As you may already know, I am a young Catholic woman who has
been discerning a vocation to the religious life for a number of years. I have looked into countless communities,
contacted upwards fifty of them, and become close to three. I have studied their Rules, their community
life, their habits, their charism, their apostolate. I am only a lowly discerner and have never
joined, but I know quite a bit about nuns.
And I like them. A lot.
As of late, the goodness of nuns has been much praised in
the news. People all over the internet
are exclaiming over the experiences they had with wonderful teaching
Sisters. The speak of how Sisters are
women of God, and are doing good, and are just trying to be holy followers of
Jesus. I would be very pleased and
touched to hear all of this and see all of this support. However, after reading only a few comments
and articles, I realized very quickly that there is an itty bitty problem: none of these Sister-Praisers even know what
a nun is!
“Strike ladies, just strike.
Tell the men in the church to **** themselves”
“Keep doing Christ’s work ladies, let the Pope and his
corrupt power driven staff play politics by themselves…”
“the Vatican and the bishops want to rein in the various
women’s religious communities? Good luck, boys! you are up against some of the freest spirits and thinkers in the
church. your battle is lost befoe it has begun.”
I have always liked the religious life and have always been
open to a religious vocation. I first
became interested in the idea of living in a community, and after a bit of
research eventually became attracted to certain apostolates, certain charisms,
and the idea of being a Bride of Christ.
I fell very much in love with nuns, all by their feminine selves. However, despite my interest and attraction I
made no move to actively discern or to in any way claim this vocation for
myself. This inactivity continued for
three years. What finally changed my
mind? What transformed mere attraction
to longing? What turned interest into
wanting? No, it was not some new
information as to Orders. It was not
some discovery about women. It was not
even the stirring speech my Spiritual Director gave on needing to join to truly
discern (though that was a part of it).
What really made me want to claim the “sisterhood” was the priesthood.
I was on a trip with my Spiritual Director, a seminarian,
and a youth group. We were going on a
week-long road trip, the primary focus of which was a youth conference. However, on the way, we stopped to see
several religious communities and visit with the Sisters. One of these Orders was the Nashville
Dominicans. We spoke with them, were
given a tour of their convent, and even went to Vespers with them. It was very beautiful and after it was all
over I climbed into the van still wondering at the splendor and peace I felt
there. Then the seminarian with us said
from the front seat, “Seeing all those Sisters…it gives me strength.” He said it to himself, but his tone and his
words struck me more than all the beauty and even the Sisters themselves.
I admired that seminarian (now Father) very much. I admire my Spiritual Director. In fact, I know a lot of priests and most of my
friends are seminarians, and I admire them all.
Why would I not? Priests give so
much. They wake up at all hours of the
night to bring the Sacraments and comfort to the dying. They pour hours and years and their health
into forming loving, charitable, faith-filled communities out of recalcitrant
parishes of self-absorbed and change-despising old people. They put immeasurable amounts of effort and care
into involving apathetic teenagers and teaching those poor, wandering souls
what Love is. And then, inevitably, not
uncommonly at a very bad time, they are torn away. All of the relationships they established and
the progress they made are taken away from them and given to someone else as
they are shuffled around the diocese from parish to parish. The whole process begins again, and again,
and again, repeating itself in six-or-so-year cycles. I can only imagine how frustrating it must
be; I have seen how lonely it is. They
give so much, they sacrifice so much, and they get so little in return.
When I heard that seminarian say with such feeling, such
emotion, that those Nashville Dominicans give him strength…I wanted that. I wanted to be one of those women who lend
priests strength. I wanted to serve
those who serve. I wanted to be a Clare
for Francis. That was all. That was what made me want religious
life.
This is not a strange reason to be attracted. It is quite natural, evident in the very
words we use to describe the people involved.
Anyone who knows a crumb about the Catholic Church is well aware that
she—while being the sum total of her members, and all together the Body of
Christ and His family—has also a sort of “family-within-a-family”. Father, Brother, Sister, and Mother are very
common terms in the Catholic Church, not only on a mundane and physical level,
but also in a spiritual sense. These
special men and women devote their entire lives and give their very souls to Christ
and His Church, and in doing so form a sort of spiritual family of their
own. Commenters such as the above wish
to divorce this family; what they do not understand is that in doing so they
would destroy exactly what they claim to defend.
How can one be a Sister if they do not have a Brother? How can one be a Mother if there is no
Father? These titles we call our
religious by reveal a deeper truth about their vocation: they do not stand
alone. These selfless people are not
defined by themselves but find their identity in the other. To advocate their separation is equal to an
act of violence upon a very real family; to shout eagerly “away with the
bishops and the Pope; the sisters are the conscience of the church!” is
paramount to wishing away the sibling of a sister or brother.
“You go ladies!! The days of follow the leader are over,
especially when the leadership is exclusively comprised of only one gender.”
When people speak like this, I have no idea what they are
talking about. They certainly aren’t speaking
of nuns, since sisters would be nothing without priests and the Church. I can only conclude that they do not know of
that which they speak. Or perhaps they
hate religious sisters AND the Vatican, and wish to bring about the destruction
of both. Either way, it offends me
greatly for it threatens a family I have long cherished.
As for the Sisters of the LCWR themselves…if the comments
attributed to them are true…I feel sorry for them. I do not know how or why, but they have
forgotten who and what they are. How
very sad it is to see women who have given their lives forget what they gave it
for! To see a Sister who remembers not
her Brother, a Mother who doesn’t recall the Father of her children, makes me
cry. To know that a woman calls herself a
nun, places herself in name at the core of the Church, and then would defy and
deny that Church…I really have no words.
I just hope and pray that the reform the Vatican is implementing for the
LCWR will cure these sisters of their amnesia.
As for me…when it comes to religious life, I do not want to
be a woman. I want to be a daughter to a
loving Father. I do not want to be a
single sibling; I want to be a sister. I
do not want to be an old maid; I want to be a mother. I do not want to marry feminism; I want to
marry Christ and serve His Church, and without priests there is no Church. To call myself a sister without these would
make no sense. I would not be a
Sister.
“Thank God, I mean that literally, your thinking is dying
out, as the old right-wingers of Catholicism make their final gasps.”
There are no poles in this issue; you either stand with the
Church, or against her. I do not want
your substitute, your broken family, your amnesiac mothers and sisters. I, along with countless other young Catholic
women, want the Church and we want Francis.
I’d be proud to be one of the many, many reasons the CMSWR is growing.
CMSWR vs. LCWR
If you want to see some Sisters who know who they are, visit this website:
CMSWR
If you want to see how Brothers care for their Sisters, go
HERE
And if you want to know more about the Nashville Dominicans, visit their
WEBSITE
Please pray for our priests, and those who support them. They are Fathers as surely as those you celebrated with yesterday!
