Everyday God

Sister Maxine
This is Ask Sister. We're here in Columbus, Ohio on a Motherhouse Road Trip with the Dominican Sisters of Peace. We're delighted to be joined by Sister Mattie Sterner.

Sister Mattie
Thank you.

Sister Maxine
And Sister June Fitzgerald.

Sister June
Thank you.

Sister Maxine
We have another question that came in. And it's from Bea, who's from Austria, and she's facing a real difficult situation here. Bea says, "It feels like I'm the only one who takes religion seriously in my class. When I told my friend that I wanted to be a nun, she asked me why I wanted to ruin my life. Plus, it's really hard to stay a 'god girl' when there's so much swearing and making fun of others around me. Sisters, do you have any advice?"

Sister June
Be yourself, be solid in in knowing who you are. To be that God girl is coo. There probably are others out there who are looking for the courage to be a God girl, to really dedicate their life to something greater than themselves, to follow God's way and not the world's way. And in your courageous living of that, you might give courage to somebody else. It is difficult, but find others like yourself, who are seeking to live their life that way, and to share with them and to get your strength from them and from God and to support each other in that.

Sister Maxine
And there might be somebody in your very own class who is thinking the same thing that you are, and hoping that there's some companionship somewhere. So to step forward and be the person you are, the God girl, would be really significant.

Sister June
And your courage could give that other person that courage.

Sister Julie
I think it's important that we sort of re-own God in a way, because sometimes I think we reserve God for only what we talk about with spiritual people, or it's what we do on Sunday, or it's in part of our prayer. But it always occurs to me, if we talk about God as being our friend, why wouldn't we talk about God in our regular life? And it's hard, I think, for someone like Bea, when you get you get labeled, because you're using that. And yet, of course, God is a regular part of our life. I mean, we can't take a breath without God already being there with us. And it seems to me this is just a broader observation, to have more of a rhetoric: how do we bring God into our conversations? And I think about us as sisters: how can we model what it's like just to talk about it, that it's an everyday occurrence, you're not somehow strange, or ostracized because of that.

Sister Mattie
I had a young girl that came in my office this couple of weeks ago. And this was not about wanting to be a nun. But it was wanting to be who she was. And she was kind of being made fun of because she dated a lot. She had a lot of boyfriends. But as soon as the boyfriends began to be demanding on her, she would break up with them. And so her friends are, oh, you don't know what you're missing, you ought to do this, you ought to do that. And she said, "I would go home, and I would just be devastated. Because it was like I was different." I said, "You know, the bottom line is -- like June says -- you know who you are. Be who you are." She looked at me and she said, "That's what my mother keeps saying." [laughter]

Sister Maxine
So you know you're on the right trail!

Sister Mattie
I said, "Your grandmother's saying it too." But I think that's true. You know, if somebody would say, "Why do you want to ruin your life?" I would say, "Yeah, there are so many other ways I could be ruining my life. Why would I pick this one?" So anyway, I think being who you are is just knowing who you are, and then living out of that reality.

Sister Maxine
I was taken too by her friends saying why would you want to ruin your life? And it's like, I would encourage you, Bea, to have your friend, let's say watch a couple of podcasts and see the joy that sisters have and then ask her, is a ruined life going to produce this kind of joy? She might want to rethink that. And maybe it'll give her some fresh insights and a new way to think about it. That's always good.

Sister Mattie
She might also say, "Define ruin." [laughter]

Sister Julie
Might be a good kind of ruin.

Sister June
Well, I've heard that phrase when people have gone off for a long-term service or they've participated in an experience of reaching out and helping others. I've heard people say, well, now I'm ruined. I'm ruined for God, but in a way that you can never go back to where you were before, that you've seen something different, and God has changed something within you, and you can never be the same again.

Sister Rejane
Thank you to our donors, sponsors, and listeners like you, who make A Nun's Life Ministry possible. To hear full episodes of A Nun's Life podcasts, visit the podcast page at anunslife.org/podcasts.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.