Who are the most influential vocation promoters of today? YOU! That’s right, I mean you. Parents, teachers, catechists, mentors, and anyone who is in a position to encourage young people are our most treasured vocation promoters because you are in a position to mentor others and to help them see all the possibilities for their life. I would not be where I am today — educationally, spiritually, or vocationally — if it were not for the women and men in my life who expanded my horizons and helped me envision and imagine my life.

To help you help others, we pulled together the popular post How to Become a Catholic Nun into a printable format so that you can make this available to others and also to educate yourself on ways to encourage people in their attraction to religious life specifically or in their desire to discern how God is calling them. Though the post is about becoming a Catholic sister or nun, the message applies to becoming a Catholic brother or monk, and many of the suggestions are helpful for anyone discerning a calling. In the future we hope to create a similar post that is geared toward discerning a call in general.

Here is a link to How to Become a Catholic Nun PDF. (format PDF, 1.4 MB)

If there are other resources that we can provide you with, please let us know. If you are a “discerning individual” let us know the ways that mentors have encouraged you!

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. today (your time zone). All are welcome.

We are back after an extraordinary time home at our IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan. In the midst of congregational meetings, liturgy and prayer, and socializing (we did occasionally get sleep too!), Sister Maxine and I were podcasting live from the motherhouse! Each day we had sisters join us on the air with the finale being Saturday night with Special Podcast – IHM Sisters Unplugged! We invited four brave sisters to join us on the air for a live podcast and interaction with you our online audience. In addition, we invited sisters to be present as our very first live audience! We packed the place and were so delighted to share the experience with our nuns!

So it is fitting on this Monday to celebrate our nuns with some Nunday photos courtesy of Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM, our dear friend and ministry partner!

Sister Julie (left) explains to the live audience how podcasting live works while Sister Maxine (right) briefs Sisters Marge Polys and Susan Mahalik (Go Phillies!) on what they’ll be doing.

Just a few of the many nuns who came to be part of the live “convent studio” audience! Sisters Theresa Koernke and Anne Crane are in the audience and took part in the second part of the podcast. The warm setting is the community room of the IHM Sisters who live on second floor, A wing. We are grateful for their hospitality and encouragement!

Be sure to listen to the podcast. Here’s a recording:

We talked about life as Catholic sisters, ministry, how each sister discovered and responded to her vocation, prayer, nuns swimming, dealing with doubt in the spiritual life, anchorites and the eremitical life, IHM charism and mission, entering a religious community, and lots of other things!

Sister Maxine and I are back in our own convent studio and will join you tonight for prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone).

And we’ll be back with more NUNDAY photos and stories coming soon!

November is a month that U.S. Americans traditionally express our gratitude through the celebration of Thanksgiving. This year is special because the month also honors Catholic sisters and nuns. For the past few months, people have been sending in letters to thankyousister.com expressing their gratitude and support of women religious. Now in the month of November, those letters are being published on the same website and also sent to various leaders in the Catholic Church.

Here’s part of one of the letters posted yesterday:

“Over the past seven years, I have had regular contact with Sisters of Mercy. Before I met them, I had never before met a Sister and I’d had almost no contact with Catholics. I’d had a lot of prejudices against Catholics, and I’d expected them to be mean, narrow, simple-minded, and incredibly rigid.

I was delighted to see all of the prejudices of my early years quickly dispelled by the Sisters of Mercy I’ve met and worked with over these many years. The women I have met have been genuinely warm, hospitable, intelligent, well-spoken, deeply religious and spiritual, and they live out the tenets of their faith in such a way that gives me great hope for Christianity. They do not ask what one’s faith is before they give healing or love; they offer their help to all who come to them, regardless of denomination or religion.”

It is a delight to read these letters and to celebrate the lives of so many women who have given their lives to the quest for God and to living the Gospel of Jesus. And it is inspiring to see how people have been transformed through their encounter with sisters — and how sisters have been transformed through their encounter with those whom they seek to serve!

Who (anyone, not just a sister!) has had a transformative influence in your life? What gift have they given you?

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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 pray with today’s readings from the Bible and take time for prayer requests.

Any remember, Friday is now dedicated to your questions about a nun’s life, prayer, ministry, and everything but the convent sink! Ask your questions through the week and we’ll respond to them during the Ask Sister podcast on Friday at 6 p.m. Central Time

Today is Ask Sister Day! Sister Maxine and I receive lots of questions each week about our life as Catholic sisters as well as many other nun-related questions. We take questions about community, prayer, and ministry, and pretty much everything except the convent sink! Let us know what’s on your mind! You can do so in any number of ways:

• comment below on the day of the Ask Sister podcast
• email us at “sister AT anunslife DOT org” any time before an Ask Sister podcast
• comment in the chat room during a live show
• calling in during a live show

In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

Visit ANunsLife.org/live
Today
12 p.m. Central Time (your timezone)

Here are a few of the questions we already have for today:

• Do most nuns have a college degree? Do communities recommend getting a degree first then entering the convent?
• A lot of orders only have old people left in them? How would a young sister deal with that, especially if patience for the elderly wasn’t her best trait!

I am pleased to have Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM, join me today as my guest co-host. Sister Maxine has a meeting but will try to pop in sometime during the broadcast.

We look forward to talking with you. And check out our previously recorded Ask Sister podcasts.

Post-show UPDATE: Here’s a recording of today’s podcast:

We have a special edition of today’s Nun News Roundup podcast at http://anunslife.org/live. The whole show is devote to YOUR questions about nuns, God, faith, prayer, and religious life.

Visit ANunsLife.org/live
Today
12 p.m. Central Time / UTC-5

We’ve got a number of questions already, for example:

• What do Catholic nuns have to give up to become a nun, other then marriage or sex? Do nuns give up jewelry and music and many things like that?
• Is true forgiveness “unconditional”? Should our forgiveness of someone require the offender to be “worthy”?
• Why it is so hard to have enough courage to follow your heart?

We’ll take your questions and comments throughout today’s show. You can share them in the comment box below or join us for the live podcast today! It’s easy to listen to the podcast. Visit the link above for info. Don’t miss this show!

Post-show update: Here’s a recording of today’s podcast:

Listen to other Ask Sister podcasts.