I am delighted to announce that my community, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters of Monroe, Michigan — are offering a Come & See Weekend for women who are attracted to our way of life and want to learn more about becoming an IHM Sister.

The weekend is October 23-25 and it will be hosted by Sister Mary Bea, IHM Vocation Director, and myself. All the info is below. If you have any questions or wonderings, feel free to contact Sister Mary Bea or to email me (be sure to add in the @ and . symbols of my email).

This weekend might be for you or someone you know if …

• you are a woman around 18-55 years of age who is attracted to religious life and wants to learn more about IHM Sisters
• you feel a longing to deepen your relationship with God and want to express this in a life-long commitment
• you’ve met an IHM Sister and thought, Hey, she’s pretty cool. I’d like my life to also have that same sense of joy, prayerfulness, and desire to serve others.
• you know someone who seems to have a calling to religious life and would be at home with the IHM Sisters life and mission

IHM Come and See
October 23-25, 2009
Friday 7 p.m. to Sunday 12:30 p.m.

Come to:

• Join in formal and reflective prayer with the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters
• Learn important tools and dimensions of a fruitful discernment
• Discover our IHM history, passion for justice, and our mission to care for creation
• Spend time in our “green” Motherhouse
• Share your stories with our wisdom figures and newly vowed sisters

Register now:

• Contact Sister Mary Bea, IHM Vocation Director, at 734-240-9820 or via email
• We can welcome up to 10 women for the Come & See Weekend
• Please register by October 16, 2009

Location:

IHM Motherhouse
610 West Elm Avenue
Monroe, Michigan 48162
www.ihmsisters.org

***

Join Sister Maxine and me for prayer today
at 12:00 p.m. noon Central Time (UTC-5)
at anunslife.org/live

This past weekend I was home in Monroe at our IHM Motherhouse for a gathering of sisters from the Oblate Sisters of Providence and the 3 Immaculate Heart of Mary communities (Immaculata, Scranton, and my community of Monroe). This is the fourth year that I have been part of this group. I’ve written in the past about what the group is like (see posts from 2006 and 2007) so today on Nunday I thought I’d share some photos of our weekend gathering in Monroe, Michigan, at our IHM Motherhouse. Many thanks to Sister Fran Fasolka, IHM (Scranton) for the beautiful photos.

Sister Mary Anne Bolger, IHM (Immaculata) enjoying desert in the Ice Cream Room. Independent Dairy ice cream is a big-time local favorite!

The OSP IHM Sisters of the Round Table

Sister Jill Kress, IHM (Monroe) Novice, Sister Clarice Proctor, OSP, Sister Fran Fasolka, IHM (Scranton) visiting "the Barn", the IHM House of Prayer

OSP IHM Board of Directors 2009 at the IHM Motherhouse, Monroe, Michigan

Be sure to check out our new OSP IHM Website created by Sister Fran Fasolka, IHM (Scranton), and Sister Kathy Burns, IHM (Scranton).

And don’t forget to join Sister Maxine and I today — and every weekday — at anunslife.org/live for a live podcast. There’s a link in the top menu labeled LIVE SHOWS.

I am home at the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan. Today we have our summer “community days”. All of my sisters come home for days of prayer, study, and discernment about our life together and how God is continuing to call us to live the liberating mission of Jesus. Then on Saturday we have our big community celebration of our Jubilarians, the sisters who celebrate the 25th, 60th and 75th anniversary of their entering the community.

I am thrilled to be home and to see everyone. The whole house is buzzing with good energy and excitement about being together. That is one thing I absolutely love about being an IHM Sister. We cherish our time together, we like hanging out with one another. It energizes us and renews us as we then move back into our ministries.

I hope to post again this week but may be a bit challenging with all that’s going on here. I ask for your prayers and will try to check in when I can. Do continue the conversations started this week and last — some very good ones going on about Vocation Directors, Paul Rudnick’s infamous piece on nuns, and Spiritual Writing. Also don’t forget to tune into the Discussion Forum — you can follow the “live” conversation we had on Sunday and add your thoughts.

Blessings!

Come and see is an invitation we hear in the Gospels addressed to people who feel an attraction to, people who are drawn by the Gospel and the lifestyle of Jesus. It’s an invitation that the Catholic Church echoes as it invites people to take a personal look at a call to follow Jesus through religious life.

Until you’ve had the opportunity to experience a religious community through individual sisters or brothers, at prayer, in ministry, or by interacting with a group of sisters or brothers, it can be difficult to get a feel for what religious life is like, and also to which particular community you are called.

My IHM community is hosting a “Come and See” weekend for women who are thinking about religious life and are attracted to the IHM life and mission.

“Come and See” Weekend

Date: May 1-3, 2009
Time: Friday 7 p.m. to Sunday 12:30 p.m.
Location: IHM Motherhouse, Monroe, Michigan

There will be opportunities to pray with my IHM nuns, chat with us, learn about us and about discernment, and just hang out with us.

For more information or to register, please contact Sister Mary Bea at 734-240-9820. And as always, feel free to contact me if you have any wonderings.

While in Monroe, Michigan, this past week, I had a chance to take some pictures of the IHM Motherhouse. Sister Jill had also taken some cool photos so I’m including some of hers as well.

Sister Jill poses at the front doors of the IHM Motherhouse

My favorite image and saying posted in the IHM front foyer

Artistic rendering of the first "motherhouse" -- a log cabin by the banks of the River Raisin -- humble beginnings for Mother Theresa and the first sisters

Sister Antoinette Ruedisueli, IHM, in the computer room of the IHM Library

IHM Reading Room

Artwork from our IHM sisters and associates ... there are weekly classes taught by our IHM master artists in a variety of media

"The Back 40" ... this is the land behind the Motherhouse that extends beyond the forested area. Includes Saint Joseph lake and island.

See all of Sister Jill Kress and my photos of the IHM Motherhouse at the official A Nun’s Life Facebook page. You don’t need to be a member of Facebook to see the pictures.

I am home at the IHM Mothership (as our novice Sister Jill likes to call it) in Monroe, Michigan, attending community meetings with my nuns. As the good Sister Servant that I am (our full congregational title is Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary), I am helping out at the meetings as the minute taker. It’s great to see so many of my nuns from the Motherhouse and from out on mission. The nuns at the meetings represent our entire congregation — they meet three times a year to lead the congregation, to facilitate our mission, and to tend our community life. During the meetings (each meeting is 4 days long), the reps pray together, study, discuss, reflect, and decide; they also also enjoy hanging out with each other at meals, on walks during the breaks, and at the “pub night” in the evening. It is good nun time. I feel honored to be here.

This morning we are just about ready to begin. I’m waiting for our dear Sister Jill to return from her sex workshop to see how it went! I’m also hoping to take some time to snap some pictures around our Motherhouse to give you a feel for what it’s like around the house.

Please keep my nuns in your prayer.

More later!

Greetings! I’ve been away from Chicago and my computer for a few days … lots to tell! On Sunday I was in Monroe, Michigan, home of the IHM Motherhouse, for the final profession of vows of Sister Katherine Collard, IHM. It was fabulous … I’ll write more later. For now, I am catching up with myself and trying to get myself off to work!

Here’s a picture as I walked to the Motherhouse for the profession …