Today one of my nuns is at a board meeting for a college, I'm writing a blog post and getting a podcast ready, and other Catholic sisters and nuns are doing countless other tasks! They are out there wrangling a herd of pre-schoolers, preparing a funeral liturgy, balancing a budget, counseling a bereft spouse, praying the Liturgy of the Hours, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at a shelter, standing as advocates at court, harvesting crops, and so many other duties!
I am always amazed at the variety of things sisters and nuns today do because sometimes we've got this "nun job description" in our imagination that rarely encompasses all that sisters and nuns actually do. I certainly had that perspective before I became a sister! I never dreamed that I'd be negotiating with technology developers or broadcasting to folks across the world!
Even though we're in such a variety of places with tasks ranging the mundane to the supernatural, there is a lot about what we do that has not changed since the inception of religious life: Catholic sisters and nuns live lives of prayer, reach out in ministry, and gather together in community. With Christ and our Catholic faith, we launch out wherever God calls us.
And that can take us into some unCONVENTional places -- like a pizzeria! The accompanying photo shows Sister Judy Tensing, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, and Sister Barbara Wheeler, a Dominican Sister of Hope, founders of Venice on Vine pizzeria in Cincinnati, Ohio, which serves not only pizza but a job training program.
In what other expected or unconventional places have you bumped into Catholic sisters and nuns?
