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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Welcome to our first ever food podcast, a podcast that features you! your favorite food, meal prayers, recipes, music, and food stories.

On this our inaugural podcast we celebrate Thanksgiving food and everything related to it. Our podcast format is a bit different from our other podcast because the idea as well as much of the content comes from you, our listeners and members of our community here at A Nun’s Life Ministry.

And you’ll be hearing voices other than Sister Maxine and myself. We’ve got a few folks scheduled and we’d be delight to hear from anyone who’d like to comment or ask a question about whatever we are discussing or who would like to offer their Thanksgiving-related story or recipe.

After the show, we’ll post recipes in the comment box below. If you’d like to share your favorite Thanksgiving recipe, please share it below.

First we’ll have our normal prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) followed by the Thanksgiving Food Podcast starts at 6:30 p.m.

The fun starts at http://anunslife.org/live

See you soon!

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

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

Headlines

Man Robs Nun, Earns Free Trip to Hell

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

Thief stole nun’s purse but not her faith

Not so fond of this one though nice attempt.

Quotable Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

* * *

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

After every evening podcast for the last couple of weeks, we’ve ended up chatting with folks about food — usually because we’ve either just had dinner or are preparing dinner. So we thought we’d try out a podcast that features food! And since U.S. Thanksgiving is around the corner — and it is the biggest food holiday in these parts — we thought we’d focus on Thanksgiving food.

The podcast is going to be on Tuesday, November 24, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time (your time zone), right after Praying with the Sisters podcast at 6:00. Join us at http://anunslife.org/live .

For the show, we need to hear from YOU about all things Thanksgiving food-related:

1. Your favorite recipe (appetizer, entree, side dish, dessert or beverage) and any story or tradition associated with your recipe
2. A prayer of thanksgiving or a meal prayer that you use at Thanksgiving time
3. Music or video related to Thanksgiving holiday or thanksgiving in general
4. Any story about the Thanksgiving holiday

Each person can then talk about their item on the air with us. You’ll need to call into TalkShoe by phone at 724-444-7444 and enter call ID 60385# or by using ShoePhone which is basically calling via the Internet. If you’re not sure how this works, stick around after prayer on Monday evening and we can try it out with you. If you want to use an image or video with your item, all you need is the URL address of the image or video. You can upload either to your Facebook account if you have one or Flickr for images and YouTube for video.

Everyone is welcome, whether you have something for “show-and-tell” or not! Listen in and chat with us in the chat room!

For those of you who would like to prepare something, let us know letting us know what it is (or at least what category from above) so we can schedule everyone in. If it’s a recipe, you can email it to us or post it on Tuesday’s blog post.

Look forward to hearing from you! It will be a food and thanksgiving podcast festival! Any other suggestions or questions, just let us know!

Here’s a preview of what Sister Maxine and I are bringing …

• yummy and easy cornbread recipe
• a story about nearly being arrested due to a turkey
• religious symbolism around Thanksgiving
• a story about a Thanksgiving blowout
• discussion question: what do vegetarians do at Thanksgiving?

comic by nataliedee.com

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

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

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