I was out with friends on New Year’s Eve and they joked saying, you are like the most interesting nun in the world”, a shout-out of course to the clever Dos Equis commercials featuring Jonathan Goldsmith as the Most Interesting Man in the World. I had to laugh because there is some truth in that! Not that I’m particularly interesting (after all, I was in bed by 11 p.m. that night), but there is something about NUN-NESS that is infinitely intriguing and captivating.

It has nothing to do with what we wear, although I did once wear an Easter hat that caused quite a stir. And it has nothing to do with what we do (I have ministered in bicycle stores and bars). I think it has much to do with seeing things and making choices that our society deems crazy and turning them into a blessing.

• making lifelong vows of  obedience, poverty, and celibacy
• making everyday and life decisions in common
• upholding the dignity of the “least” (e.g., the poor, the outcast, the enemy, the oppressed)
• holding secular and sacred not as opposites but as one
• believing that through the cross comes the resurrection

Even as a nun of 10+ years now, I am still wholly compelled by all that is NUN. It is truly an adventure that engages all aspects of my being — mind, body, spirit, memory, hopes, dreams — and is crazy goodness! What is cool is that I find that so many nuns are like this. Just listen to their stories of how they have lived. Read the histories and foundation stories of congregations. What’s not to love?!

As we head into the new year, I encourage you to tap into your inner nun and allow this new year to take on all sorts of awesome adventures that thoroughly engage you.

And in this spirit, “Stay thirsty, my friends!”

P.S. Some advice for the new year …

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “nun”? Risk-takers? Innovators? Entrepreneurs?

The Oblate Sisters of Providence -- Mother Mary Lange, the founder of this religious community, is another foremother you should know! www.oblatesisters.com

The more I study the history of sisters, the more I see the truth of those images. A number of scholars are helping bring those images to light. One is Margaret Susan Thompson, a historian at Syracuse University. In her work, she shows how risk taking and innovation, as well as lots of persistence, are part of the very nature of religious life.

Sister Julie and I often talk about religious life as an adventure, and history helps us see that it always has been!

Here are some examples that Prof. Thompson uses in her discussion about religious life in her article “Discovering Foremothers.” (To listen to a 25-min based on this article, click here.)

What examples come to mind for you?

Mary Ward, [a] seventeenth-century Englishwoman … founded the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a society she envisioned as a female counterpart to the Jesuits: without habits, convents, or fealty to local bishops. [She] was imprisoned by one Pope and who walked hundreds of miles to Rome to win the patronage of another and whose descendants did not … [gain] permission to acknowledge her as their founder until the 1800.

Katharine Drexel, an American … used the millions of dollars left to her use by her banker father (a partner of J. P. Morgan) to found and fund the works of a community dedicated solely to “Indians and Colored People” and who, because her father authorized that only she receive the income from his estate and only for the duration of her natural life, managed to survive until the age of 97 so as to get as much of that income as possible.

Sister Julie and I are delighted to have Prof. Thompson as our guest on “In Good Faith” tomorrow, Thursday, at 7 p.m. Central Time (your time zone). Hope you can join us!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. FOR TONIGHT ONLY we’ll be one hour earlier than usual at 5 p.m. CST (your time zone). Join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

The turn of the new year often fills us with ideas and inspirations to try something new, to set out on a new path for the new year. To those of you who have entertained (however briefly or maybe for a long time!) with the idea of becoming a sister or nun, I invite you to consider the following:

Do you long for something more, a something that just can’t seem to be filled by your current work, relationships, endeavors, etc. even though you experience these as good?

Are you interested in deepening your life of faith through prayer, ministry, and community with others who share similar values, vision, and mission?

Are you open to the Spirit and the often surprising ways the Spirit leads?

Are you attracted to the life of Jesus the Christ and to lives of saints and holy people who strove to follow Jesus and live the Gospel?

Do you wish to live and think and “be” in a way that places the common good ahead of other goods such as personal wants?

Are you able to let go of preconceived images of what religious life is or should be?

Can you accept the humanity of yourself and of sisters and nuns and at the same time trust that the Spirit is alive and well in and through our humanity?

Do you feel both attracted to and terrified of the though of religious life, wondering perhaps, why God would call you of all people?

Are you willing to use your gifts, talents, experience, energy, and passion for God’s purposes and for a common mission and life in God?

Are you up for the greatest adventure of your life?

This is your invitation, your opportunity to take a step toward responding to this call. You don’t have to have it all figured out, or rationalize it, or be without doubt or fear. That’s all part of the package. Yo are invited to take a leap of faith, trusting that though you do not know where it will lead, that God is right here with you and will lead you to good.

What do you do now? Start reading and doing any of the suggestions on our page How to Become a Nun. Say something to that sister you admire but were afraid to say anything to about your desire. If you’ve felt attracted to the mission and life of Sister Maxine, myself, or other sisters here at A Nun’s Life, then take a chance and contact us. Check out Catholics on Call. Call the vocation director of the community you’ve been thinking about. Attend a retreat or day of prayer where you can explore how your desires and attractions are part of God’s call to you.

There is only one thing left to say.

Begin.

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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.