Growing up in a protective and stable Catholic family, I first thought about becoming a Sister when I was about 12 years old, but my family was not quite certain what this would mean for me, given that so many of the sisters left the central city of Milwaukee where I was raised. They wanted me to move slowly before making any decision about religious life, as they always encouraged me to explore all of my life’s options, including completing a college degree and becoming self-sufficient.
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After completing a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology/Biochemistry from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, I completed a second degree in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. During my first year as a labor and delivery nurse, I was confronted with my first bioethical issue among many to come. A major medical error occurred in a birthing/delivery room and the obstetrician ordered me to go and sign out a narcotic for him to administer to the mother. According to the instructions on the vial, the administration of this particular narcotic was strictly the role of a licensed anesthesiologist and not the obstetrician or even me, the nurse. I took time to page the on-call anesthesiologist, which was taking rather long to reach contact. The obstetrician became furious, nasty, and very degrading to me for not listening to his orders to bring the medication directly to him stat. When sharing what happened with the charge nurse, the nursing supervisor on call that night, and later my immediate supervisor, I did not get any support for following correctly the highlighted rules and protocol for the administration of this narcotic. I knew I could not stay in this non-supportive unethical environment.
To continue following my desire to help the underserved, I resigned from my staff nurse position as a labor and delivery nurse and went into public health nursing in a very risky and challenging area in the city of Milwaukee. In this area, I dealt with poor and marginalized people in very tough living conditions. I remember one case in particular, where I had to make a follow up visit with a baby who was born to a cocaine-addicted mother. When I got to the house, I found that there was also an 8 year old girl in a full-body cast. She was hit by a bus in early May; this was mid August. The child had not received any medical treatment or follow up for three months. The mother had no transportation to get her daughter to the hospital or doctor. I remember well that this precious little girl smelled awfully and that her bones had not set properly. In haste, I called the local county hospital only to find out that employees in Medical Records Department could not locate her records. Next, I arranged for an ambulance to pick her up to take her to the hospital’s emergency department to get the body cast removed and to start a full rehabilitation process immediately. I could not understand how a child with these types of injuries fell through the cracks of the health care system.
The School Sisters of Notre Dame never knew me in my two nursing roles. I got to know them gradually while working in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and studying at St. Francis Seminary, where in 1996 I eventually received my Master’s Degree in Pastoral Studies/Theology with a specialization in theological ethics and bioethics. My desire to join the School Sisters of Notre Dame grew. In the fall of 1989, I was diagnosed with a chronic intestinal disease and would be very ill for years. I had several surgeries on my small intestines to remove the affected parts. During a time when I was hospitalized, the Sisters who were on the provincial council at the time came to visit me in the hospital. I was very moved by this kind gesture and even more touched as they sang harmoniously to me. Despite their genuine outreach efforts to me, I remained pessimistic about my acceptance into the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Sorrowfully, I would say to them, “I don’t know why you are wasting your time coming to see me, I have been diagnosed with a chronic disease that will remain with me for the rest of my life.” Their response: “Honey, just get better and then we will see what this journey will be for you.”
I went into remission from the disease and in August of 1990, I became a postulant. I lived in a local faith community that was near my family in Milwaukee. In the years that followed, I received my doctorate at Marquette University in Religious Studies/Theological ethics with a subspecialty in bioethics. Today I am a college professor at Mount Mary College teaching courses in theology and bioethics. I also am part of a volunteer adjunct teaching team at the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Center for Underserved Children where in my role as a bioethicist, I work with a health lawyer and a pediatric surgeon or a neonatologist to assist pediatric residents in their ethical decision-making processes as we together evaluate grave clinical ethical cases. During the summers, I teach at the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana where I am an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics.
As a teacher at Mount Mary College, I have this wonderful opportunity to work with traditional aged undergraduate women in the College’s Midtown Program. These students must be first admitted to Mount Mary College and because of their low socioeconomic background many qualify and are awarded a Midtown College Scholarship. In this program, I team teach a course called Search for Meaning with a philosopher. When the students meet me and realize that I am a Sister they are very curious and wonder why I would choose this lifestyle, especially because I would not be able to have any children and a family. (There are some Midtown Moms.) I answer that I do have a family: the family of God with different origins and different ways to celebrate life. They quickly warm up to me. I have a reputation for helping students to earn their grades and be successful. I have tough love, but sometimes we must have another way of thinking outside the box. For instance, one time a student didn’t want to miss class and did not have a babysitter. She brought the baby to class, but another professor told her the baby would be a disturbance and could not be in the classroom. My students and I witnessed this young mother in the hall crying and asked her what was wrong. I offered to take the baby into my classroom and the mother went to her own class. The baby slept right through my class period; she was not a problem at all. This young woman has never forgotten what I did for her. She is a junior at Mount Mary College.
Sometimes people just need to see that somebody believes in and really cares for them. When I see students facing obstacles when they’re trying to do the right thing, I do my best to help them succeed. Even if it means bending the rules a little bit and going the extra mile to assist them.
Being a Sister helps me help people, and allows me to be part of the lived SSND community of faith. Community continues to be important despite the different struggles and temperaments of sisters. My local community is comprised of three sisters and me. It is the consistent part of my very busy life. We struggle for unity amidst our diversity. Living in SSND community includes: sharing stories, giving public lectures, writing, doing yoga, and taking time for prayer, theological reflection, faith-sharing, and spiritual reading.
April 17, 2009 at 6:13 am
I would like to assume that a mention of God/Jesus would have been superfluous because faith in Christ goes without saying… but I suspect that’s not the reason. Mary, Help of Christians, pray for these sisters.
April 17, 2009 at 6:52 am
I accept this site why because I learn more information from this site
correspondence courses
April 17, 2009 at 11:50 am
Matthew 7:21 “not everyone who cries to me ‘Lord, Lord!” will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Maybe the blog owners of this site might want to open the bible every once in awhile before passing judgement on religious you have a “problem” with (operative words being “you” and “problem”).
April 17, 2009 at 12:19 pm
The problem with that is Jesus is put in the same level as Buddha or Mohammed.
[Have a barf bag handy before reading]
In a keynote address delivered by Sr. Laurie Brink, OP to the LCWR she stated, “The dynamic option for Religious Life, which I am calling,
Sojourning, is much more difficult to discuss, since it involves moving beyond the Church, even beyond Jesus. A sojourning
congregation is no longer ecclesiastical. It has grown beyond the bounds of institutional religion. Its search for the Holy may have begun rooted in Jesus as the Christ, but deep reflection, study and prayer have opened
it up to the spirit of the Holy in all of creation. Religious titles,
institutional limitations, ecclesiastical authorities no longer fit this congregation, which in most respects is Post-Christian.”
This dilutes all that the Incarnate Son of God have done in the Paschal Mystery to some vague, generic, new age consciousness. That is indeed a humongous problem because Jesus is the beginning, the process and the end. We are reborn in the Lord; in Him we live and move and find our being. He alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
So, if the Lord Jesus is not referenced in religious life, then it may be religious life but what kind?
April 17, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Patrick — The catholicnunstoday websites profiles lots of compassionate, hard-working, generous single women. But I don’t read anything that screams “Roman Catholic Religious Sister” in their bios. Give me a dedicated, habit-wearing, prayer-filled, magisterium-faithful, Catholic religious sister anytime. I don’t see her in this website.
April 17, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I think the point from these posts is to critique the way the sisterhood is being “marketed” by the catholicnunstoday website. I truly have to wonder what audience they are targeting. The young girl on fire with the Holy Spirit and wanting to dedicate her life to Christ and the Church? Or the single, middle-aged professional who might be looking for a place to fit in? It seems like the latter. Unfortunately, that’s not going to attract many women, and it’s not what the Church needs.
-John Eammon
April 17, 2009 at 2:45 pm
We like to say that nuns are ‘brides of Christ.’ Most brides I know like to talk about their husbands! 🙂
April 17, 2009 at 4:19 pm
anon 6:50 – problem is, these women aren’t even crying out ‘Lord Lord’!
April 17, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I understand your concern. I have read many saints autobiographies and Jesus was mentioned in about every sentence. Of course these were very saintly people who had crushed their own ego and given all to God. Christ was their ENTIRE focus–not self fullfillment.
April 17, 2009 at 5:14 pm
To read the bio of this nun and others like her, I get the impression that only “community oriented” women can accomplish the admittedly good works they do.
Wish I could introduce them all to my Aunt Beatrice, a nun of over 50 yrs. when she passed away. She was completely dedicated to Christ and made no bones about it. She also taught in the Bedford-Styvestant area of New York, had ministered to tannery workers in the Deep South, etc.
She also had a masters degree in English and until she became incapacitated was always looking to improve her mind.
As I said, she was totally committed to Christ, she’d leave the room if one of her cohabiting relatives came in, had no problems rebuking anyone for “stepping over the line” and in general could be a complete pain in the rear for cafeteria Catholics.
And she’d have thought yoga was a waste of time she could spend in prayer.
April 17, 2009 at 8:24 pm
THe problem is that the term “nun” is losing meaning. To these women, it is not about being the literal bride of Christ, or serving Him. It is about studying theology and doing some good things here and there. I applaud what these women are *doing*, but they are not NUNS. And there is nothing “beyond Jesus.” How silly.
April 17, 2009 at 10:06 pm
The Institute on religious Life is meeting at Mundelein Seminary this weekend, and buses filled with young people are here to learn about religious life. The communities represented here are joyful,faithful to the Church and their own charisms. And full of young sisters!
April 17, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Not that all of you aren’t already aware of good religious orders out there today, but just to emphasize the point a little more, I think it is worth looking at some of the text from the Sisters of Life website:
“Inspired by the love of Christ our Spouse, the author of Life, we desire to pour out all our gifts of nature and grace in the apostolate, that nothing of the gift of life, and no one to whom it has been given, should be lost.”
“A vocation to total consecration as a religious Sister is a gift beyond our greatest imaginings — If the Lord has whispered such a desire into your heart, be not afraid! You are not alone in this experience of His love – there are people who can help you to discern His will for your life, and to encourage you to embrace whatever that is, for “in His will is our peace.”
A religious vocation is about being so filled with the love of Christ that only giving oneself totally and exclusively back to Him will suffice. It springs from a relationship of love with the Lord, who initiates a deep interior call that beckons, “Come, follow Me.” He asks a person to allow themselves to be set apart, consecrated, that he or she might become an echo of His life on earth. With the call comes a mission, a specific participation in Christ’s redemptive mission.”Quite a difference. And it didn’t take 1340 words to say it.
April 17, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Last night I watched a delightful film from my childhood, THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS. The film reveals itself to the adult as more substantial than it might seem; Mary Clancy’s conversion experience takes place entirely offstage, but with God’s cues for her conversion before us. Ida Lupino, the director, never allows the nuns or their girls to be less than fully human.
The dvd cover shows us – gag – Mother Superior on a bicycle, a bit which was never in the film, and another nun holding what appears to be a shotgun, for reasons best known to the jerks who designed the cover, for again nothing like this is in this film.
One concludes that, for secularists, religious sisters exist only to be stereotyped. Too bad some nuns take their own cues from secularists.
April 18, 2009 at 10:39 pm
What I don’t understand is why they think this will draw women. The purpose of this is to attract women in discernment right?
Well, I'm a woman in discernment…
I have a job that's beneficial to society (not in social work sense, but in educating & certifying people) which I find very fulfilling. I live in a comfy apartment near the Church, in which I'm very active in the community. Within this community I share stories (socialize), participate in public lectures(educate), participate in physical activities (hiking & games) & take time for prayer.
What is so special about their community that I would uproot myself and go there and struggle with the trials of a new one? While it's good to know that religious sisters are women too and do many of the same things I do, that's not what's going to get me to leave my home and join them.
I'm looking for more than my comfy life, comfy job and comfy church, I want to dedicate my life completely to God. I want to live for him alone and let the world know that I've made this dedication of my life to him. I don't want a community that happens to make time to pray in their day – I have that now. I'm looking for a community that is dedicated to living a life of prayer, in the liturgical setting and in service to others.
The only reason I could see a woman leaving her community to join this one would be if she were unsatisfied with her current one and believe this one to be somehow better – completely ignoring the fact that every community will have it's problems that you carry with you. In the end it sounds like a community unlike many others, only filled with women who thought it would be nicer than most.
April 21, 2009 at 3:57 am
Friend, you might want to check out how often you talk about Jesus on your own website. I count five passing references to him on your main page, all in the context of attacking someone else (in the name of Jesus, I suppose).
I’m wondering how you see your blog. In the “why” section that explains this blog’s purpose, you talk about evangelization. You even mention the Church. But “Jesus” is absent.
All this is to simply say, lighten up a little. You have a good point about Jesus being dumped for cultural acceptance. But this is a dumping that all of us are guilty of. I haven’t even mentioned Jesus in this comment, except to criticize you! ACK! Quick, a quote, a quote!
“Blessed are the merciful . . . ”
So peace, friend. And hey, on my real purpose for commenting here . . . why didn’t Vox Nova win the tournament? The final four would have at least been nice! 🙂
April 26, 2009 at 4:55 am
One question that needs to be answered is what is the difference between a nun and a sister. This is a very important distinction to make. Although both nuns and sisters embrace and live out the evangelical counsels of Gospel Poverty, Consecrated Celibacy, and Apostolic Obedience, most nuns live in stable cloistered communities, and apostolic women religious do not. The latter group lives in community, but that type of living is for the sake of mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. Both nuns and sisters vow to live religious communities, while holding all in common. No one owns anything, because all is held in common in the context of community.
From what I read, Sister Shawnee, a professor of theology, which is “The Study of God” is an apostolic woman religious. She is a contemplative in active ministry spreading the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, being Eucharist as she is supported in her ministry through personal and communal prayer (to God), through living out the mission and ministry as a School Sister of Notre Dame, which is to bring all to oneness through which Jesus Christ was sent.
I think that this website is excellent. Perhaps the title of the website is incorrect. It portrays the life of apostolic women religious and not nuns. As noted above, there is a huge difference.
Furthermore, it is implied that when women (or men) are vowed religious there is a process of discernment with God and within the context of the religious community for the right fit. Some are called to married life, others are called to the single life, others are called to apostolic religious life, some are called to be nuns, some are called to cloistered life, some are called to wear a habit, and others are called to more of an in cognito life (non-habited) as they live out their vowed religious life. In essence, there are many gifts but the same spirit of God. There are many ways to serve (God) and God’s people, which is not always comfy and cozy. Jesus’ life resulted in crucifiction and death, but ultimately, we are Easter people.
I appreciate the website and the Sisters’ stories of faith and dedication (to God and about their service to and with the People of God). I feel that each is a deep woman of faith and hope (in God, the Almighty).
Thanks again for the website. I am inspired by the religious commitments of these women.
May the peace and love of God, which is beyond all understanding be with you.