blogging as ministry

Fellow blogging nun Julie is featured in a great article in the Chicago Tribue.

I never thought of my blog as a form of ministry, and now I do. People are going to the Internet to find answers about life, God, the church. The people who come to me, the questions that they get me thinking about, it blows my mind away.

There's a lot more good stuff in the interview, and some clarifications on her blog. (Speaking to the media is always tricky, as I learned in my past life as City Elections Officer. The trick is to know the message you want to get across and say it always, in different ways. Sound bites are good too. A hard thing to execute).

I've begun to think of this little blog as a form of ministry as well. As far as I can tell, a portion of my bloggy audience is just interested in keeping up with the goings on in my life - friends, family and fellow groovy sisters. But it seems like there are other people hungry for information and insights - people trying not to think about their own potential vocation to religious life, people desiring a different Catholic perspective, "spiritual but not religious" people who are intriqued by a nun-in-training like me. As Julie says, "People are going to the Internet to find answers about life, God, the church."

I was going to say I'm not even sure why I started the blog, but that's not true. My first blog post tells me why I started this crazy thing:

I've searched the blogsphere myself, looking for the "What should Susan do with her life website" to no avail. I have, however, been lucky enough to stumble upon the stories of others who have been able to stop and listen to what God might be calling them too. I've benefitted from the struggles, the sharing, the hopes, the fears of complete strangers. And so, I figured it was worth the risk to start documenting my own journey in the hopes that it strikes a chord with someone else. Gives someone else the thought that it's not so crazy to listen to that voice deep down inside that won't go away, the idea that maybe there's something more to this life thing. And, hopefully this new form of what is essentially an exhibitionist journal will help me along on this journey of mine.

Now that people actually read my little blog, and now that I'm officially "Sister Susan," there are more pressures and self-imposed constraints on my blogging practice. But this first post still resonates with me, and so I continue to share this crazy journey of mine.

Peace Out to all my bloggy friends. I'm going to turn off the computer and head to my afternoon of ministry at the hospital.