Religious sisters were the architects of some of my most joyful experiences, including canoeing at summer camp with Sr. Mary-Elizabeth, singing praise-and-worship with Sr. Elizabeth at Youth2000 or walking through the Bronx with the Sisters of Life.

The deepest desire of our feminine hearts is to learn our irreplaceable role in the world and experience selfless love and intimate union with the Beloved. This desire is at odds with worldly standards of success and happiness, and poses a distinct problem for women in discerning vocations. The emphasis on working outside the home as a means to human fulfillment truncates feminine possibilities. Household tasks can be part of the irreplaceable role for some women.  Our individual vocations cannot be discovered through cookie-cutter reductionism.

Despite social hurdles of derision and family opposition and economic hurdles of college debts and tempting career options, women of all ages are answering the Lord’s invitation. Religious life is a counter-cultural call to a radical life of love. It is giving up everything to become all in the Lord, to become a visible symbol of the Kingdom for all women. What a gift!

Just as surely as the priest stands “in the place of” Jesus for us, serving our needs, so too do our religious sisters literally model for us the receptivity of the Church, being continually presented to Christ as a bride fashioned wholly for His love. Thank you, sisters!

List of blogs by religious/nuns
compiled by Sr. Julie Vieira, IHM (profiled in our February 2007 issue)

Vision Vocation Network
Has a vocation match service, articles on religious life and discernment, and links.

Unveiled, by Cheryl Reed
A journalist explores the lives of modern nuns across the U.S..