When Sister Lisa Maurer made her Perpetual Monastic Profession on July 11, 2012, her friend Msgr. Douglas L. Grams of the Diocese of New Ulm in Minnesota presided at the Eucharistic celebration. In his homily he told the gathered friends and family about Lisa getting ready to move out of her apartment in Sleepy Eye, MN, where she had for years taught school and coached high school football.
The College of St. Scholastica Saints on the field
(October, 2010 by Sister Lisa)
She was getting ready to move into St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth as a postulant. She was an athlete and relished sports – as a spectator, player, or coach – it didn’t matter! He related the sight of Lisa emptying boxes of old clothes and clutter that people collect over time into the dumpster. At one point she picked up an overflowing box of sports paraphernalia on top of which was a well-used baseball glove. She hesitated, looking at the items in the box, and the glove, and then heaved the box into the bin. Msgr. Grams noted how eloquent a moment this was in Lisa’s answering her call to the religious life: “Come follow me.”
A story was published in the online Star Tribune last week about Sister Lisa coaching football at The College of St. Scholastica. Her love of sports, particularly football, is beautifully described in the article along with a photo of Sister Lisa standing between Coach Kurt Ramler and kicker Mike Theismann at a practice.
Luke 18:28-30, the basis of Msgr. Grams’ homily about Jesus’ promise to those who give up all and follow him, is rarely so vividly demonstrated.
And a certain ruler asked [Jesus], saying, “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? “
And Jesus said to him . . . “You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother.”
And he said, “All these have I kept from my youth up.”
Now when Jesus heard this, he said to him, “Yet you lack one thing: sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. . . .”
Then Peter said, “Lo, we have left all, and followed you.”
And he said unto them, “Truly I say to you, there is no man that has left house, or parents, or friends, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.”