Nun 101: Nuns vs. Sisters

+LDM

When I first started discerning religious life, I had SO many questions. There were so many things that I had never heard about, never considered, and tons of things I didn't understand. So, I'm hoping maybe someone will read this and be helped. If nothing else, I can remember the beautiful things I've learned.

First Lesson: Nuns vs. Sisters

These are nuns.

These are sisters.

As you can see, it's not easy for most people to tell the difference by simply by looking at a picture. If you can tell the difference, you deserve a gold star. You may all now be thinking about all of habited women you know--are they nuns or sisters?

Let look at it...
1. Nuns are women consecrated to the Lord that serve in a spiritual apostolate.  They take solemn vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. For example, the nuns above are from the Handmaids of the Precious Blood. They offer their prayers, works and sacrifices for the sanctification of priests. They spend the majority of their day in prayer, and stay within the convent.

2. Sisters are women consecrated to the Lord that serve in a physical apostolate. They take simple vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. For example, the sisters above are from the Sisters of Life. They work with expectant mothers in crisis, pray at places like Planned Parenthood, and work in the Office of Life in the Archdiocese of New York. They spend a great deal of the day in prayer, but also leave the convent to do their work.

Both vocations are wonderful (one isn't better than the other!). All women religious, whether nuns or sisters, are called "Sister" when speaking to them. They are both Brides of Christ, and belong to the Lord, it is just a difference of how they serve Him. As a sister once put it to me, "as a Bride of Christ, you are consecrated to Him, and through that every act becomes an act of love to God--whether it is sweeping the floor, or in Eucharistic Adoration. It is all for Jesus."

A lot of people use nun/sister interchangeably, and that is okay. Even traddys need not worry about this one. There is a difference, and it can be helpful for those discerning to know. But everyday people will most likely use the term "nun" for both.

Get out there and be traddy!

PS...fun fact. The "Nuns on the bus" campaign should have been called "Sisters on the bus". There weren't any nuns on the bus. Some may question if there were any sisters, but that is a question for another day.

Imagine Sisters Movement

+AMDG

Something I really enjoy is seeing pictures of sisters "in their element". Meaning, praying, serving people, playing football in habits, hanging out, etc. It really fosters the realization that sisters are REAL PEOPLE.

The first time I ever felt the call to discern religious life was when I was on a Mission Trip in North Dakota and by a huge stroke of grace I wound up by myself in a convent for a night. I got there incredibly late, and the sisters had already gone to bed, so I assumed I probably wouldn't meet them. In the morning we found out that the sister's school had cancelled class due to snow. I walked out of the bathroom to find two very young sisters running around the convent screaming there was a snow day. They began to make a big omelet breakfast and were talking about playing cards. Suddenly, it hit me. Sisters are real people. I am a real person. And I think the Lord might call me to be this type of real person.

Naturally I freaked out at first, but thanks to a very holy priest, I started to discern religious life. Three years later, I'm still not exactly sure where the Lord is leading me, but I can look to that moment as the beginning of being open to thinking about religious life.

Now, why am I blabbering on and on about this? Because Imagine Sisters is a really neat organization that helps women become more open to discerning religious life. They have a bunch of really neat pictures on their Facebook page of authentic, beautiful sisters just being. They are also making a movie (a la Fishers of Men) about religious life that promises to be beautiful, along with other great resources. In other words, worth your time.

They have a website, Facebook page, and a blog. Lots of good stuff!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ImagineSisters?ref=ts
Website: http://ImagineSisters.org/
Blog: http://imaginesisters.org/blog/

And...here's a nice little video talking about vocations and Imagine Sisters.

Now, get out there and be traddy!

Prayer for Priests

+LDM

One of the greatest joys in my life is praying for the Holy Priesthood. 

They bring us the Eucharist, they forgive our sins (well, God does...but through them), they anoint our loved ones. They stay up late praying for us, and are willing to drop things when we are in need. They confect the Eucharist. In a society of "me people", they have given up everything to follow the Lord. They confect the Eucharist.

Of course with all of these wonderful things they do, the evil one attempts to take them away from this. They receive angry phone calls from parishioners . They're criticized for being to "Traditional, conservative, and rigid". Some people are downright rude. 

We must remember to pray for them.

What better time than now?

O Jesus, Eternal Priest, keep all Thy priests within the shelter of Thy Sacred Heart, where none may harm them. Keep unstained their anointed hands which daily touch Thy Sacred Body. Keep unsullied their lips purpled with Thy Precious Blood. Keep pure and unearthly their hearts sealed with the sublime marks of Thy glorious priesthood. Let Thy holy love surround them and shield them from the world’s contagion. Bless their labors with abundant fruit, and may the souls to whom they have ministered be here below their joy and consolation and in Heaven their beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen O Mary, Queen of the clergy, pray for us; obtain for us a number of holy priests.

Hmmm. Isn't that nice?

Write this one down. Put in your journal, your breviary, your purse, wherever. PRAY for your priest.

St. John Vianney, ora pro nobis.

Traddy Tuesday: Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

Another beautiful day in Minnesota, another beautiful order to look at!

Today's community is the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles.

These sisters are absolutely beautiful!  I haven't met any of them, but I think you can tell just by reading their website and looking at their pictures.

They are a Cloistered community with constitutional enclosure--this means that they are able to leave the cloister to run important errands as well as attend special Masses and ordinations.  Other than that, cloistered means that they remain in within the walls of the cloister.  Yes, they can still go outside, as the cloister is usually a gate around hermitages or the convent.

This community is a fairly new one--started in 1995 with the FSSP, and transferring to the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in 2006.  I'm not sure exactly how many sisters are in their community, but it doesn't look very large.

One of their apostolates is vestment making. They sew vestments for priests. Awesome. A priest that celebrates the TLM in my area said he buys all of his vestments from these sisters and they are amazing.  I got a close-up look at some of them and they are beautiful. From their schedule, it appears they do a lot of manual labor and prayer as well--both good things!

One of my favorite lines on their website is "We do not go on 'home visits' as the convent is our home, but families are allowed to visit ..." A tough reality, but it is so true.

Their website has a lot of information and is really beautiful.  I recommend taking a look at it! And...if you have a soon-to-be-ordained priest who needs a gift, look at their shop!  They use really quality materials, so it's on the spendy side, but it's for Mass, it should be nice!

Check out this picture. Nice!

Turning our Gaze to Christ: New Evangelization Event

+LDM

I love the DOW.  This summer, instead of Ministry Days, the Diocese of Winona will hold "Turning our Gaze to Christ"--an evangelization event in Rochester, MN.  The Event is featuring speakers Janet Smith, Leah Darrow, Martha Fernandez-Sardina and Fr. Leo Patalinghug--pretty big names for a Diocese in Southern Minnesota.  Even better is the even will take place around the same time as RochesterFest (their version of "Watermelon Days" or "Waterski Days") so there should be a lot of things to see and do downtown!  And cheese curds. Delicious, greasy, wonderful, artery-clogging cheese curds.

For more information on the event or to register visit the DOW's Website.

Pray, listen to good music, be inspired with speeches, eat cheese curds, be happy.

Young People want Tradition!

Fr. Z posted an excellent video from CNS on "Tradition and the Future":

Noteworthy is Fr. Kramer's comment about young people wanting substance.  In a time where so many of us live in the culture of death and lies, there is a growing minority of people who desire  truth, no matter how difficult it may be to swallow.

Last summer when I went to St. John Cantius in Chicago, I was amazed at how young the parish was.  It wasn't full of just little old ladies and old men, but young families as well.  Big, young, Catholic families. We are 50 years out from Vatican II, and now is the time everything is going to settle.  How blessed we are to be able to see (hopefully) the settling of things in a traditional manner rather than the destruction of churches and the liturgy.

Pope Benedict XVI has recommended we read the documents of Vatican II.  I think that is a pretty good idea.

Everything Wrong with America

I was reading the National Catholic Register this morning and stumbled upon an article written by Sarah Robinson for AlterNet.  It pretty much embodies everything wrong with Pro-Contraception women in America.  Really, more than anything, it's just sad that she pictures NFP women and abstinent women as being suppressed by patriarchal men when in reality we are so much more free than women on contraception.  Here's a little taste:

"Until the condom, the diaphragm, the Pill, the IUD, and all the subsequent variants of hormonal fertility control came along, anatomy really was destiny — and all of the world’s societies were organized around that central fact. Women were born to bear children; they had no other life options. With a few rebellious or well-born exceptions (and a few outlier cultures that somehow found their way to a more equal footing), the vast majority of women who’ve ever lived on this planet were tied to home, dependent on men, and subject to all kinds of religious and cultural restrictions designed to guarantee that they bore the right kids to the right man at the right time — even if that meant effectively jailing them at home.

Our biology reduced us to a kind of chattel, subject to strictures that owed more to property law than the more rights-based laws that applied to men. Becoming literate or mastering a trade or participating in public life wasn’t unheard-of; but unlike the men, the world’s women have always had to fit those extras in around their primary duty to their children and husband — and have usually paid a very stiff price if it was thought that those duties were being neglected."

Because having children and spending time with them is the worst thing that could ever happen to a woman.

She continues to talk about men thriving while women were enslaved at home.  She never really considers the idea that some women actually enjoy being at home--cooking, cleaning, and having time to be at home with their children.

As a dear friend of mine always says, women pushing for "equality with men" have the wrong idea.  They say that equality with men means acting like them.  In reality, what it says is that being feminine is not good enough, and we need to act like men because they are better than us.   Embracing our femininity isn't good enough, we need to be masculine--which will never work.  Radical fact: Women are not men.  Equality and femininity is truly lived out when our feminine qualities are expressed.

Women, don't buy into this kind of garbage.
Men, care enough about women to tell them this is garbage.

Check out the rest of the article here.