Sisters help Uvalde move from trauma to trust
Catholic sisters have come together in Uvalde, Texas to give hurting children and families a chance to play, pray, and make sense of the world after a devastating massacre.
Sisters
Bringing sacred healing to hurting communities
It took some time for Sister Karina Conrad, C.D.P. to find her calling, but today she is part of a life-giving community, and as a therapist she helps others find fuller lives too.
Seeing God in a child’s smile: Profile of Sister Marie Elizabeth Jerry, S.S.F.
Sister Marie Elizabeth Jerry, S.S.F. grew up in the Baptist Church and converted to Catholicism as a young adult. She met her community, the Sisters of the Holy Family, while volunteering in their New Orleans convent garden. The sisters encouraged her to attend a retreat that proved decisive: “At that moment I knew God was calling me to come live with the sisters,” Jerry says. In 2022 Jerry made her final profession with the 186-year-old historically black community, the second-oldest order of black Catholic nuns in the United States.
My millennial response to a perennial call
Young women are still choosing to become Catholic sisters, even as Americans in general are becoming less religious. Here is the story of one millennial.
Camaraderie at its best: Profile of Sister Kristine Fernandes, C.S.J.
Tech advertising professional Kristine Fernandes had a good life already when she pulled up a chair in a Toronto pub one night, hoping to widen her circle of friends at a Theology on Tap event. “Instead I got picked up by a sister,” she jokes. The meeting triggered “an inexplicable curiosity about religious life and the Sisters of St. Joseph.” She kept meeting with the sisters, telling them each time: “Religious life is not for me and I’m not interested in becoming a sister, but . . .” And so it began.
Sister Maggie has a mission
Sister Maggie Slowick, O.S.F. has been listening to poor families in Cuernavaca, Mexico for almost two decades. When they asked for help with their kids’ schoolwork, she started a tutoring program and never looked back.
A zigzagging road to the convent
A family emergency, a boyfriend, a broken back. God kept calling Ana Gonzalez through all of it, and she couldn’t be happier that she kept listening.
Goodbye L.A., hello heartland: Profile of Sister Jessica Vitente, S.P.
Inspiration can come from unexpected places. By age 31, Jessica Vitente had earned a college degree and worked her way up in a Los Angeles company. She had never entertained the idea of becoming a sister. But then she met some Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress in 2015. Impressed, she took them up on an invitation to attend a Come and See retreat 2,000 miles from her home. The more she discovered about them, the more she envisioned their life for herself. “God was tugging at my heart strongly,” she says. In 2018, she moved to Indiana to begin life as a Sister of Providence.
Sisterhood is different from singlehood
Being a committed single person is a calling of its own, but one that differs from being a Catholic sister who takes vows and lives in community. Here’s why I chose sisterhood.
Meeting a real nun was a game-changer: Profile of Sister Liz McGill, I.H.M.
Sometimes a chance meeting makes a lifelong difference. As a college student Sister Liz McGill, I.H.M. heard a sister give a talk. “I really could not believe she was a nun,” she told The Wood Word. McGill’s notion of who nuns are got blown up at that talk, leading her to take more seriously some inner nudges she had already experienced. Today, after earning her doctorate and serving as an assistant professor of family medicine, McGill has stepped back from teaching and coaching women’s soccer to immerse herself in becoming an I.H.M. sister.
Living simply, centered on prayer
The nuns of Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey follow an ancient, communal tradition of prayer, contemplation, and work, which lifts their hearts to God each moment of the day.
She loves people’s stories: Profile of Sister Chioma Ahanihu, S.L.W.
As a young girl Sister Chioma Ahanihu, S.L.W. wanted to see the world while helping the poor. Since she was raised in a devout Nigerian Catholic family, by the time she was a young woman she had connected that dream to sisterhood. Fast forward through plenty of discernment and a few life changes, and now Ahanihu has brought her passion for service to her work as a therapist and her membership in the Sisters of the Living Word in Chicago.
Six myths about becoming a nun
Don’t see yourself becoming a religious sister? Think again.
Sister Norma Pimentel takes our questions
“Celebrity” and “nun” don’t often go together, but Sister Norma Pimentel, M.J. has gained international attention for leading efforts to tend to the many migrants who pass through the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Nun” was not the original plan: Profile of Sister Graciela Colon, S.C.C.
Sister Graciela Colon, S.C.C. loves to Rollerblade, especially downhill at high speed. Maybe that’s what it felt like when she first thought of abandoning her careful plans for life. They involved a successful legal career, a husband, and a family in Brooklyn. An active Catholic with a law degree freshly under her belt, she spent three weeks with Mother Teresa’s sisters in Calcutta where “I was inspired by their total self-giving,” she says. Upon her return she looked seriously at religious life. Today Sister Graciela is preparing for full membership with the Sisters of Christian Charity and providing legal help at an immigrant resource center.
See the Spirit in sisters
There is something about the communal effort to serve others while living simply and without a mate that makes religious life a sign of hope, even to people who are not Catholic.
The best decision I ever made
I realized that volunteering for a few years in church service was not enough. God was asking me to radically give over my life.
Orar en el camino hacia una vocación
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Taking my vows to heart
When I was a novice I was intensely learning our values of communal and private prayer, work, study, leisure, and hospitality. Today, I'm trying to take what I have learned and actually apply it to real life.
A new sister looks at the vows
As my life shifts and takes new turns, I continue to grow in my experience and understanding of the vows that will anchor my life: poverty, chastity, and obedience.
Stopping long enough, I heard God’s call
I had succeeded in athletics and my career, and I had never lacked materially. But all of that paled to insignificance after being at the Queen of Angels Monastery.
A free spirit finds her niche
The past 30 years have been a wild ride—one I would not have missed for the world.
Fighting for life: Sr. Helen Prejean and the death penalty
“Are people worth more than the worst thing they have done?” This is what Sr. Helen Prejean of the Congregation of St. Joseph challenged students at the University of Michigan to ponder while speaking on campus in November about her calling to advocate against the death penalty.
A wild ride with the Holy Spirit
When you're on a life adventure, you never know what's awaiting you around the next bend. "My life has gotten larger, yet more intimate."
For Sister Jamie Phelps, life’s joys outweigh struggles
Whatever Sister Jamie Phelps, O.P. “gave up" to become a religious sister, has “come back a hundredfold," says the educator, psychiatric social worker, community organizer, liturgist, choir director, spiritual director, and theologian.
Lights, camera—convent!
Sister Boram Lee started out with a bright career in broadcasting, but direction from God led her to religious life.
Proud family watches sister’s first steps
Starting life as a Catholic sister is a big change: for the newly minted sister and her family too! When Angelique Joy Marcantel entered religious life, her family saw her off with a mix of emotions and camera in hand.
A providential Google search: Profile of Sister Christina Cńe Chavez, C.D.P.
God’s call can be slow and quiet; and it can be strong and sudden. After some subtle clues that a religious community might be the place for her, Sister Christina Cńe Chavez, C.D.P. was at her grandmother’s funeral when she felt a strong message to devote herself to Christ. Soon after, she picked up her phone and Googled “How do you become a nun?” and the VISION Vocation Match website popped up. That began an earnest journey that eventually brought her to the door of the Congregation of Divine Providence in her home state of Texas.
Street-wise sisters on a roll
Many poor children in Querétaro, Mexico struggle to go to school. Thanks to the Sisters of Divine Providence, school comes to them.
Sister T: A mom to moms behind bars
Everyone knows “Sister T,” who high-fives her way down the streets of Queens, New York. She has helped thousands of women inmates and their kids get through prison terms and rebuild their lives.
Ugandan sister mends lives
Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe, S.S.H.J. is helping to create a future for victims of civil war with care, compassion—and sewing machines.
Desert nuns find an oasis in sisterhood
The bold step of becoming a nun is nourished by tradition, ritual, symbols—and hugs.
Call her Sister Mary Exuberant: Profile of Sister Xiomara Méndez-Hernández, O.P.
Xiomara Méndez-Hernández grew up in a large, close family and had no intention of joining a religious community. She had a talent for fashion design and launched a career in that field. But after meeting the Adrian Dominican Sisters, she couldn’t shake the thought of living as they did. “It took me 13 years to listen to that voice in my heart,” she says. “It wasn’t easy, but I’m glad I did!”
Feeding the poor enriches the lives of sisters
For two Bernardine Franciscan sisters, vocation has led to a long, rich life of service and prayer.
Saying “yes” to the Lord every moment: Profile of Sister Maria Kim-Ngân Bùi, F.S.P.
The daughter of Vietnamese refugees, Sister Maria Kim-Ngân Bùi, F.S.P. grew up in Tempe, Arizona with plans for a career, children, and plenty of family nearby. “I dreamed of my siblings and cousins purchasing homes in a cul-de-sac so all the children could play in the center.” She met a Daughter of St. Paul through her parish, and as her faith grew, so did her call to religious life. Many people, she says, “have continued to inspire and enflame my love for the Lord.”
Picture this: Profile of Sister Desiré Anne-Marie Findlay, C.S.S.F
If you think being a sister is only for people who are always proper, serious types, think again. Felician Franciscan Sister Desiré Anne-Marie Findlay, C.S.S.F. enjoys dancing, saving earthworms, and telling about the time she got her whole 12th-grade religion class to stage a practical joke. At the same time Sister Desiré is quick to reveal her passion for the mission and the camaraderie she has found in religious life.
Online door never closes on discerners
Nothing gets the two founders of aNunsLife.org excited like helping people figure out what God might be calling them to do with their lives.
Why I’m a Catholic sister
After being “put on hold” by God when praying about her vocation, a little bell finally went off to point the way.
A heart yearning to help: profile of Sister Guerline Joseph, F.M.A.
Sister Guerline Joseph grew up in a devout family of Haitian immigrants. She dreamt of being a flight attendant or maybe a professional athlete, but at the same time Feed the Children TV commercials made her heart yearn to help others. She donated enough to regularly hang photos of “her kids” on the family refrigerator. Then one day she met the Salesian Sisters through their youth ministry and her journey into religious life began.
A sister’s journey: Be open to your own holiness
Joining a religious community’s lay organization led unexpectedly to consecrated life for Sister Nicole Trahan, F.M.I.
Emptying myself for God
A volunteer in Africa found that in a time of great uncertainty, God’s call became crystal clear.
How I let go of old ideas
My choice to enter religious life was not only about ministry or being part of a group, but more about a conversion to thinking about things differently, to throwing whatever gifts I may have into the ring to help foster the reign of God.
In search of the missing piece of myself
When I met with my spiritual director after a retreat, I told him I believed I was being called to religious life. He said, “What took you so long?
The education of Sister Bridget Bearss, R.S.C.J.
When she was young, Bridget Bearss wanted to change the world through education. As a sister, she’s found a way to do it.
Called, and called again
Entering the door of religious life led this Sister of Mercy to the fulfillment of her dreams, and beyond.
A searing presence
Religious sisters, at their best, were never meant simply to be a labor force in the church but spiritually grounded women who respond vigorously to the needs of our time.
Testing the waters of my vocation
What drew me, a 30-something high school teacher, to monastic life? From my first visit to the monastery in Virginia, I felt a tug on my heart. Each time I returned, I could feel myself falling more deeply in love with the life
Sister Dorothy Stang: Her dying shows us how to live
Sister Dorothy Stang, an advocate for the peasant farmers in the rainforests of Brazil, made powerful enemies who eventually gunned her down as she read from scripture.
Portrait of a sister in the making
An inside look to following life of Brenda Velasco as she enters into life with the Sisters of Providence
God had a few surprises in store
Ten years ago, I was a happy little New Ager. I had my crystals and a psychic. Now I am teaching religion to elementary school students. What happened? It’s a long story . . .
From my beachfront condo
I had to ask myself: At the end of my life, what would be the one thing I regretted not trying? So here I am living with about 230 sisters and basking in an incredibly passionate relationship with God
Community life: How the many became one
Sharing and openness with the other sisters is built up little by little. In community we are not necessarily living with our best friends, so it takes time and a sense of growing in trust to share faith this deeply.
Why I'm giving religious life a try
A persistent yet gentle voice began to ask questions and offer a way of life that was previously anathema to me and all my plans for the future. I had a sense of Christ inviting me to something more.
Soeur Martine: Le HLM est son couvent
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Sisters form a colorful bouquet
The unique call to sisterhood draws a wide array of followers.
Call me sister
“You have to be strong in your identity—who you are and whose you are,” says Sister Patricia Ralph, S.S.J., and “not allow anyone to take your dream away.”
Teacher first, sister always
For Sister Lee Ann McNally, R.S.M., ministering to prisoners started as a new adventure, but it was also an extension of the work she is sure God had in mind for her right from the start.
Serving as the finger of God
The Oblate Sisters of Providence want the world to feel the touch of God’s love, and they’re working on it one child at a time.
How a 16th-century nun guides me in religious life
As a child Sister Julie Vieira chose Saint Teresa of Avila as a confirmation name and pretty much forgot about her. But over the years Teresa remained with this I.H.M. sister, waiting for Sister Julie to come by her convent cell and chat awhile.