Embodying Hope

I have been privileged to spend the last 3 and a half days in sacred space and in the company of holy women.  At the invitation of our Congregation Leadership Team, the seven Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace who have entered community in the last decade met with some Sisters in leadership, vocation, and formation roles to share our experiences, hopes, and dreams. We had an agenda and a marvelous facilitator, but what happened was beyond our imagining and will, I am sure, lead to some incredible hope-filled dreams becoming reality.

This was the first time the seven of us had all been together. Some of us know each other well, but as there are essentially two main formation groups, we had never before mixed and mingled or even shared our stories.  We come from very diverse backgrounds and experiences, but the common threads were astonishing and deeply moving.

We say in community that something special happens when we come together in person, and this experience was yet another embodiment of that reality. It was also an emodiment of hope. The energy was palpable in the room. Our charism of peace through justice was alive. And on more than one occasion, I felt the presence of Margaret Anna Cusack (known in religion as Mother Francis Clare, our founder).

Our reality is that we are separated on a regular basis by many thousands of miles. But we have a deep connection now to each other that I know will continue to grow and bear much fruit. I'm also aware that as we welcome those who are "yet to come" to our circle, we will be even more enriched, challenged, and inspired.

As we say in our Constitutions .... we face the future with gratitude and hope!

End of summer adventures

I woke up this morning and realized that I only have one more sleep in my own bed before heading out on a 3 1/2 week adventure in the Pacific Northwest as summer comes to a close.

First up is an opportunity to send a few days with our "newer" members--those Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace who have entered in the last 10 years. This will be the first time we've ever all been together! We have been invited to gather with some Sisters in leadership and formation to share our hopes for the congregation and religious life and to dream together.

The group of women I entered with

Me visiting our 3 novices in London last summmer

 I am sure it will be a wonderful gathering. And we can get a photo of all 7 of us at last!

Then I have a few days to visit friends over Labor Day weekend before I head back to Seattle and ..... CHAPTER!  Chapters only happen every 6 years. They are a time to listen to the heartbeat of the congregation. To celebrate and pray and laugh and discern where God is calling us together. Or, as our Constitutions say:

The Congregation Chapter is the highest
decision-making body in the congregation.
In this event we celebrate our unity,
renew our life and spirit,
reflect together on the call of the gospel,
and make decisions in fidelity to our charism.

Exciting things on the horizon. And hopefully, comfy-ish beds for yours truly so I have energy to enjoy and soak it all in.

I'll try to post from my adventures .... stay tuned!

Blessed by Religious Life Peers

This past weekend I gathered with friends, some old and some brand new, for the first ever Giving Voice Retreat for Sisters in their 40s at my community's vacation house outside of Seattle.

I attended my first Giving Voice Retreat when I was in the novitiate. Of course I was younger back then (with less gray hair), so it was the annual 20s/30s retreat weekend. The connections I first made 6 years ago on MLK weekend have sustained me on my journey and made me a better Sister of St. Joseph of Peace.  This weekend was another graced opportunity to be with people who get both religious life and what it is like to be my age IN religious life and who also believe deeply in its future. In our closing prayer we were invited to share one grace we received on the retreat. I shared that I had quite literally been blessed by my GV Sisters.

Because you see, this summer I have also stepped out of the circle of leadership for Giving Voice, having served on two conference planning teams and as a member of the Core Team for the past 3 years. As part of our closing prayer on Sunday, my GV Sisters surprised me with this blessing:

In gratitude for all that you've done to serve Giving Voice so well, we offer you this blessing: 

May you know God's love and the gratitude of your Giving Voice sisters for the ways in which you've offered your gifts to serve us. We pray in thanksgiving for the ways in which you donated such time and talent to us. 

May you continue to grow in relationship with sisters in Giving Voice, sisters in yours and other communities, and with the people of God. 

May you recognize the ways in which you've grown from having served on the GV leadership team. 

May you continue to be effective in your service to others as you work for solidarity and justice in the world. 

May your faith propel you forward, enabling you to take "prophetic risk[s] so that God's reign might be more fully realized." 

May your next venture be successful and life-giving, and may you know God's presence with you as you move forward into something new. 

May your prayer be fruitful and intimate. 

And may you always know God's immense love for you, God's tender care of you, and God's guidance of you. 

With your sisters, we pray: "In unity with the church and with all of creation we give praise and thanks to the Giver of all gifts. We open ourselves to the liberating power of God whose Spirit in us leads to peace."

The quotations are from my CSJP Constitutions. I cannot tell you how powerful it was to be standing in the center of GV Sisters, hearing them pray the words of my congregation's constitutions. It was a beautiful reminder that we all women of the Church, connected in so many ways yet diverse in the way we embody the gifts of the Spirit.

It has been an honor and a privilege to serve in leadership of this grassroots peer led organization. As I wrote in my final GV E-Newsletter last month: "As I take a step out of the circle of leadership back into the larger circle of GV Sisters, I know that my friends and Sisters will continue to create spaces for younger women religious to give voice to their hopes, dreams and challenges in religious life."

I am well and truly blessed by the presence of each of my GV Sisters in my life.

New Global Sisters Report Column: Shifting Conversations in Religious Life

My latest monthly Horizons column on Global Sisters Report was posted yesterday! I actually wrote it last month when I was visiting my CSJP Sisters in Seattle. The topic of this column is one I've been reflecting and writing on for some time now, namely moving away from a focus on "diminishment" in religious life and instead focusing on what I sense is one of the particular gifts of this time in religious life, demographic change.  Here's a snippet:

I’ve been inviting sisters I know, young and old, to abandon the “D-word" in favor of a more descriptive term –“demographic change.”  For one thing, as it is more descriptive rather than value based, the term is less energy zapping than the “D-word." ... 

When we focus on diminishment, we focus on what it is that we think we are losing. When we focus on demographic change, we can look lovingly at our reality and ask curious questions. What might God be up to with this radical shift in the landscape of religious life? What choices, actions, and plans can we make now that might help us to receive God’s gifts for religious life, for the church, and for the world? Are we likely to find easy answers to these questions? No. But I suspect that by shifting our focus to the gift of demographic change, we will be better able to access the creative energy of the Holy Spirit.

Visit the Global Sisters Report to read the whole column.  I'd love to know if this resonates with your experience or if you see this time in religious life differently.

Flowers in the Window

I was reminded in prayer this morning of this quote from the founder of my religious community, Margaret Anna Cusack (known in religion as Mother Francis Clare):

For as you know, the religious orders in the Church of God are like the flowers in a garden each has its own use, its own duty, its own special perfume and is own beauty. All are good because all have the Divine sanction. All are useful because each has is own special work. Hence let us love and care for all as far as it is in our power to do so and let us rejoice in their joys and sorrow in their griefs. - Margaret Anna Cusack, General Letter to the Congregation, April 1887

Really, my ENTIRE religious life has been spent both in the "garden of my community," and in the context of the larger "flower garden of religious life." One gift of this time of demographic change in religious life is that I have journeyed with women and men religious from a whole variety of congregations since the very beginning. It started with my religious formation and experience of intercongregational novitiate and has continued with Giving Voice and now my studies here at CTU. The newest generations of religious are inherently connected across congregations. I can't help but think that this is a work of the Spirit.

Yesterday I was privileged to spend the day with new and more seasoned vocation directors from multiple religious congregations to learn together about ethical issues in vocation ministry. In fact, I'll be spending time in this mixed religious life flower garden for the next two weeks!

Because of this time in religious life I just described, I already knew a handful of people in the group. I have friends in common with others. And even though some are new, they will be added to my religious life network by the end of the two weeks. What gift!

After praying with the quote from Margaret Anna, I was reminded of this song by the Scottish indie pop band Travis, "Flowers in the Window."

 

I you just read the lyrics, you'll see why this is a perfect song to pray in gratitude for this time of connection and cross pollination in religious life!

wow look at you now
flowers in the window
it's such a lovely day
and i'm glad you feel the same
cos to stand up
out in the crowd
you are one in a million
and i love you so let's watch the flowers grow
there is no reason to feel bad
but there are many seasons to feel sad glad mad
it's just a bunch of feelings that we have to hold
but i am here to help you with the load
wow look at you now
flowers in the window
it's such a lovely day and i'm glad you feel the same
cos to stand up
out in the crowd
you are one in a million
and i love you so let's watch the flowers grow

Giving Voice to the Importance of Peers

Me with some of my GV Sisters at our
2013 National Conference

Regular readers of the blog know that I am involved with (and presently on the leadership team of) Giving Voice, a grassroots peer-led network of younger women religious that creates spaces for younger women religious to give voice to their hopes, dreams, and challenges in religious life.

Having a peer group is something that many of us take for granted in our lives. We grow up with the kids in our neighborhood and/or our classmates in school. In college we bond with age peers with similar interests as we explore new territory and learn by making mistakes. Young married couples with small children often find that they have more in common with the parents of their children's friends than with friends going through different stages of life.  We naturally seek, and developmentally we need, peers with whom we can journey through the ups and downs of life.

In religious life, our elder Sisters in community have always had a large ready made group of age peers to share ministry, prayer, and community life. They have grown up together and are growing old together. While the large group they entered with at 21 has certainly dwindled over the years, as they swam through the choppy waters after Vatican II and aged gracefully, they still share community with a sizable group of women within 5 to 15 years of their own age.

This reality is vastly different for younger women entering religious life today.  Often we are the only younger women, or one of a small group of younger members, in our particular community.  As our elders Sisters retire or move into active prayer ministry, we are just beginning our ministries or seeking to apply our energy to new endeavors.  As our elder Sisters look at leadership and community decisions with more years of religious life lived than on the horizon, we seek to find ways to bring our vital charisms to a needy world with smaller numbers and a very changed society over a longer horizon with many unknowns ahead. 

This also leads to a unique situation in community life. On the one hand, on a daily basis we navigate an unusual dance where women 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years older than ourselves are the women with whom we share prayer, community life, and sometimes ministry. As a result, even though we are by no means their age peers, in many ways as community members we relate as peers. Truth be told this is one of the unexpected gifts of religious life in the early 21st Century, which has become a laboratory for intergenerational and intercultural community living.  I have dear friends in community who are 75 or 84 or even 90. As I've been in the community longer, my treasure chest of shared experiences, in-jokes, and deep love is filled all the more. In many ways, I wouldn't trade this intergenerational experience for a large group of age peers in community. 

On the other hand, there is no denying that it is vitally important to have age peers in religious life as well.  Try as they might, my single or married friends outside community just cannot understand how funny x or y is that happens in community or why even though it makes absolutely no sense not only do I have to z, I really want to.  And try as they might, my elder Sisters in community just cannot understand what it is like to be part of such a small age minority at this transformational time in American religious life.

Luckily, I have always had women within 10 years of my age in community, albeit a small group. Since my novitiate classmate Chero and I entered almost 10 years ago 5 more women have entered. This is a gift.

Another gift has been my network of Giving Voice friends across congregations. I attended my first Giving Voice gathering, a retreat for Sisters in their 20s & 30s, during my novitiate.  I cannot tell you how much that retreat meant to me at that point. Oh wait, actually I already did, in a blog post way back in 2008:

In addition to our times for prayer, play, and more play, we also had some deep conversations about our lives and this larger religious life experience. It helped to have other voices expressing similar thoughts. I left feeling much stronger and part of something bigger. Religious life may be different, it may be smaller, but it will continue. These women are passionate about their communities, passionate about their ministries, and passionate about religious life. God is in the mix, and all shall be well.

In the years since, my Giving Voice peers have been an integral part of my own growth and development as a woman religious in the 21st Century.  We laugh, cry, play, and dream together, across the miles. Another amazing gift of this unique time in religious life is the opportunity to experience so many different charims mixing and mingling.  After every Giving Voice experience, whether it is a conference or a retreat or a conference call, I find myself amazed at the power of the Spirit moving through history.

Our Giving Voice network continues to grow, deepen, and develop with exciting opportunities on the horizon.  I can see more and more how my life as a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace will be strengthened and supported  by my Giving Voice peers across congregational lines well into our shared, if unknown, future. When I dream and pray about the future of religious life, I know what I knew at that first retreat as a novice. My Giving Voice sisters and their passion for God, life, religious life, and their own communities will help create that future even as we live it now. God is in the mix, and all shall be well.

I've aged out of the 20s/30s retreat, but it continues! In fact, there's a great article in the Catholic Sun (Phoenix Diocesan paper) that just came out. If you want some positive energy, do yourself a favor and click the link to read the article.

As for me, I continue to be energized and find great hope in my work on the Giving Voice Core Team. And this summer, I will be part of creating a new chapter in our shared history as I help to host our first Giving Voice retreat for Sisters in their 40s! God, my friends, is very good. And so is having peers.

Religious Life Today and Into the Future

Illustration from the America article.
For the record, I own one of these t-shirts.

My friend Sister Julia Walsh, FSPA has an amazing article in the current issue of America Magazine titled "Changed, Not Ended: A View of Religious Life from a Young Sister." I know Julia through Giving Voice, a group regular readers of the blog should be very familiar with. Giving Voice is a network of younger women religious, an opportunity for us to connect across congregations with our religious life age peers, to pray, reflect, have fun, and share our hopes, dreams, desires and experiences of this amazing yet counter-cultural way of life.

For the past few years, I have been honored to be part of the peer-leadership of Giving Voice. This has given me a real bird's eye view into the landscape of religious life, particularly as viewed from the horizon of younger women who have entered in the past 10-15 years.

While Julia is clear that she is writing from her own perspective, I must say that I resonate with so much of what she writes in this peace. For example:

About Giving Voice

• "Hope is obvious at [every Giving Voice] gathering. "
• "The collaboration and connections made possible through Giving Voice help us to keep saying yes to our vocations."

About living religious life today as a younger Sister

• "I appreciate my experience as it is."
• "This experience, of course, does have its challenges. As modern religious life—and its size—evolves, even the most hopeful and eager need to deal with practical consequences of transition. For me, the hardest element of the quickly shrinking population of my community is the regularity of death announcements."
• "I love being a sister because I am permitted to be the best version of myself within a community of like-minded, prayerful women."
• "The religious vows, prophetic in nature, free me to move to the edges and encounter God in new realms. This vocation creates opportunities to live a life of radical simplicity, solidarity and accompaniment with those who are oppressed."
• "Being a sister has warped my perception of age. Even though I am [41 - Julia is] 32, I feel as if anyone under 60 is my peer. That said, my experience of intergenerational communal living is energizing. I gain wisdom from my elder sisters; I am enriched by what they have lived through. I am humbled to know we young sisters are receiving their legacy."

About the future of religious life

• "Some people, focused almost exclusively on numbers, are concerned that religious life is in decline. This narrows our ability to see what God is doing."
• "Religious life is not in decline; it is simply changing. And it should change. New paradigms of religious life can emerge only if we are open to God changing us beyond our limited imagining and dreaming. We need to remember that numbers do not make communities. In fact, I prefer to be part of a community that feels more like a family than an institution. The freer and more open we are, the better we can live the Gospel according to God’s vision and not our own ideas. We can experience the freedom to have meaningful conversations about “right-sizing” and new forms of ministry. We acknowledge it can be life-giving for the size of community to decrease; lower numbers can open up new opportunities for healthy, intimate relationships." [I LOVE this entire paragraph and will be borrowing the term 'right-sizing']
• "I am not worried about changes in religious life; I am excited. I trust that God is up to something amazingly good. I believe that God is helping religious life evolve to meet the changing needs of society. "

And I LOVE and affirm her last sentence: "Thank God, by grace, we are in this together."

Thank you Julia for articulating so well what religious life looks like from the horizon of those in our 20s, 30s, or 40s.  

For any of you reading this who might be thinking that maybe possibly God might be calling you to this wonderful crazy life ... come on in, the water's fine! Seriously though, if anyone has any vocation or religious life related questions, my email box is always open. The address is in the side bar.

I may not know what the future of religious life will look like, but I know there are incredible needs in our world, powerful and prayerful women on the journey, and a loving God who is calling us into the future. Trust. Love. Risk. Live. Together!

Young Nun Gathering

Our Giving Voice National gathering is just two days away!  We've already got some press from Catholic San Francisco, the diocesan news service in the Bay Area!

Young sisters to gather in Bay Area for national convention
July 3rd, 2013
Under-50 Catholic sisters will gather at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont July 5-8 for the Giving Voice National Gathering. The sisters, most of whom are the youngest members of their religious orders, will pray and reflect on the future of mission and ministry in the church and society in the 21st century. Sister Yolanda Tarango, congregation leader of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word and a renowned theologian, will share her insights on the conference theme of “Mission and Ministry in the 21st Century.” 

The four-day national gathering will bring together vowed women religious from across North America representing more than 30 religious orders. Participants will pray, reflect and creatively imagine what the future ministry of Catholic sisters might look like given the growing number of people living in poverty or on the margins on society as well as the increasing intercultural reality. The sisters themselves represent this intercultural reality, and simultaneous translation will allow English- and Spanish-speaking participants to share in their own language. 

Religious life is in the midst of an historic shift, as the large novitiate classes of the 1950s and 1960s age and fewer women enter religious life today. On July 8, the sisters will participate in an outdoor interactive exercise to imagine “going on a mission” in smaller numbers in the future. 

Giving Voice is a peer-led grassroots national organization of Catholic sisters under the age of 50 that creates spaces for younger women religious to give voice to their hopes, dreams and challenges in religious life. The July conference is the seventh national gathering of younger women religious organized since 1997 and the first to take place on the West Coast. Previous gatherings have taken place in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and Milwaukee.
For more information, visit www.giving-voice.org. 

From July 5, 2013 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
- See more at: http://www.catholic-sf.org/ns.php?newsid=27&id=61576#sthash.2Dwfakgz.dpuf

By the way, we will be blogging a bit from the conference.  Follow along on our Giving Voice 2013 blog!

Putting On my Bowling Shoes

Young Nun Valentine's Day Fun

Many moons ago, before the thought of becoming a Catholic Sister ever entered my mind, I was a run of the mill bureaucrat working a fairly boring government job with some great people.  Every month or so, we'd head out after work to go bowling.  It was a blast.  I'm not a very good bowler, but with this bunch of people, some of whom were excellent bowlers and one a former state champion, it was fun.  What wasn't so fun was renting shoes.  You see, I'm tall and as my mother was fond of saying, tall girls have big feet. So more often then not, I'd end up renting men's shoes.  Eventually the thought of renting shoes that had to be sanitized before each user led me to buy my own pair of bowling shoes.  Shortly thereafter, for reasons that I've been told are entirely unrelated to my purchase, we stopped our regular bowling outings.  But I still had these snazzy black suede bowling shoes.  As a result, in the decade + since I bought my own pair of bowling shoes, they have been used sparingly.  Yet whenever there is a chance to practice my not-so-good bowling skills, either on a visit with my niece who was living in Europe at the time or with my CSJP Sisters on St. Joseph's Day, my shoes and I are there.

I packed my shoes when I moved to Chicago to go to grad school.  And tonight I'm happy to report that they came off the shelf for a night of young nun bowling.  I have a good group of friends from Giving Voice, younger religious from different communities, who are living here in Chicago.  Tonight three of us went out bowling to celebrate Valentine's Day.  I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend the evening.  Was I a superstar bowler? No.  But I'm satisfied with my respective scores of 84 and 85.  As one of my friends who is a pretty good bowler said, at least I'm consistent!  An added bonus was to discover that there was also a skeeball machine at the bowling alley.  I only played two games of skeeball but earned a 220 and a 180.  I'm a much better skeeball player than I am a bowler!

Soon I'm hoping to give my shoes another test drive with some seminarian friends of mine from the philosophy class I took last Semester.  And who knows, there might be some more young nun bowling in my future as well!

All in all this was a good night to cap off a pretty intense first week of the Spring Semester.  I'm taking some GREAT classes, but the topics are pretty serious: Ethics of Power and Racism; Ministry, Spirituality and Human Rights Abuse Survivors; Methods in Theology & Ethics; and Sexual Ethics.  I think I might need something like periodic bowling outings to help decompress from all deep conversations and heavy reading lists!

More Discerning Women

I started this blog eight years ago this month, believe it or not.  At the time I was just starting the journey of considering religious life and discerning with my religious community.  As I said in my first post:

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. 

Readers of the blog followed along on my journey through inquirer, pre-candidate, candidate, novice, and temporary professed Sister. Now of course, I'm a boring perpetually professed Sister and graduate theology student. The discernment journey is all there in the archives for folks who are interested of course.  And I'm still a discerning woman, discerning each day how best to live fully and respond to God's incredible love for me in service of our broken world.  I still try to share my musings from time to time. This blog is part of who I am now and how I relate to the world.

I thought regular readers might be interested in some blogs I've discovered of young women who are discerning religious life.  It seems that more and more women are listening to that still small voice inside and saying yes!  Given the theme of Mary's yes that is such a great source of reflection for me each Advent, I thought I'd point out some of these blogs so you can hear the stories of young women saying yes to religious life.

• My friend Amanda is a postulant with the Daughters of Charity.  She blogs at Drink Deeply my Daughter.
• My friend Juliet recently professed first vows as a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  She blogs at Communitas et Caritas.
• I've gotten to know Colleen through a mutual friend.  She is a novice with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia and blogs at Wandering in Wonder.
• And just today I discovered the blog of Tracy who is in her first year of formation with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati.  She blogs at Diary of a Sister in Training.

Please keep these women and all discerning a religious vocation especially in your prayers this Advent.

If you are someone who has been thinking that maybe, quite possibly, perhaps God might be calling them to a religious vocation, remember that my email box is always open.  There's a link to my email in the side bar.  I'm not a vocation director or anything, but as someone who has followed her heart into religious life and found such joy, I'm happy to share my experience, be a listening ear or support others on their journey in any way I can.

Blessings of Advent Peace
Sister Susan

New Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace

Last Saturday when I was in New Jersey for community meetings I was able to be present for the welcome ceremony for Sheena George, our newest candidate for vowed membership as a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace.  I've heard so much about Sheena over the past year and was so happy to finally meet her in person and be able to be present for this special day!  You can read more about her ceremony and see other pictures by clicking on this link.  Sheena is holding her peace candle in this picture.  I still have my peace candle from when I became a candidate with the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace 7 years ago this month!

Earlier this month, two other women entered our CSJP Congregation Novitiate. Even though because of distance I have not yet met them, I have been able to get to know Sister Juliana Ngozi Iwuagwa and Sister Katrina Alton via email.  And thanks to the wonders of our CSJP website I can experience a little bit of their entrance liturgy which took place at our UK regional center in Rearsby, Leicestershire, England.

In Sister Katrina's words:

So I begin this novitiate year praying that I can enter into a deeper relationship with God and immerse myself more fully into the life and charism of the CSJP’s. As I shared during the liturgy, “Coming as I am, with my strengths and weaknesses, gifts and wounds, joys and sorrows, I bring everything that has made me who I am to this novitiate. I pray this will be a time and place for dialogue and deep listening, a mutual exchanging of gifts and experiences by which we can learn together how to live more fully our charism of active nonviolence and care of creation, in solidarity with the poor, especially marginalised women.”

And in Sister Juliana's words:

God is wonderful and His ways are mysterious indeed, I am so glad to be a CSJP novice, it seems like a dream, but it is a reality. Citing from the Scripture reading that day which I believe best describes what mostly occupies my mind: "I can assure my brothers and sisters, I am far from thinking that I have already won. All I can say is that I forget the past and I strain ahead for what is still to come”.Philippians 3: 8 – 14

Our Congregation Novitaite is now located in London, England.  It's actually in the same house in Cricklewood, London where I lived when I was a 2nd year novice on my ministry experience, so I can well imagine them there.  I also lived with Sister Alexine who is their novice director and will be visiting with them next summer when I am in the UK for our Congregation Retreat.

Please keep these three women in your prayers as they take their next journeys into the way of peace with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.  Please pray too for our Sisters in temporary profession, Sister Sukyi Hur and Sister Dorothy Verna.

In our CSJP Constitutions, we say:

As we live our mission of peace;we continue to be enriched by the hope shared among usand brought to us by new membersand by the lives of those who walk and work with us. 

Indeed we are enriched.  We are blessed. As I approach the first anniversary of my own final profession as a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace next month, I find myself filled with excitement and hope for the future that is unfolding before us and these women who will be my companions on the journey.

Band of Sisters

Last night I went with a band of sisters--a group of young nun friends from Giving Voice who are living in Chicago--to see the new documentary film, Band of Sisters.  The film by Mary Fishman is premiering this week at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, where it's been seen by sold out crowds so far.

Given the recent spotlight on Catholic Sisters due to the two Vatican investigations, and in particular the hierarchy's criticism of the Sisters' collective focus on social justice issues that impact people who are poor rather than other social issues, it's interesting that the filmmaker decided to focus her story line on the Sisters' faithful response to Vatican II and their creative work for social justice. She's spent the past 8 years immersing herself in the world of Catholic Sisters.  Not only is the end result an obvious labor of love, I also recognized the contemporary face of religious life that I committed my life to in the film.

Julie Viera in the film

My friend Sister Julie Viera, and her partner-in-crime Sister Maxine Kollasch of A Nun's Life ministry, start the film off with a decidedly 21st Century flair ... engaged in their live podcast and internet chat. The two of them sit across from each other at laptops, headphones on, talking about religious life with interested folks across the globe.  While the majority of the Sisters profiled in the film are in their 60s, 70s and beyond, I liked the way the filmmaker frames the story in a contemporary context.  Vatican II called women religious to engage with the modern world, and this continues in new and perhaps unexpected ways today with women like Julie who have only known a post-Vatican II world.

Mercy Sisters Pat Murphy
& JoAnn Persch

The main thrust of the story, however,  is the Sisters' response to Vatican II, and so as the filmmaker said in the Q&A afterwards, this influenced decisions about which Sisters would be featured in the film.  The main thread is the story of two Sisters of Mercy from the Chicago area who advocate for the right of immigrants facing detention and deportation to receive pastoral care while incarcerated.  You see them bundling up to pray the rosary outside the detention center on a blustery day.  You see them walking the hallways of the State Capitol, engaging in thoughtful conversation with lawmakers seeking support for the bill.  You see them doggedly follow up with administrators and legislators after the bill has been passed, ensuring that immigrants receive the access to religious services that is their human right.  And you see them reminding activists that it is important not only to see a child of God in the immigrants, but in the sherrif and immigration agent as well.  Their charism of mercy shines through.  I do not know these two Sisters, but reflected in their story I saw many of the Sisters I have worked with and admire most for their tenacity in following Christ to the margins.

There are many familiar-to-me faces in the film.  Sisters Margaret Brennan and Theresa Kane, both past presidents of LCWR, give context and stories from their personal experience that also touch on the collective experience of women religious in the past 50 years. Sisters Nancy Sylvester and Carol Coston tell the story of the beginning of NETWORK, the group that put on the Nuns on the Bus tour this summer.  Sister Miriam Therese MacGillis of Genesis Farm and Sister Elise Garcia of Santuario Sisterfarm introduce viewers to the universe story and the Sisters' ecological ministry with the people of God and all of creation. There are other Sisters too, not known to me, who share their experience as part of this band of Sisters.

In the end, it is one of the best, wholistic depictions of contemporary American religious life that I have seen intended for a general audience.  Our truth is reflected in a respectful and celebratory way. In the Q&A, one audience member commented that the film was inspiring, and the story and witness of the Sisters made him pause and reflect on how he was responding to God's call to make the world a better place.  If the film comes to your City or town, definitely go see it.  The filmmaker is also happy to hear from folks who are interesting in hosting or helping to organize a screening.

Perhaps the best part of the evening from my perspective was the connections that I made at the end.  During the Q&A, one of the audience members, noting that most of the Sisters in the film were near retirement age, wondered what the filmmaker thought about young women entering religious life today. She responded as I mentioned above that the focus of the story is the response to Vatican II, and so therefore that mandated that the women highlighted would be older Sisters who experienced the renewal first hand.  But she did mention that this is why she chose to begin with the "podcast Sisters," to show that this way of life is continuing.  She also gave a pretty decent layperson's analysis that younger women entering today are in smaller numbers in each community, and so they need to be creative about building connections across communities and use the internet and technology to facilitate those connections.  I saw some of my friends in our row of young nuns nodding our head to her assessment.

GV Sisters at Band of Sisters

Then, one of my friends raised her hand and said that there were quite a number of younger Sisters in the audience.  Our row of Giving Voice type Sisters stood up, as well as 3 younger Sisters in habit in the front row and a few other younger Sisters scattered in the theater.  Afterwards, one of the younger Sisters that I did not know came up to us and asked if we were involved with Giving Voice.  A friend had recently told her about our network of younger women religious, and she was excited to meet some of us.  You could see how excited she was to see a large group of us.  That's always a beautiful moment, when you see someone connect to this vibrant network of young women religious committed to God and the future of religious life. We exchanged numbers and hope to hang out soon.

It was a perfect end to my evening on the town with my band of GV Sisters to see Band of Sisters.

Religious Life ... A Numbers Game?

There's been a lot bandied about of late about religious life and the women who follow Jesus through the vowed life.  In the midst of it all, there have been many blanket observations about women entering religious life these days.  As someone who is relatively new to religious life and still not entirely sure how God managed to break through all the noise to get me to listen to the wonderful possibility that this might be the life for me, I am particularly attuned to these conversations. I am so grateful of course that my gracious and crafty God did indeed lead me to this life.

The Holy Spirit is at work in our world in new and yet eternal ways.  This is very clear to me through my own lived experience, chock full of moments that can only be described as of God and carry the calling card of the Spirit.  If you look closely enough in your life, in the Church and in the world around you, I suspect you will see some of the fruits of the Spirit. Charity. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness. Goodness. Generosity. Faithfulness. Modesty. Self-Control. Chastity.

One of my Sisters often says that the Holy Spirit is "sneaky."  This is a good description I think! Despite our best efforts to ignore the Spirit and be God ourselves, the Holy Spirit is there breathing new life into the world.

I was reflecting on this today as I read an article in the newest issue of America about vocations to religious life.  It is a very interesting report and reflection on a new study about recent vocations to religious life.  It affirms my experience that women are hearing the call and answering it.  Not in huge numbers, but they are coming both to communities that belong to LCWR and communities that belong to the CMSWR.  In other words, some women are attracted to a more "progressive" flavor of religious life.  Others are attracted to a more "traditional" flavor.  The study points out that in 2009 at least, this attraction led them to enter the two types of communities in relatively equal numbers. Yes, there are more communities of the first type and fewer of the second type.  This leads to several experiences and assumptions.

One the one hand, my experience of only a few younger women in each community of the LCWR flavor is a reality.  There are so many of these communities which represent roughly 80% of the 55,000 or so Sisters in the US today.  This is why my connections through Giving Voice are so important!  Each of us is drawn to the spirit and charism of our particular community, but we have more in common than anything that divides us.  On the other hand, the smaller number of communities that belong to CMSWR are receiving larger groups of younger women.  This leads to the observations by many I suspect that these are the only communities receiving vocations.  It's easier to see.

I made the mistake last night of reading some of the comments to the article online.  Folks are splitting hairs and getting into debates about what the numbers mean.  This caused me to reflect in prayer today, is religious life a numbers game?  Does the Holy Spirit work that way?  In my community I often joke it's about quality not quantity.  But there is so much truth to that.

I for one do not feel like playing the numbers game today. Instead, I am going to rejoice that so many are responding to God's call in whatever way the Spirit is calling them!  All vocations truly lived out with open hearts and a love of God and God's people are good in my book.

We Do Exist

A young nun friend recently posted on Facebook that she was getting discouraged by some of the nun-related news chatter these days.  Especially discouraging were the comments and presumptions that younger women are only entering more traditional religious communities.  As it happens, women are joining religious life in its variety of forms these days.  Yes, some are drawn to a more traditional habit and structured prayer/community life. But others of us are drawn to the life of love and service that has taken shape in the 50 years since Vatican II.  I know, because I am one of these Sisters.  And thankfully, I know many more women like myself who have entered religious communities like mine.

So, in a moment of Sunday morning creativity, I created a 2 minute cartoon to tell our story.  Enjoy!  And please pray for vocations to all communities of women religious.  There is so much work to be done in service of the Gospel.


GoAnimate.com: We+Do+Exist+...+younger+Catholic+Sisters by SusanFrancois, CSJP


Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Yes, people are still listening

In the midst of all the recent hullabaloo, you might be surprised to realize that not only is God still calling people to religious life (a WIDE variety of communities), people are still listening and even taking the plunge! Here's a great video from the National Religious Vocation Conference featuring younger men and women religious.  Be sure to watch until the end to check out my friend Sister Sarah, a Dubuque Franciscan, talking about "the Sister thing."

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If you've been having those pesky thoughts that maybe, possibly, perhaps God might be inviting you into this wonderful crazy life of love, prayer and service, I highly recommend checking out Vision Vocation Guide (think of it as an omnibus "college catalog" of religious communities) and Vocation Match (think of it as the religious life version of online dating, only better).  Both are also sponsored by NRVC.

2011 Profession Class

Sunday is the World Day for Consecrated Life.  Every year, the USCCB sponsors a study of the religious Sisters and Brothers making final profession that year.  You can see our pictures and read a bit about us on the USCCB website.  You'll also see my friend and Sister on the Giving Voice core team, Sarah Kohles, OSF who made final vows as Dubuque Franciscan last year.

There's also a report based on the surveys we all completed. Some of the interesting findings:

• The average age for Sisters professing perpetual vows in 2011 was 39.  Glad to know I'm average! :)
• 1% of Sisters worked in Government before entering.  I'm guessing that's me.  So not so average after all. 87% of us had some sort of work experience before entering.
• 34% were encouraged in their vocation by their parish priest (that includes me).  46% were encouraged by a religious Sister or Brother. 38% by a friend.
• 86% of us participated in some kind of vocation experience, like a retreat or "Come & See" before we entered.
• 95% of us had some sort of private prayer practice before entering.
• We're highly educated.  16% had a graduate degree. 57% had a bachelor's degree.

Overall, it's interesting reading.

Please join me this week and especially on Sunday in praying for all men and women in the Consecrated life, and especially for those discerning a religious vocation and in formation.  Trust me, they need your prayers!

Refreshment, History & Hope

Sometimes it is good (and perhaps necessary) to step away, relax, have fun and breathe some fresh air for a bit.  That's what I did this past weekend ... in New Orleans.

For the past five years, I have spent MLK weekend in the company of young nuns at the Giving Voice under 40s retreat. It has been so life giving to recharge my batteries in a sunny spot in the company of my peers in religious life from a multitude of congregations. Seeing as this is the year I will turn the big 40 (in July), this could have been my last Under 40s retreat weekend in the sun.

Instead, I decided to spend the weekend in another sunny spot with a young nun friend of mine who has already entered her 4th decade of life.  You might call it our slightly older young nun weekend.  She flew from New York, I flew from Seattle and we met in New Orleans.  Her Ursuline community has a few houses in NOLA so we had a free place to stay, new friends to get to know, all within a few blocks of the St. Charles Street Car. What more could you ask for?

I had great fun learning a bit about the long history of the Ursulines in New Orleans.  I also met a Christian Brother and learned about some of the post-Katrina ministries of men and women religious in New Orleans.  We walked leisurely through the French Quarter.  In honor of my mother who LOVED them, we stopped at Cafe Du Monde for some beignets and cafe au lait.  We went shopping on Magazine Street and ate lots of yummy food (jambalaya, po-boys, gumbo oh my!). It was a great celebration of my final vows and opportunity to reconnect, relax and get refreshed.

On Sunday we went along with some friends to mass at St. Gabriel's parish, a thriving mostly african-american parish which has come back to life after Katrina despite the odds.  For three weeks after Katrina, the church and surrounding neighborhood were flooded with 3 to 12 feet of water.  Mold destroyed the rest.  Most of the parishioners were scattered all over Louisiana and the country.  Slowly the neighborhood has started to come back.  You could see a mix of boarded up and abandoned homes and reconstructed ones.  The church itself is now quite beautiful ... thanks to the hard work of many.  Apparently the Archdiocese had decided to close the parish rather than use the insurance to fix it up.  The parish was only able to stay open by agreeing not to expect any of the insurance money.

What most impressed me however was the spirit and prayerful presence of the St. Gabriel's parish community.  They sang of being blessed by God.  Of loving God.  Of praising God. And thanking God.  Over and over and over.  We were welcomed and enveloped by many during the kiss of peace. I never cease to be amazed by the human spirit and the capacity to hope in the midst of so much suffering.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend.  I returned of course to a freakish Pacific Northwest snow storm.  But I am still warmed from my memories of walks in the sunny air of NOLA in the company of a good friend.  I feel refreshed and able to enter fully into all that lies ahead in my very busy schedule!

39 year ago today

Today is my 39th Birthday.  Feeling pretty good about the age.  Feeling the age, even if I'm often told I don't look it.  This past weekend at the Giving Voice National Gathering, one of my friends who also happens to be a very wise (and published) woman shared her insights from our gatherings into the different generations present.

If memory serves, she described the 30s as being about role ... what is our role in the world.  While she described the 40s as pondering the big questions ... yes we need to do x, but how might we go about that and what might be the implications.

As she was talking ... and she said lots more which hopefully will be on the conference blog soon, I realized I firmly have one foot in each of those.  Makes sense, given that I'm entering my bridge year between the two decades.

I've started to accept and claim my role in the world, now the question is what on earth to do with that! :)

But no need to figure that out today.  I'm headed back to work after a week away.  I already had birthday celebration #1 with my sister and her family in Chicago.  There is rumored to be a little party at work today, then out to dinner with my housemates tonight who I haven't seen in ages.  This weekend I'm going to enjoy what looks to be a sunny day with some friends at the lake.

All is good!

Giving Voice Update

Howdy from Chicago where it's been just a little bit hot!  Recent thunderstorms the past day or two have cooled things down a bit, which is good.

Our Giving Voice National Gathering is going swimmingly!  Such energy, life, commitment, curiosity, and honesty is present in the 150 women who have gathered from Congregations across the US and across generations.  Our conference planning team are each taking turns hosting the days of our conference. Today I hosted with my friend Vic, so as you might imagine I'm feeling a bit of relief that we have reached the end of the day!  All went well and better than well at the same time.

We've got a Conference Blog going with some of the highlights from our gathering if you're interested in seeing some of what's bubbling up in hope for the future that is present now.  One little piece to share is this wordle which comes from all the questions we raised on the first night of the gathering, the burning questions we'd love to be in conversation with with these folks.  Check out the biggest words and you'll see where our energy, trust, and life are.

Blessings!
Susan

Giving Voice, Living the Future of Religious Life (Now)

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning I am heading to Chicago for the long awaited 6th National Gathering of Giving Voice.  I've been part of the planning team for this particular conference since September, so I am of course super excited!  Truth be told I am also a smidge nervous, hoping everything goes smoothly and that it is a meaningful and worthwhile experience for all involved.  It's time to turn those anxiety bunnies over to the Holy Spirit I think and trust that what is supposed to happen will happen.

In addition to being excited about the conference, I'm also excited about seeing good young nun friends and meeting some new folks who are also passionate about the future of religious life.  A group of us has been meeting over Skype calls for many months to design the 4 day conference, so it will be an extra special gift to see their smiling faces in person!

It's also a special moment for me to be helping to create spaces for younger women religious--and some older women religious who are coming to join us in inter-generational conversations about the emerging future of religious life.  You see, back when I was still a 30-something bureaucrat trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life, the crazy idea of religious life kept bubbling up to the surface.  Followed by the thought, "Me, a nun?  Do people still do that anymore?" which would help to push the crazy thought back where I thought it belonged.  Then one day in my aimless internet searching for the meaning of life I stumbled upon the Giving Voice website.  Here was a grassroots organization of Sisters under 50, gathering periodically to talk about their hopes and dreams for religious life.  So yes, Susan, people do still do that.  And they seemed to be so very happy and committed to the Gospel.  The very existence of Giving Voice is part of what gave me permission to seriously start discerning religious life.

Later, during my Novitiate, I finally made it to my first Giving Voice Gathering--the 20s & 30s MLK weekend retreat.  Just as my CSJP Sisters are my sisters, these women from different Congregations scattered around the country are also my Sisters.  They are my people, my peers in religious life, and the connections and relationships formed at these periodic gatherings are sustaining, energizing, and life giving.  I have no doubt that this weekend's gathering will be all three.

Please hold the 150 women gathering in Chicago in your prayers.  I will try to post some updates from the Conference if not during the conference, definitely afterwards!

Peace Out