A Nun's Life » vocation

AS100 Ask Sister – Highlights of fav shows in honor of 100th Ask Sister episode, World Day for Consecrated Life, GPS rosary for finding religious life, vow of obedience vs. doormat

Sister Maxine — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:10:14 +0000

AS100 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 2, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Highlights in honor of 100th episode, World Day for Consecrated Life, GPS rosary for religious life, vow of obedience vs. doormat, 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 topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

In honor of the 100th episode of Ask Sister, audio clips of some of our favorite shows: tin-can podcast #1, Chloe the Convent Cat, putting the “man” in “mantilla,” and the sisters’ best jokes.
World Day for Consecrated Life–an opportunity to celebrate God’s calling in our lives.
The Rosary as a GPS for finding one’s way to religious life.
The Rosary as a Marian devotion, and the role of Mary in our lives and in the tradition of religious life.
Fond memories of the glow-in-the-dark Rosary.
How does one live out the vow of obedience, without falling into the unhealthy habit of being a doormat? The ups and downs of obedience not just for sisters but for all Christians!

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. 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.

Hello, are you there? God calling.

Sister Julie — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:44:25 +0000

We may be nuns and have a penchant for talking nun stuff, but we are all about promoting ALL vocations — and that’s why no matter who you are, what you do, or what your spiritual persuasion is, we’re here for you!

This week is a great time to celebrate all manner of vocations because it is National Vocation Awareness Week (NVAW) which began in 1976 by the U.S. Catholic Bishops. It coincides with the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus. This is of course is très significant because the Church recognizes the universal call to holiness of every Christian by virtue of her or his baptism.

What does this mean? Here’s a snippet from one of my favorite Church documents, Lumen Gentium – The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from the Second Vatican Council.

[We are called] to live “as becomes saints”, and to put on “as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience”, and to possess the fruit of the Spirit in holiness….

All the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity; by this holiness as such a more human manner of living is promoted in this earthly society. In order that the faithful may reach this perfection, they must use their strength accordingly as they have received it, as a gift from Christ. They must follow in Christ’s footsteps and conform themselves to God’s image seeking God’s will in all things. They must devote themselves with all their being to the glory of God and the service of their neighbor. In this way, the holiness of the People of God will grow into an abundant harvest of good, as is admirably shown by the life of so many saints in Church history.

The classes and duties of life are many, but holiness is one—that sanctity which is cultivated by all who are moved by the Spirit of God, and who obey the voice of God and worship God … in spirit and in truth. These people follow the poor Christ, the humble and cross-bearing Christ in order to be worthy of being sharers in God’s glory. Every person must walk unhesitatingly according to her or his own personal gifts and duties in the path of living faith, which arouses hope and works through charity. (Lumen Gentium)

What crosses your mind when you think about what it means for God to be calling YOU?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for a live podcast and chat every weekday at 6 p.m. CT (find your time zone) at aNunsLife.org/live

Feast Day Letter to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Adventure Nun

Sister Maxine — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:07:23 +0000

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, 1774-1821

Dear Sister Elizabeth Ann,

Just a short note to say that I’m a big fan of yours! It’s not just because your feast day is on my birthday, which it is. Or that my momma’s name is also Elizabeth Ann (BTW she’s a huge fan too).

I really admire your sense of adventure, or whatever spirit it was that allowed you to say “yes” to God in so many different ways. Raised an Anglican in New York, you married and went to Italy with your hub and one of your five kids. (My mom and dad also raised five kids).

It must have been very difficult when your husband died in Italy. Yet even then, you did not lose faith. Even then, you turned to God. Maybe the challenge of being a single parent led you to such a deep desire to help others. Back in New York, you became a Catholic and raised your kids.

And then you began a religious order! Way to say “yes” to that one – the Sisters of Charity, Emmitsburg, Maryland, was the first order of women religious that originated in the United States! (My congregation was also founded in the U.S.!) Not only did you and your sisters help many poor young women by providing free Catholic education, but you left a legacy that’s still vibrant nearly 200 years later!

Throughout the day today, I’m going to pray in these words you wrote to a good friend in a letter in 1810:

“Faith lifts the staggering soul on one side, hope supports it on the other, experience says it must be and love says let it be.”

Thanks for the many ways you said “yes” to God, Sister Elizabeth Ann!

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer (Mon.-Wed and Friday) at 6 p.m. Central Time at aNunsLife.org/live. Join us there on Thursdays at 6 p.m. for the Ask Sister broadcast.

AS094 Ask Sister – nun hairstyles, a question of morals, debunking nun myths for your friends, nuns for 4-year-old, weird detours

The Nuns — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:18:40 +0000

AS094 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 30, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: nun hairstyles, a question of morals, debunking nun myths for your friends, explaining nuns to a 4-year-old child, weird detours, 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 topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

A novelist wants to know what’s under the veil for sisters circa 1960: hair or no hair?
A listener asks if there are moral qualifications to be a nun. We’ll expand the convo to talk about moral qualifications for vocations of all types.
What to tell friends about nuns and virginity, nuns and trust funds, and nuns who are parents.
Can sisters and nuns keep assets and inheritances when they enter religious life?
Do nuns get an allowance or stipend?
A mom wonders how to explain what nuns are to her four-year-old.
Are weird detours part of God’s plan?

A Vocation Unto Death – Sister Valsa John, SCJM

Sister Julie — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 07:09:26 +0000

I never met Sister Valsa, but she is my sister and yours. My heart breaks for the congregation, family and friends of Sister Valsa John, SCJM, a Sister of Charity of Jesus and Mary who was killed a week ago. See Stephanie Nolen’s piece for the Globe and Mail – Activist nun who fought Indian mining companies brutally murdered (November 17, 2011). Here are some quotes:

Sister Valsa, 52, was from Kerala in south India, and 24 years ago took her vows as a member of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary. She was one of the remarkable breed of Indian religious figures who are grassroots social activists, who immerse themselves in the most marginalized and impoverished communities and work on literacy, basic health care and human rights. Sister Valsa said she did Jesus’s work by teaching the aboriginal people – known in India as adivasi or “tribals” – about their rights to their land….

Sister Sudha [Varghese, her close friend], who attended the funeral Thursday, said most who knew Sister Valsa believe it was people from the Santhal community, in the pay of the mining company, who killed her. “This is what the companies do: they divide people. When people are this poor, when someone gives them a little money, they can do anything,” she said. “Valsa knew it, and so many times we asked her to leave. But she said, ‘These are my people and I cannot leave them.’ ”

While the proverbial jury’s out in terms of who is actually responsible, news sources tend to name the coal company or possible local people who were angry with Sister Valsa for reporting to police the rape of a woman in the village.

Said Bishop Julius Marandi of Dumka, “Her violent death was a terrible shock and a great loss to the Church. We seek justice, but while we mourn this loss, our mission for the poor, the weak and voiceless will continue, strengthened and renewed by the blood of Sister Valsa, who now intercedes for human rights, justice, dignity and hope of these people.” (source: AsiaNews)

I’ve been reflecting a lot on Sister Valsa’s life and her death. No one knows where one’s vocation will lead — for some, to be a person of compassion, for others a teacher or a missionary or a parent. For all of us, our vocation leads to our death — not directly, perhaps, but in one way or another we find in our death that final statement of how we have lived our life. For some, one’s vocation necessarily entails facing death. I remember my own Sister Alice Baker, IHM, talking about her trip to the Holy Land. She talked about having to discern the possibility of her own death because she was going on a peace mission in a volatile region. I can’t even pretend to know what that means.

I lead a relatively peaceful existence with no threats to life other than the usual ones that all of us human beings face. Sure, I’ve had my share of “close-calls” but I’m intact for the most part! I am blown away by those like Sister Valsa and Sister Alice and so many others who have faced the real possibility of death. For some like Sister Valsa, death has come directly as a result of living fully one’s vocation.

You know, I’ve always wondered why in Compline — night prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours — the last prayer always reminds us of death. “All powerful God, grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.” I think it may be a reminder of our ultimate source and end in God and a reminder to take to heart our vocation. Not sure, but I will definitely keep pondering.

How do you understand “a vocation unto death”?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page

AS092 Ask Sister – call and dread in discernment, novelist seeks info on real-life nuns, a sister’s ministry to kids with AIDS, cookin’ and cleanin’ nuns

The Nuns — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:46:02 +0000

AS092 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 17, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: call and dread in discernment, a novelist seeks info on real-life nuns, ministry to and with children, cooking and cleaning 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 topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

The work of discernment: call and dread. Really?
Novelist asks about nuns in childcare ministries, and Sister Camille Brouillard responds by describing what it was like to minister to children with AIDS.
I found a description of sisters and nuns on a diocesan website that describes their lives in terms of cooking and housekeeping and wanting to be loved and, oh yeah, some prayer too. What’s up with that?

The work of discernment –”call and dread”

Sister Maxine — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:00:16 +0000

Ilove this reflection on discernment! For me, it pretty much describes in a nutshell my experience of discerning God’s call, especially at times when I find an intersection where I thought only one road existed.

Photo by Alesa Dam

The reflection was written by Sister Mary Fran Gilleran, IHM, and was published in Midwiving a Vibrant Future, by the Leadership Council of Women Religious.

The work of discernment sets a challenge before us. We enter a process of choice and decision-making with many aspects to it. The deepest calls of our lives, the times when we know we have to choose, are profound moments.

These moments always seem to have two sides: call and dread. A call that challenges us, that we know is right, confronts us with dread at the same time. We know this call will require new demands of us. It will require taking on and letting go of familiar patterns and ways of being comfortable. It elicits dread even though we know it is time, it is needed, it is even good for us and for the whole.

Midwives of the new must know when to push for the next stage and when to simply breathe in and through both call and dread. They are two sides of the same invitation. There is a time to throw away. And it is all part of one process.

How does this reflection resonate with your experience of discernment?

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Join A Nun’s Life community tonight for prayer at aNunsLife.org/live at 6 p.m. CT (your time zone) Come a bit early or stay a bit late and chat with us in the chat room!

Madonna on Discernment

Sister Julie — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:21:14 +0000

I am fascinated with a newly published letter that Madonna (the artist and performer) wrote when she was twenty years old. The letter (courtesy of the website Letters of Note) is addressed to film director Stephen Lewicki as a sort of “résumé” for the lead role in his film A Certain Sacrifice. She mentions how she wanted to be a movie star or a nun, and how, after trying things out, she decided to pursue a music career.

… and, after a bunch of interesting stuff about her life, the letter concludes …

Initially I was a bit miffed that Madonna compared being a nun to a disease, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the comparison represents a fine bit of discernment. Madonna recognized that trying out life as a nun led her to “dis-ease”, that is, a lack of ease in her own life, a feeling of being “not at peace” or “out of sync”.

Thank God Madonna did recognize that “dis-ease” because she was then able to open herself up to another calling as a singer-songwriter, actor, and entrepreneur! She is hands down one of the greatest artists of our time. Granted, I would gladly take Madonna as one of my nuns, but I am nonetheless delighted that she followed her calling and gifted the world with her art.

How do you negotiate the sense of “ease” and “dis-ease” in your own life?

What insight started percolating as you read Madonna’s words and thought about her life calling?

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Join A Nun’s Life community tonight for prayer at aNunsLife.org/live at 6 p.m. CT (your time zone) Come a bit early or stay a bit late and chat with us in the chat room!

AS091 Ask Sister – novelist needs info for nunfiction, hanging up on a call from God, how nuns pray, submissiveness, unholy spirits, gay saints

The Nuns — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:35:06 +0000

AS091 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 9, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: novelist needs info for nunfiction, hanging up on a call from God, how nuns pray, submissiveness, unholy spirits, gay saints

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

A novelist is looking for info for a new work of nunfiction
Hanging up on a call from God? What happens when a nun leaves religious life?
A rosary a day? How nuns pray.
What is submissiveness?
Unholy spirits and what to do about them
Are there any gay saints?

Do you have a question for us? Using your computer, record your question on voice mail. It’s easy to do! Just click this Record link to get started! 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.

AS090 Ask Sister – Special Saintly Edition, with saints in a cave, saintly symbols-coffee and ice cream, decommissioned saints, saintliness in scripture

The Nuns — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:12:52 +0000

AS090 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 3, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Special Saintly Edition. Topics include: saints in a cave, saintly symbols-coffee and ice cream, decommissioned saints, saintliness in scripture

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

How St. Syncletica ditched her entourage and headed for a cave
Coffee, bicycles, trees, open vessels, ice cream and other symbols of sainthood
When saints go marching off the General Roman Calendar–where do they go?
Sister Sandra Schneiders on holiness from the perspectives of St. Paul and the Fourth Gospel

Two saints walked into a bar…. LOL for a healthy spiritual life

Sister Maxine — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:25:22 +0000

Idon’t know if saints ever did stand-up comedy, or if the Scripture writers ever LOL’d at what they wrote. But they do show us that there’s a connection between faith, humor, happiness and transformation. It’s what Father James Martin writes about in his new book Between Heaven and Mirth.

Sister Julie and I are delighted that Father Martin will join us for a live podcast on All Saints Day! It’s part of our very first A Nun’s Life Fun!raiser. We’ll talk with him about saints and the role of humor in the spiritual life. Join us in the live chat room during the podcast, which begins at 2 pm Central, to ask questions and share your best spiritual humor! Check out the sidebar to the right for more info about events during the Fun!raiser!

In the meantime, if you need a spiritual boost, check out this video clip of Father Martin sharing a joke with journalist Sally Quinn.

We hope you can join us for the podcast with Father Martin and for other fun and one-of-a-kind events during our nine-day Fun!raiser. A Nun’s Life Ministry relies on gifts from readers and listeners like you, who make these podcasts and this ministry possible. We encourage you to support this ministry that strives to promote religious life and to encourage people in living their calling. Please consider a one-time gift or a monthly gift to support the ministry. Thank you!

AS089 Ask Sister – do family duties trump religious life, schnauzer in the convent, Mrs. Sister, so many choices–how to decide which religious order to enter

The Nuns — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:37:39 +0000

Ask Sister podcast recorded live on October 27, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: do family duties trump religious life, schnauzer in the convent, Mrs. Sister, so many choices–how to decide which religious order to enter

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

Family duties vs. the call to religious life — which takes priority?
Can pets come too when a person enters religious life? Dilemma of the mini-schnauzer.
Have you heard of any movement that advocates sisters being allowed to marry?
I would like to become a sister. Now the problem is, which congregation? The more I search, the more I get confused.

Reflecting on Religious Life in Challenging Times

Sister Julie — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:11:11 +0000

For many U.S. Catholic sisters and indeed for many Catholics across the U.S. and abroad, the Apostolic Visitation of American Women Religious that began in 2009 turned out to be a graced opportunity to reflect on apostolic, or ministerial, religious life. At the public helm of this reflection has been Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, professor emerita of New Testament Studies and Christian Spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology/Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She has served as president of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality and on te board of directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America. Perhaps her greatest claim to fame, however, is that she is a person deeply grounded in prayer who has given her life to serving God, the Church, and the world. She is a person whom I am proud to call my sister.

At the time of the Apostolic Visitation, Sister Sandra stepped up, offering her reflections on religious life into the public forum. These were certainly not random thoughts and opinions but ones steeped in faith and “in decades of biblical scholarship, religious life scholarship, and lived experience in a congregation.” (Sister Maria Cimperman, OSU, writing about Sister Sandra). These reflections, originally published by National Catholic Reporter, are now collected in the book Prophets in Their Own Country: Women Religious Bearing Witness to the Gospel in a Troubled Church, published by Orbis Books.

A note about the title … We can be a bit sceptical about prophets, especially when one self-appoints oneself as a prophet! The job description for a prophet has never been public acclaim or celebration or even a pat on the back. It is perhaps one of the most arduous of callings that exists. Yet the Church recognizes that some callings are prophetic by nature. One such calling is religious life.

“Religious Life has, from its inception, been recognized not simply as a ‘work force’ in the church but as a prophetic vocation…. For a hundred years before the [Second Vatican] Council a process of institutionalization, standardization, and even domestication muted to the point of virtual silence the specifically prophetic character of the life. Religious began to rediscover that important dimension of their identity as they emerged into public life by their increasing participation in social justice issues in the 1960s and their enthusiastic espousal in the Church of the agenda of Vatican II. Intrinsic to the prophetic vocation within the Judaeo-Christian biblical tradition is the tension between prophecy and institution.” (Prophets in Their Own Country, 22-23)

Though the Apostolic Visitation has faded from the news, the important articulations of who we are as women religious remain as well as the deep connection that women religious have across congregations and with the wider lay Catholic community (women religious are lay people after all). Sister Sandra’s book is a great springboard into deeper reflection on religious life as a gift to the Church and to the world.

Sister Sandra has joined us before at A Nun’s Life Ministry for our In Good Faith program, and she will join us again for a live broadcast on Tuesday next week, November 1, at 9 a.m. CST. We’ll talk with Sister Sandra about the saints as we honor All Saints Day. Join us! The event is one among many others to help kickoff the A Nun’s Life Ministry 1st Annual Fundraiser, and we encourage you to support this ministry that strives to promote religious life and to encourage people in living their calling. Please consider a one-time gift or a monthly gift to support the ministry.

AS088 Ask Sister – Sister Godmother, faithful – or not – to the magisterium, tithing, embracing a vocation

Sister Maxine — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:50:30 +0000

AS088 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on October 13, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Sister Godmother, faithful-or not-to the magisterium, tithing when the collection plate passes you by, what it means to embrace a vocation.

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

Can a nun be a godmother, and vice versa?
I’ve heard the phrase “faithful to the magisterium.” What does it mean to be faithful–or not–to the magisterium? If not, is that a fast-track to excommunication?
Is it okay to give my weekly church donation to other charitable organizations? Is it still considered tithing to the church?
How does a person embrace a vocation?

AS086 Ask Sister – nun and reverend? balancing Facebook and life, battling demons and giants, prayers for discernment

The Nuns — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 11:40:04 +0000

AS086 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on September 29, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Sister and Reverend Lynne Smith talks about her vocation, balancing Facebook and life, battling demons and giants, prayers for discernment

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

A NUN AND AN ORDAINED MINISTER AT THE SAME TIME: The Sisters chat with Sister Lynne about her vocation.
SEEKING BALANCE: I often feel like technology takes over my life. I don’t know what a good balance is to use Facebook and stay in touch with old friends and also maybe become a witness to them but at the same time. So if you can help me figure out a balance as to how long to keep facebook – should you keep it up to the point that you’re going to leave for your community? Or should you cut yourself off completely right before? I’m not sure. Your help would be appreciated!
TANGLE WITH OR RUN FROM DEMONS?: Is it helpful for us to make a “one-time”, “fix-all” decision (e.g., never to open a refrigerator door again because we are afraid we’ll indulge too much) because it then saves us from having to repeatedly battle the same giant? Or do we do ourselves a disservice by not tangling with the giant head-to-head (e.g., like learning to be better disciplined or finding different strategies for coping)?
PRAYER FOR DISCERNMENT: I am still discerning to become a hermit or sister. Do you know a prayer to enlighten me regarding my vocation?

Do you have a question for us? Visit 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.

These “Jesus shoes” are made for walking…and praying and discerning

Guest Blogger — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:37:32 +0000

We have a special guest blog post from A Nun’s Life community member Joyce Elaine, who reflects on the heart and sole of discernment.

There are sandals that I wear that my closest friends affectionately call my “Jesus sandals.”

They are white and strappy with gold accents, and they do make me think of the sandals that Jesus is often depicted in. They are a special pair in my collection of “Jesus shoes.” I wear them to Mass, and almost always get asked about my discernment there. I wear them to family gatherings and again, I get asked about religious life: “What things can you do as a nun?” ” Do you go to school to become a nun?” I wear them where I pray with my church and sometimes with the nuns I know.

I also have a pair of black shoes that I wear on cold, wet, muddy, or rainy days. When I walk around with friends, the questions still pour out. “Can a nun be an electrical engineer?” “Is a nun allowed to keep her birth/baptismal name?” I also tend to wear these shoes when I am feeling sick or worried. They remind me that I’m carried by God.

My running shoes are also Jesus shoes. I wear them when I run, when I take walks, when I take bike rides, and when I work out. They are what I wear when I feel closest to God–when I am just myself.

What do your “Jesus shoes” look like? Please share your Jesus shoe stories in the comment box below!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community and the nuns for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone).

AS085 Ask Sister – telling college buddies you might join the nuns, cosmetology in the convent, saints for extreme sports, bible snakes, can you be a nun if…

The Nuns — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:28:23 +0000

AS085 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on September 22, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: telling college buddies you might join the nuns, cosmetology in the convent, saints for extreme sports, bible snakes, can you be a nun if…

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

How to tell your college buddies that you’re thinking of joining the nuns
Does God call professional hair stylists to religious life?
I’m into extreme sports. Do you know of any saints that could relate to being in high risk situations for something they love?
Scripture Soundings: Moses and the bronze serpent (oh, we got snakes)
Can you be a nun if….? Questions about what it takes to be a nun.

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.

AS082 Ask Sister – is it true that “many are called but few are chosen,” what’s a “charism,” young adults reflect on vocations, tweeting for vocations, and more!

The Nuns — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:23:09 +0000

AS082 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on September 1, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: unpacking scripture on called v. chosen, understanding charism, young adults on vocation, vocation seminar learnings and surprises, and more!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

What’s with the passage “many are called, but few are chosen”? Would God call you, then not choose you?
Religious congregations talk a lot about their “charism.” What does that mean?
Reflections on “calling” and “vocation” from young adults at World Youth Day, Madrid, Spain.
Tweeting for vocations?! The nuns talk about the J.S. Paluch Vocations Seminar they attended earlier this week in Chicago, on the topic of social media.

AS063 Ask Sister – Live from the Motherhouse! The nuns talk about the daily Examen prayer, God and free will, different notions of vocation, feeling unconnected to God and more!

The Nuns — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:50:13 +0000

Welcome to a special ENCORE PRESENTATION of Ask Sister podcast. The nuns are in nunly meetings all week but wanted to be sure you still had an opportunity to listen to an Ask Sister podcast. This is one of our favorite ones with special guest Sister Kathie Budesky, IHM, the director of Visitation North Spirituality Center.

As you listen to this podcast, jot down your questions and insights and then head on over to the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and start a conversation! Go for it!

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

In this podcast episode, we chatted about the “Examen Prayer”, God and free will, the difference between vowed religious vocations and ‘non-vowed religious vocations’, and what to do when you don’t feel connected with God.

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!

AS076 Ask Sister – going on retreat, detachment from (YIKES) gadgets, nun-fiction writer seeks authentic religious life, and more!

The Nuns — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 13:39:47 +0000

AS076 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 23, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: going on retreat, detachment from (YIKES) gadgets, nun-fiction writer seeks authentic religious life, and more!

Here are some of the topics we address in this Ask Sister podcast:

I want to go on retreat. Where would I go and what should I expect?
Could you talk about what detachment from material things means? I’m thinking about religious life, and I’m scared about giving up my things especially my gadgets!
Another novelist contacts the nuns! The author wants to authentically portray a modern-day nun for her sitcom-esque story. Help the nuns in their advice for the story.

AS075 Ask Sister – college grad talks about volunteering for a year; recognizing God at work in daily life; called to be a nun or doctor (or both?) and more!

The Nuns — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:41:05 +0000

AS075 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 16, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: college grad talks about volunteering for a year, recognizing God at work in daily life, called to be a nun or doctor (or both?), and more!

Here are some of the topics we address in this Ask Sister podcast:

How to recognize God at work our daily lives — putting on our God goggles
Should I become a doctor or a nun or can I do both?
SPECIAL ON-AIR GUEST: Eilis talks about volunteering for a year and living the three pillars of service, community, and spirituality. We talk with her about the Franciscan Community Volunteers, helping refugees resettle in the U.S., how it has affected her faith, and more!

AS074 Ask Sister – testing God, praying for safety in risky situations, religious medallions, psalm selections, does prayer really work

Sister Julie — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:13:33 +0000

AS074 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 9, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: testing God, praying for safety in risky situations, religious medallions, psalm selections, does prayer really work.

Does participating in something inherently risky, like bike racing, equate to “testing” God?
A lot of bike racers have religious medallions. My Mom also puts guardian angel pins in my car. Do medallions actually do anything?
Does prayer really work? How can you tell?
How does the church pick which verses of a psalm to use?
What does it mean to test your “readiness” for a vocation?

AS072 Ask Sister – surfing Madonna, purgatory discovery, why Jesus was baptized, dealing with mockers and naysayers, and more!

The Nuns — Thu, 19 May 2011 17:04:02 +0000

AS072 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on May 19, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: the surfing Madonna, purgatory discovery, why Jesus was baptized, dealing with mockers and naysayers, and more!

How to deal with people who mock your life and the choices you’ve made
Is it a myth or legend or truth that Saint Patrick discovered Purgatory?
Why Jesus was baptized
An apparition of Mary that’s causing waves in one California town
Up for discussion: “The more someone is present on the internet, the less they are present in real life.”

AS070 Ask Sister – feeling okay about filioque, Anglican Ninja Nuns, living community, following in a religious brother’s footsteps

Sister Maxine — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:39:13 +0000

AS070 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on May 4, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: feeling okay about the filioque, Ninja Nuns, living community, following in a religious brother’s footsteps. A surprise guest joins the nuns!

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 topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

What’s up with the two Anglican Nuns at the Royal Wedding? Is the taller one really a ninja?
Please explain the filioque and how the trinitarian relationship has implications for our daily life.
How do ideas about the filioque relate to generosity and kindness?
What has been your biggest struggle and/or benefit from living in community?
Living in community, and living community
Is God really calling me to be a religious sister or could it just be because my brother is a religious brother and I want to follow in his footsteps?

AS068 Ask Sister – making your own scapular, opposing human trafficking, becoming a nun, the Stations of the Cross

Sister Maxine — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:34:24 +0000

AS068 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on April 15, 2011, at the Motherhouse of the Racine Dominicans. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include: making your own scapular, opposing human trafficking, becoming a nun, the Stations of the Cross.

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 topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

Can you make your own scapular?
How can scapulars be blessed, and what does the blessing do?
Do the Racine Dominican sisters have associates, and if so, what is associate life like?
The call to social justice–how the Racine Dominicans and other sisters are working against human trafficking?
Ways to pray the Stations of the Cross, including an app for your smart phone!

I think I Missed God’s Call …

Guest Blogger — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 07:13:59 +0000

Today we have a special guest blog post from our friend Kbart ….

A few weeks back, a call came into the convent hotline from a woman who had a very real concern that she might have missed God’s call. I remember laughing when I read that was going to be one of the topics for that week’s edition of Ask Sister. I laughed because my immediate response was and for the most part still is – “Don’t worry – God will call back!” After all – God always calls back, one way or another!

But here it is several weeks after that podcast, and I am still thinking about the topic! The God that I have come to accept in my life will always call back. That said, I am also my own answering machine, and after checking the caller ID feature, I often let calls – from real telephones and those that come more spiritually – go to my answering machine because I don’t want to deal with whoever and whatever the call is about. The problem is that at some point I have to listen to those calls or choose to pick-up and take some kind of action.
God knows that I can find a million and one things to do to avoid listening for the call – no matter how or when that call comes to me. But God also knows how to get through to me anyway in one of those million and one things I find to do. For me, the important thing is not to fear that I have somehow missed God’s call but to accept that I have chosen to miss quite a few of those calls! The action for me, then, is to cherish the call I do listen to and let that call become a defining moment in my walk forward in life. For me, those defining moments are the palette of paints that is God’s gift of the ever-developing painting of me and how I live in Gods world.

God doesn’t give up just because I have missed a call. If anything, God has found ways to reach me when I thought I was really unreachable! God’s call can come to me while I walk in the park and hear the small voice of a Ruby Crowned Kinglet or boom at me via the thunder that happens immediately after the flash of lightning that tells me the storm is “right over you!” God has found a way to get through to me without having to go through the telephone, and worse, the answering machine!

Feeling like you missed God’s call? Ask yourself if you are open enough to “hear” it and trust that God will call back.

Guest Blog Post by A Nun’s Life Community friend Kbart

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Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

AS063 Ask Sister – Live from the Motherhouse! The nuns talk about the daily Examen prayer, God and free will, different notions of vocation, feeling unconnected to God and more!

The Nuns — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 08:31:36 +0000

AS063 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 11, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guest: Sister Kathie Budesky. Topics include: the daily Examen prayer, God and free will, different notions of vocation, feeling unconnected to God, and more!

This episode was broadcast live from the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan, with an in-house audience! Sister Kathie Budesky, IHM, the director of Visitation North Spirituality Center, joined Sister Maxine and Sister Julie on air.

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 topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

Can you talk more about the “Examen Prayer”? What is it? How do you use it/apply it?
How do we make sense of God and free will?
What is the difference between vowed religious vocations and ‘non-vowed religious vocations’?
What do you do when you don’t feel connected with God as usual?

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 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.

Celebrating a snowy World Day for Consecrated Life!

Sister Maxine — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:44:29 +0000

Here in the Chicago area, we’re getting snow, snow, and more snow! Plus the winds are whipping around, so that when I look out the window, it’s like looking at a snow-globe that’s just been shaken. I’m not real fond of snow, but I love to engage with nature. So this morning, which BTW is World Day for Consecrated Life, I put on a ton of warm clothes and went outside with Sister Julie.

World Day for Consecrated Life was established in 1997. One of its purposes is to celebrate the ways that God works in and through the lives of consecrated women and men. Today, with the snow and wind swirling around us, Sister Julie and I celebrate our lives as religious and rejoice in the ministry of A Nun’s Life that the Spirit has breathed into being.

If there are religious sisters, brothers, priests or other consecrated persons who have been an important part of your life, we’d love to hear about them! Please share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

AS056 Ask Sister – worldly Benedictine monastics, godly anger, dilemma for a Catholic-Protestant couple, not feeling called

Sister Julie — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:57:37 +0000

AS056 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 14, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Benedictine monastics outside the monastery, godly anger, church-going dilemma for a Catholic-Protestant couple, not feeling called, 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 topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

I feel I have a vocation but recently I’ve felt “not called” anymore. Should I be worried?
How can Benedictines be considered monastics when so many of them work in the world? … Sister Christine Ereiser, OSB, responds
What would cause God to be angry with us? (from a discussion about Meribah)
Is it okay to be angry with God?
What are some healthy ways for a couple to attend church when one is Catholic and one is Protestant?
Plus, an update from the “nun-ordering-pizza” debate!

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

Discerning a vocation? What to do when our vocation finds us first.

Sister Maxine — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:46:03 +0000

Ever have the experience of looking for something, like car keys or a cell phone, just to find that it’s right before your eyes? Sometimes vocations are like that.

Case in point—my friend, Nancy Lee Smith, IHM. Sister Nancy began working full-time as an iconographer several years ago (saintjosephstudio.com). Even as she began creating wonderful icons, when people asked about her ministry, she tended to reply, “I do artwork.”

She vividly recalls the day that changed. It was at a local gallery showing,and her works were among those displayed. “I looked around and suddenly realized that I don’t just do artwork, I am an artist.” It was a moment when “doing” and “being” came together. She clearly understood that she was already living her vocation as an artist.

Sister Nancy’s story reminds me that a vocation isn’t just “what we do,” it’s also who we are. Her story reminds me that God is always at work in our lives, and sometimes it just takes awhile for us to see it clearly.

Have you had an “ah-ha” vocational moment, and how did you respond? I’d love to hear your story! Please share it by writing in the comment box below.

* * *

This week is National Vocation Awareness Week. The Sisters will be praying daily for those who are discerning a vocation as well as taking your prayer requests. Join us at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

Courage to Follow Your Call

Sister Julie — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 15:02:38 +0000

Picking up from yesterday’s post about becoming aware of one’s calling or vocation in life, let’s look at a next step: courage to follow your call. In a comment from yesterday, KCMayrie wrote:

The comment I have is related to courage to follow your call, once you’ve discovered where God wants to lead you. Do I really have the courage to ‘step into the boat’? as it were, to follow the call? Will it really BE alright? Can I relinquish control to God and trust that He won’t let me fall? Can I stand up to those around me who question or deny my call or who challenge and oppose me? Is this really what God is asking of me or something else? How do I know? … There are always so many questions!

KC articulates many of the questions that I and probably many of you have once we have discovered our calling — or at least initial inklings about our calling.

What are some of the other questions that pop up or lay below the surface? In addition to courage (even in the face of a threatening Mr. Potato Head), what other qualities or dispositions or other gifts do you ask for?

* * *

Are you aware of your vocation?

Sister Julie — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:02:10 +0000

Everyone has a calling – maybe to religious life, married life, parenthood, or to a particular ministry or way of being in the world. Sometimes we clearly choose a vocation and other times we realize we’ve been living it all along. Giving oneself to God through any life vocation means that you are open to wherever God leads you, even to places that you might never have imagined.

As you think about how God is calling you … how God may be calling you … what questions surface for you? What do you begin to wonder about?

Let’s start bringing some of those questions to light by writing them in the comment box. I think it’d be really cool to get a number of these questions going because they can help spark our imaginations and maybe even articulate something that has been percolating within us! So bring ‘em on … no matter how simple or odd they may seem!

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AS049 Ask Sister – no desire for a vocation, saints and symbols, two Saint Theresas, exercise habits, putting the holy in holiday

The Nuns — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:43:03 +0000

AS049 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 19, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: no desire for a vocation, saints and symbols, Therese of Lisieux and Teresa of Avila, exercise habits, putting the holy in holiday, 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:

Can you be called by God to a vocation that you don’t really want? NOTE: The article mentioned in the conversation is 4 Steps for Discernment and Decision-Making
In art and on holy cards, why are saints pictured with symbols?
Two Saint Theresa’s? How are they different?
Can nuns go swimming with their habit on? Horseback riding?
How do you put the “holy” in “holiday”?

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

Bernie Becomes a Nun

Sister Julie — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 08:24:26 +0000

In 1954 a young nun by the name of Sister Bernadette Lynch, MM, was profiled in none other than Cosmopolitan magazine and photographed by the legendary George Barris, who also photographed the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe.

Sister Bernie's mission crucifix, a symbol of her misionary vocation, given to her before departing for her assignment in Bolivia

The topic? An article presenting religious life as an attractive option for young women through the story of someone their age who embraced it. Sounds like a typical Cosmo story, right? Well the article following Bernie’s journey into religious life with the Maryknoll Sisters was so well received that the book author Sister Maria del Ray Danforth, MM, and George Barris decided to create a book based on the article. Thus was born Bernie Becomes a Nun a fascinating book that describes the process of becoming a sister from the inside out, complete with over 200 photos with captions from Bernie about what she was thinking and feeling. The book, published in 1956 by Farrar, Straus and Company, had a huge impact on young women — both those who found that extra encouragement to pursue a religious vocation and those who felt called to other vocations through marriage or ministry. And, not only does the book continue to inspire people, but Sister Bernie herself continues to be an inspiration.

Yesterday, Sister Maxine and I met Sister Bernie for the first time via phone and got to talk with her a bit about her experience with the book and as a missioner for over 61 years! Sister Bernie will be joining us tomorrow night for In Good Faith podcast — a live broadcast at 7 p.m. CST (your time zone). We’ll talk with Sister Bernie about the book, life as a missioner and Maryknoll sister, and what it means for each of us to be a missioner in everyday life.

The classic book Bernie Becomes a Nun by Sister Maria del Rey with photographs by George Barris (New York: Farrar, Straus & Company, 1956)

AS045 Ask Sister – gifts for nuns, thoughts and God, the “right” religious community

The Nuns — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:57:12 +0000

AS045 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on October 22, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: philosophy and theology, gifts for nuns, God active in our thoughts, choosing a religious community, responding to the call of God, 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:

Can all these thoughts I’m having really be an invitation from God?
Which religious community is for me?
Why did you want to become a nun? Why did you choose IHM as you community?
What is an appropriate gift to a nun celebrating her diamond jubilee?
Why do some Catholics not like the philosophers Kant and Descartes?

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

Any advice for a teen who wants to be a consecrated virgin or nun?

Sister Julie — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 13:24:30 +0000

“I’m 15 years old and was raised Catholic and love the Church. I was wondering is there was any advise on my desire to be either a consecrated virgin or nun. I always think about God and vocations throughout the day and love to pick up books about saints. I really want to be very close to God but I’m afraid I’m doing it out of selfish reasons or that God wants me to be free to experience more things. I have a while to think about it and I know that some way in my life I will be religious. I was just hoping for your advice. Thank you!”

- Lauren

Hi Lauren, I’m glad you wrote. It’s not unusual to have those desires and attractions at your age. It’s a good sign that God is calling you into a deeper relationship with Godself and wanting you to get to know God more.

No matter why or how we are drawn to something or whatever our reasons are, God can still make sense of things and lead us to that which is good. I encourage you to keep praying and chatting with God and participating in Mass. And when you read about the saints, pay particular attention to the things that really catch your imagination — is it the way a saint prayed, or ministered, or lived in community? Spend extra time with those sections that attract you.

At the same time that you are praying with and pondering these things, remain true to your vocation as a student and to expanding your horizons by learning! Everything you are doing now is going to help you as you move into your life’s calling.

If you are interested in becoming a nun or consecrated virgin, find ways to get to know what those lifestyles are like. There are many ways to live either way of life. You’ll find a discernment guide that is helpful for discerning any vocation, as well as information specifically on becoming a Catholic sister or nun in our article How to Become a Catholic Nun.

Also, hang out here at A Nun’s Life to get to know nuns and learn about them. Also check out our list of Blogs by Catholic Nuns to get to know other sisters and nuns who have a blog. Community life, and understanding oneself as part of community and as serving a common good, is essential to this vocation so it is imperative that you get to know individual sisters as well as get a feel for how they live community and if and how you can see yourself in that way of community.

For more on consecrated virginity, check out www.consecratedvirgins.org, the website of the US Association of Consecrated Virgins. The website has a lot of information on what a consecrated virgin is, the process to become one, and more. Also here are a couple of our blog posts on consecrated virginity.

And Lauren, if you’d like to hang out with other people discerning their calling, visit our Vocation Forum.

* * *

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.

AS040 Ask Sister – spiritual direction, being an only child, lost vocations, is God really calling me?

Sister Julie — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:42:07 +0000

AS040 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on September 3, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: spiritual direction, being an only child, lost vocations, is God really calling me?, a good age to consider religious life, 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:

Who can be a spiritual director? How do you find one?
How do I address a vocation director’s concern that I am an only child?
How do you know that God is really calling you? I feel like I have a void in my life.
What happens when we are called but say no? What happens if we feel we are being called again? Is there such thing as a lost vocation?
What’s a good age to start thinking about religious life?

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

Are nuns the “spouses of Christ”? When roses arrive at the convent, the sisters reconsider

Sister Maxine — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:06:33 +0000

Just the other day a large vase of incredibly beautiful roses arrived at the convent, to our great surprise and delight. The flowers were a gift from the Divine. Really. The card that came with them said so. It was signed, “Love, Jesus.”

The roses truly brighten our day. Every time we see them, we smile. Partly that’s because we love a good mystery. (OK, so I tried to convince the florist to tell me if Jesus had another name, like a name on a credit card, but nothing doing. I think the florist enjoyed the mystery too!).

The roses also make us smile because they remind us of conversations we’ve had with people about images of God and their meaning. On a recent Ask Sister podcast, we were asked about God imagery in religious life. Sister Julie and I don’t espouse the “spouse of Christ” image in terms of our relationship with God. For us, other images better express our connectedness with God. Sometimes the spouse imagery can tend toward the literal. Sister Julie and I don’t really expect Jesus to bring home flowers at the end of the day. But when roses appear, it’s really wonderful!

There is no doubt in our mind that the appearance of the roses was an act of God. Sister Julie and I will continue to admire the beauty of the roses – God’s goodness expressed through creation and in human creativity, kindness, and sense of humor!

BTW, Sister Sandra Schneiders has written a lot about the topic of spousal imagery in religious life. She’ll be with us on a live podcast this Thursday. (FYI if new to A Nun’s Life podcasts, they 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.) If you have a question for Sister Sandra, please write it in the comment box.

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AS039 Ask Sister – vocations to religious life, pink bunnies, temporal punishment, and more!

The Nuns — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:26:09 +0000

AS039 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on August 27, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: vocations to religious life, images of God, respect for other religions, pink bunnies, temporal punishment and forgiveness, 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 is temporal punishment and does it mean I’ll still be punished even though I’ve gone to confession and been forgiven?
What is the best way for a Christian to address the controversial issue of plans for building a mosque near the World Trade Center memorial in New York City?
What are some ways or images that you use to view your vocation? (e.g., marriage with Jesus, covenant relationship with God, etc.)
Can God be imaged in different ways? What does this mean in terms of our own relationship with God and spiritual growth?
Why are bunnies pink? (a deeply philosophical issue!)

We welcome your insights and conversation on these topics and more by interacting with us via the chat room during the live broadcast.

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

Checking out discernment retreats

Sister Julie — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 11:55:43 +0000

The IHM Sisters of Monroe, Michigan (my nuns!), are co-sponsoring a discernment retreat in the Toledo, Ohio area. It’s for younger women who are thinking about religious life. If you are (or know someone who is), why not check it out. Here’s a link to our IHM Vocations blog “IHM Calling” with the information on the discernment retreat.

Retreat in the foothills of the Rockies - a hike at Castlewood Canyon State Park (2004)

So what’s a discernment retreat all about anyways?

Well, religious communities offer many different kinds — some for women (or men if a religious community for men) who are discerning that particular community and some (like the one above) are more general so you can get to know a variety of communities. There are also retreats in general offered by retreat centers that are for anyone who is in a discernment mode, be it discerning a life commitment or a ministry or just in general. Many of these are facilitated by spiritual directors who are well trained in the area of Ignatian spirituality and discernment.

A discernment retreat, like other retreats, is set in a prayerful mode and is primarily directed at helping retreatants become more conscious of how God is moving in their lives, how God is calling them. A discernment retreat typically offers time for prayer, reflection, and input on how to discern (e.g., helpful tips and tools, insights from our faith tradition, etc.).

For retreats that are specifically for folks discerning a call to religious life, the retreat typically has more focused input on religious life. There may also be input on the particular congregation that is offering the retreat. This includes an introduction to the life and mission of the community, the kinds of ministries, the story of the foundation and lived tradition of the community.

Retreatants typically have the chance to meet with sisters and talk with them about discernment in general, religious life, and/or the community itself. There may also be an opportunity to talk with a spiritual director or to share conversation with the other retreatants.

Attending a discernment retreat does not mean you are “signing on the dotted line” or that you are in an “exclusive relationship” with a community. It just means you are serious about checking things out and learning more about how God is calling you. You don’t have to commit to anything. All you have to do is be open to allowing the Spirit to be with you, surprise you, challenge you, and inspire you!

A great place to find listings of discernment retreat opportunities is the opportunities section of Vision Vocation Network.

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Mark your calendars! Two new interview-style programs coming your way!

Sister Julie — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:29:19 +0000

With two new podcast series starting in September, Sister Maxine and Sister Julie are bringing you the most interesting people and topics around spirituality, ministry, discernment, social media, vocations, and more!

In a few short weeks, we are launching two new monthly podcast series. These live, interview-style programs will be broadcast live on our website. You are invited to join the conversation with us and our guests via our chat room during the live show. You can also submit questions ahead of time for our guests.

Here’s a glimpse of the two programs:

In Good Faith features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. The program will run every first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. CST.

Our first show will be on September 2, 2010, and feature Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM. Sister Sandra is a leading authority on Catholic women’s religious life and a frequent contributor to Catholic periodicals, as well as a renowned author. She is professor emerita of scripture spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley where she teaches courses such as biblical spirituality, Christian spirituality and religious life.

On October 7 we’ll be talking with Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson, a professor of history at Maxwell School of Syracuse University, where she also holds appointments in the departments of religion, political science, and women and gender studies. Peggy is the leading expert on the history of women’s religious life in the United States.

We’ll be adding more information to the In Good Faith program page and our podcast schedule soon!

Digital Ministry focuses on using Internet technologies and social media for ministry. The program is a mix of things covering technique, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in everyday life on the Internet. The program will run every second Thursday of the month at 3 p.m. CST.

Our first show will be on September 9, 2010, and feature Ms. Lisa Hendey, founder and editor of CatholicMom.com, author of The Handbook for Catholic Moms: Nurturing Your Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul, freelance writer, and website designer. Lisa is one of the leading figures in Catholic social media today.

On October 14 we’ll be talking with Father Andy Alexander, SJ, and Ms. Maureen McCann Waldron, partners at Creighton University’s Collaborative Ministry Office and Online Ministries. Father Andy and Maureen have done extensive ministry in tending to people’s spiritual hunger in the digital world.

We’ll be adding more information to the Digital Ministry program page and our podcast schedule soon!

We are able to provide these programs free to listeners because of sponsor support. If you would like to sponsor In Good Faith or Digital Ministry, visit our Become a Sponsor page for more information.

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Sister Patti Robinson, CSA – mom, gramma, and nun

Sister Julie — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:42:23 +0000

There are so many ways that people move into their calling from God. For some it may be that one vocation gives way to another. That’s what happened with Sister Patti Robinson, a Sister the Congregation of Saint Agnes, a mother and grandmother, who began thinking about religious life after a major turning point in her life.

“Sixteen years ago, my life changed drastically,” said Sister Patti. “My husband died unexpectedly and my priorities began to change. A few years later, I moved to Tulsa and went to work for a large Catholic hospital. I became very active at church, especially in social justice, but I continued to feel incomplete.

“I sensed an unexplainable desire for a deeper transformation,” she continued. “The spiritual path is a long one and takes many different directions but I have found religious life and CSA in particular to be an incredible community of women religious. We call one another to spiritual authenticity and integrity without denying each other the right to forge her own unique journey with God. Our vows unite us together and we become one as we gratefully share our combined gifts with others.”

Check out the full article Mother will profess final vows as a nun in the Fond du Lac Reporter (July 7, 2010)

I love Sister Patti’s quote at the end of the article because it busts a stereotype about nuns from popular media that often shows nuns as mean and repressed. Says Sister Patti about her life and professing final vows as a religious sister: “I feel blessed and fulfilled and I thank God for the abundant love in my life.”

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AS032 Ask Sister – a young person thinking about religious life, parental caution, nuns in other Christian traditions, bringing a dowry, a vocation story

Sister Julie — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:37:24 +0000

AS032 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on July 2, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guests: Immaculata IHM Sisters. Topics include: considering religious life, telling parents, other kinds of nuns, having a dowry, vocation story of Sister Julie.

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!

During this podcast Sister Maxine and Sister Julie were joined by cohosts Sister Rose Bernadette and Sister Danielle, both IHM Sisters from Immaculata, Pennsylvania. Our gratitude for the wonderful hospitality of all the sisters at Villa Maria House of Studies.

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

What advice do you have for a 15-year-old feeling called to religious life? Also, my mom wants me to become a mother not a nun. What should I do?
Are there nuns in Christian traditions other than Catholicism? What are they like and how would I find one?
In “The Nun’s Story,” Audrey Hepburn’s character was required to bring a dowry when she entered the convent. Is that common today?
What is Sister Julie’s vocation story? How did she discern her calling to become an IHM 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. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

The Fencing Sister: Suburban Chicago nun skilled with blade

Sister Julie — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:41:01 +0000

For a minute, I thought that the Chicago Tribune had discovered Sister Maxine flinging kitchen knives as she prepared for dinner, but no such luck.

Suburban Chicago nun skilled with blade by Casey Toner (Chicago Tribune, June 30, 2010) is an article about Dominican Sister Dorothy Solak who coaches fencing at Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights. The article explains how she got into fencing as well as her thoughts on the art of fencing. I also appreciate that the writer of this article included Sister Dorothy’s experience of being a sister. Here’s a quote from the article about her decision to become a nun.

Solak said she thought about becoming a nun when she was 13. The idea became more tangible when she started working full time.

“It’s like a nagging feeling you have, like there was something more I wanted to be involved in, that I would want to give my life to in a more intense way,” Solak said.

She joined the Dominican Sisters of Springfield in 1976 after she visited the Sacred Heart Convent in Springfield. She took her first vows in 1979 and her perpetual, or lifelong vows, in 1984.

“It’s more of a feeling within yourself, within your heart,” Solak said about her decision to become a Dominican nun. “I think it’s true in the same way if you find the right guy. You know it’s the right one for you. You can’t explain it intellectually. It’s a feeling, a feeling you are in the right place.”

Be sure to read the entire article Suburban Chicago nun skilled with blade. Share your thoughts with us!

And also, be sure to join us tonight for Praying with the Sisters LIVE podcast. We are on the road and staying the next couple nights with the Immaculata IHM Sisters in Pennsylvania. Last night two sisters joined Sister Maxine and I for our prayer podcast and a few others were in the chat room. Also this is our 100th prayer podcast episode! YEA! Not to be missed!

AS031 Ask Sister – Mary a mere saint? being a nun a waste of time? spiritual v. religious? am I called or not? a vocation story

Sister Julie — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:08:34 +0000

AS031 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 25, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: is Mary a mere saint? is being a nun a waste of time? spiritual v. religious? am I called or not? the vocation story of Sister Maxine, 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:

Does the Catholic Church consider Mary a mere saint?
Have you ever felt that being a sister you wasted your time? Have you ever thought that you cheated yourself?
Is it okay to be spiritual but not religious?
How do you know if you are called and that it is not just an idea of yours?
What is Sister Maxine’s vocation story? How did she discern her calling to become an IHM 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. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS027 Ask Sister – fasting, the First Official nun meeting, virgin-ness, imaging oneself as a nun, vocational calling, and more

Sister Julie — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:40:54 +0000

AS027 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on May 28, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: fasting, the First Official nun meeting, virgin-ness, vocational calling, bride of Christ and other ways to image oneself as a Catholic sister.

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 other ways can one image oneself as a Catholic nun other than “bride of Christ”? How is this connected to one’s image of God?
Does a person have to be a virgin in order to become a Catholic sister or nun?
What was your first official meeting like with a nun?
What is fasting and what place might it have for us today?
What do I do if I’m married but feel called to religious life?

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

Are you open to being surprised by God?

Sister Julie — Mon, 24 May 2010 11:15:50 +0000

You are in for an AWESOME treat! My dear sister Joyce Durosko, IHM, stars in this YouTube video. Sister Joyce talks about the wonderful mystery of being called to religious life. Are you a person who is open to being surprised … especially to a God who is full of surprises!? Sister Joyce offers great wisdom for people discerning religious life, including what to look for as you meet sisters and discern, try to figure out if they are “home” for you.

What questions or insights percolate as you watch and reflect on this video?

* * *
Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie and the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters”. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

NUNDAY with Sister Mary Devlin

Sister Julie — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:55:34 +0000

Today is NUNDAY and we celebrate Sister Mary Devlin, a Sister of Charity who will be celebrating her 93rd birthday at the end of July. Sister Mary is from Saint Stephen, New Brunswick. I love how she describes her calling … one that many of us can relate to!

Sister Mary Devlin, SC; Doug Geddes photographer

She was still a young teenager when she first heard the call to become a nun, and it was “very strange” to her because she didn’t know any sisters at the time. Her first exposure to that way of life came when an Order of the Sisters of Charity opened a house in St. Stephen.

“The first time I saw them in church was the first time I’d ever seen them (at all) and within myself I heard: ‘One day I will be one of them.’ I thought, ‘Well that’s the funniest thought I’ve had yet.’ It was unreal. I was 14 then and I didn’t enter until I was 28.” …

Sister Mary Devlin remains highly active. Her life in the Church has been enormously fulfilling, and she continues to give generously to others, what she knows best — love. “The most important thing in life is love, and we all need it,” she smiles. “It’s a necessity.”

- SOURCE: St. Stephen native became a nun at 28
in Times & Transcript (May 18, 2010)

Did you ever experience that sense of God calling you as “very strange”? How did you respond immediately and/or eventually?

* * *
Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer and chat
every night at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone).
Visit http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

Courage to Discern a Second Time

Sister Julie — Thu, 13 May 2010 12:26:07 +0000

I was wondering what advice would you give concerning my discernment process. I am going to be 35 years old soon, and 5 years ago I left a religious community in my canonical year because I felt God was not calling me to religious life. I returned to my job as a registered nurse and about 2 years ago returned to all of my church ministries. The thing is I am very unhappy and confused about what to do next. Every website I look at seem to have discernment weekends for young young women. I live in the Caribbean and find it extremely fearful to just step out and seek again entering into a community because I am afraid of making another mistake. I don’t want to wake up 45 years old and missed what God wanted me to do.

- Sadie

Dear Sadie,

First I want to say that you are doing a great job at putting God’s desire first — even if you don’t always understand what that desire is. You are very brave to consider the question of religious life a second time. Discernment is pretty intense but also worth opening your heart to again if you feel nudged by the Spirit. Trust that God is speaking to your through your feelings, including the feelings of frustration, fear, confusion, and regret.

Here are some questions that I’d invite you to consider praying over.

Imagine walking up to a beautiful house inside of which is your deepest desire. You knock on the door. A wise, welcoming person opens the door and asks you warmly, “What is it that you seek?” What do you say?
You are serving God, the Church, and the vulnerable … what is missing for you?
Why did you leave religious life before? What continues to attract you?
When are you most peaceful? most centered in yourself and God?

Pay attention to how your spirit rises or falls in prayer, when you are thinking about religious life, when you think about continuing your lifestyle and ministries as they are now.

Do you have a spiritual director or trusted mentor who can reflect back to you some of your desires and attractions?

Rest assured that God will continue to lead you — stay open to God and be faithful to your prayer and to reaching out to help others. No matter how you choose to live your life, you will be living God’s dream for you.

I am not familiar with religious communities in the Caribbean. We have IHM Sisters in Puerto Rico whom I’m sure would be happy to connect with you. I hope these thoughts help you. Be assured of our prayers.

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Today’s “Praying with the Sisters” podcast has been recorded because the sisters will be in transit this evening. You are welcome to listen to the recorded prayer for today and then to join the A Nun’s Life community to share prayer requests this evening at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone) in our chat room.

IHM Discernment Retreat

Sister Julie — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:22:30 +0000

Are you thinking about becoming a Catholic sister? I invite you to come to our home, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters of Monroe, Michigan, for a discernment retreat. This retreat is for women who are attracted to our IHM spirit and mission and want to live vowed religious life.

What does that mean? Well, are you attracted to the liberating mission of Jesus? Do you have a sense of adventure? Are you open to being surprised by the Spirit of God? Do you wish to be part of a group of diverse women who are bound together in sisterhood by our life and mission in God? Do you wish to live and pray the Gospel with every fiber of your being?

The IHM Sisters invite you to “come and see” … come to our home, be among us, pray with us, work with us, and see how God is calling you.

May 14-16, 2010
beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday night

Riverhouse on the IHM Motherhouse campus
805 West Elm Ave., Monroe, Michigan 48162

Here’s a PDF with more info on the IHM Come and See weekend. If you are interested, let me know or contact the IHM Vocation Director, Sister Mary Bea Keeley.

Included in the retreat will be input on tools for discernment, learning about our IHM way of life and mission, meeting wisdom figures and newly vowed members of the congregation, and more. There will be time for prayer, reflection, input, Mass, chatting, and of course meals and sleep!

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Join the sisters for prayer today at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone). Praying with the Sisters is a live podcast where you can chat with us and others in A Nun’s Life chat room. All you need is an internet connection and a heart open to prayer.

http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE

Actor describes learning the role of Sister Helen Prejean

Sister Julie — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:10:47 +0000

Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, is a Sister of Saint Joseph and has worked tirelessly against the death penalty. She wrote Dead Man Walking which became a film directed by Tim Robbins and starring Susan Sarandon. Because the book and film provoked much discussion and debate about the death penalty, Tim Robbins and Sister Helen began offering the stage play for college and university students as a way “to further widen the circle of public discourse on the death penalty”. Their project is called The Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project.

Here are some selections from a blog post by Rose Mohan, a BFA student at Naropa University, who is learning the role of Sister Helen Prejean:

I thought I was going to have to tone down my feistiness in order to be able to play a nun. Turns out, I have to find new heights of grit in order to be able to do justice to the character of Sister Prejean in Dead Man Walking. In almost every scene, Prejean manages to slice through what she perceives to be someone else’s delusions. She really holds her own with those hard-shelled prison men. I’m still working on getting there; sanely. One day after rehearsal I was so fired up that I had to walk out of the building jumping and punching the air.
…

I have learned so much in this process already. I grew up mildly Christian and when I go to church it still leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t want some old white guy telling me what to do, as if he understands faith better than I do. A lot of the messages are beautiful but there is no way anyone can convince me that the church provides the only way to God.

Sister Prejean is so refreshing to me because she is not afraid to openly question her faith, to form her own relationship to God outside of the church, to trust her own sense of what is right. It takes a lot of strength to hold one’s faith and be able to question at the same time. But if we are not willing to question, how can we learn?

I also really appreciate her humanness. My acting teacher expressed that she is a gritty, tenacious woman first and a nun second. Throughout the play we see that Prejean makes mistakes, feels afraid, experiences loneliness, questions the authority of the church and her own involvement in prison work and expresses dislike for someone she is trying to help. She is just an ordinary person who has made a commitment that has changed the orientation of her life. I am taking some cues from Prejean — how to not back down, how to be curious, how to continue when you don’t know.

(Do I have to be a nun? post from the Naropa BFA Performance News blog)

It is very cool to see how learning about Sister Helen and playing her can be such a transformative experience. I also like how Rose describes what I would call a “vocation” to performance. It strikes me as being very similar to the calling of wanting to give one’s life to something more, something that is bigger than us like “truth” and “goodness” and “beauty” … and God.

I am beginning to understand why people devote their lives to performance. It is like following an elusive and beckoning beast to try to convey something that means something, something that makes sense of all the somethings that happen to a person. We keep trying to hit something that is the ultimate truth, but of course, that is impossible, and yet it also doesn’t feel far away. It is like truth is already there just watching you try to make a model of it and you can always feel how close you come. I hope that we will capture some part of truth in what we are making.

For more information about Naropa University’s performance of Dead Man Walking as well as other actors’ thoughts, check out Tim Robbins play coming to Naropa in the Boulder Reporter (March 26, 2010).

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via a live podcast at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone)

AS020 Ask Sister – vocational terror, regret, shaved heads, nun finances, animal ministry, the habit, and more!

Sister Julie — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:55:00 +0000

AS020 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on April 9, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: wearing the habit, nun finances, vocational terror, animal ministry, feeling regret after becoming a sister, shaved heads, bubble baths 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:

Are there any Catholic sisters or nuns that work with animals?
What was the hardest part in the beginning when you entered the convent?
Do you ever regret your choice to became a nun?
Are nuns required to shave their heads?
Is it normal to feel both terrified and excited about a possible calling to become 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. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

Can someone with a disability become a nun?

Sister Julie — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:00:38 +0000

Can someone with a disability become a nun? For instance I am legally blind and about to reach the age were I can enter if I wanted to. Are nuns aloud to take medications? Because I heard if your not perfect in health they will reject people.

- Aarin

Dear Aarin, Thank you for writing. This is a tough one. Religious congregations do require a person to be physically and mentally healthy in order to become a Catholic sister or nun, but sometimes if a person has a managed illness or a disability they can still become a sister or nun. We are allowed to take medication for both temporary and long-term illnesses or conditions.

I think the main thing is that religious communities want to be sure that people are capable of living the mission. But words like “healthy” and “capable” mean different things to different people so it really depends on your relationship with particular communities. Some communities might not be able to handle it (i.e., don’t have the resources, or their mission is of a kind where a person couldn’t engage in it because of their illness or disability, etc.) while others might be able to.

There are a couple discussions about this that we’ve had on A Nun’s Life. You might find them of interest.

It is very important to get to know a community and for them to get to know you too. Talk it over with the vocation director. Also, I encourage you to find a spiritual director to help walk with you as you discern how God is calling you. And do take a look through How to Become a Catholic Nun and maybe even consider joining the Vocation Forum here to chat with others who are thinking about religious life and how God is calling them.

* * *

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

Becoming a Passionist Nun

Sister Julie — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:42:57 +0000

Read the story of Ane Kirstine Wynn, a 25-year-old woman who recently entered Saint Joseph’s Monastery, a cloistered community of Passionist Nuns in Kentucky. Becoming a Passionist nun: Ane Kirstine Wynn by Amy Wilson of the Lexington Herald-Leader (April 4, 2010) tells the story of Ane Kirstine’s journey to religious life. It is a remarkable story that includes her shift from the Lutheran faith to the Catholic faith, struggles with her parents over her decision to become a nun, the fear and joy of discerning a call to religious life, and reflections on her first 3 months in the monastery.

Writer Amy Wilson paints an intimate picture of Ane Kirstine’s journey and conveys a sense of feeling and adventure. I appreciate the evident care that she took in preparing for and writing this article. What’s cool is that Amy kept up an email correspondence with Ane Kirstine since she entered in January. The superior of the monastery agreed to this correspondence which is a wonderful testimony to the community. By virtue of their cloistered life, the life of Passionist nuns, like other cloistered nuns, isn’t publicly accessible. Yet, allowing such a correspondence gives the world a glimpse of the life as well as the choice to enter into that life. This can be encouraging to people who might be attracted to cloistered life and it can also help in providing accurate, “real” information about cloistered life, not the variety you’d most likely find in the entertainment industry. You can read these emails on Kentucky.com.

Here are a few quotes from the article itself:

Mother Marie Catherine, head of the monastery, on discerning a call to religious life:

“God’s gifts,” says the Mother Superior, “are God speaking His will. The religious life is a gift from Him to you. The price tag is about bucking against the odds. Every one of the sisters walks that path.”

Ane Kirstine’s “ah-Ha” moment with the Passionist nuns:

In March 2007, she wrote in her blog: “I think I’m going to join this community. Like, seriously. When Mother spoke to us about the Passionist charism, my heart just started burning in me, because it was like she was describing myself to me! My spirituality, my understanding of God and prayer and my place in the world, every little thing she said resonated exactly with my own heart. They take five vows: poverty, chastity, obedience, enclosure and dedication to Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. They have a striking joy and vivacity that stems from contemplating the lifeblood of Jesus, poured out in love for the world.”

Ane Kirstine on “simplicity of heart” in religious life:

“One of the most beautiful — and most challenging — facets of convent life, at least that I have noticed,” she writes, “is its ability to foster a simplicity of heart. Nearly every time I speak with a sister who has lived her vocation for many years, I am struck by how unified her love is, indeed, how wholly she is God’s. She has become simple, not so much in her mind or actions — for nuns have sharp wits and manifold pursuits, just like the rest of us! — but certainly in her being and in her heart.

What thoughts do you have after reading this article? Questions? Uncomfortable nudgings? Inspirations?

* * *

Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie for evening prayer
at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone)
at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

Blank Check

Sister Julie — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:42:50 +0000

What does it mean to write a blank check for God? What does it mean to commit oneself to God without knowing the cost, without knowing the details and specifics, without knowing the adventure that lies ahead?

We experience the “blank check” phenomenon in many spheres of our life. Who would have thought that our job would include x, y, and z? How could we have known that a relationship with so-and-so would lead to a, b, and c? True, there are many choices that we make with very clear, expected results. But not so with life decisions and life commitments. In many ways, the choice is not to a specific thing but to a way of being — a way of being who we are and a way of being in relationship with others, including God.

When I became an IHM Sister, I did so because I desired more than anything to give my life to God and to mission in and through the IHM congregation. I had some ideas of what I wanted that to look like, but all those ideas were simply that — ideas. They were not written into my vows, they were not inscribed in my official records, they were not promised to me by anyone. Giving oneself to God through any life vocation means that you are open to wherever God leads you, even to places that you might never have imagined or ones that you could imagine but didn’t like!

I’m intrigued by the image of “blank check” and would love to hear from you about how you experience this in your life as a mom, a religious sister or contemplative nun, an uncle, a deacon, an educator, a caregiver ….

* * *
Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie for evening prayer
at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone)
at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

Pope has Vocation Message for Young People

Sister Julie — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:10:47 +0000

In this year’s message to young people, Pope Benedict XVI reflects on the World Youth Day 2010 theme: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17).

Pope Benedict XVI urged young people to follow their dreams, dedicate their talents to the common good, and grow in love and faith. The pope told the world’s young Catholics to not let life’s difficulties lead to discouragement. “Instead nurture in your heart great hopes for fraternity [sic], justice and peace. The future is in the hands of those who know how to seek and find strong convictions in life and hope,” he said in his message for World Youth Day 2010. The Vatican and most dioceses around the world will mark World Youth Day on Palm Sunday, March 28. In his message, released in Italian and French by the Vatican March 15, the pope asked young people to build a more just and fair world. Changing the world for the better does not have to mean “performing heroic or extraordinary acts, but allowing your talents and potential to bear fruit and committing yourself to constantly growing in faith and love,” he said. (source: Catholic News Service)

Pope Benedict writes that the situation facing the young person in Mark’s Gospel is one that faces all youth. He speaks of the importance of taking the time to build one’s “project of life”.

“The season of life that you are immersed in is a time of discovery: of the gifts that God has lavished upon you and of your responsibilities. It is, moreover, a time of fundamental choices to build your ‘project of life.’” The Pope urges youth not to be fearful in answering the question: “What must I do, so that my life might have full value and full meaning?” “To discover the ‘project of life’ that can make you plainly happy, start listening to God, who has a design of love for each of you,” writes the Pope. (source: Catholic News Agency)

What steps have you taken in your “project of life”? What are some of the road blocks and scenic views that you’ve encountered?

* * *
Join Sister Julie and Sister Maxine for evening prayer at 6 p.m. CDT
at http://anunslife.org/LIVE.

Can you tell me where I need to go to become a sister?

Sister Julie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:14:49 +0000

“Hello Sister. I am a fifteen year old catholic girl and attending a catholic school. I feel that God is calling me to become a nun. I am planning on finishing high school and then taking to a religious life. The problem is I do not know where to go now that I know God is calling me. Can you tell me where I need to go to become a sister?”

- Alyssa

Hi Alyssa, Thanks for writing. Here are a few resources to check out on A Nun’s Life website:

How to Become a Catholic Sister or Nun: a general idea of where to start, what the general logistics are, and some helpful hints from someone who’s been there and is now a Catholic sister
Vocation Forum: a place to explore vocations to religious life

The age requirements for each community varies some. Some communities encourage you to get a college degree first. They may encourage you to “experience life” since you’ll be just out of high school. But it also depends on where you are at with your discernment, how long you’ve know the community (or other communities), etc. Even if you choose to go to college first, I’d highly encourage you to stay in touch with the community. Visit them during spring break or on weekends or whenever you have time.

Basically the first steps start with you and your discernment with God. What do you feel God is calling you to? What are you attracted to in terms of a lifestyle? How will you grow in your relationship with God and others?

In terms of the more practical “next steps” kind of thing, it is important to get to know some nuns. Have a chat with one, and see what she is like. Go to a talk by a nun. Go to mass at their motherhouse. Check out a vocation day at one of the communities. Spend some time just getting to know a community. It’s just like developing a friendship. In the meantime know that you are doing God’s will. You don’t have to wait until you decide on a particular calling. Live now how God is calling you to live. Develop (if you’ve not already) a regular rhythm of prayer, do some spiritual reading (scripture, writings of the saints, etc.), involve yourself in a ministry. Be faithful to your vocation now as a student. Remember, that too is a calling from God. If you don’t know a community of sisters, ask one of your parish leaders. Also, every diocese has a vocation office so you can check with them too and let them know what you are thinking. There are also some online vocation resources to help you along. Here are a couple:

As you get to know sisters and their communities, pay attention to how you feel, and how attracted you are to the community. Do you feel at home? Do you feel like you are growing in your relationship with God? Can you see yourself flourishing as a human being with these sisters? Keep bringing all of this to God in prayer.

There are no right or wrong steps in this journey. And they may not happen in any particular order. But this is sort of the gist of it. Let me know if you’ve got further questions or more particular ones. God bless you, Alyssa.

* * *

Join the sisters for evening prayer tonight at 6 p.m. CST and every Monday through Thursday at http://anunslife.org/live

AS015 Ask Sister – choosing a community, adjustments to nun life, wearing nail polish

Sister Julie — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:25:56 +0000

AS015 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 19, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: possible to disappoint God?, having so many religious communities to choose from, how long discerning, retreat and vacation and more.

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

During the podcast we played a clip from Patrice Touhy of VISION Vocation Magazine and VocationMatch.com. She gave good advice on what to do if you get an overwhelming number of results using VocationMatch.com which matches persons with religious communities. The segment is included in the podcast above and also as a stand-alone audio clip below.

If you have questions about VISION Vocation Magazine or VocationMatch.com, please feel free to contact Patrice.

Subscribe to the A Nun’s Life Podcast:

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:

Will I disappoint God if I do not join religious life? And if I join, are there any series of change that will occur?
How do I chose a religious community when there are so many choices?
How long did you discern to become a nun?
Is it easy for fully professed religious to change congregations? Do they start over?
Do sisters and nuns go on vacation?
Can sisters and nuns wear nail polish?

AS014 Ask Sister – calling, immigration, liturgy of the hours

Sister Julie — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:30:39 +0000

AS014 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 12, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include finding one’s calling, the liturgy of the hours, jury duty, age limits for becoming a Catholic Sister, immigration, and more.

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

Subscribe to the A Nun’s Life Podcast:

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:

how do I know what my real calling in life is?
do congregations have problems taking young people because of fear of an age gap?
what do Catholics think about the issue of illegal immigration?
can you explain more about the Divine Office — The Liturgy of the Hours?
do nuns have to go to jury duty?
what’s going on with the Roman Missal?

If you have a question, please email us at or leave a message at our voicemail feedback line: 1-888-703-4732. Messages may be played on the air!

FP004 Feature Podcast on Consecrated Life with IHM Sisters

Sister Julie — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:42:46 +0000

FP004 Feature Podcast on Consecrated Life with IHM Sisters recorded live on February 7, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include World Day for Consecrated Life, vocations, discernment, Catholic sisters and nuns, prayer, and more.

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

Subscribe to the A Nun’s Life Podcast:

Today we celebrated World Day for Consecrated Life by partnering with the IHM Vocations team to offer this hour-long podcast on vocations, discernment, and the lives of Catholic sisters today. We were delighted to be joined by IHM Sisters Carol Quigley, Michele Denton, Joyce Durosko, and Mary Bea Keeley.

Celebrate Vocations with Us

Sister Julie — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:03:40 +0000

This Sunday marks the World Day for Consecrated Life, a day instituted by Pope John Paul II in 1997 to thank God for the gift of consecrated life and to let people know about this way of life.

To celebrate, A Nun’s Life Ministry is partnering with the IHM Sisters (of which Sister Maxine and I are both members) to host an hour-long live podcast on vocations, religious life, discerning a call, and all sorts of things! We’ll be joined by Sister Mary Bea Keeley, IHM, and Sister Carol Quigley, IHM, and perhaps more!

Join us at 4 p.m. CST (your timezone) on Sunday, February 7, 2010, here at http://anunslife.org/LIVE. We have a lively chat room that will be happening simultaneous to the podcast.

If you have questions or comments for us regarding vocations, IHM life, prayer, or pretty much anything else, please leave a message for us at our voicemail feedback line: 1-888-703-4732. Messages may be played on the air!

And in the spirit of the World Day for Consecrated Life, we invite you to do your part to promote vocations. We have a number of resources over at IHM Calling blog to help promote vocations.

So what are you going to do this week to promote vocations?

AS012 Ask Sister – sweetheart nun, relating to God, what to say

Sister Julie — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:41:42 +0000

AS012 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 29, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include how to tell someone you have a vocation, calling a nun sweetheart, how to trust God, and more! Special guest Sister Camille Brouillard, IHM.

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

Subscribe to the A Nun’s Life Podcast:

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!

You can learn more about Sister Camille Brouillard on our IHM website.

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

what to say: I’m thinking about becoming a religious sister, but I don’t have anyone to talk to. I have already approached my pastor about it, but honestly, I didn’t know what to say.
what not to say: Is it disrespectful to say “Hello sweetheart” to a nun?
relating with God: How do I trust and love God? How do I know that I’m doing it correctly?

If you have a question, please email us at .

God calls whomever God chooses

Sister Julie — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:14:17 +0000

When we think of a calling, we sometimes think it is only for the “religious” types, those ones who never seem to do anything wrong, who were born and bred in the Catholic Church, who speaks with ease about religious stuff. And you know, once and a while, it is that person, but God has this disconcerting habit of choosing people who are a bit rough around the edges, who might have a tendency to be wild, rash, passionate, or temperamental. One has only to look at the women and men who constituted his first disciples to see that they were a mix of people each with rough edges and great giftedness. Some weren’t even “religious” but in them Jesus recognized a spirit of dedication, kindness, zeal, compassion, perseverance — and other such gifts that were perfectly suited for being a disciple.

So what if you have a tattoo or forget the words to the Act of Contrition (my biggest fear when walking into a confessional) or are not a virgin or enjoy falling in love or want to become a rocket scientist? Think that’s incompatible with being called? Not a chance.

There is no one who is beyond God’s call and in fact every one of us does have a calling. There are lifelong callings like to be in a relationship, to be a parent, to be a missionary, to be a religious sister or brother, to be a lifelong educator. And there are callings to a kind of ministry or service such as healing, teaching, advocating, learning, praying, companioning, protecting, or encouraging. We might experience many of the latter in our lives and within our “umbrella” lifelong calling. For example, my lifelong calling is to be a religious sister, specifically to be an Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister. But within this lifelong calling, I also am called to serve in a particular way using technology and the Internet and theology and spirituality. I am also called to a particular kind of lifestyle that is sensitive to all of God’s creation.

So think about how you are called — how you are living this calling right now even if you might never have thought about it as a calling? And for those of you who thought you were “beyond help” for becoming a nun or a deacon or a monk or religious sister or a priest or a consecrated virgin … what’s blocking you?

* * *

Join us tonight for prayer at 6 p.m. CST at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

Also, Ask Sister Podcast is coming up at the end of the week. If you have questions for us, please email them to us at sister (AT) anunslife (DOT) org.

AS011 Ask Sister – converts, icons, vocation reactions, past relationships

Sister Julie — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:09:51 +0000

Listen to AS011 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 22, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry with guest iconographer Sister Nancy Lee Smith, IHM. Topics include non-Catholics becoming nuns, realizing you may have a calling, and relationships.

Sister Nancy Lee Smith, IHM, is an iconographer and spoke with us about her ministry as well as her own calling to religious life. You can find out more about Sister Nancy and her ministry at Saint Joseph Studio.

Questions from listeners included:

How important is having past relationships to discerning a call to religious life?
How did you feel when you first started to have thoughts about becoming a nun? How did you react?
What if you long to find love still, but still think that religious life an option?
Is it possible to become a nun if I haven’t been Catholic my whole life?
Are there specific rules for writing icons? What is it like to be an iconographer’s apprentice?

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

Subscribe to the A Nun’s Life Podcast:

Is God calling me?

Sister Julie — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:07:39 +0000

The turn of the new year often fills us with ideas and inspirations to try something new, to set out on a new path for the new year. To those of you who have entertained (however briefly or maybe for a long time!) with the idea of becoming a sister or nun, I invite you to consider the following:

Do you long for something more, a something that just can’t seem to be filled by your current work, relationships, endeavors, etc. even though you experience these as good?

Are you interested in deepening your life of faith through prayer, ministry, and community with others who share similar values, vision, and mission?

Are you open to the Spirit and the often surprising ways the Spirit leads?

Are you attracted to the life of Jesus the Christ and to lives of saints and holy people who strove to follow Jesus and live the Gospel?

Do you wish to live and think and “be” in a way that places the common good ahead of other goods such as personal wants?

Are you able to let go of preconceived images of what religious life is or should be?

Can you accept the humanity of yourself and of sisters and nuns and at the same time trust that the Spirit is alive and well in and through our humanity?

Do you feel both attracted to and terrified of the though of religious life, wondering perhaps, why God would call you of all people?

Are you willing to use your gifts, talents, experience, energy, and passion for God’s purposes and for a common mission and life in God?

Are you up for the greatest adventure of your life?

This is your invitation, your opportunity to take a step toward responding to this call. You don’t have to have it all figured out, or rationalize it, or be without doubt or fear. That’s all part of the package. Yo are invited to take a leap of faith, trusting that though you do not know where it will lead, that God is right here with you and will lead you to good.

What do you do now? Start reading and doing any of the suggestions on our page How to Become a Nun. Say something to that sister you admire but were afraid to say anything to about your desire. If you’ve felt attracted to the mission and life of Sister Maxine, myself, or other sisters here at A Nun’s Life, then take a chance and contact us. Check out Catholics on Call. Call the vocation director of the community you’ve been thinking about. Attend a retreat or day of prayer where you can explore how your desires and attractions are part of God’s call to you.

There is only one thing left to say.

Begin.

* * *

Please join us at 6:00 p.m. CST (your time zone) for Praying with the Sisters podcast, a ministry of A Nun’s Life. Visit aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

AS008 Ask Sister Podcast

Sister Julie — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:13:40 +0000

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

Subscribe to the A Nun’s Life Podcast:

Today is our weekly live Ask Sister podcast. This podcast is for you and is an opportunity to ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between! During the live podcast we’ll respond to your questions and comments.

Questions already in the queue for today:

How do you know if God is calling you to be a nun?
When did nuns stop wearing the habit? After Vatican II?
I am baptized a Baptist but I feel a strong pull toward becoming Catholic. Any advice?

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

We welcome your questions.You can send them in any number of ways:

comment below
email us any time before the 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. So what’s on your mind?

Listen to other Ask Sister podcasts.

Attention Parents, Teachers, Catechists, and Mentors

Sister Julie — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:15:34 +0000

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)

There are also many vocation websites out there, places that can help you discern how God is calling you. 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!

* * *

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

Nun Photo – Podcasting IHM Sisters

Sister Julie — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:47:44 +0000

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!

You (Yes, You.) Are Called

Sister Julie — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:30:15 +0000

Today’s Scripture reading from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans is a powerful reminder that each and every one of us has a calling.

All of us, in union with Christ, form one body, and as parts of it we belong to each other. Our gifts differ according to the grace given us. If your gift is prophecy, then use it as your faith suggests; if administration, then use it for administration; if teaching, then use it for teaching. Let the preachers deliver sermons, the almsgivers give freely, the officials be diligent, and those who do works of mercy do them cheerfully.

Do not let your love be a pretense, but sincerely prefer good to evil. Love each other as much as sisters and brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other. Work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit. If you have hope, this will make you cheerful. Do not give up if trials come; and keep on praying. If any of the saints are in need you must share with them; and you should make hospitality your special care.

Bless those who persecute you: never curse them, bless them. Rejoice with those who rejoice and be sad with those in sorrow. Treat everyone with equal kindness; never be condescending but make real friends with the poor. Do not allow yourself to become self-satisfied. (Romans 12:5-16)

A vocation is not just a calling to consecrated life (such as becoming a sister or monk or deacon); a vocation is a calling to each and everyone of us to live our life fully using the gifts that God has given to us and the grace that God continually gives us. Saint Paul gives us some examples (first paragraph) and he also gives us a kind of road map to living fully (second two paragraphs). Listen to some of the key words of this road map:

prefer good to evil … love … have profound respect for people
minister with earnestness of spirit … hope … do not give up
keep praying … share … give hospitality … bless and never curse people
be in solidarity with those who rejoice or are in sorrow
treat everyone with equal kindness … make real friends with the poor

These are some of the dispositions that we can take to heart and in doing so live more fully the life God has blessed us with.

Pick one, just one, of these “landmarks” on the road map and consider how you can take it to heart each moment of this day and into the week.

* * *

Join us for prayer using this readin today at noon Central Time at http://anunslife.org/live. Prayer is still at noon, but because of Daylight Savings Time, it may have changed for you.
Here’s the time in your neck of the woods.

Teresa of Avila, trusting always in God

Sister Julie — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:17:24 +0000

This is the final in a series of three posts on Saint Teresa of Avila. The whole piece was originally published in VISION, the Catholic Religious Discernment Guide.

Read the first part My BFF is a 16th century nun, Teresa of Avila and the second part Teresa of Avila’s desire to give her life to God.

A leap of faith

Teresa spent a year and a half living with the nuns. Still, she resisted becoming a nun, saying, “I could not be persuaded to be one” (Life 3.2). Though obviously attracted to the life, Teresa needed time to adjust to the possibility of God calling her to religious life. Like Teresa we are often given the same challenge of imagining our life in a different way. Teresa says little about how or even if she resolved her questions, but we do know that she decided to become a nun anyway. She was able to set aside her doubts and fears and respond to God’s call.

This didn’t mean that Teresa’s life was easy once she made the decision to become a nun. Explaining her call to family and friends proved to be a challenge. Her father so loved her that he couldn’t imagine letting her leave for the convent until after he died. Nothing Teresa said or did could change his mind. But Teresa wished to remain true to the call from God. She knew herself well enough to know that if she didn’t pursue God’s call now, she might never do it. So early one morning, Teresa quietly left her father’s house for the convent: “I remember, clearly and truly, that when I left my father’s house I felt that separation so keenly that the feeling will not be greater, I think, when I die. For it seemed that every bone in my body was being sundered” (Life 4.1).

The pain which Teresa wrote about here is real. Whether it be family or friends, careers or possessions that we want to hold onto, God’s call is all-encompassing. It is a call to be open to radical change in our lives, if that’s what God asks of us.

Filled with a new joy

Teresa entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation in 1533, took the habit, and eventually professed solemn vows as a Carmelite nun. Her initial struggle gave way to a lasting joy: “[God] gave me such great happiness at being in the religious state of life that it never left me up to this day, and God changed the dryness my soul experienced into the greatest tenderness. All the things of religious life delighted me, and it is true that sometimes while sweeping, during the hours I used to spend in self-indulgence and self-adornment, I realized that I was free of all that and experienced a new joy that amazed me.” (Life 4.2)

When I first began considering religious life, I never would have imagined I’d experience this “new joy” of which Teresa wrote. But the experience of responding to God’s call and eventually professing my vows as an IHM Sister was a joy that I’d never felt before. I felt like a new person, yet more myself than ever.

Trusting in God Always

All along the way, it helped to have Teresa by my side. Today she is still very much a companion. Sometimes I turn to her writings for encouragement, other times for help in a pastoral or theological quandary. Whenever I have questions about prayer or don’t quite understand how the Spirit is moving in my life, I pray and seek guidance from Teresa. Even Teresa’s own tangles with God (once, when complaining of her suffering, Teresa heard Jesus respond, “This is how I treat my friends” to which Teresa rejoined, “No wonder you have so few!”) give me assurance that my struggles are not out of the ordinary and that there is a way through the darkness.

Although I have known Teresa for many years now, I continue to discover new things about her. Recently, I read a book of her letters. The letters reveal a woman who was deeply committed to a contemplative life but who was, of necessity, engaged in what one commentator calls “a maelstrom of activities.” Sometimes this maelstrom got the best of her. Wrote Teresa, “With so many duties and troubles … I wonder how I’m able to bear them all” (Letter 39 in The Collected Letters of St. Teresa of Avila).

As a religious I can identify with this constant balancing of prayer, ministry, and community life. It is both a joy and a challenge to live this life. Religious life calls us to our best selves and often summons strengths and gifts that we didn’t even know we had. I’m sure on more than one occasion Teresa was surprised to see how things worked out or what paths opened up that she could have hardly imagined. Perhaps some of the best advice that Teresa has ever given to me is to trust always in God, even when things are tough or unclear. She reminds me that determination is indeed a virtue and a necessity in the life of faith.

“Have great confidence,” Teresa wrote, “for it is necessary not to hold back one’s desires, but to believe in God that if we try we shall little by little, even though it may not be soon, reach the state the saints did with his help. For if they had never determined to desire and seek this state little by little in practice they would never have mounted so high.” (Life 13.2)

* * *

What struck you about Teresa’s life and her desire to trust always in God? If you could ask Teresa anything, what would it be?

* * *

Join Sister Maxine and me for prayer today at noon Central Time at http://anunslife.org/live.

Come and See opportunity with the IHM Sisters

Sister Julie — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:01:23 +0000

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

Where do I go from here?

Sister Julie — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:02:22 +0000

Question from Veronica …

I am a 55 year old practising Catholic. Am married, 2 children are now grown up and living with my husband. Thoughts of pursuing becoming a nun has come and go. Now I feel that there is a need for me to do something, where do I go from here?

Dear Veronica, Many thanks for writing in. You are not alone! I’ve run into many women who have similar wonderings about their life and what they can do to tend to this attraction to religious life.

Becoming a Catholic sister or nun may not be an option for you due to your being currently married and your age. Since the process of becoming a nun takes about 7 years, I’m not sure that religious communities would consider the possibility unless you’ve already had a relationship with them.

Still, your attraction and your desires are real and are a calling from God. Each of us is called in some way to dedicate ourselves to God.

You might want to consider becoming an Associate or Affiliate — a lay woman (married/single) who shares in the mission and spirituality of the community but is not under vows. Lay Affiliates or Associates can also be men. Not all congregations have associates, and those that do vary in the formation process and the degree to which associates can be involved in the life of the congregation. For a specific example of a congregation’s associate program check out the the Monroe IHM page on IHM Associates.

No matter what age you are or what state of life, there are things you can do and ways to be of service. I encourage you to think about your gifts and talents and about what you would absolutely love to do. There are so many people in need and organizations that would love your help. There are also so many ways to deepen your life of prayer and to grow closer to God. Whether in ministry or prayer, look for something that has a sense of community so that you are supported and encouraged in your work and in your life.

Let me know if what kinds of things are of interest to you in terms of prayer, ministry, and community. That way I’ll be able to offer some more specific suggestions to help.

Blessings, Veronica, and to all who have similar wonderings.

LIVE Vocations Podcast – Tomorrow 1 p.m. CST with Special Guests

Sister Julie — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:43:21 +0000

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!

A Nun’s Life LIVE! podcasts

Sister Julie — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:20:22 +0000

On Wednesday we broadcast our first live podcast here at A Nun’s Life. You’ll notice a new widget on our sidebar which is an audio player for our live podcasts and past episodes. Be sure to listen to our first podcast Lying Awake Book Discussion 08-12-09.

Sister Maxine and I are in the process of creating regular podcasts–both live and pre-recorded–for the A Nun’s Life community. We’ll be exploring topics similar to what we are doing on the blog while at the same time taking full advantage of the benefits of an audio format.

We have two live podcasts already scheduled. Today at noon CST (time zone converter) we will pray The Angelus live with you. Join us for a 15-minute sacred pause at midday.

On Tuesday at 1 p.m. CST (time zone converter) next week we will be interviewing 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 I encourage you to click on the link to read through the executive summary and other related resources. We’d like you to join us by listening and also submitting your questions using the comment box below or during the live broadcast there will be a chat box that you can use to ask questions.

For an email reminder for the Tuesday podcast, please leave a comment below with your correct email or email us (NOTE: your email address is never made public). We’ll give you more details this weekend about the survey and the Tuesday podcast.

New study on Catholic Vocations and Religious Life

Sister Julie — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:56:20 +0000

The National Religious Vocations Conference (NRVC) has just released the final results of a study on the state of religious vocations in the United States. The project was commissioned by NRVC and conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).

The purpose of this study is to identify and understand who is entering religious life today and the characteristics of the religious institutes that are receiving and retaining new members. No study on religious vocations on this scale has ever been done before. The goal of this research is to highlight the best practices in vocation promotion and religious formation. (source: Brother Paul Bednarczyk, CSC, for NRVC)

Here is the key information:

2009 NRVC/CARA Study on Recent Vocations – full study and results available as PDF download (406 pages)

Executive Summary — overview of the study, its impetus, phases, and major findings which are categorized under the following: Religious Life Today, Attraction to Religious Life and to a Particular Religious Institute, Vocation Promotion and Discernment Programs, Evaluation of Religious Institutes, Most Rewarding and Satisfying Aspects of Religious Life, Hope for the Future, and Best Practices in Vocation Ministry

Best Practices — summary of best practices for promoting vocations: Being Proactive about Vocations, Creating a Culture of Vocations, Vocation Director and/or Team, Use of Media for Vocation Promotion, Discernment Programs, and Targeting Age Groups

History of the Study — project background

Mythbusters — ten myths about religious life and the facts from the new study that dispel them

Other Resources – resources for media and other information on vocations

I am just beginning to sort through all the information and will write more as I learn more. For other info on the study, see the following:

Laurie Goodstein, New Nuns and Priests Seen Opting for Tradition in The New York Times (August 10, 2009)
Landmark Study on U.S. Catholic Vocations Reveals Dramatic Changes (NRVC Press Release)

Celibacy in the City

Sister Julie — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:00:57 +0000

Celibacy is a way of life for Catholic sisters and nuns as well as for religious brothers and monks. But what is celibacy and how does one live celibacy, especially in a society that can be both sex-obsessed and a bit prudish about sex?

Before talking about celibacy, I think it’s important to point out that celibacy is not a condemnation or rejection of sex. And celibacy (as well as sex) relates to a lot more than the physical act of having sex. “Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others. (Catechism) Also important to note is that there is a difference between celibacy and chastity.

Okay, so celibacy. I’m responding in part from a reader’s email asking for a post on celibacy — not just an “academic” approach to what it is but sisters’ own personal witness to the celibate life.

As she noted, it’s not all that often that we celibate folks talk about it from a personal standpoint. I think mostly that’s because it is has to do with one’s sexuality and is indeed personal. Still, since celibacy isn’t mainstream, I think it’s important that we do talk about it with some degree of candor while also respecting personal boundaries. I was blessed to have a couple nuns whom I could ask any thing and it was through their own experience and witness to celibacy that I could find answers to my own questions and carve out a way of understanding what God’s particular call to me.

The only thing I knew about celibacy in religious life, prior to knowing my nuns, is that it meant NO SEX. It was something that was half-admired, but also half-mocked. Are nuns celibate because they “can’t get a guy” or because they are sexually repressed? Is it a special calling for only the holiest of holies? Does God give nuns a gift of not having sexual urges? None of those things particularly appealed to me or applied to me (I did not imagine myself to be particularly holy) so I never thought that lifelong celibacy would be my particular calling.

In grad school when I first began thinking about religious life (and resisted being attracted to it) I got to know more religious — women and men who were celibate. They didn’t strike me as repressed people and seemed to have a healthy sense of self and other. They were not “holier than thou” people, just ordinary women and men serving God.

Long story short, I became more open to the idea of celibacy and now I’m celibate for life.

My witness to celibacy is more than just not having sex, it’s about being free. An important “ah-ha!” moment was watching Dead Man Walking and the scene where Sister Helen Prejean talks about why she became a nun and chose not to be married. There was a sense that her not being attached to one single person or one single family allowed her to be free to go where the needs were. It made a huge impression on me. I began to realize that as big of a deal it was to commit to no sex it was a bigger deal to commit to the positive life stance of being free to serve wherever God called.

I know you probably have some questions so I’ll end here with this quote:

“Life is not all about sex.”

Samantha (Kim Cattrall) in a Sex in the City episode

Making Contact with a Vocation Director

Sister Julie — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:59:05 +0000

Every religious congregation and diocese has Vocation Directors, that is, persons whose primary ministry is to reach out to people discerning their calling and to help them see if they are called to that particular community or diocese. In religious life, a Vocation Director is there to help you get to know the community, to introduce you to and facilitate connections to other sisters or brothers in the community. She or he is also the one who gets to know you, where you are from, what your story is, what attracts you to God, to religious life, and to that particular community.

For those of you who are discerning, it can feel like a huge step to make Official Contact (begin dramatic music) with a religious congregation. I remember how terrified and exhilarated I felt the first time I made contact (yes, it felt a little like Richard Dreyfuss’s character in Close Encounters of the Third Kind) with our IHM Vocation Director. It was not because she or any of the nuns were alien-esque but rather it was something happening within me. I was actually making concrete, publicly articulating this desire that was welling up in me … a desire that I still struggled to put coherent words on.

Some of my fears about contacting a Vocation Director had to do with thinking I was “signing on the dotted line”. I didn’t know that the Vocation Director was there to help me discern, give me more data for my research, help me to get to know the community. I didn’t know that she held both the community’s best interests and my best interests at heart. I was also afraid that as she got to know me, she’d find out I wasn’t all that holy or nunly (whatever I thought that meant!).

The very act of making contact was for me a real help in my discernment because I had to trust God and really believe that the Spirit was working within me. It was like my secret was finally going to be out in the open which was not only terrifying but kind of a relief. I didn’t know what would come of all that but I knew that if I didn’t respond to this nudging of God’s Spirit (no matter how crazy it all seemed to me) then I might miss something. I could never have dreamed that that little nudging would end up in the life I experience now as an IHM Sister dedicated to the liberating mission of Jesus.

I came to value and rely on the relationship that I had with my Vocation Directors (I had two, not because I was a handful … or was it? … but because one was at the end of her term and the new one was beginning). One of the most important things they did for me was to help me to get to know other sisters and to have others get to know me. That was foundational for me and to this day I continue those ever-deepening relationships. My directors and the nuns I met sustained me as I went through the ups and downs of discernment. They let me know that I was welcome and wanted and also that I was free to do what God called me to do, even if it meant not staying.

For those of you considering religious life, what’s your experience of “making contact”? or even just considering making contact? For others, have you ever had this kind of experience of “making contact” in which you made public a desire that you were still in the midst of trying to make sense of?

If you’d like more info about discernment and calling, check out Vocation Forum, Catholics on Call, and Vocation Match.

The Adopt-a-Sister-Friar-Priest-Hermit-Monk-Deacon-Nun-Virgin-Brother Program

Sister Julie — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:18:04 +0000

These days you can not only adopt children and animals but you can adopt highways, platoons, watersheds, and even microbes!

Now you can adopt candidates for religious life and ordained life! Thanks to an email from Jerri, I discovered that the Diocese of Joliet-in-Illinois as well as dioceses across the country have programs to encourage vocations to consecrated life and to support those who are in the process of becoming a religious or ordained. Jerri says that for the past couple weeks, there’s been an blurb about the program in the bulletin. It reads in part:

ADOPT A SEMINARIAN OR CANDIDATE PROGRAM: This program is an opportunity for the youth group, school, religious education class or parish to adopt a seminarian (a man who is studying to be a priest) or a candidate (a woman preparing to be a sister), and encourage them on their journey by writing letters. This type of encouragement would be greatly appreciated by the men and women in formation.

After receiving Jerri’s email I did some more searching around and found a recent article on the subject from Catholic News Service. “Programs to ‘adopt’ women in formation seen as vocations aid” by Jackie Taylor (March 23, 2009) has some more examples of how the program works and its benefits for both the adopters and the adoptees.

My only caveat to this wonderful program is that I wish it also encouraged vocations for men to religious life as well as other Church vocations like consecrated virginity and hermit life.

When vocations are promoted, we sometimes only focus on religious life for women and priesthood for men, as if two gender-based versions of the same calling. Not so. Ordained life is a distinct calling and can be to the priesthood or to become a deacon. Both forms of ordained life are restricted to men.

Religious life is a very different calling and it is open to both men and women. It includes sisters, nuns, friars, monks, brothers. In addition there are hermits and consecrated virgins — not sure if they technically fall in the “religious life” category but all of these are considered forms of “consecrated life.”

So in the ideal world, we’d have a parish bulletin with the headline “The Adopt-a-Sister-Friar-Priest-Hermit-Monk-Deacon-Nun-Virgin-Brother Program” but who would ever want to title something like that!!??

Hmmm … anyone interested in an Adopt-A-Nun’s-Life program?

You may be a nun if …

Sister Julie — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:33:47 +0000

Kudos to Sister Mary Alternative (an Episcopalian woman considering religious life) for starting this post: “You may be a nun if …” Here are some of her responses that I love!

You may be a nun if …

you see nuns everywhere you go
you see nuns so often that now even your friends are seeing them in airports and stuff
you have the book of common prayer online version saved to your favorites on the blackberry

Here’s a few more from personal experience:

have vocation/nun material hidden where no one can find it
you want nothing to do with the idea of being a nun, but yet you find it strangely compelling too
you know what it’s like to fall in love with a person or a lifework yet it feels like all the pieces aren’t quite together yet … something is missing
you regularly engage in “nun surveillance“

How would you finish this sentence? “You may be a nun if … “

Preparing for the IHM Come and See

Sister Julie — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:37:23 +0000

I am home in Monroe at our IHM Motherhouse. It’s a delightful day, the birds are chirping, the sky is blue, and so many budding trees and flowers! My nuns showed me a place in our cloister where a robin has taken up nest in the crook of tree. This morning I peeked in (you can look into the nest from the hallway window on the main floor) and saw the perfect, little blue eggs. Have not seen Mama Robin yet but I’m sure she was close by!

This weekend is our IHM Come and See, an opportunity for women to spend time with us who are discerning religious life. I’ve had the privilege of hanging out with one young woman since Wednesday getting to know her and showing her around. This afternoon Sister Maxine and I will be working on our 45 minutes of fame — an intro to and discussion about our founding charism and the story of how IHM came to be. Then tonight the women will come to our home and see what we are all about!

It’s kinda wild to do this Come and See because it reminds me of how it feels when I introduced a boyfriend to my friends or family. You want so much for them to love him and see the beauty in him that you see all the time! At the same time you want to let them come to know the guy in their own way. Sigh.

For now I’m off to hang out with my girl and maybe go for a walk and visit our iconographer’s studio!

Is the habit the answer to vocations recruitment?

Sister Julie — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:14:36 +0000

The question about the habit being the answer to vocations recruitment comes up every now and again on the blog in various forms. It’s an interesting question that is way more complex than a simple “yes” or “no” can account for. Hilary well articulates this question in a comment on Why is a nun’s habit called a “habit”? Hilary writes:

Nuns are practically invisible nowadays, even in my very Catholic area, which is probably part of the reason why more women are not becoming nuns and even do not realize that that is an option. Perhaps if more orders wore some sort of habit – not necessarily the full, traditional habit – to distinguish them, to make them visible to the public, more young people would answer a call to vocation?

A couple different ways to look at this … one would be to look at the visibility issue by looking at priests, for example, who are clearly dressed as priests during liturgical events and often in other settings. One might say they are clearly visible yet why are U.S. seminaries not overflowing?

Another way to look at this is to consider the Internet. In this day and age, it is possible to get bounds of information about any subject (provided one has access to the Internet). One can easily, “visibly” find any number of Catholic sisters, nuns, brothers, priests, monks, friars, deacons, hermits, consecrated virgins, etc. There is more information accessible to a larger number of people than ever. Yet seminaries and houses of formation are not overflowing — of course that begs the question, do they need to be? Is quantity what we are aiming for here?

What do you think? Is the habit the answer to vocations recruitment? Are there other other ways that the issue of “visibility” could be addressed?

What do nuns do?

Sister Julie — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:01:03 +0000

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.

Catholic Vocations and Persons who are Deaf

Sister Julie — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:37:17 +0000

The January-March 2009 issue of Vocations and Prayer, the Catholic magazine on vocation ministry, features an article on people with hearing impairments pursuing a call to religious or priestly life. Many people have asked me about this and about having other disabilities or impairments. It’s an important issue which vocation ministers and other church leaders need to be aware of and to find ways to support and encourage.

The main article in Vocations and Prayer is “God Created Me a Deaf Person for His Glory: An interview with Fr. Tom Coughlin, OP Miss” by Sister Lou Ella Hickman, IWBS. In the interview, Father Tom tells of being turned down by several seminaries because of his hearing impairment. He eventually was accepted but faced a lot of opposition. He says,

Most people were not prepared to welcome a deaf person. I was all alone but the vocation director … told me “You have to open the door. You have to suffer so others won’t.”

Father Tom, with the encouragement of Father Timothy Radcliffe (former general master of the Dominicans), started a new Dominican community for people who are deaf. The community, called the Dominican Missionaries, has grown to 9 members.

While it’s not easy to pursue a religious vocation when you are deaf, there are resources out there. These are the ones listed in the magazine:

Religious Communities for Women

Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet, Saint Louis Province (interestingly, this community came from France to the US in order to teach persons who are deaf.)
Sisters of the Lamb of God

Religious Communities for Men

Diocesan Seminaries

If you know of any religious communities of sisters or nuns that can be a good resource for women who are deaf considering religious life, please let us know!

An IHM Invitation: Come and See

Sister Julie — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:47:21 +0000

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.

Brother Chris Valka, CSB, on New Media

Sister Julie — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:10:55 +0000

Today’s Nunday has an honorary nun guest — Brother Chris Valka, CSB, of the Congregation of Saint Basil. And yes, we have his picture! Chris recently spoke on Faith in Cyber Communities at St. Joseph’s College, University of Alberta, and was written up in the Western Catholic Reporter.

Valka presented historical highlights of the Church’s mostly positive views on communications.

“History not only gives us perspective, but it also conveys the optimistic stance the Church takes towards media. The Church has never seen the media as an obstacle,” he said.

People who cannot find answers at the institutional Church of brick and mortar are searching for answers in other places, including the cyber community. This gives people worldwide a place to gather and ask life’s tough questions. In spite of the great distance between them, they can debate, discuss and live out the answers.

Be sure to read Brother Chris’s other observations and ideas about new media and the Catholic Church in the article New media can break through barriers.

I had the pleasure of meeting Brother Chris back in 2007 when he interviewed me for his podcast series Conversations with Macrina:

A Discussion About Religious Life (June 23, 2007)

What do you think we religious should be doing online? Would you like us to do more with new media such as podcasts, live discussions, etc.? Give me some ideas about what would interest you, what you think would be helpful to people.

How to break the nun news to mom and dad?

Sister Julie — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:54:48 +0000

Discerning a call to become a Catholic sister or nun can be challenging enough (who me, Lord??) but figuring out how to break the news to family and friends is a whole other challenge.

I recently received a question about how to break the news to one’s parents. Here it is in part.

I am very nervous about how they will take the news because becoming a sister is something so radical compared to even what I wanted for myself for years! …. With discussions of college and my future happening at home every day, I feel like I’m pretending to be something I’m not, but I have absolutely no idea how to go about breaking the news…. They know I am incredibly Catholic and I have the reputation as being the most religious in the family, but I am still afraid my news will shock and possibly disappoint them. I know I will eventually have their support, but it is their understanding I crave and I am afraid that that will not happen. When you told your parents, did you tell them suddenly and all at once? Did you sit down at dinner and say “HEY GUESS WHAT! I’m going to be a nun and serve our LORD and our GOD!” or did you do it in small doses, making small hints until they finally guessed it for themselves?

It can be very difficult to put into words one’s call, because you’re probably still figuring it out for yourself and trying to live into what it might mean for your life and future. To actually articulate this to someone else, especially someone whom you love and don’t want to disappoint, can be a real challenge. Even if others are familiar with religious life, it is usually a bit of a jolt for them to think that you — their child, their best friend, their sibling — are thinking about it for real.

Because I was away at college, I could pursue my call without worrying that my family would find out. Even though I was surrounded by religious and seminarians at my theology school, I still didn’t say much about my own possible call because I was still shocked myself. And, I wasn’t sure how it would affect my relationship with them. Would they treat me differently? Or, if I decided not to become a nun, would they be disappointed? Or what if I fell in love in the midst of discerning? How awkward would that be?!

As for my parents and family, I waited until I was sure that this was something that I was going to do. I wanted to get to a place within myself that I could feel strong and know how to talk about my feelings and this sense of call. I wanted to know within myself that even if my family never “got” what I wanted to do, that I’d still be okay with it, albeit a bit sad. I talked a lot with my IHM mentors about how to approach my parents. And I talked first with my sister and brother about it because I knew I’d get the straight-up-without-ice response from them — as well as their love and support.

It wasn’t easy letting my parents and others know. They had a LOT of questions which I wasn’t always sure how to answer. Some wondered if I was being brainwashed, others if I was heartbroken from my last relationship. Some thought I was too young. Almost all feared that I was “limiting” myself, that I was somehow boxing myself in. They feared that I was going to become less of myself — or not myself at all.

Even though I tried to reassure them that become a nun was the most freeing thing I’d ever done, that it was helping me to become more myself, they just didn’t know for sure until they saw me live into it. They saw that I still told the same stupid jokes, that I still loved to hike and feed the chickadees, and that I still loved them dearly.

There’s no easy way to tell family and friends, but remember that this is your call and that just as much as God is leading you, God is also working in your family and friends’ lives too. You’ll learn a lot about yourself and your call when you begin to talk about it with others because they’ll have tons of questions for you, and probably a few challenges. Hang in there with them, and hang in there with yourself. Know that my prayers are with you.

I’d love to hear from others about how they broke the news. Also, any parents or friends out there who have had the experience of being told that a loved one wishes to become a nun? How did you experience hearing the news for the first time?

Not Worlds Apart

Sister Julie — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:51:00 +0000

In response to my post about the movie Nun of That, Sister Louise O’Rourke, PDDM, sent me a link to a video she created following a 2-week intensive course of video production in 2004. Sister Louise is a Catholic sister of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master based in Ireland.

Sister Louise’s goal in creating the video was to challenge the stereotypes of young people toward religious and vice-versa. I think she did a great job. Sister notes that not only is she a real sister, but she did all her own stunts! Also, she notes to ignore the 1st minute of the video as it was the first video exercise she had to do.

Excellent job, Sister Louise! Thank you for sending this. You show that nuns are real people who are dedicated to God and who live and minister as film producers or ninjas while at the same time being contemplative, relevant, joyful, smart women of faith.

World Day for Consecrated Life

Sister Julie — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 14:16:48 +0000

Today is the World Day for Consecrated Life. It was initiated by the Vatican in 1997 and is an opportunity to celebrate the life and work of women and men religious and to pray for vocations to consecrated life.

In a recent news release, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, OFM Cap., chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, noted that “We Americans owe a huge debt of gratitude to the religious in our nation. Their loyal service to our church and country are unparalleled…. The presence of both apostolic and cloistered religious in our nation has been a source of spiritual comfort to many people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. I don’t know of any other country that can make such a boast.”

A Nun’s Life is participating in today’s celebration by hosting a “social hour” with people discerning God’s call and with a guest blog post at From the Pews in the Back.

The social hour is on the Vocation Forum at 8 p.m. EST tonight. All are welcome. To participate in the discussion, you have to be a member of the forum (free and easy to register). Once you are a member, look for the topic “February 8 Social Hour” in the discussion area. Also, I put together some Suggestions for a “Live” Discussion.
On the blog From the Pews in the Back I wrote a post today called For the Sake of the Gospel. It’s based on the Sunday readings and talks about my own experience of being called to consecrated life. Stop by and offer your comments.

Have a blessed day!

Is God really calling me?

Sister Julie — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:13:02 +0000

Is God really calling me? How do I figure out what God is trying to say to me? Am I the only one who feels this way?

If you have some of these questions, especially if you are kinda, sorta attracted to (but simultaneously terrified of) a call to consecrated life in the Catholic Church, then the Vocation Forum is for you. What is the Vocation Forum, you ask? It’s a discussion area for people who are discerning God’s call in their life. It’s a place to share vocation resources and questions with other discerners. It’s a fairly new forum and one that we hope will grow and continue to be a welcoming, supportive place for people discerning. Got a friend or daughter or coworker who is thinking about religious life or wondering what their call is? Send them over to the Vocation Forum.

Occasionally I or my nun Sister Maxine Kollasch, IHM, will be on the forum to support you and to figure out any weird technical issues, but mainly this is your place, your conversation.

Not sure if this is for you? Well, give it a shot. A good way to get to know the forum will be at our live “social hour” this Sunday, February 8, 2009, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. It’s an opportunity to get to know others and to discuss thoughts and questions around discerning God’s call.

You need to be a member of the forum to participate, but not to worry, membership is free and easy to do. If you have any questions, just let me know. Feel free to comment below. Also, if you have any other requests or suggestions around how A Nun’s Life can help with vocational questions, issues, etc. please let us know!

And if you’d like to check out other resources that help in discerning your calling, visit Catholics on Call or VISION Vocation website.

Behind the Collar – an online campaign for vocations to the priesthood

Sister Julie — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:19:18 +0000

Rev. Michael A. Renninger and the Catholic Diocese of Richmond are doing some innovative vocation work on online. Behind the Collar is a website where people can have “an inside look at life as a priest”. Father Renninger, the diocesan vicar for vocations, worked with an advertising agency to develop a campaign to be present online to young men who are discerning a vocation to the priesthood and to give a “behind the scenes” look at the life as a priest.

Behind the Collar features an array of social media in order to give young men multiple doors through which to learn about a vocation to the priesthood. There are videos and podcasts of informal chats between “Father Mike” (as he’s known online) and seminarians discussing priestly life, family reactions, celibacy and more. There are links to Behind the Collar on the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace. And there are frequently asked questions about become a priest.

The website is a very good example being present to young people online and using the media and language that young people are familiar with. Kudos to the Diocese of Richmond! My prayers are with you.

Learn more at the Behind the Collar website and also in a recent article in the Richmond Times, Online campaign helps recruit priests in Virginia.

Vocation Forum at A Nun’s Life

Sister Julie — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:24:06 +0000

Are you thinking about becoming a Catholic sister or nun or perhaps a monk or priest? Maybe you’ve got questions about figuring out God’s call and you’d like to hang out and talk with others who have similar questions and experiences.

If so, I encourage you to check out the Vocation Forum, a place for discerners to gather together and talk about what is important to them. I visit the forum now and again along with my nun Sister Maxine Kollasch, IHM, as behind-the-scenes administrators, but the discussion is for you, the discerners.

In the forum, you’ll be able to use an alias, set up a profile, converse with others around topics that are on your mind and heart, and keep track of what you’ve written about your vocation journey.

On February 8, 2009, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, we’ll be having a “social hour” in the vocation discussion area for those who are members (membership is free and easy to do). And what a good day for a vocation gathering, as one of the forum members pointed out — It’s World Day for Consecrated Life!

You can always access the forum by clicking on the top menu of this blog or by going to www.VocationForum.org.

IHM Novice talks about discerning a vocation

Sister Julie — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:40:14 +0000

I would like to introduce you to my nun, Sister Jill Kress, IHM. Sister Jill is a novice with my congregation, the IHM Sisters of Monroe. She was recently interviewed by the Michigan Catholic newspaper. She address important issues for all discerners. You can read the interview at IHMcalling.org.

Back in November 2008, Sister Jill did a video in response to a question from an A Nun’s Life reader, part of the series Your questions. IHM Sisters respond. Here’s the video in which Sister Jill responds toa vocation question:

What special advice would you have for someone who is an only child and wants to become a Sister?

How is God calling you?

Sister Julie — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:53:01 +0000

Every person is called by God, and that means you too! Sometimes this call is best expressed through a life of marriage and parenthood, and other times through consecrated life such as being a Catholic sister or a monk or a deacon. God also calls us in other ways, such as to this or that relationship or job or ministry. No matter who you are, no matter what creed you profess, no matter your history or how you are living right now, you are called.

It can be both exhilarating and perhaps a bit spooky to know that is calling you (yes, you). The spooky part (for me anyways) came from my fear that God had one expectation for my life and if I didn’t figure it out I was screwed. But I’ve realized that’s not the case at all. God’s desire for us is always goodness, that which helps us to best be us and to best relate to God and to serve our community (be it our family, neighborhood, country or universe). There can be many ways to live out God’s call. I’ve also realized that we’re not stuck trying to figure things out by ourselves. God’s Spirit is right there with us, guiding and nudging us along, in sometimes unexpected ways.

Take a listen again to yesterday’s “nuncast” podcast with Sister Pat. She said some pretty powerful things about being called by God and what God’s desire is for us.

If you are sort of, kind of, maybe but not really, thinking about religious life, why not give it a shot and check it out. And if I can help in any way, drop me an email and I’d be glad to listen and help out.

Also, check out the Vocation Forum on A Nun’s Life. You just might find others like yourself who have questions and who are open to exploring how God is working in their life.

How is God calling you?

A Nun’s Life Podcast – Sister Patricia Farrell, OP

Sister Julie — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:53:41 +0000

Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Sister Patricia Farrell, OP, a San Rafael Dominican Sister, to A Nun’s Life. Sister Pat was my gracious host while I was on a recent trip to San Francisco. While in San Francisco, Sister Pat and I sat down for a chat about her life and ministry as a Catholic nun. Sister Pat is a Promoter of Preaching and the Vocation Director for the San Rafael Dominicans.

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

Enjoy this A Nun’s Life Podcast! The play button is at the end of this post. Among other things, you’ll hear about nuns preaching, Saint Catherine of Siena, stories of Sister Pat’s sisters, and Sister Pat’s advice to young people thinking about religious life.

To learn more about the San Rafael Dominicans or to contact Sister Pat, check out the following:

Sister Pat’s blog – OPreach.org

Sister Pat’s community – San Rafael Dominican Sisters

Testing Your Vocation

Sister Julie — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:45:34 +0000

The calling to be a nun is a pretty amazing thing. It’s a real adventure because it is always full of twists and turns and the unexpected. You never know where the Spirit will lead you. Being a nun is also pretty countercultural — we live in community, we hold all things in common, and we are celibate — all these things are meant to help us be free, free to serve God and God’s people. It’s a radical way of life.

Sometimes it’s difficult to know if what you feel is really real until you begin to act on it, test it out. Keep this desire in your prayers and take some steps to see what being a nun is like. Read a book about or by a nun, go on retreat at a convent, or get to know some sisters. Also, it’s okay to want to think about becoming a nun but also feeling bummed out about being a wife and mom. Any life choice a person makes involves some kind of sacrifice — doesn’t mean that a nun wouldn’t have made a wonderful mom or wife. This is definitely something that is good to pray on and begin to talk with a spiritual director about.

For some people, the call is crystal clear. For others, like myself, it’s a process of trying it out, testing it, and ultimately living into it to see if that is where God is calling me. I think it becomes clear when you feel like it is as natural as breathing air, that it just “fits” with you. When you feel like you are living fully into who God calls you to be and feel like you are growing and able to use your gifts and talents for the good of God, the Church and the world. For me there was no precise moment or flash in the sky, it’s just that I grew into it and was at peace, even though I doubted, struggled, resisted, yelled … there was always this undercurrent of peace.

I personally never wanted to be a nun. It was the kind of thing that snuck up on me. I resisted and resisted because I wanted to be married and have a family. But the more I considered religious life, the more it just seemed to fit me. I tested it out, even when I wasn’t totally sure. What I found was that learning about religious life and getting to know sisters helped me to sort of try it on and begin to imagine my self as a sister and see if it was really something God was calling me to. There was a lot of uncertainty, but also a lot of peace. It took time time for me to grow into God’s call for me. Over time a lot of questions were ones that I was able to live with — and be happy with.

If you are thinking about becoming a nun or are discerning any major life decision, find ways to test it out and don’t be discouraged if things are unclear or unsettling for a bit. Hang in there and know that the Spirit is with you and is guiding you. If you’d like to hang out with others who are discerning, do stop by Vocation Forum. Or for more info you might stop by Vision vocation network or Catholics on Call.

Blessings!

Nun Photo – Sister Marcia Hall, OSP

Sister Julie — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:54:31 +0000

Nunday is here! And we’ve got some cool stuff today. The Oblate Sisters of Providence are featured in the December 2008 issue of Ebony magazine! RUN, don’t walk, to your nearest convenience store and pick up a copy! The story and photos are fabulous.

The article is called “Walking with God” and was written by Kevin Chappell with photos by André F. Chung. The article starts with the single sentence paragraph: “At first, Virginie Fish ignored Him.” The story goes on to tell a bit about Sister Virginie’s vocation story, mentioning that she has now been a sister for 62+ years of which Virginie says, “It is a life of excitement, adventure, dedication.”

The article goes through some of the history of the Oblate Sisters of Providence and where they are ministering today. My friend Sister Marcia Hall, OSP, is also featured in the article. Sister Marcia is a former sociology professor who joined the Oblate Sisters 10 years ago. Says Sister Marcia, “I feel very strongly that I was called to be here, called to do the work that I am doing now.” Sister Marcia is now the vocation director for the Oblate Sisters of Providence.

Your questions. IHM Sisters respond.

Sister Julie — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:00:21 +0000

Of the many questions that you folks asked of my IHM Sisters
(see Nun Questions) this one was one of the more difficult ones.

Have you ever experienced something that made you re-evaluate your vocation? How did you overcome that experience? (from mjpss)

It is a very good and important question, but I wasn’t sure that anyone would want to spontaneously answer the question — let alone on video camera! I think it’s a question that many people have on their minds, especially as they consider a vocation to religious life.

I am happy to say I was proven wrong because one of my IHM Sisters did step up and take this question on. I’ve watched this video at least a dozen times and am still blown away.

Sister Candyce Rekart, IHM, is a Catholic nun belonging to the Immaculate Heart of Mary congregation. Sister Candyce is a clinical psychologist ministering at Clinica de Salud Mental Inc. in Puerto Rico.

Experiencing loneliness in one’s vocation

Sister Julie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:36:46 +0000

Question from Jess …

Hi Sister, Do you feel lonely as a nun? Do you feel lonely not having a family and how do you deal with it? The call to be single and without family is pretty huge. How do you cope?

I’ve written a little about feeling lonely and being a nun at Do Nuns Ever Feel Lonely? I also asked Sister Laurel, about being a hermit and experiencing loneliness. The loneliness, in many ways, is no different than the loneliness that one feels as a single person, as a person in a committed relationship, or as a married person. Loneliness for me has to do with that part of me that only God can fill. Sometimes I try to fill it with things that are not God – other relationships, my work, various distractions, etc. These things in themselves are not bad or wrong, but when I put them in the place that God alone can fill, then I’m the one who suffers that feeling of loneliness because I’ve placed things in between God and myself.

Now in terms of being a nun or being a single person, there is another kind of loneliness – the loneliness of not having an exclusive and committed partner, that one person who is there for you in all ways, the person you come home to and share your life with. In my 10+ years as a religious, I certainly have felt this kind of loneliness or longing for that one person – often it is a fleeting feeling, something that pops up after seeing a mushy romance flick or seeing the beautiful ways that couples I know live and grow together in love. But for me it’s not a bad feeling or one that causes me regret. The reason is because I am at home in my vocation and in my IHM community. I am at home with God. It’s okay to feel like, wow what would it have been like if I had married so-and-so? What would it be like to give birth, to hold my own child? I can reflect on these, maybe grieve them a bit, but I always return to the joy and delight in the life that I have chosen by the grace of God. I delight in my nephews and the children of my family and friends. I rejoice in the hospitality and love shown to me by my family’s families and my friend’s families. It’s not the same as having your own, true. But for me, it is enough.

A nun’s singleness is different from a single person’s singleness. Catholic sisters and nuns are called into a life of community. Our common life – sharing all finances, possessions, mission, gifts, etc. I have my wonderful Vieira family – parents, siblings, assorted relatives – and I have my IHM family. These are women with whom I vow to live for God through our particular charism and way of life. They are companions on the journey with me, there with me in good times and bad.

Though single people do not have a built-in community like nuns do, I think it would be important to have people around you that share in your vocation and that can support and encourage you. If you feel called to lifelong singlehood as a vocation from God, I encourage you to seek a spiritual director who can help you discern and authentically and joyfully live this call. As with all vocations, it is not without its struggles but it also has its joys and adventures!

Slate.com on Consecrated and Monastic Life

Sister Julie — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:04:12 +0000

Slate.com, the online news magazine, has an interesting but highly questionable assessment of consecrated and monastic life in the article A Monastic Kind of Life: How Catholic religious communities are trying to attract young people again. Have you read it? If not, it’s a must read. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

As for me, I found the article not only questionable but just plain wrong. Here are my thoughts.

1. The terminology is totally off. Monasticism is one form of consecrated life. Not all nuns, sisters, brothers, friars or priests live a monastic life.

2. Even though folks are quick to note the decline in numbers for consecrated life, they fail to note that the comparison is always to the early- to mid-1900s when there were 50+ people entering mainstream communities a year. But that time period is not characteristic of consecrated life throughout the history of Christianity. In fact that time period is more of an aberration because the history of consecrated life has never seen that kind of influx before nor possibly again.

3. Consecrated life was never meant to be a life for the masses. The viability of consecrated life is not dependent on numbers. True, some communities do end up disbanding but that too is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit just like the community’s founding was. We are not here to create a legacy but to do the work of God and live the Gospel in this particular vocation.

4. The article says, “The mission of many orders has become simply caring for their aging populations as they sell properties and consolidate with others.” I beg to differ. We always have and always will live our mission AND care for our sisters. There is nothing new about caring for aging populations, selling property, collaborating, and combining congregations. What is new is that we have such large numbers right now because of the major influx from the early- to mid-1900s. We have to be a bit more creative perhaps in how we care for our sisters and deal with our assets, but other than that, we remain vibrant.

5. What the heck is this?

For a time, the life of Catholic religious orders became about social justice issues, psychological issues, peace studies, interreligious dialogue, the ecology movement—everything and anything, seemingly, except the central proposition: that one can know a loving God and be transformed.

I am deeply offended by this statement. It reveals the author’s lack of understanding about consecrated life and about this period of history in the Catholic Church. Read the Vatican II Church Documents, spend time with religious who lived through this time period, and then perhaps you will understand that religious have been and will continue to be centered around a life and mission based on being in relationship with a loving God and working towards the transformation of ourselves and the world.

6. The jump from discussing consecrated life through Vatican II to the recent foundation of Clear Creek Monastery suggests that only newer communities are faithful to the Church and attractive to young people. While the growth in the monastery is great, the newer communities have not stood the test of time to see if young people stay, how new communities will grow and change as all religious communities before them have. It is exciting to see newer communities and the ways the Holy Spirit continues to inspire people. But make no mistake, the Holy Spirit is alive and well in established religious communities who continue to live out their charism according to what Vatican II called the “signs of the times”.

Well, that’s my two cents (or three) on the article.

Your thoughts?

It’s a freakin’ Nun convention!

Sister Julie — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:57:42 +0000

Freakin’ is one of those great multipurpose words which serves to underscore a certain reality. In this case, NUNS. I’m in Louisville for a vocations conference and there are nuns everywhere. Nuns to the right of me. Nuns to the left of me. It’s freakin’ awesome. Forgive me but I just can’t think of a better phrase than that!

In addition to beaucoup d’nuns, there are also religious priests, brothers, friars and monks. (FYI, by religious priests I mean priests that belong to a religious community and take the same vows I do — celibacy, poverty, and obedience — not diocesan priests who do not profess vows.)

My nundar is very sharp so I see nuns everywhere. Last night I went with my IHM Sisters Mary Bea (of hermit crab fame and also my congregation’s vocation director) and Ellen (vocation director for the Archdiocese of Detroit) to a local restaurant. There had to be at least a dozen to two dozen Catholic sisters and brothers and priests there. It was awesome. Of course we ended up knowing people. I met Sister Ruth Harkins, a Scranton IHM Sister (the Scranton IHMs are our cousins — I’m a Monroe IHM), and then on the way home, we ran into the Adrian Dominicans’ vocation director and a San Rafael Dominican who happens to be a friend of mine on Facebook! Crazy!

Then this morning I found my way to the hotel gym — amazing! Every conceivable workout machine. And of course, there were nuns including my San Rafael friend.

So I am having a blast hanging out with my own IHM Sisters and meeting all kinds of nuns. The conference hasn’t even started yet! I’m also hoping to get to know other sisters, brothers and priests involved in vocation work for their communities and dioceses.

I will keep you updated on my experiences here because it is just so cool to be surrounded by “my people”. And to also spend some time learning about how to encourage vocations to consecrated life and the various Catholic vocations. More later.

Signing off from Nun Convention 2008!

A Nun's Life » vocation

AS100 Ask Sister – Highlights of fav shows in honor of 100th Ask Sister episode, World Day for Consecrated Life, GPS rosary for finding religious life, vow of obedience vs. doormat

Hello, are you there? God calling.

Feast Day Letter to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Adventure Nun

AS094 Ask Sister – nun hairstyles, a question of morals, debunking nun myths for your friends, nuns for 4-year-old, weird detours

A Vocation Unto Death – Sister Valsa John, SCJM

AS092 Ask Sister – call and dread in discernment, novelist seeks info on real-life nuns, a sister’s ministry to kids with AIDS, cookin’ and cleanin’ nuns

The work of discernment –”call and dread”

Madonna on Discernment

AS091 Ask Sister – novelist needs info for nunfiction, hanging up on a call from God, how nuns pray, submissiveness, unholy spirits, gay saints

AS090 Ask Sister – Special Saintly Edition, with saints in a cave, saintly symbols-coffee and ice cream, decommissioned saints, saintliness in scripture

Two saints walked into a bar…. LOL for a healthy spiritual life

AS089 Ask Sister – do family duties trump religious life, schnauzer in the convent, Mrs. Sister, so many choices–how to decide which religious order to enter

Reflecting on Religious Life in Challenging Times

AS088 Ask Sister – Sister Godmother, faithful – or not – to the magisterium, tithing, embracing a vocation

AS086 Ask Sister – nun and reverend? balancing Facebook and life, battling demons and giants, prayers for discernment

These “Jesus shoes” are made for walking…and praying and discerning

AS085 Ask Sister – telling college buddies you might join the nuns, cosmetology in the convent, saints for extreme sports, bible snakes, can you be a nun if…

AS082 Ask Sister – is it true that “many are called but few are chosen,” what’s a “charism,” young adults reflect on vocations, tweeting for vocations, and more!

AS063 Ask Sister – Live from the Motherhouse! The nuns talk about the daily Examen prayer, God and free will, different notions of vocation, feeling unconnected to God and more!

AS076 Ask Sister – going on retreat, detachment from (YIKES) gadgets, nun-fiction writer seeks authentic religious life, and more!

AS075 Ask Sister – college grad talks about volunteering for a year; recognizing God at work in daily life; called to be a nun or doctor (or both?) and more!

AS074 Ask Sister – testing God, praying for safety in risky situations, religious medallions, psalm selections, does prayer really work

AS072 Ask Sister – surfing Madonna, purgatory discovery, why Jesus was baptized, dealing with mockers and naysayers, and more!

AS070 Ask Sister – feeling okay about filioque, Anglican Ninja Nuns, living community, following in a religious brother’s footsteps

AS068 Ask Sister – making your own scapular, opposing human trafficking, becoming a nun, the Stations of the Cross

I think I Missed God’s Call …

AS063 Ask Sister – Live from the Motherhouse! The nuns talk about the daily Examen prayer, God and free will, different notions of vocation, feeling unconnected to God and more!

Celebrating a snowy World Day for Consecrated Life!

AS056 Ask Sister – worldly Benedictine monastics, godly anger, dilemma for a Catholic-Protestant couple, not feeling called

Discerning a vocation? What to do when our vocation finds us first.

Courage to Follow Your Call

Are you aware of your vocation?

AS049 Ask Sister – no desire for a vocation, saints and symbols, two Saint Theresas, exercise habits, putting the holy in holiday

Bernie Becomes a Nun

AS045 Ask Sister – gifts for nuns, thoughts and God, the “right” religious community

Any advice for a teen who wants to be a consecrated virgin or nun?

AS040 Ask Sister – spiritual direction, being an only child, lost vocations, is God really calling me?

Are nuns the “spouses of Christ”? When roses arrive at the convent, the sisters reconsider

AS039 Ask Sister – vocations to religious life, pink bunnies, temporal punishment, and more!

Checking out discernment retreats

Mark your calendars! Two new interview-style programs coming your way!

Sister Patti Robinson, CSA – mom, gramma, and nun

AS032 Ask Sister – a young person thinking about religious life, parental caution, nuns in other Christian traditions, bringing a dowry, a vocation story

The Fencing Sister: Suburban Chicago nun skilled with blade

AS031 Ask Sister – Mary a mere saint? being a nun a waste of time? spiritual v. religious? am I called or not? a vocation story

AS027 Ask Sister – fasting, the First Official nun meeting, virgin-ness, imaging oneself as a nun, vocational calling, and more

Are you open to being surprised by God?

NUNDAY with Sister Mary Devlin

Courage to Discern a Second Time

IHM Discernment Retreat

Actor describes learning the role of Sister Helen Prejean

AS020 Ask Sister – vocational terror, regret, shaved heads, nun finances, animal ministry, the habit, and more!

Can someone with a disability become a nun?

Becoming a Passionist Nun

Blank Check

Pope has Vocation Message for Young People

Can you tell me where I need to go to become a sister?

AS015 Ask Sister – choosing a community, adjustments to nun life, wearing nail polish

AS014 Ask Sister – calling, immigration, liturgy of the hours

FP004 Feature Podcast on Consecrated Life with IHM Sisters

Celebrate Vocations with Us

AS012 Ask Sister – sweetheart nun, relating to God, what to say

God calls whomever God chooses

AS011 Ask Sister – converts, icons, vocation reactions, past relationships

Is God calling me?

AS008 Ask Sister Podcast

Visit ANunsLife.org/live Today 6 p.m. Central Time (your timezone)

Attention Parents, Teachers, Catechists, and Mentors

Nun Photo – Podcasting IHM Sisters

You (Yes, You.) Are Called

Teresa of Avila, trusting always in God

A leap of faith

Filled with a new joy

Trusting in God Always

Come and See opportunity with the IHM Sisters

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

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

Come to:

Register now:

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