What surprised you about becoming a nun?

Sister Maxine  
This Random Nun Clip is brought to you by A Nun's Life Ministry. Welcome back to a Motherhouse Road Trip edition of Ask Sister. You're here with Sister Maxine and Sister Julie of A Nun's Life Ministry and our guests, Sister Lou Anglin and Sister Paulette Skiba of the BVM sisters here in Dubuque, Iowa.

Sister Julie  
I saw a question come in from Steve in the chat room. Steve asked, "What was the most pleasant surprise you had after joining the BVMs?" What was the most pleasant surprise, Sister Lou, that you had after joining the BVMs?

Sister Lou  
Well, I don't know how you would ever prepare yourself for the support. There's been countless times that, you know, I've asked for prayer for my family members, or just having had a bad day, to walk in and just somebody come up and ask how your day was. I just think the sisterhood itself is just -- I don't know how you prepare for the beauty of that.

Sister Julie  
What about for you, Sister Paulette?

Sister Paulette  
I don't know -- that one is kind of hard for me. Not because there haven't been pleasant surprises. But I think the experience of -- Lou was also student, but I was a student, who then had an experience -- a student is kind of on the outside, then moving into the inside. And I think sometimes knowing the full dimensions of the people who I knew as teachers and administrators. There was one sister who I would have described as kind of drab. She seemed to always be in gray. She didn't talk much. And then I joined the community and I thought, "Oh my gosh, this woman does the Irish jig. She's into abstract art." It was like, wow! I think that was surprising to me, to see these people who I knew in one way, in all the richness of their lives.

Sister Maxine  
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