I’ve been wanting to share with you a bit of my experience of the workshop for women and men religious that I went to a couple weeks ago. The workshop was called Poverty in a Land of Plenty and was led by my own IHM Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM. Sister Sandra is an expert on the theology and history of religious life, especially its biblical roots, and is author of the trilogy Religious Life in a New Millennium (vol 1 = Finding the Treasure, vol 2 = Selling All, vol 3 = forthcoming).
A foundational insight in Sister Sandra’s work is that religious life is not reducible to a career or religious sentiment; it’s a lifeform that is rooted in the crucified and risen Christ who is active among us today. We aren’t nuns (or monks) just because we like to help others or wear religious gear or participate in rituals. We are nuns because God has called us to orient our lives around the quest for God “in a total and exclusive way”. Sister Sandra describes this well:
Religious … do not have exclusive access to holiness nor, necessarily, superiority in relation to it. What specifies their life, their “specialization,” is their exclusive life-commitment to religion itself. Like the person who shapes her or his life around art, or sports, or scientific research or family (even while also participating in some or all of the other spheres [of life]) and who may or may not be better than others in the chosen sphere, the Religious is a specialist in the God-quest in the sense of having structured her life life around it in a total and exclusive way. (Finding the Treasure 37)
“The Religious is a specialist in the God-quest.” Wow. I cannot finish typing that without a sense of fear and trembling. It’s no wonder this way of life is a calling from God because this is no small “specialization.”
I’ve often heard my nuns talk about the grace of office, how when a nun is elected to a position, she receives the grace to faithfully meet her responsibilities. Being called to leadership calls out skills and gifts in a new way. I think this “grace of office” thing applies to all of us when we make a life commitment such as becoming a Religious. We are each ordinary people, living the Gospel as best we can. But when we are called, it’s as if we receive a “new” grace from God to rise to the challenge of such a radical, powerful, beautiful way of life.
Archived Comments
- March 11, 2008 at 7:48 am
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Could you imagine leafing through the employment ads of the newspaper and seeing something like this: “WANTED: Specialist in the God-quest … applicants must be open, prayerful persons with a desire to give all to God; the ideal candidate is single and Catholic and has a desire to live in community and engage in serving God and others.”
- March 11, 2008 at 7:39 am
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“Specialist in the God-quest” Definitely wow. Another phrase of hers that stops me in my tracks is “exclusive gift of self-donation.” Thanks for sharing this.
- March 11, 2008 at 8:47 am
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It would be really interesting to see what type of response one would get if they put that ad into the paper, maybe local diocesan or Catholic press? Perhaps even secular. Very thought provoking! One of the salient features of the ad is that although it describes the life of a religious, it never actually uses the term “nun” or “sister”.
- March 11, 2008 at 3:08 pm
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Sandra Schneiders books had a great influence on me as I was considering entering religious life – 8/9 years ago. I keep on looking out for volume three – but it still seems not published! Do you have any idea when it come out?
- March 11, 2008 at 5:44 pm
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Thanks, Dominic! I don’t think volume 3 is that far off. Keep an eye out for it.
- March 11, 2008 at 7:57 pm
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Powerful, powerful reflection, Julie! Thank you for taking the time to share it. The notion of “grace of office” resonates with some reflection I’ve been doing lately. I hope you’ll be sharing more of your insights on this soon
- March 12, 2008 at 5:31 pm
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I have a friend who is a writer because he simply can’t live doing anything else. It is truly his calling. Fortunately, and with a lot of hard work, he is successful enough to continue doing it and make a living. I see the same idea with being a Religious. There just comes a point when you can’t be anything else. To be otherwise would be living a lie and degrading one’s character daily. There are Blessings in it, but I can imagine that it is a very difficult, and occasionally harrowing, journey. Brightest of Blessings …
- March 12, 2008 at 10:58 pm
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Well, to be honest, I’m not so sure about that phrase “specialist in the God quest”. I appreciate what Schneiders is saying and her intention, if I remember correctly, to resituate all religious life within the monastic paradigm of seeking God. But the further I go on this way (both “religious” and Christian in general) the more I realise that I realise how little I understand it and that I am only beginning. I resonate more with what Elizabeth says above, which reminds me of a saying of John Main that you don’t become a monk because you want to but because you have to.
- March 13, 2008 at 6:38 am
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Macrina, Thanks for writing … You are right that this particular quote is situated within a broader context in which Sandra is making the case for Religious Life as a deeply human phenomenon (not unnatural) yet distinct nonetheless. She looks at early images such as the virgin, the Christian religious “virtuoso”, and the monastic. Sandra concludes: “Religious Life is religious, not primarily in the institutional sense but in the sense of a tradition-shaped, coherent spirituality, and that it is a life, not an organization or a workforce or a platonic essence of some kind. Because this spirituality is Christian, it necessarily involves community and ministry but neither of them, or both together, suffices to explain or justify the life. And because it is a life it generates a lifeform that is organic and integrated, not a collection of customs, practices, activities, or even relationships.” (Finding the Treasure 39-40)
- March 13, 2008 at 6:20 am
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That’s a good comparison, Elizabeth … and I think this is true of all life callings: “there just comes a point where you can’t be anything else”!
- March 13, 2008 at 10:12 am
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I too like Elizabeth’s comparison. As a writer myself, I resonate with the life of her friend. It’s funny, but no matter what I do in life, well almost anything, it turns into some sort of writing project. Even participating on this blog falls under that category! I can’t help it. It is who I am.
As I may have mentioned here before, and discussed with Sr. Julie under separate cover, I feel strongly called to work in the area of “religious” communications. It’s not something I sat down and decided to do. It is something I sensed coming from God. I am divinely compelled. The thought of it brings joy and peace.
I relate well to the most recently quoted passage from Sandra Schneiders (I’d love to hear her speak – maybe she’ll come to NJ sometime soon.) in which she says religious life is religious but not primarily in the institutional sense. I am not a sister but do live a kind of “religious” life in the lay, married state. I feel that the customs, practices, activities that Sr. Sandra refers to are manifestations of my faith, my commitment, my beliefs. They do not define it. God, and our response to God, is much bigger than we can express.
- March 14, 2008 at 6:50 am
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Yes, Julie, I think that that quote fleshes it out more – its quite a while since I read her books. It situates the whole religious identity thing within the whole of life, which is ultimately a mystery, or better a pathway to the Mystery, which is why definitions are so tricky!
- March 16, 2008 at 12:19 pm
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well sister, I think your post is great… am no Christian, leave alone a religious but I really dig your site… thanks… u go on my blogroll… what sr. sandra says applies so well to married life too… I consider my marriage a vocation to be worked at and nurtured…
- March 16, 2008 at 5:10 pm
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“Being a [Religious] is a life, not a career…” This is true, and points up the validity of those, like myself, living entirely in the world – employed in a secular occupation – yet still actively pursuing the Religious life. It infiltrates every particle of our being and shapes every aspect of our existence, the decisions we make always are made with the question “how will this affect my vocation?” In some cases, our “career” is something so “unreligious” as to make people doubt whether or not we are legitimate – how can a truck driver, or a farmer, or a whatever also be a Brother or Sister? The fact that it is not what we do, but who we are makes it all possible…
- March 17, 2008 at 12:22 am
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“Specialist in the God quest.” This invitation is open to any Baptized Catholic, not just religious. “If today you hear his voice harden not your hearts.”
