AS067 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on April 8, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include: leveraging nunly shareholder powers for good, obedience and authority, associate commitments, marriage, and more!

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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 addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Can spouses release one another from marriage vows in order to enter religious life?
• What does it mean to make a commitment or covenant as an Associate of a religious community? What would such a commitment look like?
• The vow of obedience as it relates to authority and how the vow affects a Catholic sister or nun in daily life (for context, see our last episode AS066 Ask Sister)
• Plus the Sisters talk about nuns in the boardroom and how congregations are leveraging their shareholder powers for good

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.

AS017 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 12, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: discernment, vocation confusion, the Sr. prefix, how we felt when we first realized we were called to be sisters, gifts for nuns, 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:

• What does the prefix “Sr.” stand for and the initials after a nun’s name?
• I’ve always thought about getting married and having kids, but I’m kind of drawn to becoming a nun. Help! I’m really confused!
• Who helped you as you thought about becoming a sister?
• May I give a gift to a nun for her diamond jubilee?
• How long before you felt at home in the convent?
• How long did it take you between your initial ‘discernment’ and your actual first vows?
• Do you have advice for a young woman who is discerning a vocation to be a Sister?

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.

Question from Christina, a visitor to A Nun’s Life …

Hello Sister, My son and I were watching the Rosary tonight and he asked,”can Sisters be married and still be a Sister?” I didn’t know the answer to this question so I’m asking you for help.

The answer very simply is no. Catholic Sisters and Nuns cannot get married. Here’s why.

When a woman becomes a nun or sister (or a man becomes a monk/brother/friar), she makes 3 vows: a vow of poverty, a vow of obedience, and a vow of celibacy. So just as married people make vows to each other — that they will love one another and be a family for their whole lives, “till death do us part”, so to do sisters make vows to God within the context of her religious community (her family) for her whole life. These are two different kinds of life commitments.

As a married person, your love for God is expressed through love of your spouse and children and through the work that you do. As a sister, your love for God is expressed through your community life with your nuns and through prayer and ministry. There are similarities, but the two life commitments are mutually exclusive.

It is possible, however, for a woman who has been married and is no longer married in the eyes of the Church to become a nun. It is also possible for a woman who was a nun and left the convent validly to get married. But she cannot do both at the same time.

Many thanks for the question, Christina, and son!

What thoughts do you have on this question?