Julia is our guest blogger today. We are so grateful to you for continuing to donate in support of Julia’s fundraising marathon for A Nun’s Life Ministry. Pledge $1 per mile of Julia’s marathon — that’s $26.20 that will add zip to that grueling 22nd mile AND support A Nun’ Life Ministry. You can donate electronically or by check — DONATE NOW at aNunsLife.org/donate !

I went out on a run a few days ago. (Shocking, I know–sometimes it seems like that’s all I do.)  I got home from work and grudgingly got ready — I was not enthused about the prospect of an hour-long workout.  I racked my brains for some way, ANY way, that I could rearrange my schedule and take the day off.  Alas, there was no viable solution to be found, so off I went.

After a few yards, I came to a horrifying realization: I had forgotten how to run.

Oh, sure, my legs were still moving the way they were supposed to, and on the outside I looked relatively normal, but my heart was hammering and I couldn’t seem to get my breathing under control.  I couldn’t fathom running six miles; I didn’t have it in me.  But I couldn’t stop–this needed to happen, and it needed to happen TODAY.  What was I going to do?

As I turned on to the trail that runs near my house, I made a deal with myself.  One mile: that’s all.  I would go down the trail one mile, and if I couldn’t figure out how to calm down, I was allowed to turn around and go home.  After all, I reasoned, one mile made me much less nervous than six.  I could worry about schedules and logging more miles later.  I cranked up my music and worked on settling into a rhythm, and asked God to stick around: I was going to need major help on this one.

... random running trail ...

Sometimes, life seems so big.  Every disappointment makes the earth stop spinning, and every choice is life-or-death.  I find that it’s quite easy to psych myself out and feel helpless looking at the “zoomed-out” picture, instead of thanking God for the smaller joys that make life so rich and complete.  I’m going to have to work hard to keep that in mind during the marathon, so instead of getting overwhelmed, I’ll seek out the little things: a loud cheer from a spectator that keeps me going for a few more steps, a cup of sports drink at mile 22, or the knowledge that I CAN do this.

What little joys has God put in your life today that brought a smile to your face?

Read all of Julia’s posts as she trains for the Ann Arbor Marathon.

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Join us for prayer this evening at 6 p.m. CT at aNunsLife.org/live. All you need is an internet connection and to turn up the volume on your computer! You can also share your prayer requests in the chat room.

Guest blogger Audra Turnbull of Awkward Catholic fame writes today of running and discernment in support of Julia who is running a marathon to support the nuns!

“Run for the Nuns” directly supports the work of this ministry. We need your help. We ask you to pledge $1 per mile of Julia’s marathon — that’s $26.20 that will add energy to Julia’s “get up and go” AND support A Nun’ Life Ministry. You can donate electronically or by check — DONATE NOW at aNunsLife.org/donate !

One of the best articles that I’ve read in the 2011 VISION Vocation Guide, was written by Brother Carl Wisdom, O.P. The title of the article is “Get ready to run the race.” It’s about – you guessed it – running and discernment. Brother Carl compares his training for a half marathon to discerning God’s call.

While I am not a marathoner, I now look to discernment as training for a big race. Brother Carl was right when he said that It takes a lot of preparation and little craziness to meet your goal: to find where God is calling you. And while your “training days” are important, your rest days are just as critical.

There are times in my discernment where my “discernment muscles” got tired. I was overwhelmed with over-analyzing everything that might be a possible sign from God.

Just like a runner who tried to run too much, I was feeling sore, scared and frustrated. I had a race to run; a goal to meet- there was no time to stop and recover.

Luckily, God knew just the answer: I needed take a step back and become a human BEING instead of a human DOING. I needed to stop and just feel God’s presence.

Feeling refreshed, I could continue training or, actively discerning, to meet my goal.

Here are a few pieces of advice that Brother Carl gives to discerners:

• Stay hydrated by constantly drinking at the fountain of God’s presence in prayer.
• Load up on carbs by energizing and nourishing yourself daily at the tables of word and sacrament through the Eucharist.
• Before each day’s run, pause and stretch your muscles of faith, hope and love are limber and agile.
• Plan for the “caffeine boost” you will need in the middle of the race by mobilizing family and friends for spiritual support. They can serve to remind you of the nobility of your aspiration to even have begun the race.
• When you get close, but the finish line still feels elusive, turn within and storm heaven while concentrating on each final footfall.

(Source: “Get ready to run the race” by Fr. Carl Wisdom, OP, in Vision Vocation Guide 2011)

What are your images of discernment? if you’ve ever felt overwhelmed while seeking God’s call what helped you stay on course?

Read more from Audra on A Nun’s Life and at her blog The Awkward Catholic and continue following Julia’s running posts.

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Join us for prayer this evening at 6 p.m. CT at aNunsLife.org/live. All you need is an internet connection and to turn up the volume on your computer! You can also share your prayer requests in the chat room.

Julia is our guest blogger today. Now’s the time to join in Julia’s fundraising effort for A Nun’s Life Ministry. Julia and running buddy Audra would like you to pledge $1 per mile of Julia’s marathon — that’s $26.20 that will add energy to Julia’s “get up and go” AND support A Nun’ Life Ministry. You can donate electronically or by check — DONATE NOW at aNunsLife.org/donate !

When I started running (legit, several-times-a-week, I-need-a-second-pair-of-sneakers running), I remember being surprised about how spiritual the experience was for me. Now, don’t get me wrong, there had been times before that when I talked to God on my runs–mostly when my parents would drag me out for a jog, and I would beg for death, or the end of the run, to be swift in coming.

But this was different; this was me, relaxed and (somewhat) enjoying myself, chatting with — and listening to — my Creator. It was pretty cool, even though the conversations were super awkward at first. (I’m not the best conversationalist when I’m nervous.)

In fact, I’m pretty sure my first attempt went something like this:

“Hey, um, God… it’s, uh, it’s me, Julia.” *pause* “Oh, um, but I guess you knew that, right? Right.” *longer pause* “Oh, a butterfly! Wow. Um, thanks for… making… that butterfly…” *longest pause EVER…Julia turns iPod back on*

I wasn’t used to God Outside of Church. As a cradle Catholic, I was quite familiar with God of Kneelers and Holy Water, but that kind of relationship didn’t seem to fit. It felt… too formal.

Plus, I couldn’t exactly kneel, what with all of the running.

I decided to try a different approach. I’d heard people talk about God as a friend, and that image seemed like one that might work for me. The next time I went out for a run, I invited Jesus along. I said the same things that I would say to invite any of my friends for a run–I told Him to make sure he had some good sneakers (“The sandals are great–I really like ‘em–but they might not hold up too well”), and I offered to carry the water bottle.

And just like that, I had a new running partner. Sometimes I talked out loud, and sometimes I just ran. The idea of God being RIGHT THERE wasn’t something I had given a lot of thought to before, but it became one of my favorite ways of experiencing my Creator. It’s one that still speaks to me, and I highly recommend it. It might speak to you, too–even if you’re not a runner. Do you like to knit? Sit with God as you make a baby blanket. Long commute ahead of you? God makes a fantastic passenger.

If you ARE a runner, I know of Someone who would be ecstatic to keep you company. His pace will match up perfectly with yours, and He’ll never leave you in the dust.

Be sure to complement His running sneakers.

Read all of Julia’s posts as she trains for the Ann Arbor Marathon.

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Join us for prayer this evening at 6 p.m. CT at aNunsLife.org/live. All you need is an internet connection and to turn up the volume on your computer! You can also share your prayer requests in the chat room.

AS107 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 28, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guest: Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson. Topics include: nuns in history books, following God’s call into chaos, saying yes to God when tempted to say no, 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!

SPECIAL GUEST: Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson, professor of History at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, where she also holds appointments in the departments of religion, political science, and women and gender studies.

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

• I want to study the history of Catholic sisters. Can I find that in a Women’s Studies course? In a U.S. History course?
• Why does history include primarily the experience of men but not women (let alone nuns)?
• In ecclesiastical history, which is often organized by a bishop’s term of office, where do Catholic sisters and nuns fit into that kind of organizational scheme?
• Dr. Thompson offers suggestions around how to research the history of congregations of women religious
• What if I take a risk and follow where I think God is calling me, and then all hell breaks loose? Is it a sign I should quit? Is God testing me or what? The nuns discuss a number of themes including Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s understanding of consolation and Saint Alphonsus of Liguori’s understanding of “il distacco” or “detachment“
• In scripture, Mary said yes to God without hesitation. But what if we’re tempted to say no?

On the broadcast we mentioned a number of great resources on Catholic sisters and nuns in history. Check ‘em out!

• Dr. Thompson’s own 18-lecture series on The History of Women Religious in the United States. The publishers of this series, Now You Know Media, have provided the first lecture for free. Listen to the Introduction and Lecture 1: Discovering Foremothers: Origins of Women’s Religious Life.
• Dr. Thompson on our show “In Good Faith” back in 2011
• Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Women and Gender in North American Religions. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1997. (be sure to check out the bibliography which we’ll post as a PDF asap!)
• Weavers of the Tapestry – the story of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland by Kathrine E. Bellamy, RSM (2006)
• Rebel, reformer, religious extraordinaire: the life of Sister Irene Farmer by Geraldine Anthony (1997)
• Work by Elizabeth Smythe including Wisdom Raises Her Voice: the Sisters of St. Joseph (2001)
• Work by Rosa Bruno-Jofréas at the University of Ottawa on Canadian French-speaking sisters
• Conference on the History of Women Religious

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. 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.

Yesterday I attended a funeral service in a Christian church in a small town. The parking lot was packed. People of all ages squeezed into pews, sitting elbow-to-elbow to make room for all. The love and respect in the worship space were tangible.

When the pastor spoke, he articulated the spirit that I felt in the church. He talked about hospitality, and how it creates a space for mourning.

He urged the assembly to embrace their feelings about the death of their loved one – to grieve, to celebrate a life well lived, to be angry, peaceful, joyful, sad. The pastor didn’t suggest that they should just be happy that their loved one was now with God, or that they should simply be stoic.

It’s hard to let go of the people we love. In times of grief, it’s hard to believe the psalmist’s words–that our despair can be turned into a dance. But the small-town church was a space where people were free to bring all their emotions to God, trusting that the Spirit would be with them, offering consolation and healing and hope.

The church service reminded me of the unselfish nature of hospitality. Hospitality has no hidden agenda. It has no answers or quick fixes. It is open to mystery. It lets people take their time.

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

“Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God.”
- James 1:19-20

In today’s world, it seems like everyone has something to say. There’s nothing wrong with that (I say as I type these words). But James’ letter reminds us to listen before we speak or react to what others say or do.

Listening is easy to do – when I agree with what I hear. But when I hear something that’s totally not what I agree with, it’s much more challenging. Yet James’ letter doesn’t say I have to agree with everything I hear! But it urges me to respond in Christ-like way.

What James does ask of me is to respect differences of opinion – to stand in my own truth while allowing others to stand in their own truth. My prayer for today is to listen carefully to other people, especially those whose political, religious, or social viewpoints are very different from my own.

While it might be tempting today to avoid conversations on controversial topics, I will remind myself instead to listen without judging others or myself and in doing so to cultivate a spirit of patience and acceptance in the world.

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

AS101 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 9, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: how nuns elect their community leaders, saying no to nun smear campaigns, the common good, the book of Genesis, varied images 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 topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• The IHM sisters recently elected a new leadership team. How is this done?  Do sisters run against each other? Are there term limits? Is the process similar for most orders?
• What about general chapter for contemplative monasteries or for international communities? And differences or similarities?
• A listener named Anna talks about her joys and challenges in reading the book of Genesis and encountering a myriad of images of God — are there any wrong images of God? What happens when one image is used as the only image of God?
• Mentioned in the broadcast: “Are Our Images of God Growing?” by Pat McCloskey, O.F.M. in Catholic Update

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. 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.

AS099 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 19, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Mass fracas over word changes in liturgy, unruly use of church rules, finding a spiritual mentor, does God have plans for the world, 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 topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Why are some people vehemently upset about the changes to the Mass? Jesus is still Jesus in the Eucharist — isn’t that why we go to Mass anyway?
• Can I be a sister if I am not a conservative Catholic (or in other words, have a problem with strict applying of rules in the church)?
• Where to find a spiritual mentor when it seems there’s not one anywhere nearby.
• What are God’s plans for today’s world?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. 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.

My spiritual exercise for this morning was to imagine a perfect me in a perfect world.

It was great! No more struggles or stress or frustration. No more weighing decisions and wondering if I should do one thing instead of another. No more need to consider if I should cultivate more virtues in my life. I would already know the answers! I would already know what to do! I would already be perfectly virtuous! I was giddy at the prospect of perfection.

Then doubts began to creep in. If everything was perfect, including me, what kind of life would that be? I’d never experience the joy and challenge of learning. I might never be surprised again. What would happen to the thrill of adventure?

When it comes right down to it, if I had a choice, I would choose an imperfect me in an imperfect world. Ok, granted I don’t have that choice. I suppose I could be bummed out that no matter how hard I try in this life, I’m not going to be perfect. The world isn’t going to be perfect. Yet scripture tells me that I’m a part of God’s good creation. That even in the midst of imperfection, humanity and the rest of creation is pleasing to God.

So my prayer today is to embrace my God-given imperfection – to bring creativity to situations where frustration might otherwise set in, to cherish eccentricities in myself and others, and to be okay with striving but not yet arriving.

What are your thoughts about imperfection? Feel free to type them in the comment box below (and no need to worry if your spelling isn’t perfect

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for a live podcast and chat every weekday at 6 p.m. CT
(find your time zone) at aNunsLife.org/live

AS098 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 12, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: the difference between penance and sacrifice, speechless God, is grief a rejection of faith, 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 topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What is the difference between penance and sacrifice?
• Austerities and asceticism
• I don’t feel like God is telling me much. Am I going to hear a voice one day before graduation telling me to go to a convent? Or is saying “I want to go to college and study anthropology” sufficient?
• Measuring up to the holiness of friends and other people.
• My mother died recently and I’m very sad. But some of my bible study friends say, “She’s in heaven with God now and you should be happy about that.” Is my sadness somehow a rejection of my faith?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. 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.

During Advent, members of the A Nun’s Life community will be posting reflections on the Jesse Tree and the O Antiphons.

Day 22 :: O Rex Gentium written by Meredith Gould. Meredith is the author of eight books, including The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions (Doubleday) and Why Is There a Menorah on the Altar? (Morehouse). She’s founding moderator of the weekly Twitter-based chat about church social media (#chsocm) and blogs about culture and faith at More Meredith Gould.

O King of nations, and their desire,
the cornerstone making both one:
Come and save the human race,
which you fashioned from clay.

While most people usually focus on the “O King of nations” part of this O Antiphon, I remain fixated on the last two lines. More precisely, I keep zooming in on the word “clay.” Being fashioned from clay by the Creator is a metaphor that has always worked for me.

Add water to clay and it becomes mud. Add even more water and mud turns into a slurry. Slurry can be washed away, but not without leaving a messy trail. Let mud dry out and it can be crumbled into dust. Dust is always at risk for blowing away before being reconstituted as clay.

On a brighter note, clay is very pliable. How well I know this.

During my years as a visual artist, I’d switch to pottery whenever I needed a break from drawing. I loved the tactile messiness of working with clay as it swirled into form on the pottery wheel. When the form wobbled off-kilter, I happily pounded it back down into a lump and started over. Happy about the pounding. Happy about the starting over.

We humans seem quite adept at pounding ourselves and one another into lumps, let’s not blame God for this. Instead, let’s give thanks for every opportunity to be formed, yet again, by our loving Savior of clay. God knows, I do.

* * Want to revisit the other symbols of Advent? Click here on Jesse Tree. * *

Join the nuns and community for prayer tonight at 6 p.m. CT at aNunsLife.org/live.

AS095 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on December 8, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: nature and theology of grace, renouncing things one never had, nun vows, the Trinity as two men and a hen?, my church NO my church!, 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 topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What exactly is grace? Is it like The Force or getting a shot of Red Bull?
• How does grace lead to freedom?
• Two men and a hen — A new image for the Trinity?
• Can a person renounce something if they’ve never had it? e.g., can I give up sex if I’ve never even had a romantic relationship?
• Aren’t the vows about renouncing things?
• Whose church is it, anyway? Is the Church my church, your church, God’s church, or our church?
• A Sister is interviewed on CBS News regarding the Apostolic Visitation and sisters’ responses

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/ and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. 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.

During Advent, members of the A Nun’s Life community will be posting reflections on the Jesse Tree and the O Antiphons.

Day 2 :: Eve And Adam written by Sister Maxine

I clearly recall the first essay that I wrote that pleased me. It was preceded by tons of writing that did not. But what made the essay pleasing to me wasn’t that it was perfect (it was far from perfect….). It was that I managed, at long last, to adequately express what I was thinking and feeling. Through it all, I learned that the act of creation has beauty and power and pain and joy.

When I read the creation accounts in Genesis, I can only imagine how God must have felt. In the first creation story (Gn 1:2-3), God brings forth order from chaos and shapes the universe. Each day, God creates something new. Creation nears its high point on the sixth day, with land animals and humanity, and reaches its apex on the seventh day, with the sabbath. On the last day, I imagine that God breathes a sigh of relief and satisfaction and thinks about creating pizza as a way to celebrate.

When I read the second creation account (Gn 2:4ff) which introduces us to Adam and Eve, I see God at work once again. But the story line is different—and foreboding. The story begins with God making a man out of earth and reaches its high point with God’s last act of creation, a woman. There is only one thing that God forbids the humans to do – to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Everything else in the garden is theirs to enjoy.

At this point, the writer in me is like, “Things are NOT going to go well for the humans.” Maybe I’m projecting my own human weakness, but I can almost taste the apples from that tree.

What am I to do with these two stories – one that speaks of the intrinsic goodness of creation and the other, of the potential for tough challenges and temptations along the way. For me, there is comfort in knowing that God hasn’t yet written the final word on the story of creation. I am part of that story. By living with the compassion, love, and integrity that Jesus models, I seek to shape a story of hope for all of creation.

* * Want to revisit the other symbols of Advent? Click here on Jesse Tree. * *

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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.

Over breakfast this morning, I thought about today’s reading from the liturgy. It’s Luke 11:1-4, where Jesus teaches the disciples a short, simple prayer:

Abba God, hallowed by your Name!
May your reign come.
Give us today, tomorrow’s bread.
Forgive us our sins, for we too forgive everyone who sins against us;
and don’t let us be subjected to the Test.

I was having toast for breakfast (whole wheat), so the words “Give us today, tomorrow’s bread” seemed especially relevant.

To me, the words aren’t just a request for God to sustain me, but a statement of trust that God will sustain me. Do I believe that I already have today what’s needed for tomorrow? How can I believe this when I don’t know what tomorrow will bring?

This way of thinking can lead me to doubt. Ironically, it can also lead me to freedom! The reality is, I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. No one does. But I trust that when tomorrow gets here, I’ll do the best I can with what I have. And I trust that God can provide the rest.

What thoughts does this prayer raise for you?

P.S. On the Ask Sister podcast a couple of weeks ago, the A Nun’s Life community talked about other aspects of Jesus’ prayer, in the “God, a tempter?!” segment. Check out the conversation at Ask Sister episode 83.

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

Cheers for the U.S. federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph for their public show of support for their sister Elizabeth Johnson!

Elizabeth Johnson is an internationally known theologian and a professor at Fordham University. She has done a great deal of work in the area of feminst theology. Recently, her 2007 book Quest for the Living God came under fire by the Doctrine Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The nine-member group of bishops said, among other things, that the book failed to reflect the teaching of the magisterium. Johnson responded, saying in part that the bishops had seriously misinterpreted the book. Maybe that could have been avoided had the committee initially contacted Johnson to talk things over, a measure that’s included in committee’s own guidelines.

When the 900-member U.S. federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph gathered last week, it issued a corporate statement of support for Johnson. Around the same time, the Catholic Theological Society of America also publicly supported Johnson!

There are lots of issues involved in this matter – too many to address in detail here. And the situation continues to unfold.

To the Sisters of St. Joseph – way to go!! Standing together in regard to a justice issue is an important part of what it means to be sisters and what it means to be the church. For now, I’m going to re-read my copy of Quest for the Living God and savor it once more.

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.
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 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.

I am on a mission to be more organized! It’s not that I’m particularly disorganized, just not organized in the right ways! For example, my desk drawer is VERY organized when it comes to my markers and pencils. These are highly treasured implements of writing and thinking for me (yes, I think with markers and pencils). But when it comes to my daily plan, ummm, not so organized. Or, to be more diplomatic, not the most effective organization plan for my day.

In such times of need, I turn, as often I do — to God. I figure God is the Creator of the Universe. Surely God should know something about organizing and could perhaps shed light on the subject. If we go Old-School God, then we’re talking creation. Now that was an organizing nightmare. How do you organize that which never existed before? There’s no precedence, there’s no one to ask for help, there’s no logic because even logic wasn’t created before creation!

The whole “order from chaos” thing is definitely impressive yet there is one simple phrase that brings me great comfort and inspiration:

“For God is a God not of disorder but of peace.” (1 Corinthians 14:33)

On days when the organizing feat of creating the universe is beyond my comprehension and sheds little light on my way more minor organizing needs, I turn to this passage because I get it immediately. Though there are a lot of good criteria for organizing my life, my projects, and my sock drawer, one of the most important is to be mindful of peace. Does this schema bring peace? Do I feel peaceful with how I’ve crafted the day’s schedule? Will my approach leave me feeling anxious or scattered? Will how I go about my plan (or non-plan as the case may be) cause anxiety or stress or become a burden to someone else?

What helps you with your organizing? How does peace play its part for you?

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone). I’ll be there so long as I can find my schedule, organize my day, and avoid the black hole of minutia!

Today we have a special guest blog post from our friend Marla ….

I saw God today. I was sitting outside a downtown coffee shop when a boy about 15 approached a homeless man and gave him the shoes off his feet. They were nice shoes, way nicer than the hole-filled, sole-flapping things that the man wore before this kid showed up. The boy walked off with his friends wearing only socks. He was smiling. It blew my mind, but God tends to do that.

I heard God speak today. A young man confessed an insensitive act to a youth minister who had been the butt of his joke. The youth minister took the boy’s hand and said, “I forgive you.”

God visited a woman abandoned in a Nashville nursing home and made her laugh.

God walked into a podcast and a chat room last night and so many other nights and filled it with love and laughter and connection and all manner of good things.

I felt God’s touch today when a physical therapist massaged and loosened the muscles in my body that had grown stiff from the constant pain in my long bones.

I saw God today. There was a huge fight, protesters and counter-protesters, angry people everywhere. The group settled inexplicably when my friend, a nun, wordlessly walked into their midst holding a sign that said, simply, “Love.”

I lose God, sometimes, but then I open my eyes. Wherever God’s people gather, God can be found. Evident in everything from ocean waves to loyal dogs, God is most present to me in other people.

Where have you seen God lately?

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

Today we have a special guest blog post from our friend Kbart ….

A few weeks back, a call came into the convent hotline from a woman who had a very real concern that she might have missed God’s call. I remember laughing when I read that was going to be one of the topics for that week’s edition of Ask Sister. I laughed because my immediate response was and for the most part still is – “Don’t worry – God will call back!” After all – God always calls back, one way or another!

But here it is several weeks after that podcast, and I am still thinking about the topic! The God that I have come to accept in my life will always call back. That said, I am also my own answering machine, and after checking the caller ID feature, I often let calls – from real telephones and those that come more spiritually – go to my answering machine because I don’t want to deal with whoever and whatever the call is about. The problem is that at some point I have to listen to those calls or choose to pick-up and take some kind of action.
God knows that I can find a million and one things to do to avoid listening for the call – no matter how or when that call comes to me. But God also knows how to get through to me anyway in one of those million and one things I find to do. For me, the important thing is not to fear that I have somehow missed God’s call but to accept that I have chosen to miss quite a few of those calls! The action for me, then, is to cherish the call I do listen to and let that call become a defining moment in my walk forward in life. For me, those defining moments are the palette of paints that is God’s gift of the ever-developing painting of me and how I live in Gods world.

God doesn’t give up just because I have missed a call. If anything, God has found ways to reach me when I thought I was really unreachable! God’s call can come to me while I walk in the park and hear the small voice of a Ruby Crowned Kinglet or boom at me via the thunder that happens immediately after the flash of lightning that tells me the storm is “right over you!” God has found a way to get through to me without having to go through the telephone, and worse, the answering machine!

Feeling like you missed God’s call? Ask yourself if you are open enough to “hear” it and trust that God will call back.

Guest Blog Post by A Nun’s Life Community friend Kbart

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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.

AS056 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 14, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Benedictine monastics outside the monastery, godly anger, church-going dilemma for a Catholic-Protestant couple, not feeling called, 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 topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I feel I have a vocation but recently I’ve felt “not called” anymore. Should I be worried?
• How can Benedictines be considered monastics when so many of them work in the world? … Sister Christine Ereiser, OSB, responds
• What would cause God to be angry with us? (from a discussion about Meribah)
• Is it okay to be angry with God?
• What are some healthy ways for a couple to attend church when one is Catholic and one is Protestant?
• Plus, an update from the “nun-ordering-pizza” debate!

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.

Ever have the experience of looking for something, like car keys or a cell phone, just to find that it’s right before your eyes? Sometimes vocations are like that.

Case in point—my friend, Nancy Lee Smith, IHM.  Sister Nancy began working full-time as an iconographer several years ago (saintjosephstudio.com). Even as she began creating wonderful icons, when people asked about her ministry, she tended to reply, “I do artwork.”

She vividly recalls the day that changed. It was at a local gallery showing,and her works were among those displayed. “I looked around and suddenly realized that I don’t just do artwork, I am an artist.” It was a moment when “doing” and “being” came together. She clearly understood that she was already living her vocation as an artist.

Sister Nancy’s story reminds me that a vocation isn’t just “what we do,” it’s also who we are. Her story reminds me that God is always at work in our lives, and sometimes it just takes awhile for us to see it clearly.

Have you had an “ah-ha” vocational moment, and how did you respond? I’d love to hear your story! Please share it by writing in the comment box below.

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This week is National Vocation Awareness Week. The Sisters will be praying daily for those who are discerning a vocation as well as taking your prayer requests. Join us at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

AS047 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 5, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Trent and Second Vatican Council, growing in understanding God, a devil for loving, joining a religious community in another country 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:

• I’m a guy in love and want to go out with girl who wants to be a nun, does that mean like I’m the devil or something?
• Is it possible for someone discerning to be a nun to join a religious community in another country? How would this work?
• Could you describe the Council of Trent in a nutshell and how it affected the church?
• What do you think was the greatest positive impact that the Second Vatican Council had on the church?
• What do you know now about God that you wish you’d known in the beginning?
• What are somethings to consider before making a big life decision?

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.

Just the other day I came across my copy of The Hound of Heaven. It’s a poem about God’s untiring pursuit of us, a chase inspired by God’s great love. The poem was written around 1900, by Francis Thompson.

The hound image made me think of a song that one of my sisters recently told me about, “God and Dog.” Like the poem, the song is also about God’s persistent love, which takes many shapes in our life, such as our pets.

So today I give thanks for pets, especially Abby and Bailey (two of my favorite dogs) and of course Chloe the Convent Cat. Do you have a prayer of thanksgiving for a pet you know or one you fondly remember? If so, please add their names (in the comment box below) to our Litany of Pets! We’ll pray the litany at prayer tonight.

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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 IHM Community has been meeting since yesterday and we’ve been privileged to have with us Father Anthony Gittins, CSSp, a member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spiritans).

Gittins is 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).

Here are a few of my thoughts from the presentations (any inconsistencies are mine, not Gittins):

MISSION. Gittins has been talking about mission and what it means to today. He started off by saying that mission is not what we do, it’s not even what the church does … mission is what GOD does. So it can be difficult to define “mission” exactly because it is caught up in the mystery of the triune God which we can never really fully comprehend or explain.

EVANGELIZATION. Evangelization is often connected with mission but again, it’s neither ours nor the church’s. Evangelization is the work of Jesus Christ. This is more than mere proclamation. Jesus’ evangelization certainly included proclaiming the Good News but to really understand what evangelization means, we have to look at the WHOLE of Jesus’ life. So let’s look at what Jesus does … he walks around, talks with people, receives from others, serves, asks questions, teaches, cries, rejoices. In all of these things Jesus evangelizes.

DISCIPLESHIP. So what are we to do if mission belongs to the Trinity and evangelization belongs to Jesus? Our job is discipleship. All we can do (and all is everything) is learn from Jesus, learn from what Jesus does. We cannot just pick one or two things of that Jesus did and say it’s mission — that’s just making up our own thing. We are called to learn from Jesus’ whole life. “If you want to be my disciple you have to do it my way; I’ll show you how; walk around with me day by day.”

Gittins says that we do not have a mission, but that God’s mission has us. What does this mean for you?

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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.

What is God like for you? How do you image God and do you experience God? I’ve been thinking about these questions since yesterday when I was on a panel with other young religious speaking to new vocation directors. A sister asked us to describe who God is and has been for us through our discernment and journey into religious life.

I responded with how I have come to know God as a God who is here with and among us. A God who is not “way up there”, remote from us, but in the think of things, present to us in even our darkest moments. A God who speaks all languages including (more often than not!) language that is not overtly religious. Jesus not only personified this; Jesus incarnated this. Remember how he taught … “Learn a lesson from the way the wildflowers grow. They don’t work; they don’t spin. yet I tell you, not even Solomon (a biblical king) in full splendor was arrayed like one of these.” (Matthew 6:28-29)

Then this morning I read today’s reading from the prophet Micah …

“What god can compare to you?
You take away guilt,
you forgive the sins of the remnant of your people.
You don’t let your anger rage forever,
for you delight in mercy and steadfast love.” (Micah 7:18)

Who is God for you? How do you experience God in your every day life?

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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.

Did you know that God is seeking you? Yes, you. The very one reading this blog post. God seeks each one of us in the midst of our everyday life, not necessarily in a lightening bolt or a choir of angels or a miraculous alignment of clouds. Here’s a selection from the book May I Have This Dance?: An Invitation to Faithful Prayer Throughout the Yearby Joyce Rupp which was recently published in National Catholic Reporter.

How do we know when God is seeking us out? Many times God is seeking us when we sense the following:

• restlessness within or an unnamed loneliness
• a hunger for bonding
• questions that keep surfacing
• sudden awareness or clearer vision about life’s meaning
• an unexpected sense of deep contentment or peace
• darkness that has the aura of mystery or searching
• a desire for greater truth
• a hopefulness that rises in one’s spirit
• a yearning for justice
• an overwhelming awareness of God’s mystery
• a bonding with beauty

Sensing God’s calling to us is a first movement. How we respond to God is a next question.

How do we know when we are seeking God out? Again it is not always a known or certain thing, but some aspects I [Joyce Rupp] have experienced are:

• willingness to sit and listen with the unnamed stirrings within
• the disciplines of reflecting, pondering, meditating
• confrontation of fears, anxieties, concerns
• deliberate decisions to go deeper
• owning and claiming one’s inherent goodness
• savoring the beauty of creation
• entering into situations that involve risk and struggle
• actively bonding with a community or others who seek God
• welcoming the goodness in others

Read more of the article Seek and Find (National Catholic Reporter, June 4, 2010).

Sister Joyce Rupp, a Catholic sister belonging to the Servites (aka Servants of Mary), ministers as a writer, spiritual and retreat leader, and hospice volunteer (more info at Sister Joyce Rupp’s website).

What questions do you have about how God is seeking you out or how you might respond? What have you experienced in your walk with God?

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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.

AS027 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on May 28, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: fasting, the First Official nun meeting, virgin-ness, vocational calling, bride of Christ and other ways to image oneself as a Catholic sister.

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:

• What other ways can one image oneself as a Catholic nun other than “bride of Christ”? How is this connected to one’s image of God?
• Does a person have to be a virgin in order to become a Catholic sister or nun?
• What was your first official meeting like with a nun?
• What is fasting and what place might it have for us today?
• What do I do if I’m married but feel called to religious life?

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.

When we think of a calling, we sometimes think it is only for the “religious” types, those ones who never seem to do anything wrong, who were born and bred in the Catholic Church, who speaks with ease about religious stuff. And you know, once and a while, it is that person, but God has this disconcerting habit of choosing people who are a bit rough around the edges, who might have a tendency to be wild, rash, passionate, or temperamental. One has only to look at the women and men who constituted his first disciples to see that they were a mix of people each with rough edges and great giftedness. Some weren’t even “religious” but in them Jesus recognized a spirit of dedication, kindness, zeal, compassion, perseverance — and other such gifts that were perfectly suited for being a disciple.

So what if you have a tattoo or forget the words to the Act of Contrition (my biggest fear when walking into a confessional) or are not a virgin or enjoy falling in love or want to become a rocket scientist? Think that’s incompatible with being called? Not a chance.

There is no one who is beyond God’s call and in fact every one of us does have a calling. There are lifelong callings like to be in a relationship, to be a parent, to be a missionary, to be a religious sister or brother, to be a lifelong educator. And there are callings to a kind of ministry or service such as healing, teaching, advocating, learning, praying, companioning, protecting, or encouraging. We might experience many of the latter in our lives and within our “umbrella” lifelong calling. For example, my lifelong calling is to be a religious sister, specifically to be an Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister. But within this lifelong calling, I also am called to serve in a particular way using technology and the Internet and theology and spirituality. I am also called to a particular kind of lifestyle that is sensitive to all of God’s creation.

So think about how you are called — how you are living this calling right now even if you might never have thought about it as a calling? And for those of you who thought you were “beyond help” for becoming a nun or a deacon or a monk or religious sister or a priest or a consecrated virgin … what’s blocking you?

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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.

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.

The other day I was at dinner with my nuns and I prayed the short grace “Blessed be God forever”. But it came out “Plush be God forever”. Not sure where that came from — probably had my mind on something else and wasn’t present to the prayer. My little lapse has stayed with me — this idea of a Plush God is so odd yet so compelling to me.

The image that comes to mind is big giant teddy bear, plush and furry and comforting. It gives me a sense of the over-abundance of God, the uber-generosity and loving care.

And that song “Our God is an Awesome God” is playing in the back of my mind but with “Our God is a Plush God”. Oddly enough as I was writing this post, my little brother has been sitting next to me (I’m vising him and my sis-in-law and my new nephew) and he saw the title of this post and started singing the exact song! Weird, eh??

Have you ever encountered God as “plush”?