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.

IGF003 In Good Faith with Sister Bernie Lynch, MM, recorded live on November 5, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Our hosts talk with the Maryknoll missioner about her life, the book Bernie Becomes a Nun, and being a missioner in everyday life.

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

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Guest: Sister Bernie Lynch, MM

Sister Bernadette Lynch is a Maryknoll Sister and was the subject of the book, Bernie Becomes a Nun (1956). She has served as a missioner for many years in Peru, El Salvador and Guatemala and also has worked with families affected by HIV/AIDS. Sister Bernie has been worked with the Maryknoll Sisters mission awareness team visiting U.S. schools and parishes to help educate people about the missions.

Topic: The sisters talk with Sister Bernie about her life as a missioner, including her unique mission around the book about her journey to becoming a sister, and her insight into how each of us is called to be a missioner.

We welcome your questions for our guest. Please submit them using the comment box below or you can type them in the chat room during the live broadcast.

Show Notes:

• the path to discovering her call to become a Maryknoll sister
• the supportive role of her parents and parish in helping her choose religious life
• being missioned to Peru and then Central America
• the adventure of being a missioner
• facing danger and unpredictability and the unexpected in mission
• spiritual grounding  during the tough times
• new learnings about God
• being a missioner means being able to receive as well as to give
• the effects of the Second Vatican Council on religious life
• Sister Bernie’s “mission” with the popular book Bernie Becomes a Nun
• how she was chosen for the Cosmo article and why Cosmopolitan was interested in a story about a nun
• working with photographer George Barris who would later photograph celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor
• on recreating the process of becoming a sister with help from the book’s author Sister Maria del Rey Danforth, MM
• advice to someone discerning their vocation to religious life
• Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, the Maryknoll sisters who were killed in El Salvador
• stories of the people Sister Bernie ministered to/with
• culture shock after coming back to the US after almost 40 years in Peru, El Salvador, and Guatemala
• everyone is called to be a missioner in a way unique to each person

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live every first Thursday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests on In Good Faith, please visit the program page of In Good Faith.

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.

I was wondering about the occupational options open to nuns. Specifically, could somebody be a physician and a nun?

- Maria

A Catholic sister or nun can engage in any occupation or job, including that of a physician. However the choice as to which kind of work or ministry to engage in is discerned according to the mission of the congregation and the needs of the world. Because each community has a particular mission, it might happen that particular occupations will fall outside of that mission proper. Also, communities which are cloistered or semi-cloistered would have additional limitations to working outside of the monastery because their primary ministry is prayer and contemplation.

As mentioned, the choice of what kind of work to do is made through discernment with others in the sister’s community. It is a very intentional discernment that takes into account the mission of the community, the needs of the community, the needs of the world, the sister’s gifts and passions, and most importantly the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

If you are thinking about what it might be like for you to be a sister or nun, I encourage you to get to know a community and, when ready, to chat about this with the vocation director or another sister whom you know in the community.

In my IHM community, for example, our mission is centered around “the liberating mission of Jesus Christ”. Traditionally we have focused this mission around education. So many of us are involved in “traditional”educative endeavors such as teachers, catechists, and professors. We also express our educative mission through ministry as writers, care givers, justice advocates, church leaders, editors, administrators, bloggers, counselors, missionaries, lawyers, doctors, and more.

In what other occupations have you seen sisters or nuns? In what way is that occupation a ministry? If you are a sister, how did you discern that call?

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Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie for evening prayer
at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone)

Question from Janelle …

Hi Sister Julie, I am considering becoming a nun because I think God might be calling me. Right now I am only in high school but I thought I should look in to the religious life. All my life I have thought about becoming a Chef and have loved to cook. I also love to help people but the problem is I can’t stand blood or needles and I don’t think I would like to be a teacher. I know being a nurse or a teacher is the most common things nuns do. I think by learning more about what nuns do and praying a lot I can decide whether or not God is calling me to that life. So I was wondering what other things do nuns do? – Janelle

Dear Janelle, Thank you for writing. Being in high school is a good time to see what religious life and being a nun are all about. It’s also a good time to explore your talents and your dreams of what you’d like to be and do in life.

In terms of religious life, you are already beginning to get to know about religious life and nuns just by visiting A Nun’s Life! I encourage you to also “run into” sisters or nuns in your parish or local community. See #2 of How to Become a Catholic Nun — Meet Nuns (includes how to do nun surveillance).

If you love to cook and want to learn to be a chef, I say go for it! Remember that the gifts and attractions that you have (such as loving to cook) are also God-given and are as much a part of your vocation as a choice of a life commitment.

Now, can you be a chef and a nun? Absolutely! I for one would volunteer immediately to live on mission with you! Traditionally teaching and nursing have been common ministries for Catholic sisters, and these are still two important ways we continue to serve God and God’s people. But we are also involved in many other kinds of work that span careers both within the Church and in non-Church spheres such as medicine, law, publishing, advocacy, social services, policy, etc.

It depends partly on the particular mission of a religious community. Sometimes the mission is focused on caring for children, for example. So all of the ministries of the sisters somehow will reflect that mission. But it could mean being a court advocate for orphans, or tutoring the children of migrant workers, or teaching children how to choose and prepare healthy meals! If you choose to become a chef, there will be many ways that your training will be invaluable as a form of ministry. If you are considering a cloistered community, a chef-nun might be invited to run the monastery kitchen or to work with the monastery’s “store” (e.g. monasteries that make bread, beer, cheese, etc. to sell). I’m not a cloistered nun so I’m not sure how exactly they would work this, but I’m sure that whatever gifts a woman comes with, there will be a way to use those gifts.

So the upshot is that nuns can pretty much do anything that serves the mission of their community. You may find that because of your gifts and attractions that a particular community resonates more with you. That’s why it’s good to explore a variety of religious communities. The Holy Spirit will be with you all the way, guiding you and helping you to embrace your call, whatever it may be.

Finally, I encourage you to check out the Vocation Forum here at A Nun’s Life. It’s a place to hang out with others who are considering religious life or thinking about their life’s vocation.