At the end of January, Sister Maxine and I had the awesome privilege of attending our congregation‘s General Chapter. It was a week long and consisted in prayer, community, study, conversation, reflection, and decision-making. Our primary decisions were to embrace a specific direction for our congregation over the next 6 years and to elect a new leadership team.

Although Chapter is part and parcel of our life as Catholic sisters and nuns today, it might seem like a secret event veiled in mystery for those outside of religious life! So, here’s a bit more about what Chapter is. I am drawing here from my brother Redemptorists who provide a great intro on General Chapter.

The General Chapter is a visible expression of a fundamental sense of democracy that lies at the heart of religious life. This democracy is based on the radical equality of all the members by virtue of their baptism and their religious consecration, hence their common vocation to be prophets or spokespersons for God. In this sense, a General Chapter resembles more the gathering of Mary and the apostles at Pentecost than a modern parliament or congress. The participants in the General Chapter gather in the name of Jesus Christ, confident that his Spirit will help us to accomplish our work.

What are those tasks? The General Chapter must first take an honest look at the state of the Congregation… This examination should then lead the Chapter members to face honestly certain discomforting questions: are we faithful to our mission or have we slid into mediocrity? What is the Lord asking of us today? How are we being asked to change? The General Chapter will offer specific directives for the whole Congregation as it proposes a path to help [religious] live more authentically their … vocation. Finally, the delegates will elect the leadership of the Congregation for the next six years … (source: Redemptorist website)

For our IHM General Chapter, we had a gathering of over 150 IHM Sisters and were joined for some parts of Chapter by our IHM Associates and others who could be of great help in our discernment and decision-making. One of the best parts was that we come together from across the globe, across ministries, across generations, across cultures and gather under one roof. It was a visible expression of the community we experience with one another every day of our religious life no matter where we are.

What questions do you have about Chapter or related topics? Sister Maxine and I are going to tackle the subject on this week’s Ask Sister Podcast so let’s get the conversations started now!

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

IGF011 In Good Faith with Father Anthony Gittins, recorded live on December 1, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include mission, evangelization, discipleship, and liberation; magisterium and ministerium of the Church; discernment and more!

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Guest: Father Anthony Gittins, CSSp

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

Show Notes:

• How Fr. Tony’s faith journey informs his sense of mission
• Edwina Gately and working at Genesis House

“Just love them, she said. And I thought how simple it sounds, and how complicated it is to love people.”

“Our job is to love them, not to judge them. And once they begin to love themselves then they have the responsibility to love their neighbor as themselves. But meanwhile it is their neighbor’s job to love them.”

• Ministering  as a pastor in Sierra Leone to learn the “grammar of the language and the grammar of the culture”
• Teaching theology at Catholic Theological Union through the lens of culture, e.g. the cultural implications of reading Scripture
• The relationship between mission, evangelization, discipleship, and liberation
• Mission is about God is intrinsically a God of movement, of engagement, of relationship — reaching out into the world … it is like God’s dynamic breathing out God’s spirit (God’s cosmic, creative breath that is sending forth) — and God’s breathing in (God calling people, reconciling people, embracing people, forgiving people)
• Evangelization is the way we talk about Jesus, the incarnation of God’s mission … Jesus’ mission brought down to earth … describes everything that Jesus does because Jesus is utterly and totally committed to God’s mission
• Discipleship is a one-word job description for us, a faithful living out of what Jesus was doing — not doing our own t hing but learning how to do Jesus’ thing by watching and learning from Jesus
• Liberation – Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and has SENT ME to liberate people, to set people free from anything that binds them in any way.”
• God’s mission has a church! The church’s job is to do God’s mission
• Discernment is required to know where we fit in God’s mission
• Discerning and making decisions “in good faith”
• The difference between feeling comfortable or content and feeling peaceful
• The Church and the relationship of tension between “power” and “piety”
• How to deal with “catechism flame-throwers”
• The relationship between Magisterium and Ministerium

Details: The broadcast is free and open to the public. You can tune in from any place you have internet access. We also have a chat room for you to use during the broadcast in order to connect with one another and with us. You can also submit your questions ahead of time by using the comment box below.

If new to A Nun’s Life podcasts, the podcasts 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.

More information including upcoming shows and recordings of past episodes can be found at the In Good Faith program web page.

This past weekend Sister Maxine and I had congregational meeting — IHM Sisters and Associates gathered in person and via the Internet to pray and talk about our life together. Coming up in January we will be electing a new leadership team (each religious community does this ever 4-6 years) and so we wanted time together as a community to discern and discuss what will be needed for and from the leaders who will be elected in January.

What amazes me about religious life, and in particular my IHM life, is that we are very intentional about making decisions together, truly discerning how the Spirit is calling us, and being willing to hang in there with each other even when it’s tough. In our elections for a new leadership team, we don’t send out head-hunters or gather up a search committee, or start campaigns and platforms. Instead, true to our life as Catholic sisters and nuns today, we gather the whole community together to pray, discern, discuss, and pray some more.

We believe that community governance, founded on Jesus’ presence in
our midst and on our love and respect for one another, enables us more
fully to live the gospel and to proclaim the reign of God.

“We are committed, therefore, to governance which expresses

• faith in Jesus Christ,
• love of one another,
• respect for the individual,
• participation and collaboration,
• corporate decisions and actions.” (from our IHM Constitutions)

I don’t think I ever would have thought this type of corporate decision-making was possible prior to my becoming a nun. I’d just never seen this kind of thing done before. Seriously — a group of 200+ people coming together, valuing each person’s voice, open to the Spirit of God, and making big decisions together. Whoa!

Granted, we hit bumps in the road on occasion — after all, there’s that little thing I like to call our human condition that enters in! But what never ceases to amaze me is that we hang in there together. We don’t throw up our hands and leave the table. We stick it out, trusting that by the grace of God, we will make it through and end up in a good place — even if we can’t see it at the moment.

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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.

AS075 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 16, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: college grad talks about volunteering for a year, recognizing God at work in daily life, called to be a nun or doctor (or both?), and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.
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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we address in this Ask Sister podcast:

• How to recognize God at work our daily lives — putting on our God goggles
• Should I become a doctor or a nun or can I do both?
• SPECIAL ON-AIR GUEST: Eilis talks about volunteering for a year and living the three pillars of service, community, and spirituality. We talk with her about the Franciscan Community Volunteers, helping refugees resettle in the U.S., how it has affected her faith, and more!

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

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

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

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

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

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

AS070 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on May 4, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: feeling okay about the filioque, Ninja Nuns, living community, following in a religious brother’s footsteps. A surprise guest joins the nuns!

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

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What’s up with the two Anglican Nuns at the Royal Wedding? Is the taller one really a ninja?
• Please explain the filioque and how the trinitarian relationship has implications for our daily life.
• How do ideas about the filioque relate to generosity and kindness?
• What has been your biggest struggle and/or benefit from living in community?
• Living in community, and living community
• Is God really calling me to be a religious sister or could it just be because my brother is a religious brother and I want to follow in his footsteps?

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS045 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on October 22, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: philosophy and theology, gifts for nuns, God active in our thoughts, choosing a religious community, responding to the call of God, and more!

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

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Can all these thoughts I’m having really be an invitation from God?
• Which religious community is for me?
• Why did you want to become a nun? Why did you choose IHM as you community?
• What is an appropriate gift to a nun celebrating her diamond jubilee?
• Why do some Catholics not like the philosophers Kant and Descartes?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS021 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on April 16, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: telling family and friends, age limit, traveling nuns, yoga for Catholics, the Beatitudes, hunger for community, praying for strangers and more!

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

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• When is the right time to let family and friends know I truly feel called to become a Catholic sister?
• Are you ever too old to become a nun or sister?
• How old do you have to be to become a nun? Do you have to finish college first before becoming a nun?
• Can sisters and nuns travel?
• Why are the beatitudes important?
• Can a divorced woman become a nun?
• What do you pray when you are asked to pray for someone you don’t know and don’t know why they need prayer?
• What is the Catholic Church’s stance on yoga? Are practicing Catholics, including religious sisters, allowed to practice yoga?
• I’m a people person and really want a strong spiritual community. Any practical hints on how to deal with this hunger?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

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

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

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

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

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

Sisterhood among Catholic sisters and nuns is a powerful, Spirit-filled experience. I’ve been thinking a lot about sisterhood after having been home at the IHM Motherhouse for a couple of days. I was with a group of sisters doing some planning for our community’s retreat/celebration days this summer. Throughout the meeting and at supper following our meeting I was overwhelmed with the bond of sisterhood. It’s something that I never even imagined prior to being an IHM Sister. It’s not easy to define or explain, but let me try to put words around what it feels like.

Sisterhood is …

• always having a home, a real home
• knowing that your nun has your back
• being part of something bigger than yourself, bigger than the sum total of individuals
• falling in love with God and mission, and falling in love with how God and mission are expressed in your sisters
• sharing the deepest things of the Spirit with another sister or group of sisters
• praying together, laughing together, grieving together, working together
• the sparkle in the eye of a sister that lets you know that all will be well
• mentoring one another in religious life, ministry, and prayer
• having a common history and shared core values
• daring and risking together for the sake of the Gospel
• becoming more yourself than ever
• relating to one another with great tenderness
• being in real, tangible community even when ministry takes you to away from your sisters
• holding all things in common with your sisters
• being held up by your sisters’ prayer when you can’t find the strength to pray
• having sisters in heaven who keep watch over us
• working through disagreements, misunderstandings, failings without forgetting that we belong to one another and to Christ
• being willing to lay down your life for your sister

When people ask me what it’s like to be a sister, how we are different from other people committed to God who pray and do good works, this is what I want them to experience, this sisterhood, this dynamic of how we are with one another which is incarnate in how we are with the world.

What else might you add? Sisterhood is …