Journeying together

Sister Rejane  
This Random Nun Clip is brought to you by A Nun's Life Ministry.

Sister Maxine  
I'm Sister Maxine of A Nun's Life Ministry. And my guest today is Sister Michele Morek, an Ursuline Sister of Mount St. Joseph, Kentucky. Sister Michelle is with Global Sisters Report, a leading source of news and information about Catholic Sisters and the critical issues facing the people they serve worldwide. As you're describing sisters in their home country, and then the movement of sisters globally, it occurs to me that not only are they speaking out of their cultural context of origin, but many sisters have an experience that goes across cultures.

Sister Michele  
Exactly. And some of my most enjoyable columns that I edit are sisters who have been missionaries. I had one recently that wrote a column about how homesick she was for India, because she came to Peru as a missionary, and got stuck there by COVID. And how she is relating to her new environment.

Sister Maxine  
I imagine for your readers of The Life, people who may feel those same feelings, especially in the time of pandemic, being away from maybe their homes or familiar routines--there's something very, I don't know, maybe comforting in those kinds of words. To know that they're not alone in these feelings.

Sister Michele  
That's for sure. Sharing our human experience. And this is not just in The Life, although we have had some questions about COVID. We've had so many articles lately, sometimes two or three a week from sisters in other countries, describing their experience of lockdown and pandemic, sisters who work with people who have COVID.

Sister Maxine  
In the sisters' stories and experiences with the pandemic, but certainly across other areas--you know, human trafficking care for the earth, so many of the topics that sisters are addressing--as you look across all these diverse perspectives, do you ever hear of perspectives that seem to you almost in contrast to each other, from one part of the world to another?

Sister Michele  
Of course there are differences. And in fact, we love to find those differences, and underline them. In other words, if I find a couple of things that are very different, I will put them in in the same month to show the differences.

Sister Maxine  
Is there one story that you found for yourself to be particularly challenging either to read or to think, "How do I take this in? What do we do with this?"

Sister Michele  
Well, I tend to like creative and unusual stories. I love stories about countries that I haven't read about before. But I remember a series by Janet Gildea, she was a Charity Sister of Cincinnati, Ohio. And she took us on a journey with her across several years of how she dealt with cancer, and eventually died of cancer. And that was so moving. And it was so personal, that journey with Janet.

Sister Maxine  
Again, this is all about being on these journeys together. And for readers, I'm sure that that has had a significant impact, those kinds of stories about sisters lives that can be adapted to their own life.

Sister Michele  
I think so. Because, you know, we all have similar experiences. And I think sometimes people don't realize sisters have the same kinds of experiences. And we react to things with fear and anger and disappointment and curiosity. It's a story about the human experience.

Sister Rejane  
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.