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

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

Here’s what each icon does:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy NUNDAY! It’s a beautiful day here in the Illinois — the sun is shining, the breeze is cool, and I’ve got a full day of domestic and ministerial responsibilities! The new IHM house is up and running. Hoping to score a bed frame from Craigslist today and to get the moving boxes to the recycling center. Thanks for all your prayers and good wishes as we transitioned out of the Petri Dish convent to our new home.

We celebrate Nunday today with two beautiful photos from Amparo, a young woman from Argentina.

Writes Amparo (who is pictured on the left), “In the middle is Sister Ceci, from the congregation of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master, and the picture was taken in a “Life’s Projects” camp they held at the beginning of this year. She chose not to wear the habit, though she usually wears a blue skirt. Ceci is a great friend of mine.”

“In this pictures all of the ladies, minus the one wearing pants are disciples. The one with the veil is Sister Gaby (she chose to wear the habit), the first disciple I met and also a great friend of mine. In the bottom the two are Luciana and Ceci in order. The one between the two men is Sister Luz and the other one is Sister Ana, the Superior of the Argentinian province.”

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

I received this comment/question a little while ago and want to address it front and center because it is an important issue in religious life. It also follows a bit from Sister Susan’s post about Religious Life in the Age of Facebook.

Hello Sr. Julie. This is my first post and I would like to say how much I enjoy reading your blog. I didn’t know where to ask this question, so, I will put it here.

I am the youngest member in my congregation under 40. It’s very lonely at times. The the loneliness is difficult and I only meet with younger members from other congregations sporadically. Sometimes, I really feel like leaving my order because of the loneliness.

I am posting this because I know younger religious read your blog and thought your advice would be helpful. Thanks and God bless!

Dear Younger Sister,

So good to hear from you. I am very sorry to hear that you are having a rough time with feeling lonely. It can definitely be tough when you are the youngest one in a religious community and there’s no one near your age. You are not alone in the sense that other young religious feel the same way. Have you been able to talk about how you feel with a trusted friend in your congregation? Are you able to relate to people your own age outside of the community? For me it was helpful to stay in touch with friends my own age and to get to know colleagues with whom I minister and young people who attend my parish. I know it’s not the same as having young sisters in your own community, but it does help.

I had some struggles with the age thing for the first few years of my life with the community. I always felt (as much my own expectations as others’ expectations) like I had to mirror the religious life of my sisters who lived it as 50, 60, 70+ year-olds. I couldn’t exactly distinguish between what was a characteristic of age and what was a characteristic of religious life. It took time, and the help of wise mentors, to find my way. Not always easily, but authentically and with trust in God, in my Sisters, and in myself.

Never forget that you are a gift to the community and that you have much to offer. They need you there and are open to being changed, “formed” as it were, by you just as much as you are to being changed by them. Spend time with the Sisters who “get” you and who can help you grown in religious life in an age-appropriate way.

A few weeks ago when I was home in Monroe at my IHM Motherhouse, I brought my laptop in with me when I went to visit a dear friend, Sister Annunciata (“Nuncie”), who will be 100 years old in August. She is a light in my life and I can always feel her prayers with me. After chatting for a while, I pulled out the laptop and explained a bit more about my blog and my ministry online. I took her through the blog and read her some posts and comments (wireless Internet at the Motherhouse is totally awesome). She was so happy for me and proud that I was extending gospel hospitality and the IHM mission online. It meant the world to me that she could rejoice in what I was doing even though she herself had never been on the Internet.

It is nuns like Nuncie who see the gift that you are and can encourage it by even the twinkle in her eye. Find your Nuncies and don’t be afraid to let your light shine. Loneliness is definitely a reality, but don’t let it consume you or prevent you from experiencing new kinds of relationships. At the same time, find ways to connect with younger people. And come online and hang out with younger sisters. There are a bunch of us on Facebook too. Perhaps we should form our own online forum just to hang out with and encourage one another.

My prayers are with you, Younger Sister. Please feel free to email me anytime if you’d like to connect — sisterjulie (at) anunslife (dot) org.

Sister Julie

P.S. The idea of having a space for younger religious to congregate online is not a bad idea. If you are 45 and under and interested in this possibility, let me know by following this link: Survey for Catholic Religious 45 and Under. You can also comment below.

]]> http://anunslife.org/2008/07/08/letter-to-a-young-religious/feed/ 15 http://anunslife.org/2008/07/07/celebrating-sister-susan/ http://anunslife.org/2008/07/07/celebrating-sister-susan/#comments Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:04:23 +0000 Sister Julie http://anunslife.org/?p=547

I am delighted to announce that one of our own blogging nuns, Sister Susan Rose Francois, CSJP, will be professing first vows in October. Sister Susan is currently a 2nd Year Novice with the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Peace and is the author of the popular blog Musings of a Discerning Woman. Sister Susan was one of the first people who linked to my blog, helping me to get started. She’s also one of the nuns behind the web ring (a network of websites) SisterBloggers.

I am very happy for Susan and think it’s way important to celebrate these moments — both for Susan and for religious life! Being a nun is a fabulous way of life and everytime a person commits to the life, it reaffirms my own life choice and my love of God and serving others. I think it is also an inspiration to people to know that religious life is alive and well and continues to be a viable way to live joyfully and radically, to be fully human, to serve God and others.

Be sure to visit Sister Susan’s blog — recently she wrote a great post about an article in America magazine– Religious Life in the Age of Facebook. I highly recommend you read the article and Susan’s post, especially if you are a religious and/or vocation director. (The America article is in the July 7, 2008 edition, available online only to subscribers.)

Blessings to you, Sister Susan, and upon the Sisters and mission of your community.