Being a religious sister
“Mission is at the heart of who we are and love is the driving force that urges us on.”
IBVM Constitutions Volume ii. 2.1
What is this life?
In an earlier era, young Catholic women saw ‘becoming a sister’ as a possible choice in life: they knew others who had made it. Today it is a rarer consideration. However, in every religion and every age, women and men have been drawn to make their relationship with God the focus of their lives. Through church history, religious women and men have looked at the needs of the world and the church, and asked: is this what God wants for our world or our church?
Some went to live in deserts as a protest to the misuse of power, others set up monasteries to model another way living in harmony. In the last 500 years, many Catholic women and men combined this God-focus with a yearning to serve others. They knew the need for companionship as they walked that way. They looked with fresh eyes and set in place ways to challenge the structures of power and oppression, through education, hospitals, through service of the poor.
Our mission is outward, to bring the gospel vision to life in whatever ways we can. Not in the monastery, but in the web of relationships in the economic, political and social reality we uncover and recognise the glimpses of a God who has committed God’s very self to our world, and continues to take flesh among us. God’s renewing Spirit is to be found in every place where beauty, love, and courage are present, and most especially in the poor and suffering of our world.
A lifetime commitment is distinct from the many ways people volunteer for shorter periods of service. While baptism names all Christians as disciples of Jesus, the paths are many. For some this commitment is realised by having a family or by pursuing a professional career. Others choose, or find themselves drawn, to live out this baptismal calling with others, for life, as a core group who are fired with love, steeped in the tradition, able to go into places which our consumerist world dismisses as worthless, called to ask questions many in roles of authority would rather not hear.
After a thirty-year period of drought across the developed world, a new small trickle of women is venturing down this path. It will never be a mainstream choice but many of us who have lived it can assure you it does give life.
"I do what I do because….I enjoy it, it gives me life and it is just part of who I am."
Natalie Houlihan ibvm
Why take it on?
Ask any of us why we became a sister and the answers would differ, but one common thread would be a deep conviction that, “this was a way that I was being drawn to serve God and make a difference in the world”. Some may ask, why not do this as a single professional person, or as a married woman? Well, for some unknown reason, each of us in some way felt loved by God and drawn specially to make God the focus of our lives.
Through a lot of testing and great deal of opportunity to think, pray and discern, this seemed to fit with our inner desire to give our gifts in this way, with a company of women who shared a vision and a particular set of values, and were ready to stand side by side in commitment to God. It was a way of following Jesus, of doing our bit to foster the sense that the Meaning underpinning life was to be found in love and relationship, not in hatred and division. Our call is to walk the way of Jesus who proclaimed compassion, inclusion of those on the outer, and a God who placed love above legal niceties- even if we know from example that this can lead to rejection and in many places death.
What holds us here?
Without God, this life does not make sense. This way of life gives us many opportunities to deepen this relationship with God. Core to this is the sense of God as the key referent in our lives. Without God, this life does not make sense. This way of life gives us many opportunities to deepen this relationship with God.
Early formation provides time and structures - a long retreat, personal spiritual companionship, opportunities for study of scriptures and spirituality- and encourages discernment and deep reflection to ensure this way opens possibilities of personal growth and happiness. Varied experiences of ministry test this longing in the demands of service, to ensure that it is real and not merely a pious whim.
Throughout our lives, ‘time-out’ is provided for personal prayer, for annual retreats, for communal prayer, reflection and personal development. Eucharist, that communal thanksgiving and remembrance of God’s outpouring of love through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection grounds our lives- though today we experience with others the frustrations that exist in parishes when the connection between this mystery and our lives is obscured. To keep open to our mission to “recognise the sacred in our midst, to find God in all situations and in all people” (IBVM Cons. II.2.15.), to restore our trust and hope, we need space for reflection, for companionship, for the challenge that the gospel and our particular charism or heritage from Mary Ward, continue places before us.
Would you like to
know more about the life of a religious sister? Please contact Marg Finlay ibvm at
marg.fin@globaldial.com
“Religious life is my whole life and has given me so much. I couldn’t imagine anywhere else I would rather be…it has given me so many opportunities …. and time to deepen my relationship with God through prayer, meditation and music.”
Cynthia Wright ibvm
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