Community amplifies the good

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

Sister Maxine  
I'm Sister Maxine, and my guest is Sister Irene O'Neill, founder and director of Sisters Rising Worldwide, which uses technology and innovative ways to support peace and justice work around the globe. At what point did you meet the congregation you would eventually join? When you met them, were you like, "Oh, yes, this is my future!"

Sister Irene  
Oh my gosh. Well, I didn't quite think that way. But I had them in high school. And I was really aware that the sisters knew who we were. And they were so fun, and they were so nice. And they challenged us to use whatever gifts that we didn't even know we had yet. And so they were very present in not just our learning in the classroom, but between classes and everything. I suppose they were really just trying to keep an eye on us.

Sister Maxine  
But in a good way.

Sister Irene  
Exactly. We really liked them a lot. Yeah.

Sister Maxine  
At what point then was it that the thought of religious life did occur to you in a really serious way?

Sister Irene  
I thought about it when I was younger, probably in elementary school. We had some great nuns there as well. But in high school, as I said, I loved the sisters. It was an all-girls school, which I loved. But of course, in high school, we got very interested in boys, who are awfully cute. And I remember not choosing a women's college that was nearby. So we went to the University of Minnesota. And believe it or not, at the University of Minnesota, I met a Sister of St. Joseph who was teaching a class there.

Sister Maxine  
It was inescapable, I suppose!

Sister Irene  
It really was. I thought, "How did God arrange that?" So I was kind of I didn't really know what I wanted to be. But I was kind of thinking a drama teacher would be a blast, to be a high school drama teacher. And this nun was teaching a drama class at the University of Minnesota.

Sister Maxine  
You can't make this stuff up.

Sister Irene  
I know, you really can't. And she was an Upper Midwest consultant, in a form of drama called Creative Dramatics. She was teaching teachers how to teach drama. And as the class went along, I realized that she was really teaching children how to love themselves for who they were. And it just, it just knocked me over. And I didn't realize it at the time, but Sister Peggy--that was her name--she saw that I understood this. And she began to talk to me more in class. And you know, again, I didn't make that connection, that she saw that I grabbed that. But at the end of the class, which was, I don't know, nine or 10 weeks or so--she came up to me and she said that she was scheduled to do two workshops, one in Iowa and one in North Dakota. And it turned out they were on the same weekend. So Sister Peggy said, "You're going to take the one in North Dakota, and I'll take the one in an Iowa." Well, I was just totally shocked. And she said, "Now, what you can do is come to my house for dinner, and I'll have a suitcase full of the materials that you need for the workshop." I mean, I hardly even knew the word workshop, you know. But I knew that I understood the technique. Anyway, it was at that dinner when I really first was just blown away by the sisters, because they were just talking about their day. You know, between passing the butter and the bread, they'd say, "Well, how were things at the hospital today? How did things go in the shelter?" And you know, what was happening at the college. And they were solving problems--you know, a family of eight came in from Texas, and they needed housing and clothing and food, and I found the nuns, and they helped them. And you know, the stories just went on and on. And I was just dumbfounded, thinking, "Who are these people?" Because I knew them as teachers, not as these social justice advocates. Anyway, my workshop went really well in North Dakota, and I got invited to do more workshops. And I kept meeting the sisters, when Peggy would say, "Come and pick up the suitcase with the materials." So again, it was great. So I kept finding myself in different gatherings of the sisters, and even in the midst of the party that they might be having, some nun would yell out, "I need 20 beds," and some other nun would say, "I have them for you." And then they'd all laugh, and they'd say, "You need a truck," and another sister would say, "I have people with trucks." And anyway, I just got absolutely pulled in.

Sister Maxine  
That networking piece would have been profound. I mean, I find that to be part of the tradition of religious life, that kind of networking, and figuring out who has what and how to make it all work together.

Sister Irene  
Yeah. Oh my gosh, that makes all the difference. Yeah. Because no one person has the answer. But boy, when you put them together. Wow, it was powerful.

Sister Rejane  
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This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.