Two Catholic sisters who podcast on the Internet (me and Sister Julie)

Nuns on the Internet?! Yep. The topic is still making news, which is great! One of the latest articles, from the Associated Press, just appeared in ABC2News.com, the Huffington Post, CBSNews.com, and other major media sources around the world.

The article makes a point that merits emphasis—that interest in religious life is on the rise, and that sisters and nuns are using the Internet to raise awareness about what religious life is today.

These two things are interrelated. If a woman can’t imagine herself being a sister, even though she feels called to religious life, then it’s unlikely she’ll pursue religious life as an option. Case in point: myself. For years, religious life wasn’t even on the radar screen for me. Praying all day, yeah, that’s great. But I wanted action and adventure! What I didn’t understand then was these things are a huge part of religious life. When I became aware of that, hello religious life.

The article also quotes Patrice Tuohy of the National Religious Vocation Conference, which represents vocation directors in many religious organizations of women and men. She makes the point that interest in religious life is increasing. Contrary to a common misperception, it’s not just interest in orders that wear traditional habits. There’s a lot of new interest in orders of all kinds. The more awareness there is about the wonderful diversity of religious life, the more ways there are for people to imagine themselves in religious life.

One more thing—I kinda chuckle when I see the word “recruit” in the article. That’s not actually our job. It’s what God does! Our role is to help those who feel called by God to see the possibilities for their own life and to discern their calling. Maybe the discernment will lead to religious life, or maybe it will lead to a different way to serve God and others. But I sense that’s part of the renewed interest in religious life too—recognition that the traditions of religious life, such as discernment, can be of great service to the larger Christian community and beyond.

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Join us for a live prayer webcast this evening at 6 p.m. Central Time at aNunsLife.org/live. You can share your prayer requests in the chat room
On Wednesdays at 6 p.m. Central Time, join us for Ask Sister, a live webcast where we take your questions about God, faith and religious life.

During Ask Sister 015 we played a clip from Patrice Tuohy of VocationMatch.com. She offered good advice on what to do if you get an overwhelming number of results using VocationMatch.com, a website matching discerning persons with religious communities.

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

Patrice’s response is to part of a question from Kristina who had asked: “There are so many orders out there and each one is very unique. I have been researching different orders for a couple of years now. There are so many different orders, some well known like Franciscans, Benedictines, Jesuits, Carmelites and Dominicans, but others that I just recently discovered like the Daughters of Saint Paul and the Salesian sisters. The many choices are overwhelming. Do you have any advice for me in sorting through all of these groups? I have used VISION vocation website, which sorts the orders by my interests, but there are still so many out there. I would welcome any resources you might have to guide me. Thanks!”

Listen to the entire AS015 Ask Sister podcast which was broadcast live on February 19, 2010.

Tomorrow, Tuesday at 1 p.m. CST (time zone converter), we have two special guests coming to our LIVE podcast — Brother Paul Bednarczyk, CSC, Executive Director of the National Religious Vocation Conference, and Patrice Tuohy, Executive Editor of VISION Vocation Guide.

They’ll join us to discuss the newly released study on Catholic Vocations and Religious Life. This is a very important study, and if you haven’t done so already, read through the executive summary and other related resources (Mythbusters section is quite interesting).

We’ll ask them about the survey itself, its aim and who participated, and also some specifics about the survey such as what it means to create/have a “culture of vocations”. Since both guests have expertise in the field of vocations, we’ll ask them for their observations on and advice for vocation directors and people considering a vocation.

We’d like you to join us by listening and also by participating in the chat room during the live broadcast. The chat room is just for listeners of the show only and it is the place where you can interact with one another and with us. During the broadcast you can ask your questions and offer comments to our guests which Sister Maxine and I will read on the air.

How do you listen? Just come to ANunsLife.org tomorrow … there will be a post with all the info that you need.

For an email reminder tomorrow, please leave a comment below with your correct email in the box that asks for your email or email us directly (NOTE: your email address is never made public).

What do you think about the survey? What questions do you have for Patrice and Brother Paul about the survey or about vocations in general — e.g., discerning a vocation, attracting new members, the state of religious life, etc.? Let’s get a good list going!