A commitment to community

Sister Rejane  
This Random Nun Clip is brought to you by A Nun's Life Ministry. I'm Sister Rejane of A Nun's Life Ministry. My guest today is Sister Ana Gonzalez, a Dominican Sister of Peace, who currently lives in New Haven, Connecticut, and ministers in the admissions office of Albertus Magnus College with international students.

Sister Ana  
I have the fortune to be living at our House of Welcome in New Haven, Connecticut. And among my dynamic community members, we just welcome two new candidates in New Haven. And wow, our sisters that are coming in as candidates are brilliant, amazing women, and oh, my goodness, I'm in awe, and I'm inspired by them as well. So I am thrilled that as part of living in community, I get to be part of their experience, the way someone was at one point part of my experience.

Sister Rejane  
Yes. Yes. Kind of comes full circle, right? Like you're always working within, like vocation and formation, right? At a different level. So how many people are living in the house right now? With you?

Sister Ana  
 So we are eight at the moment.

Sister Rejane  
Oh, that's a great number in this day and age.

Sister Ana  
It is.

Sister Rejane  
Yeah.

Sister Ana  
It's a good number. And we will have another sister move in with us in August. And your mutual friend as well, June Fitzgerald, I have the privilege of living with her as well.

Sister Rejane  
Okay, okay. And then the two candidates, just for our audience -- those are women that have basically just

Sister Ana  
That is correct.

Sister Rejane  
And how long have they been with the Dominican Sisters of Peace at this point?

Sister Ana  
So their entrance ceremony was on July 14.

Sister Rejane  
Oh, gosh.

Sister Ana  
They officially entered July 14.

Sister Rejane  
Not even a month at this point. Okay.

Sister Ana  
And they are amazing. So one of the beautiful things about this community is that we are living an intergenerational, intercultural, and as well, inter-congregational community. So it's very diverse in the sense that like, for instance, I'm Mexican. We have a Vietnamese sister living with us. One of our candidates is originally from Zambia. And then as well, we have a nice gamut between ages, from 80 something to 30 something. And among our Dominican communities, we have, of course, Dominican Sisters of Peace. We have Katherine Frazier, who is a Dominican Sister of Adrian, living with us as well. And we have a Dominican Sister of Go Vap, from Vietnam, living with us as well. And I think this is a very enriching and very telling experience, because as we navigate our journey in religious life, it's not just siloed. It's not just one angle. Being able to have a multi-perspective angle is a good foundation for a world that is requiring us to have a global understanding, an invitation for us as we are ministering and living together, to have a perspective that encompasses not one narrative, but embraces and welcomes various narratives. So anyways -- enough of that!

Sister Rejane  
I do have to ask, though, do you have any for living interculturally and intergenerationally? It's such a gift, but I'm sure there's a lot of complexity. How do you navigate that?

Sister Ana  
We all are very intentional in the fact that we are all a community. So while the house, the structure, has been there for years, every time a new person comes in, it's a new community. So we need to be open to letting go of old ways, old traditions. I someone was in charge of certain duty, be open to let go of that because it might be an opportunity for someone else to do it as well. I think it’s also important to embrace the fact that we all have such rich diversity. And it's the invitation to pitch in and include a little bit of my gifts, a little bit of your gifts, a little bit of everyone's gifts. It's not assimilation. It's not embracing one dominant culture. It's contributing to a communal culture. So I feel that our commitment to religious life, our invitation to be grounded in God, is paramount. We get together in prayer, we open the Word in prayer together, and we see God in each other. And that's an invitation also, for us to be compassionate. And at times, buttons are pushed. At times, I might not agree. So when I feel that there's a button being pushed, my invitation is okay, so where is God inviting me as part of this dialogue? Am I seeing this out of love? Or am I being selfish? Who am I putting first? Am I putting God first, or am I putting me first? And I think we all are committed to that.

Sister Rejane  
That's beautiful. We also just connected at Giving Voice in San Antonio. And there was a breakout on intercultural reality. And someone introduced me to the phrase "cultural humility," which you are kind of speaking to. I have a culture, you have a culture, someone else has a different culture. And we're creating a communal culture, but my culture, my personal culture, isn't necessarily the best, right?

Sister Ana  
Right.

Sister Rejane  
You've got to have some humility, in order to be open to learning another way of looking at the world or even just doing something. Perfect example: my sister in law's from Colombia.

Sister Ana  
Oh, how fabulous.

Sister Rejane  
I was in her house. And I'm peeling carrots. And my niece is like, "Rejane, why are you peeling the skin off the carrots? It has good nutrients in that. We just chop it up. And it's good to go." And I'm like, okay, all right. We could do that. I mean, it's already cleaned. Right? I'm eating the skin off a potato, why can't I eat the skin off a carrot? I know, that's a little bit maybe too specific of an example. But I had to have some cultural humility, to let my nice teach me something I've been doing my entire life -- like, I know what I'm doing. [Laughter] I mean, really?

Sister Ana  
Right. Exactly.

Sister Rejane  
It is a little humbling to learn something new.

Sister Ana  
And then also, wow! My life has been enriched by every single one of my community members, from new dishes and new stories to faith practices and songs and forms of prayer. Just everyone has pitched in to my experience, and I am a better person because of it. I am a richer person because of it. And these are experiences that I would have never had, ever! Had I not embraced this exciting and fabulous journey.

Sister Rejane  
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This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.