemble of singers and instruments leading music at a Mass or liturgy) and what it was like to explore the church while my dad practiced, how the “stuff” of Catholicism seeped into my imagination and helped me to make connections outside of the church building.

In reading the whole collection of essays and memoirs, I was amazed at the sheer diversity of experiences that other young women had as Catholics. At the same time, I could relate to what each was saying, that is, I could find an echo of their experience in my own.

I encourage you to check out the book From the Pews in Back: Young Women and Catholicism and also the website and blog of the same name.

Also, I’d love to hear from you about the initial question posed: What would you zero in on as a key story, insight, metaphor, or image that could illustrate the vastness of what it means for a person to be Catholic or to belong to a particular spiritual or religious tradition?

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

Also, Ask Sister Podcast is coming up at the end of the week. If you have questions for us, please email them to us at sister (AT) anunslife (DOT) org.

Lectors say the darnedest things. Yesterday at Mass, the lector (the person who proclaims the scripture readings of the day) was leading us through Psalm 19. It is a beautiful, awe-inspiring psalm, which begins

The heavens herald your glory, O God, and the skies display your handiwork. Day after day they tell their story, and night after night they reveal the depth of their understanding. Without speech, without words, without even an audible voice, their cry echoes through all their world …

The best part, however, was the ending, which is supposed to read, “May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O God, my rock and my redeemer!” But the lector fumbled a bit as she proclaimed this part of the psalm and what came out instead (at least to my ears) was “… I rock in my redeemer.”

That’s right, I rock in my redeemer.

As the liturgy continued to the next reading and Gospel, my mind spilled over into thoughts of David, the psalmist, who himself was a musician. I bet he felt like that sometimes, as in this psalm, where the whole world — including oneself — is alight with God’s glory. Simply put, we rock because God rocks! “To rock” is a popular slang term that means to excel, to do something so awesome that it’s not just well done, it rocks.

How will you be caught up in God’s life and grace today such that you too can proclaim, “I rock in my Redeemer!”?

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

I saw Avatar the movie with a friend yesterday, and it was good. Coincidentally, the 67th annual Golden Globes agreed with me with top honors to Avatar in the categories of Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director – Motion Picture.

The Story

The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a lush, Earth-like moon in the Alpha Centauri star system. Humans are engaged in mining Pandora’s reserves of unobtanium, a precious mineral worth a bundle to humans. The mining operation employs U.S. Marines for security. Pandora is inhabited by the Na’vi, a blue-skinned species of sapient humanoids with feline characteristics. Physically much stronger and taller than humans, the Na’vi live in harmony with nature, worshiping a mother goddess called Eywa. The Na’vi resist the colonists’ expansion, an expansion which threatens the continued existence of the Na’vi and the Pandoran ecosystem. Scientists, headed by Dr. Grace Augustine, grow Na’vi bodies modified with human DNA, called avatars, that are controlled by genetically matched, mentally linked human operators. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a paraplegic former marine who becomes an avatar operator and learns to live with the Na’vi and comes to “see” them, to understand them as individuals, a people, and a spirituality. (cf. see Avatar: Official Movie Website and the Wikipedia Avatar 2009 film entry)

The Technology

First and foremost, it’s important to know that Avatar is not animated, it is “captured performance”. I’ll let the filmmakers describe this.

The other cool thing about the movie was the 3D effects. You can see the movie in 2D as well but I went for the funky 3D glasses and let me tell you, if you haven’t seen a 3D movie in a while (I think it’s been 20+ years for me), then you are in for a treat. Kind of freaky for the first 15 minutes but then I got used to it and it was awesome.

The Spirituality

There is an interesting spirituality operative in the movie which is heightened with the interplay of familiar tensions between faith and science, nonviolence and violence, stewardship and dominance. To top it off there are issues of race and gender to contend with. That all means that Avatar is a recipe for ideological disaster. And indeed, Avatar has become a target taking many critiques, positive and negative, fair and unjust.

From the Catholic perspective, there is concern with “neopagan” overtones and a “a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature.”  In the Catholic faith, we do not identify God with the created world (pantheism) but rather understand God as the Creator of the world, distinct yet nonetheless connected. Our love and protection of the environment and all of creation comes from our understanding that all is created by God and that all of creation is therefore good and worthy of reverence. That reverence is not to be mistaken for worship of nature. But neither should reverence for God’s creation be seen as disconnected from our spirituality.

So what of the spirituality of Avatar? Jay Michaelson (columnist, activist and author of Everything Is God) has this to say:

Roughly speaking, Avatar’s Na’Vi subscribe to a combination of pantheism and theism, a view scholars today call “panentheism.” As scholar of religion Gershom Scholem observed, panentheism is usually rooted less in faith … than in experience. Like mystics here on Earth, the Na’vi have an experience of unity of consciousness with other beings, all of which (themselves included) are really just manifestations of one Being, which they call Ai’wa [ed. also spelled Eywa]. Unlike Earth-bound mystics, the Na’vi have a convenient plug, attached to their bodies, which physically unites them to other beings (such as steeds, winged or otherwise) and to Aiwa Herself/Itself. (The Meaning of Avatar in the Huffington Post)

Even though the Na’vi are not Catholic, there is still something to be gained spiritually from tending to how they interact with their God, with one another, and with all of creation. For me, Avatar had echoes of scripture, of Catholic social teaching, of prayer, and of Pope Benedict‘s own message of care and protection of the environment and of human life.

The Upshot

I give Avatar two thumbs up, and I think blue is rather fetching for a skin tone.

(That’s right, you can “avatarize” yourself.)

Have you seen Avatar? What insights or questions were raised for you?

Today’s Gospel reading is from Luke 2:22-35. It’s the first part of the story of the Presentation of Jesus which is when Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to be purified and consecrated to God according to Jewish law. (The actual feast day is not until February 2).

Saint Simeon by Suzanne Reynolds

The story records how the family meets Simeon, who was “devout and just, anticipating the consolation of Israel” (v25). Simeon welcomes the child recognizing in Jesus “the salvation … prepared for all the peoples” (v30-31).

In light of today’s reading, what new insight or open door or inspiration has presented itself to you during this Christmas season?

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

Today’s Gospel reading is from Luke 1:39-45. It is one of my favorite readings because it is the story of the Visitation, of Mary visiting Elizabeth to share the news that she is pregnant with Jesus. This story is an important one to us as IHM Sisters and it is the name of our spirituality center — “We take our inspiration from the visit between Mary and Elizabeth who spent time together sharing their joys and hopes, their confusion and their fears as they tried to be faithful to what God was asking of them.” (Visitation North Spirituality Center)

Mary set out and hurried to the hill country to a town of Judah, where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth.

As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why am I so favored, that the mother of the Messiah should come to me? The moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who believed that what Our God said to her would be accomplished!”  (Luke 1:39-45)

In what way does this gospel story of the Visitation speak to you this day?

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Please join us at 6:00 p.m. CST (your time zone) for Praying with the Sisters podcast, a ministry of A Nun’s Life. Visit aNunsLife.org/LIVE. This will be our last podcast through the holidays. We’ll be back on Monday, December 28. Also, please know we are trying out new podcasting technology so last Friday we had a slightly different format but today we are using the regular one. More to come in the new year!

Today’s Scripture reading is one of my favorites. It is 17 glorious verses naming the ancestors of Jesus. The fun starts with Abraham and Sarah and goes through Judah and Tamar, Ruth and Boaz, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, up to and including Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. “Of her,” writes Matthew, “was born Jesus who is called the Christ.” (Matthew 1:1-17)

Why a lengthy genealogy of Jesus? Read Robert P. Maloney, C.M., of the Congregation of the Mission, The Genealogy of Jesus in America Magazine (December 17, 2007).

Why do I love it so? Through there are controversies around the genealogy and how it adds up, how it matches the genealogy in Luke’s gospel, and what it all really means, there is a simple truth that speaks loud and clear to me. The genealogy gives us a sense of Jesus’ people and of how anticipation of Jesus has been interwoven throughout history long before Mary first got word from the angel that she was carrying the child of God. The genealogy of Jesus also reminds my of my people, of how my life is rooted in my family, my grandparents, great-grandparents, and so forth.

In my IHM congregation, there is a saying that we use often: “Everything before us brought us to this moment, standing on the threshold of a brand new day.” In light of today’s reading, we can also say “Everyone before us brought us to this moment …” Like any family “everything” and “everyone” in our history hasn’t always been that pretty, but still, it has all brought us to this moment. Even Jesus had some racy ancestors yet I’d say he turned out okay!

So today let us celebrate our people — our own ancestors and our spiritual ancestors through Jesus the Christ born of Mary.

What familial or spiritual ancestor do you celebrate today?

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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.

Happy feast of Saint John of the Cross! Here’s a bit of John’s story from Saints and Feast Days: A Resource and Activity Book by The Sisters of Notre Dame of Chardon, Ohio.

John of the Cross was locked in a cell six feet wide and ten feet long for nine months, with no light except that which filtered through a slit high up in the wall. He later forgave the men who had imprisoned him. How could he do that? He explained, “Where there is no love, put love, and you will find love.”

John’s father had been disowned by his wealthy Spanish family when he married a poor weaver rather than a woman of equal economic status. Living in poverty proved to be too much for him, and he died shortly after John was born. John spent much of his youth in an orphanage, where he was clothed, fed, and given an elementary education. At the age of 17, he found a job in a hospital and was accepted into a Jesuit college. In 1563 he entered the Carmelite Order. Eventually he enrolled in another university, where he did so well that he was asked to teach a class and to help settle disputes.

When he met Teresa of Ávila and learned from her about the reform of the Carmelite Order, John decided to help with it. As part of this decision, he wore sandals instead of shoes and lived very simply in prayer and solitude. In 1577 the attitude toward the reform shifted.

John was caught up in a misunderstanding and imprisoned at Toledo, Spain. During those months of darkness in that little cell, John could have become bitter, revengeful, or filled with despair. But instead, he kept himself open to God’s action, for no prison could separate him from God’s all-embracing love. During this time he had many beautiful experiences and encounters with God in prayer. Later he would describe these experiences in poetry. In 1578 John escaped to southern Spain to join the reformed Carmelites. There he held leadership positions and wrote reflections on his experiences, which showed his deep spirit of prayer. When he became ill, he chose to go to the city of Ubeda, where no one knew him. It was there that he died.

On this feast day, if you encounter a place of no love, put love, and you will find love.

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

It is December 8 and that means it’s the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, one of the high holy days for us as Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters. Here are a couple of posts about this feast day, one from my dear friend and sister Margaret Brennan, IHM, called Lily of My Heart and the other is one I wrote for the Young Women and Catholicism blog.

For today, I have chosen an icon from Jesuit Father William McNichols, SJ. Though he has one of the Immaculate Conception, I chose this icon called The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart because it is stunning and speaks to me of this Advent season — the coming of God in our midst, the dawn of a new day.

The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart icon by Fr. William McNichols, SJ

How does this icon speak to you? What words of prayer or reflection or action does it inspire in you?

Happy feast day to you!

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

In response to yesterday’s post on Advent and compassion, my nun Sister Rose Carmel shared a bit of wisdom that she had just received:

Here are three questions Fr. Helfrich gave us to ask ourselves for Advent. I’d like to share it with all our friends on the post.

1. What have you given up on? (Not “What are you giving up?”)
2. What are you looking forward to?
3. What are you about? (The question asked three men hauling wheelbarrows. The first says “Can’t you see I’m hauling rocks?!” The second: “I’m earning food for my wife and children.” The third: “I’m building a cathedral.”)

Blessings on all for a fruitful Advent.

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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.

Today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 15:29-37) is a powerful story of Jesus healing people one after the other. Scripture tells us that Jesus simply went up a mountain and sat down. That’s all he did. No indication that he set out to change the lives of the community and individuals forever. He just went up a mountain and sat down. No doubt word of Jesus’ presence and deeds had been spreading. He had just healed a young girl because of her mother’s faith. Whether for curiosity or suspicion or desire for healing, the people of the area through which Jesus was traveling (the Sea of Galilee) went to find Jesus.

Maybe Jesus was taking a break up on that mountain. Maybe he wanted some quiet time for prayer or a chance to be with his disciples alone. Maybe he sensed the needs and desires of the people and hoped they’d come out of their familiar setting into the mountain wildness, a place known for encounters with God.

Regardless of what Jesus may have had in mind, there he sat, and the people came to him.

The more Jesus heals, the more the crowd comes. First a person who was blind, then someone who could not speak, and another who could not walk. I imagine it was an exhilarating though exhausting day for Jesus and the disciples. And not just one day — Jesus tells us that this went on for three days.

So why did Jesus do this? Why did he take three days out of his traveling, out of his retreat time, out of whatever schedule he had in order to tend to the people?

Compassion.

Jesus said, “I have compassion for the crowd.” He said this as he gathered his disciples together to figure out how to feed the crowd who was rather hungry after three days with no food.

“I have compassion,” said Jesus.

Compassion is the ability to feel deeply for another person, a consciousness of how another is feeling and a desire to reach out. For Jesus, this was not some whimsical understanding of compassion or a “touchy-feeling” kind of thing. Jesus practiced this way of being in the world, this compassion, both with people it was “easy” to give compassion to, and people who weren’t so easy, like those who persecuted him.

As the dawn of Advent continues to break upon us, may the spirit of Jesus enliven all that we do and all that we are, that we might be a people of compassion and find ways each day to live this compassion of Jesus.

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

The season of Advent is here. Advent is about letting God come to us. It’s about actively anticipating God in our lives. We celebrate not only the historical birth of Jesus but the new life the God continually gives to each of us.

How have you entered into this season of Advent? For me, Advent kind of snuck up on me. It is my favorite season and so I’m usually anticipating it, but this year, there is was. I’m not sure how I will more fully enter into the season. I feel like I have a bit of catch-up to do. I think the first thing I will do is go back to the Scripture readings from the First Sunday of Advent and immerse myself in them. I also just came across a Christmas box in storage so I’ll dig around in there for the Advent candles and my mini nativity scene.

Another thing I’m going to do is to sit with the question, “What am I experiencing?” The question was posed on awebsite about Advent from Creighton University’s Online Ministries. The page Beginning Advent suggests that this question is one of the first places to start with Advent.

So, what are we experiencing? That is the first Advent question. If we chew that question, then the Isaiah reading will sound so good to our ears. Are we the people “who walk in darkness” or have “thick clouds” over us? Is the way before us full of valleys and hills? Does it seem like we are in a desert? Are there wild beasts out there who are ready to devour us? Have we been guilty of some things we aren’t proud of? Have we lost touch with who we really want to be? Has our fidelity become a bit shabby? Then, Isaiah proclaims that our God is ready to come and save us. And, none of the things that I see as barriers even matter to God. (Creighton University’s Online Ministries Website)

I encourage you to check out the rest of the website for some very good resources on Advent such as the following:

• Preparing for Advent
• Prayers for each week of Advent
• General Advent Prayers
• Oraciones de adviento en español
• Various Advent Prayers and Retreats in Audio format

So how are you entering into Advent? What are you experiencing?

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

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).

I am home at the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan. Sister Maxine and I have meetings through Sunday. As always it is great to be home. Last night we did our first live podcast from the Motherhouse. Sister Joyce Durosko, our nun and good friend, joined us for the podcast. It was a delight to be with her and with so many folks who joined the podcast for evening prayer. We’ll be on again tonight at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://anunslife.org/live.

Today’s readings for prayer are from Psalm 19 and the Book of Wisdom. I found the reading from Wisdom rather captivating. Here’s a part of it:

In Wisdom is a spirit
intelligent, holy, unique,
Manifold, subtle, agile,
clear, unstained, certain,
Not baneful, loving the good, keen,
unhampered, beneficent, kindly,
Firm, secure, tranquil,
all-powerful, all-seeing,
And pervading all spirits,
though they be intelligent, pure and very subtle.
For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion,
and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity.

I love that line … “Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion.” I’m not sure what it means yet but am going to munch on these words for a bit today.

And here’s a beautiful image of Sophia, Holy Wisdom. Sophia is a Greek word that refers to the Wisdom of God and is often seen in Christian mystical writings. Saint Paul also writes of Holy Wisdom in his letters.

What strikes you about Wisdom in the reading or in the image? What bit of Wisdom do you need for your day today?

Picture this: you’re going through a difficult time, you’ve got a lot on your mind, you just can’t seem to make sense of stuff. Then someone says it, that dreadful line: “Offer it up.”

If you are like me (admittedly, not my most admirable quality) you have to suppress an overwhelming desire to take a swing at the person.

To me, “offer it up” is not exactly the most compassionate thing a person can say when another is in a tough space. In fact, sometimes it rings of a kind of dismissal, an unwillingness to be with a person in their struggle, even if only in silent vigil.

Though not fond of this line, I found it was exactly the one that came to mind this morning as I read Saint Teresa of Avila. As mentioned before, I’m re-reading The Life as translated by Mirabai Starr in Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life and am at a significant moment in Teresa’s life where she has a conversion. Teresa writes about how difficult prayer has been for her. “By now, my poor soul had grown weary. But no matter how much she wished she could rest, the bad habits I had developed would not let her” (p. 58). Teresa speaks of losing trust in herself, of being unable to imagine Christ in prayer, of having distracting thoughts that would torment her, of being plagued with doubts. “I slid back so many times that I was exhausted” (p. 59).

Teresa was indeed in a tough space. So what did she do?

She offered it up.

In this tough space Teresa gave to God all that she had — not successes or insights or any kind of “worthiness” — but the only things she felt she had left: her fears, her doubts, her temptations, her “deep soul-weariness”.

To God she offered them.

There is real wisdom in Teresa’s experience. Sometimes we feel like we don’t have a whole heck of a lot going for ourselves. We struggle, we deal with pain, we despair, we worry, we just don’t feel like engaging anymore. God does not ask us to give that which we don’t have. In these times, God doesn’t expect us to offer perfectly manicured prayers, devout thoughts, or deeds of righteousness. What God asks us for is who we are and what we do have. We can offer to God as a gift our pain, despair, worry, and struggle. Doing so is not abnegating responsibility or expecting that it will all magically go away. Rather, offering these our gifts is an opportunity to open the door to God, to God’s love and deep compassion. It is a chance to move beyond the impasse we experience in our life and become ourselves more fully.

“O God, help me! How a soul suffers when she loses the freedom to be who she truly is. What torment she endures. I am amazed to see that I survived such pain. Praise be to God, who gave me life when I was on the brink of such a deadly death.”

What comes to mind as you hear the words “offer it up” and as you hear Teresa’s experience? What’s the hardest part of “offering it up”? What’s happened for you when you’ve tried to offer up your own tough situations?

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Join us this evening for Praying with the Sisters podcast — 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://anunslife.org/live. We’ll have a special reading in celebration of our IHM Founders Day.

I have a great fondness for the written word and treasure well-written books. I’m back reading The Book of My Life by Teresa of Avila. One can never experience Teresa’s writing too many times. It has a formative character which, to be biblical, is written over and over again on one’s soul, creating a well-worn path to God.

Teresa of course is a great teacher and wisdom figure on prayer, and one of the reasons she is so wise on matters of prayer is because she had such a difficult time with it during various periods of her life. Early in the book Teresa notes how certain forms of prayer did absolutely nothing for her.

“I would think about a scene in his life and then try to picture it with my mind’s eye. But … my imagination was so clumsy that no matter how hard I tried to meditate on the Lord’s humanity, I could never quite succeed.” (p 21)

When this happens, the temptation is to think then that one can’t pray or doesn’t know how to pray. But Teresa came to a different conclusion. She tried something different — in fact, she tried something that she was quite fond of: books! In the midst of describing her struggles with praying using the imagination and mental prayer, Teresa writes, “But what I liked best was to read good books.” She goes on to say how reading good books (not just any books) helped her to keep her on track and not spin out of control in prayer or end up discouraged. Such books, writes Teresa, can be an aid in prayer and can anchor us when our prayer is difficult or arid.

“During all that time [of not being able to meditate], I never dared to sit down to pray unless I had a book close at hand…. Books were my companions, my consolation, my shield against the explosion of thoughts. If I didn’t have a book, I would suffer from terrible aridity. The minute I found myself without something to read, my soul would become immediately agitated and my mind would start to wander. But as soon as I started reading, the words acted like bait to lure my soul and my thoughts began to collect themselves again. Sometimes it was enough just to know that I had a book beside me; I didn’t even have to open it. Sometimes I read just a little, sometimes a lot, depending on the mercy of God.” (p 22)

Good books are for Teresa, as they are for me, wonderful spiritual companions. I think you know what one of my favorites to take to prayer is! What about for you? What book is your spiritual companion and why? If not a book, what is your spiritual companion in the sense of what Teresa is saying here?

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Praying with the Sisters podcast is in experimentation mode! We’re trying out an evening time slot and a slightly new format. Join us today at 6 p.m. Central Time (time zone converter). Join us at at http://anunslife.org/live.

A Nun’s Life is hosting a live podcast on Saint Teresa of Avila tomorrow evening — Thursday, October 15, at 7 p.m. Central Time (time zone converter). Sister Maxine and I are delighted to announce that we will be joined by Mirabai Starr, author of a fresh translation of Saint Teresa’s writings, Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life and The Interior Castle.

Mirabai is a writer, translator, speaker, and teacher. She has also translated Dark Night of the Soul by Saint John of the Cross. You can learn more about Mirabai and her work at her website.

We’ll talk with Mirabai and with our listeners about who Saint Teresa is, her writings, her thoughts on prayer, and who she is for us today. Since this will be a live broadcast, we can take your questions and comments throughout the show. Join us and invite your friends!

Celebrate the Feast of Saint Teresa of Avila
Visit aNunsLife.org/live
October 15
7-8 p.m. Central Time

Information on how to listen to the podcast and how to participate can be found at aNunsLife.org/live. If you have any questions about logistics, please let me know.

To get us started, let us know what questions you’d like us to address. What would you like to know about Teresa or her writings?

This is the final in a series of three posts on Saint Teresa of Avila. The whole piece was originally published in VISION, the Catholic Religious Discernment Guide.

Read the first part My BFF is a 16th century nun, Teresa of Avila and the second part Teresa of Avila’s desire to give her life to God.

A leap of faith

Teresa spent a year and a half living with the nuns. Still, she resisted becoming a nun, saying, “I could not be persuaded to be one” (Life 3.2). Though obviously attracted to the life, Teresa needed time to adjust to the possibility of God calling her to religious life. Like Teresa we are often given the same challenge of imagining our life in a different way. Teresa says little about how or even if she resolved her questions, but we do know that she decided to become a nun anyway. She was able to set aside her doubts and fears and respond to God’s call.

This didn’t mean that Teresa’s life was easy once she made the decision to become a nun. Explaining her call to family and friends proved to be a challenge. Her father so loved her that he couldn’t imagine letting her leave for the convent until after he died. Nothing Teresa said or did could change his mind. But Teresa wished to remain true to the call from God. She knew herself well enough to know that if she didn’t pursue God’s call now, she might never do it. So early one morning, Teresa quietly left her father’s house for the convent: “I remember, clearly and truly, that when I left my father’s house I felt that separation so keenly that the feeling will not be greater, I think, when I die. For it seemed that every bone in my body was being sundered” (Life 4.1).

The pain which Teresa wrote about here is real. Whether it be family or friends, careers or possessions that we want to hold onto, God’s call is all-encompassing. It is a call to be open to radical change in our lives, if that’s what God asks of us.

Filled with a new joy

Teresa entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation in 1533, took the habit, and eventually professed solemn vows as a Carmelite nun. Her initial struggle gave way to a lasting joy: “[God] gave me such great happiness at being in the religious state of life that it never left me up to this day, and God changed the dryness my soul experienced into the greatest tenderness. All the things of religious life delighted me, and it is true that sometimes while sweeping, during the hours I used to spend in self-indulgence and self-adornment, I realized that I was free of all that and experienced a new joy that amazed me.” (Life 4.2)

When I first began considering religious life, I never would have imagined I’d experience this “new joy” of which Teresa wrote. But the experience of responding to God’s call and eventually professing my vows as an IHM Sister was a joy that I’d never felt before. I felt like a new person, yet more myself than ever.

Trusting in God Always

All along the way, it helped to have Teresa by my side. Today she is still very much a companion. Sometimes I turn to her writings for encouragement, other times for help in a pastoral or theological quandary. Whenever I have questions about prayer or don’t quite understand how the Spirit is moving in my life, I pray and seek guidance from Teresa. Even Teresa’s own tangles with God (once, when complaining of her suffering, Teresa heard Jesus respond, “This is how I treat my friends” to which Teresa rejoined, “No wonder you have so few!”) give me assurance that my struggles are not out of the ordinary and that there is a way through the darkness.

Although I have known Teresa for many years now, I continue to discover new things about her. Recently, I read a book of her letters. The letters reveal a woman who was deeply committed to a contemplative life but who was, of necessity, engaged in what one commentator calls “a maelstrom of activities.” Sometimes this maelstrom got the best of her. Wrote Teresa, “With so many duties and troubles … I wonder how I’m able to bear them all” (Letter 39 in The Collected Letters of St. Teresa of Avila).

As a religious I can identify with this constant balancing of prayer, ministry, and community life. It is both a joy and a challenge to live this life. Religious life calls us to our best selves and often summons strengths and gifts that we didn’t even know we had. I’m sure on more than one occasion Teresa was surprised to see how things worked out or what paths opened up that she could have hardly imagined. Perhaps some of the best advice that Teresa has ever given to me is to trust always in God, even when things are tough or unclear. She reminds me that determination is indeed a virtue and a necessity in the life of faith.

“Have great confidence,” Teresa wrote, “for it is necessary not to hold back one’s desires, but to believe in God that if we try we shall little by little, even though it may not be soon, reach the state the saints did with his help. For if they had never determined to desire and seek this state little by little in practice they would never have mounted so high.” (Life 13.2)

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What struck you about Teresa’s life and her desire to trust always in God? If you could ask Teresa anything, what would it be?

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Join Sister Maxine and me for prayer today at noon Central Time at http://anunslife.org/live.

This is the second in a series of three posts on Saint Teresa of Avila. The whole piece was originally published in VISION, the Catholic Religious Discernment Guide.

Read yesterday’s post, which is part one in the series:  My BFF is a 16th century nun, Teresa of Avila

Doing Something Big for God

One of Teresa’s first mentions of wanting to give her life to God comes in a story from her childhood. Teresa, at the tender age of seven, was inspired to do something big for God. We’re not talking here about making crosses out of clothes pins. Teresa decided that she and her brother ought to become martyrs because that was the quickest way to heaven (Life 1.4). So Teresa and her brother set out in search of unbelievers so that they could “beg them, out of love of God, to cut off our heads.” But no sooner had the children started their journey than an uncle caught sight of them and promptly returned them to their mother. Teresa surrendered her dream of martyrdom, concluding that “having parents seemed to us the greatest obstacle.”

She resigned herself to an ordinary childhood. Still, she clung to the desire, however innocent and immaturely expressed, to do something big for God. She took consolation in pretending to be a nun: “When I played with other girls I enjoyed it when we pretended we were nuns in a monastery, and it seemed to me that I desired to be one, although not as much as I desired [becoming a martyr or a hermit]” (Life 1.6).

This episode in Teresa’s life reflects the difficulty of feeling called to something, but not knowing exactly what. When I felt called I thought maybe it meant joining the Jesuit Volunteer Corps or dedicating myself to marriage and raising a family. Not convinced that religious life was for me, I tested many alternatives. But no matter how good they were or how much I welcomed them, they didn’t seem to fit.

No substitute for real nuns

Just as Teresa had romantic notions about what it meant to be a martyr or a nun in the 16th century, so too I had some skewed ideas about religious life in this century. My ideas came from a number of sources; actual experiences with nuns as an adult wasn’t one of them. It occurred to me that I hadn’t considered religious life before because I didn’t know what it was about. My lack of accurate information left me with a superficial understanding of religious life and the women and men who lived it.

Teresa’s life shows the importance of first-hand experience with people in religious life. When Teresa was twelve, her mom died, and she was raised by her father and older sister. When her sister left the house to get married, Teresa’s father decided to send Teresa to the convent school to be taught by the nuns and live with them. Teresa wrote of her initial unhappiness with this, mostly because she was afraid the nuns knew that she didn’t always live an exemplary life. Within days, however, her unhappiness gave way to peace, and she began to feel at home.

“My soul,” she wrote, “began to return to the good habits of early childhood, and I saw the great favor God accords to anyone placed with good companions.” (Life 2.8) While living with the nuns, Teresa found one who became a mentor and friend. This nun talked to Teresa about the things of God and even shared with Teresa her own path to religious life. This personal experience lead Teresa to free herself “from the antagonism that I felt strongly within myself toward becoming a nun” (Life 3.1). Still, Teresa notes, “I had no desire to be a nun, and I asked God not to give me this vocation.” (Life 3.2)

Throughout my discernment about religious life, I took great comfort in Teresa’s words. How many times did I pray to let this vocation pass me by? Yet even then, I felt as attracted to the life as I was terrified by it. What kept me going were the IHM sisters around me who encouraged me and who, by their lives, showed me the great gift and adventure of religious life. Had I not had a direct experience with nuns, I might never have been open to the possibility of religious life.

* * *

In what ways have you tested out your desire to give your life to God or to a vocation like marriage or education or art or parenthood? What words of wisdom do you hear from Teresa in pursuing this desire?

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Join Sister Maxine and me for prayer today at noon Central Time at http://anunslife.org/live.

The feast of Saint Teresa of Avila is just around the corner on October 15. I am delighted because Teresa is such an important person in my life. I never had any idea that someone who lived in the 16th century could become a close companion in my own life today. It underscores the power and presence of the Communion of Saints.

In honor of Saint Teresa, I am devoting this week’s posts to her. What follows is a piece I wrote last year for VISION, the Catholic Religious Discernment Guide sponsored by the National Religious Vocation Conference and published by TrueQuest Communications.

Introduction

As a 21st century nun ministering in the digital world, I try to stay on top of the latest technology so that I can best serve the people who visit my website, aNunsLife.org. But when it comes to living religious life, I’m old-school. One of my greatest mentors is Teresa of Avila, a 16th century Carmelite nun from a small town in Spain. Teresa is best known for her writings on prayer and reforming the Carmelite order. She is venerated today as a great saint and Doctor of the Church.

Personal Connection to Teresa

My first encounter with Teresa was in grade school, when I needed to take a saint’s name for Confirmation. Teresa seemed as good a saint as any. I chose her name and then pretty much forgot about her.

But Teresa did not forget about me. Over the years Teresa remained with me, waiting, it seemed, for me to come by her convent cell and chat awhile.

That day came one Fall morning in a graduate theology class in which I was introduced to Teresa’s writing. I took an immediate liking to Teresa. She wrote of ordinary, everyday stuff and of profound theological truths. I discovered that Teresa was a wise woman from whom I could learn much about the spiritual life. At that time, I had no idea how important Teresa would be for me in the months and years ahead, when my world would be turned upside down by the possibility that maybe, just maybe, God was calling me.

I first read Teresa’s classics, Interior Castle and Way of Perfection, because I needed to write a paper for a class. But soon I began to realize that Teresa’s words were there not just for me to study. I felt a personal connection. Through her writing Teresa was alive to me. She gave me insights not only into our shared Catholic faith but into my own self and how I was living the Gospel.

Later in my studies, when I began considering religious life, I returned to Teresa. I wanted not to study her writings, but to see what she was like as a nun. I wondered if Teresa had any of the same questions as I now had. Did she know for certain that God was calling her to religious life? Did she resist or doubt or panic at the thought? Hoping to get a glimpse into how Teresa realized her call from God, I turned to her more autobiographical work, The Book of My Life.

To be continued tomorrow … Teresa of Avila’s desire to give her life to God

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How is Teresa of Avila present in your own life? What would you like to know about Teresa?

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Join Sister Maxine and me for prayer today at noon Central Time at http://anunslife.org/live.

Happy Feast of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux! Saint Thérèse, also known as the “Little Flower”, was a Carmelite nun and writer. She is patron of missionaries and a Doctor of the Church. She lived from 1873 – 1897, dying when she was not even 24. What is so remarkable about this young woman is that is is precisely through her “little way” that she became so “great”. “She never went on missions, never founded a religious order, never performed great works. The only book of hers, published after her death, was an brief edited version of her journal called The Story of a Soul … But within 28 years of her death, the public demand was so great that she was canonized.”

Read more about Thérèse’s life at catholic.org.

Here’s a great quote from Saint Thérèse … and a challenging one!

“I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul.”

What “little way” do you practice in your own life?

***

Join Sister Maxine and me for prayer on
this Feast day
at 12:00 p.m. noon Central Time (UTC-5)
at anunslife.org/live

Happy Feast of the Archangels! Michael, Gabriel, Raphael be blessed! I must confess I’m not one for run-of-the-mill angels (especially the little baby-faced ones which kind of scare me) but archangels? That’s my kind of angel! So who are these three that we celebrate today?

Well first, by way of information, an archangel is a chief angel. There are typically 3 archangels that we honor by name in the Christian tradition — Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. There may be up to 7 archangels in total (including Uriel who is honored in the Eastern Christian tradition) but this area seems to be a bit fuzzy in our tradition. The 3 archangels are honored in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

19th century Russian Orthodox icon of the Archangels. Michael is in the center, behind the circular mandorla of Christ. Gabriel and Raphael stand in front to the left and right respectively. Tempera and gold leaf on wood

Michael is considered the leader of the heavenly host, “one of the chief princes”. He is a patron of soldiers. His name in Hebrew means “Who is like God?” He is mentioned by name in three books of the Bible: Daniel, Jude, and Revelations. He is patron saint of many including soldiers, Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), and sailors.

Gabriel appears in the book of Daniel where he helped by explaining the prophet’s visions. Gabriel is probably best know as the angel of the Annunciation who appeared to Mary announcing that she would give birth to the Savior. He also announced John the Baptist’s birth to Zachariah. His name means “God is my strength”. Gabriel is patron saint of broadcasters (radio, TV, etc.) among others.

Raphael appears in the Book of Tobit where he heals Tobit of his blindness and helps Tobiah and Sarah. His name means “God heals”. Raphael is the patron of people who are blind, of healers, and of happy meetings.

We honor the archangels along with saints and other angels by remembering them and praying with them. Just like we might ask a friend to pray for us, or turn to someone who has “been there, done that” in some particular situation we are facing, we look to the archangels for support and for their presence. In early Jewish literature archangels are called “angels of the presence” which I think well describes how they are in our life.

How have you encountered these “angels of presence” in your life?

***

Join us for prayer at 12:00 p.m. noon Central Time (UTC-5)
at anunslife.org/live for a live podcast.

September 8th is the feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. It caught me off guard a bit today because I’m used to seeing the feast listed as “the birth of the BVM” not “the birthday of the BVM”. A minor change of words, but enough to throw me. When I saw “birthday” I immediately had images of a young child celebrating their birthday with cake, balloons, presents, and friends. Juxtaposing that image with the great BVM, the Blessed Virgin Mary, seemed almost sacrilegious.

The Birth of the Virgin, a painting by Francisco de Zurbarán

Yet … it got me thinking. First Mary didn’t (and probably doesn’t even now) spend her days frozen in an untouchable marble pose. She was a person like you and I (albeit without sin) who had a life, daily chores, friends, field trips, and other ordinary “stuff” of life. She also had a childhood, and parents Ann and Joachim. Granted, her life — and any celebration of a birthday she might have had — would have looked very different from ours today, but I can’t help imagining a little Mary running around with her family and friends, enjoying a feast or something to celebrate her life. It gives me pause because I don’t ordinarily see Mary this way, as a child doing normal kid things. I usually only see her as a young woman growing in her relationship with God through her “Yes” to bear the Son of God all the way through the Pentecost event and her encounter with the Holy Spirit. But a child?

Today I think I’m going to spend more time getting to know Mary through this other image, a child full of life and mischief and fun and energy! And I’m going go find my copy of Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints by Sister Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, in which “Johnson offers an interpretation of Mary that is theologically sound, spiritually empowering, ethically challenging, socially liberating, and ecumenically fruitful.” I’ll be interested to see what she says of Mary’s childhood.

How do you think of Mary? Is there a particular image or title of Mary that speaks to you the most? How do you relate to Mary in day to day life?

Join Sister Maxine for prayer on this feast day today at 12 noon (Central Time/UTC-5) at http://anunslife.org/live.

A meditation today from Saint Teresa of Avila …

Let darkness be my light;
may my greatness lie in the lowest place.
Send me up the short, steep path;
make the cross my glory.

- from Life of Saint Teresa of Avila

What thoughts or images emerge as you ponder this quote?

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

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

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

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

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

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?

A very interesting article by Dawn Eden of The Dawn Patrol blog and William Doino Jr. has just been published: Catholics and the Culture of Hate: A plea for an end to our culture wars. Kudos to the authors and to Busted Halo for addressing this issue.

The issue in question is how nasty Catholics can get when discussing issues related to the Catholic faith. The authors refer to this as an “intramural Catholic culture war”. This war not only makes casualties of fellow Catholics but also of how the Catholic Church is regarded by others.

It is not pretty and, more importantly, its viciousness serves only to confirm to those outside the Church that, while we call ourselves Christians, we are unable to live out the most basic precepts of Christian compassion and charity.

Disagreement and debate, like the authors wrote, are not themselves bad things. But engaging in them out of hate and one-upmanship is a big problem. There’s nothing Catholic or Jesus-like in that.

I’m going to take a good look at who I chose to follow in my social media world and make sure that the dominant tone is charity — no matter how clever or intelligent the media source might be. And I’m also going to be vigilant about ensuring that A Nun’s Life is a welcome, hospitable place for all visitors. (P.S. Thanks, David, for hooking me up with this article.)

From the Canticle of Zechariah prayed during Morning Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours …

“In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

Every morning I pray the Canticle of Zechariah which is the song sung by Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth, praising God for God’s work throughout history and through their newborn son John who would become the Baptist. These verses always fill me with hope and a lightness as I begin the day and can see dawn literally breaking in through the tree branches beyond my window.

What do you hear in these verses and how can this “word” of God carry you through today?

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, a Catholic feast day that originated with Saint Faustina Kowalska. Saint Faustina was a Catholic nun belonging to the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. She experienced visions Jesus Christ including a message about spreading the word about God’s mercy to the whole world. When Pope John Paul II canonized Sister Faustina, he made Divine Mercy Sunday part of the church’s liturgical calendar.

The scripture readings today are beautiful and offer a kind of “action plan” for our Christian journey. Visit the blog From the Pews in the Back to read my guest post A Divine Action Plan, a short reflections on the readings for Divine Mercy Sunday.

Since today is a day to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, I want to explore a bit more what “mercy” means. It’s one of those words that is fairly ordinary and unassuming, yet loaded with meaning. It is simple yet it is life-changing.

Mercy.

My first research destination: Merriam-Webster dictionary

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French merci, from Medieval Latin merced-, merces, from Latin, price paid, wages, from merc-, merx merchandise

1 a: compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one’s power; also: lenient or compassionate treatment b: imprisonment rather than death imposed as penalty for first-degree murder

2 a: a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion b: a fortunate circumstance

3: compassionate treatment of those in distress

My next stop: Theological Dictionary (Rahner and Vorgrimler)

Mercy. Readiness to help those in need. The Old Testament expresses God’s mercy chiefly by the verbs meaning to “be motherly” and to “bend down”. Throughout the Old Testament, assurances of God’s mercy, graciousness, and fidelity to his covenant outbalance all references … to the wrath of God; these qualities dominate the New Testament conception of God….

Human mercy, according to Scripture, is not measured by any display of feeling but by concrete proofs.

Which brings me to my final research destination: The Works of Mercy

The Corporal Works of Mercy

• feed the hungry
• shelter the homeless
• clothe the naked
• visit the sick and imprisoned
• bury the dead
• give alms to the poor

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

• instruct
• advise
• console
• comfort
• forgive
• bear wrongs patiently

What does mercy mean to you? Which word or phrase above resonates with you, draws you, calls for some kind of response from you?

Welcome to the first ever A Nun’s Life photo caption contest. On my neighborhood walk yesterday I discovered the Blessed Virgin Mary in the front yard of an apartment building. The photo begs for a caption so I thought I’d toss it out to you to come up with the best caption for this picture.

Here’s what you do:

1. Pray and meditate on the perfect caption for this photo. (Suggestion: Befriend the BVM. She will help you with ideas and inspiration.)
2. Submit your entry by writing your name/pseudonym, real email (so A Nun’s Life can contact potential winners — enter where it says “email” — never made public), website (optional), and caption in the comment box below this post.
3. Check back often to see other divinely-inspired caption entries.

The contest will run through this Friday, March 27 midnight (CST).

Over the weekend, my nun Sister Maxine and I will go over the entries and select the finalists. Then on Tuesday, March 31 (one week from today), we will announce the finalists. You will have 24 hours to vote for your favorite one. The caption with the most votes wins! The prize? Well, that has not been decided. Far more important than the prize will be the personal pride and joy you will feel at winning this contest!

In my last post, I noted that I am giving myself to more spiritual reading this Lent and beyond. I think I found the book that I’d like to begin with: The Saints’ Guide to Happiness: Practical Lessons in the Life of the Spirit by Robert Ellsberg.

The suggestion to read The Saints’ Guide to Happiness came from my nun, Sister Mary Ann Untener, IHM. Listen as she describes the book and the impact it has had on her. (Please note: this was filmed next door to a room full of nuns playing Wii and other games. So there’s a bit of rowdiness in the background!)

The other books mentioned by Sister Mary Ann are as follows:

• The Way of a Pilgrim
• The Seven Storey Mountain

Sister Mary Ann also mentioned her brother Bishop Ken Untener and the author Henri Nouwen.

Lent is here and all I want to do is shout the A-word! If you are recoiling in horror at this, then let me clarify.

During the Church season of Lent, Catholics refrain from using the word alleluia until Easter. The word means “Praise be to God!” and is not only an expression of joy but should permeate all of one’s life. As Saint Augustine wrote, “The Christian should be an alleluia from head to foot!” Because Easter is a celebration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, it is especially dramatic to hear alleluia song after fasting from using the word for 40 days.

Lent is one of my favorite seasons, and I rejoice in this time that the Church sets aside to reflect, repent, and renew. One important thing that I am going to do this season is to return to my spiritual reading. It’s a good thing for all of us to read regularly books or articles that inspire us and teach us about God and the spiritual life. But it’s all too easy to put that book aside as soon as life gets busy, which is what has happened with me. I miss my spiritual reading and so I’m going to make a point of returning to it and incorporating what I read in my life and prayer.

I’m also going to fast from using the car as my main source of travel. I haven’t quite worked this out, but I am going to walk and bike more for local trips instead of using the car. And I hope to get my car usage down to once or twice a week at most.

What are your hopes for this Lenten season? Are you taking on anything or fasting from anything? Let us know in the comments below.

And, if you’d like to know more about the season, my friend Joe (a Catholic catechist) put together a great Lent FAQ video.

At long last I am returning to a book about Saint Teresa of Avila that I picked up last year. It’s called Interior Castle Explored: St. Teresa’s Teaching on the Life of Deep Union With God by Sister Ruth Burrows, OCD, a Carmelite nun in Norfolk. I am a big fan of both Teresa’s and Sister Ruth’s writings. But I don’t always take the time that I need to do some spiritual reading. So I took out the book again and started reading it again from the beginning.

In Chapter One, Sister Ruth quotes a poem by Nikos Kazantzakis, a Cretan poet whose birthday, coincidentally, is today. Sister Ruth writes, “I do not know his beliefs but, as it stands, the poem wonderfully expresses what I believe.”

Blowing through the heaven and earth, and in our hearts and in the heart of every living thing, is a gigantic breath — a great Cry — which we call God. Plant life wished to continue its motionless sleep next to stagnant waters, but the Cry leaped up within it and violently shook its roots: ‘Away, let go of the earth, walk!’ Had the tree been able to think and judge, it would have cried, ‘I don’t want to. What are you urging me to do? You are demanding the impossible!’

But the Cry, without pity, kept shaking its roots and shouting, ‘Away! Let go of the earth, walk!’

It shouted in this way for thousands of eons; and lo, as a result of desire and struggle, life escaped the motionless tree and was liberated….

The poem continues, but my reflections remained with this first part. How timely it is in my own life as well as in the life of the Church as we approach the wonderful season of Lent!

Some thoughts …

• What is the great Cry that I hear in my own life?
• What might God be asking me to let go of?
• In what ways am I tethered by roots that keep me from letting go and walking free?
• Is there something that I’ve been putting off for “thousands of eons”, thinking it impossible, that actually is possible?

Today is the World Day for Consecrated Life. It was initiated by the Vatican in 1997 and is an opportunity to celebrate the life and work of women and men religious and to pray for vocations to consecrated life.

In a recent news release, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, OFM Cap., chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, noted that “We Americans owe a huge debt of gratitude to the religious in our nation. Their loyal service to our church and country are unparalleled…. The presence of both apostolic and cloistered religious in our nation has been a source of spiritual comfort to many people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. I don’t know of any other country that can make such a boast.”

A Nun’s Life is participating in today’s celebration by hosting a “social hour” with people discerning God’s call and with a guest blog post at From the Pews in the Back.

1. The social hour is on the Vocation Forum at 8 p.m. EST tonight. All are welcome. To participate in the discussion, you have to be a member of the forum (free and easy to register). Once you are a member, look for the topic “February 8 Social Hour” in the discussion area. Also, I put together some Suggestions for a “Live” Discussion.
2. On the blog From the Pews in the Back I wrote a post today called For the Sake of the Gospel. It’s based on the Sunday readings and talks about my own experience of being called to consecrated life. Stop by and offer your comments.

Have a blessed day!

It’s not easy writing a blog post when your heart is heavy. This morning I woke to find out that two of my dear IHM Sisters died. One sister I’ve known since I entered the community. She lived at the Motherhouse in Monroe and always made sure to keep an eye out for new members to make sure they were doing okay. She used to play cards with me and other nuns, and took great pride in letting others know that she was teaching the young sisters Spite and Malice! The other sister was the sibling of a nun that I lived with while I was in formation. I rarely saw her without her smiling or laughing or having a twinkle of mischief in her eye!

As I think about and pray for my sisters, I am reminded of my first experience ever of dealing with the death of a Catholic sister. When I lived in Toronto with the Loretto Sisters (IBVM), a sister from the house I lived at died. Sister Emma was a fireball, a woman in love with life and with God. She was a singer, and tried to get my friend Michelle and I to sing but there was little hope for either of us! Her death was a shock to all of us, and it broke all of our hearts. I learned so much from the sisters of that house of how to care for one another, how to celebrate and to mourn Emma’s death, and how to place one’s sorrow and one’s trust in God.

Sister Emma’s wake was held in our house — it was a big convent, but still felt a little weird to me because I’d never lived in a house where a wake was held. When the funeral home brought the body to the house, the sisters welcomed the body at the door and prayed as the casket was brought in. The sisters sat vigil with the body, sometimes praying and crying quietly, other times chatting about wonderful Emma stories! The lay women of the house (we were mostly grad students boarding with the sisters while we worked on our degrees) were welcomed into this holy mourning and celebrating. We too sat vigil, we served at the funeral Mass, we buried our sister, and we celebrated as Emma would have wanted us to.

The experience of knowing Sister Emma and of journeying with the Loretto Sisters through her death touched me deeply. It was probably one of the most formative experiences of my life. It taught me the meaning of sisterhood, and it illustrated for me — in full color — what it means to give one’s life, and one’s death, totally to God.

Please pray for my IHM Sisters Alice and Bea who are “dwelling now in light yet ever near”… and  for my Sister Marie, Alice’s sibling, and all of those who loved these women and were touched by them.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.

Is God really calling me? How do I figure out what God is trying to say to me? Am I the only one who feels this way?

If you have some of these questions, especially if you are kinda, sorta attracted to (but simultaneously terrified of) a call to consecrated life in the Catholic Church, then the Vocation Forum is for you. What is the Vocation Forum, you ask? It’s a discussion area for people who are discerning God’s call in their life. It’s a place to share vocation resources and questions with other discerners. It’s a fairly new forum and one that we hope will grow and continue to be a welcoming, supportive place for people discerning. Got a friend or daughter or coworker who is thinking about religious life or wondering what their call is? Send them over to the Vocation Forum.

Occasionally I or my nun Sister Maxine Kollasch, IHM, will be on the forum to support you and to figure out any weird technical issues, but mainly this is your place, your conversation.

Not sure if this is for you? Well, give it a shot. A good way to get to know the forum will be at our live “social hour” this Sunday, February 8, 2009, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. It’s an opportunity to get to know others and to discuss thoughts and questions around discerning God’s call.

You need to be a member of the forum to participate, but not to worry, membership is free and easy to do. If you have any questions, just let me know. Feel free to comment below. Also, if you have any other requests or suggestions around how A Nun’s Life can help with vocational questions, issues, etc. please let us know!

And if you’d like to check out other resources that help in discerning your calling, visit Catholics on Call or VISION Vocation website.

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 …

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.

Question from Lou …

what is the reasoning behind a nun or sister choosing a religious name? where does the significance come from? how is a religious name determined? thanks, lou

In the Catholic tradition as well as in many other religious traditions and cultural traditions, the taking on of a new name is symbolic of entering into a new place in one’s life. In Scripture, there are many times when a person takes a new name. For example, Abram was given the name Abraham and Sarai the name Sarah (Genesis 17) to indicate that God had called them to a new place in their relationship with God and in their role in human history. Jesus called Simon to follow him and gave him a new name: Cephas which translates to Peter (John 1:42).

Taking on a new name is also common in our Catholic sacramental tradition. When a person is baptized or confirmed, she or he takes on a new name symbolizing the new life they have entered into.

Many religious communities required and continue to require new entrants to take a new name as a sign of their new life as a religious. Other communities allow a person to keep their baptismal name since our vocation is intimately linked to our baptismal call.

From what I’ve heard from my community and others (my religious name is my baptismal name), a religious name was assigned in a variety of ways. Some new sisters were allowed to suggest their name preference but it was ultimately up to the Superior of the community or another leader to decide upon the name. The name typically had to be a saint’s name or a title of Mary or Christ. Sisters might suggest as their preference a favorite saint or the saint that their parish was named after or the name of a parent (if it were also a saint’s name). In other cases, sisters were simply assigned a name — sometimes it was the name of a sister who had died in the congregation. For congregations like mine, the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, it was common that all the names include “Mary” as the first part of the name in honor of our namesake.

I’d love to hear from other Sisters and religious, especially those who experienced the name change tradition.

Today the Sisters of Charity of New York, my IHM nun Sister Maxine Kollasch, and myself will be here on A Nun’s Life blog from 2-4 p.m. EST for a “live” discussion and Q&A on Doubt the movie. This discussion takes place right here on this page in the comment section (below this post).

I asked the Sisters of Charity a few of my own questions. Sister Connie, the community’s archivist, graciously responded.

Sister Julie: Who are the Sisters of Charity of New York? What is your spirituality and mission/ministry?

Sister Connie: The Sisters of Charity of New York are a Roman Catholic congregation of vowed religious women founded by Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. We are in the tradition of St. Vincent de Paul and from our earliest foundation our mission was to serve the poor of every type who may require our assistance. In former times our ministries centered around child care, hospital work and education. Now, however, our mission to serve the poor brings us into many different ministries. No matter where we are, we strive to bring our Logo, “Living Lives of Love” into practical loving service.

Sister Julie: What are your overall impressions of Doubt the movie?

Sister Connie: I loved the movie DOUBT! I thought it was an example of suburb, talented, acting set against a background of spectacular technical effects. All the elements of good theater combined to create a great fiction film.

Sister Julie: How did you feel the Sisters of Charity were portrayed?

Sister Connie: I thought the Sisters of Charity were portrayed as a typical Religious Community of that time, 1964. We were portrayed as educators and as a community of religious women living together. As an educator, Sister Aloysius was dedicated not only to the academic excellence of the school, but also to the protective care of each of her students, especially the most vulnerable. As a Sister in Community her loving attention to the ailing Sister Veronica was and is typical of our concern for one another.

The film was dedicated to one of our Sisters, Sister Margaret McEntee who taught the author, John Patrick Shanley in the first grade. Sister Margaret remains today a living example both of a Catholic educator, and Community woman.

Sister Julie: What was it like to meet Meryl Streep?

Sister Connie: I was introduced to Meryl Streep when she visited our Archives. Of course, I was thrilled! But on a deeper level, I was impressed with her friendly attitude and her desire to meet and talk with as many Sisters as she could. She visited two of our Retirement Houses, ate and chatted and had her picture taken with the Sisters. She also visited the Convent where Sister Margaret McEntee lives. She allowed us to take pictures and posed with endless patience. On another note, when she visited the Archives, and we showed her the clothing worn in 1964, she was very interested. She said that she would like to make her own shawl.

The Sisters have a webpage specifically on the Sisters of Charity of New York and Doubt.

We’ll be here from 2-4 EST but feel free to begin posting your questions or comments here. For those who submitted questions earlier, I’ll pass them along to the Sisters. Please extend a warm welcome to the Sisters of Charity of New York, Sister Connie Brennan, SC, Sister Regina Bechtle, SC, and Sister Mary McCormick, SC. All three will be responding via Sister Regina’s comments.

Tomorrow (Thursday) A Nun’s Life is hosting a blog discussion on the move Doubt from 2-4 p.m. EST. The Sisters of Charity of New York will be joining us to discuss the movie with us.

I wanted to offer a few of my thoughts and questions regarding the movie Doubt but I find that my time is running out as I must get to the airport momentarily to fly from San Francisco to Detroit. So instead, I’m turning to Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Culver City, CA. She is the author of the blog Sr. Rose Goes to the Movies.

Sister Rose wrote a thoughtful review of Doubt the Movie. Here’s a short excerpt but be sure to read the whole thing.

The atmosphere of the film is cold and stark: December in a frozen, urban landscape is bleak. The emotional, rational, spiritual state of doubt can be chilly: a dark night of the soul, the revelation or realization of doubt, that makes us take action and ask questions, that challenges the comfort of our certainty, is a cold, and at times, lonely journey.

As the writings of St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of the Child Jesus, and Mother Teresa attest, doubt happens, and however painful, can be a source of honesty and ultimately, spiritual growth.

The United States Catholic Bishops also has a review of Doubt the Movie.

You can also get a copy of the original play Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley.