“Don’t be afraid to take the leap” and consider a call to vocation, nuns tell students

LEWES, Del. (OSV News) – It was the first time some students had ever seen a nun.

A few Sister Servants of the Lord visited St. Jude the Apostle Church in Lewes earlier this year to give religious education students an insight into the ways of women. They talked about their call to vocation, how they live and what it is like to be a nun.

Students learned that nuns eat pizza, drive cars and use cell phones.

“I grew up normal,” Sister Refuge of Sinners laughed, saying she loved soccer, basketball, softball and music.

She usually goes by Sister Refuge and jokes that you really can’t call me “Sister Sinner.”

The two young nuns radiated joy as they spoke and giggled frequently as they answered questions from the students. They explained their vows, why they are taking a new name and the parts of the custom. The students asked numerous questions and seemed to identify with the two sisters.

The sisters also explained that vocations are not limited to living a religious life. Answering a call to serve God is not like hearing a sudden voice from the clouds, Sister Refuge said. “It usually comes from your heart.”

The Sister Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará is a younger order founded in Argentina in 1988. They have about 1,500 sisters worldwide in Papua New Guinea, Alaska, Canada and even parts of the Arab world, although they cannot openly wear customs there. some countries.

The two sisters visiting Delaware are still studying at their order’s provincial house in Washington.

There was some disappointment when we learned that these sisters don’t wear makeup, and when they learned that they share a cell phone with the rest of the thirty sisters, they were met with deafening silence. Still, the children bombarded the nuns with questions and even found out that one of them had dated and was in a serious relationship before her life took a different direction.

In college, Sister Refuge started dating a young man. She said it was a good relationship and she knew she would have had a happy married life. But she felt called in a different direction. So she broke up with the young man, who has since entered seminary.

“I’ve always believed in God,” she said. “Maybe he asked me to give him my heart.”

“I wanted to be just like Mary,” she added. “Did Mary ever say no to God?”

Their blue and gray habits are meant to symbolize that Christ is both fully human and fully God, they said. Other orders carry different colors, they said.

Michael McShane, director of religious education for the parish, arranged the visit to introduce students to a part of the Catholic faith they may not have been familiar with. St. Jude’s religious education program does not include religious sisters.

So he reached out with several assignments to give students a glimpse into a part of Catholic life. It was also an opportunity for a bit of gentle recruitment, as he urged the students to perhaps think a little about what it might be like to live as a nun, brother or priest.

“Just think about it,” he said.

“We know that authenticity is what our young people want from us, and truly, there was nothing more authentic than this weekend’s Sister Light of Confessors and Sister Refuge of Sinners vocational stories for our young people,” McShane told The Dialog. news broadcast from the Diocese of Wilmington. “My goal has been to bring, as best we can, within the constraints of a parish religious education program, as much of the traditional Catholic school feel, environment, activities, practices, images and icons to our parish families.”

He explained that he has encouraged students to consider a possible religious life.

“It is difficult for our young men to take my message seriously if I am not a priest. It is even harder for a young lady if she has never met or seen a sister outside of the stale and often grotesque stereotypes of our media,” he said.

McShane noted that both sisters, ages 25 and 31, struggled somewhat before accepting their calling. According to him, this is not unusual or even unexpected.

The pair spoke about what it means to live a consecrated life, explaining that they are consecrated to God like the chalice used during Mass, a consecrated vessel. They change names to symbolize that they are no longer the same people they were before they became nuns, Sister Refuge said. “I don’t live the same (life). The old man is not the same.”

She said she did not grow up in a religious home, but a Catholic friend took her to Mass and she was baptized at age 19.

Sister Light followed a different path: she grew up in a religious home and then met many good Christians at the University of Alabama. “They were on fire and in love with Jesus,” she said.

However, she still felt a hunger, which she believed was for the Eucharist. She viewed it as a calling, but rationalized that she could still help the poor, care for the sick and needy, and do everything a nun did without joining an order. Ultimately, she decided it was about more than just the work, she said.

Sister Light urged the students not to be afraid to consider a calling. “Trust that God knows you and loves you,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to take that leap.”

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