Why did you decide to become a Sister? When you ask Sisters this question, some will say they knew they were going to be Sisters when they were in grade school. This was not the case for me! I wasn’t even Catholic at that time, so it was far out of my mind.
I attended CSS (The College of St. Scholastica) for an undergraduate degree in music education. It was there I met Sisters Monica Laughlin, Mary Jean Tuttle, and Mary Rochefort. In my fourth year at the College, I was a Benedictine Associate, which meant I lived with the Sisters as a volunteer in their ministries alongside my studies at the College. It was the influence of these Sisters that made me eventually become a Catholic. The year after I finished my program at the College, I went to graduate school in Missouri and also attended the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) classes to become a Catholic.
The Monastery would not leave my mind. I began praying the Liturgy of the Hours (morning, midday, and evening prayer) as well as I could in the midst of my studies and duties as a graduate teaching assistant.
All this information is about how I became a Sister; why I became a Sister is a different story. I think of my inspiration as three factors: the example of the Sisters I met, the Liturgy of the Hours and the psalm prayers that wormed their way into my head, and the Benedictine charism of seeking God. I appreciated the Rule of St. Benedict (RB) for its longevity, flexibility, and practicality. When a person seeks to enter the monastery, all St. Benedict requires is that they truly seek God (RB 58:7a) and be prepared to do so in the “school of the Lord’s service” (RB Prologue:45).
Why did I decide to become a Sister rather than staying single or getting married? This is a question that has as many answers as there are Sisters, and then some. I don’t think it was all me that decided. Part of me felt that God wanted it, but it also felt very natural for me, like going with the flow. I knew that I needed to live with some kind of community around me. But I also knew that marriage wasn’t for me. And I knew, from my experience meeting the Sisters, that there was love in this way of life also. And that’s what I wanted: love. The Rule of St. Benedict provides wisdom on this topic as well saying: “But as we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love” (RB Prologue:49). Let me amend my previous statement. I appreciate the Rule of St. Benedict for its longevity, flexibility, practicality, and love. Yes, it was written in a very different context than we live in today and yes, it was written over fifteen hundred years ago. But a way of life that has stood for that long—there is something of God there.
