After a Summer Come and See

by Sr. Kathryn James, fsp

"No, it’s not for me. No. No. No!" Wouldn’t you say that sounds like a 14-year-old who knows her mind? It was the usual daily drive home from high school, and friends and teachers in the carpool were teasing Sarah that she’d make a good "nun." The funny thing was, while Sarah became more and more insistent that "being a nun" was not at all for her, a tiny voice inside was saying with equal insistence: "Yes. Yes. Yes. This sounds right." And so began a gradual switch from planning a teaching career to at least entertaining the possibility that God might want something different from her.

"While 14, 15, or even 16, is definitely too young to be making a definitive choice in life," explains Sr. Germana Santos, a Formation Director at the Daughters of St. Paul, "girls begin thinking about careers at young ages. They dream of being nurses, astronauts, computer programmers, mothers, secretaries, lawyers."

It is not unusual, then, that the thought of a life-form or a vocation might come to the fore now and then in a girl’s thoughts, even though she may not actually pursue it for another ten or twenty years. In fact, in a survey quoted by the Union of Superiors General in their Congress on Consecrated Life in 1993, 87% of religious men and women under 29 years of age participating in the D.I.S. Survey reported that they "felt their first ‘call’ to the religious vocation before they were 18 years old." Within this 87%, "37% felt their first concern regarding their vocation before they were 14" (Consecrated Life Today, p. 119).

"God is calling young people today," believes Sr. Martha, vocation directress of the Daughters of St. Paul. "It is a call that is compelling, even irresistible."

Miriam O’Kray, a 17-year-old from Michigan, feels that teens today don’t give religious life much thought; or if they do they quickly forget the idea. Why? "I really think it’s because there is so little education about religious life today," she said after a moment of reflection. "What is the life of a Sister all about? We don’t even see religious many times or know what they do." She observed that people today seem to live for the present, to do what they want, not necessarily what God wants.

Miriam was one of fourteen young women who participated in a St. Paul Summer Program. The program is sponsored by the Daughters of St. Paul precisely to let teenage girls see who religious are and what they do, how they live together and how they pray, what they dream of and what they like. The program’s classes, apostolic projects, outings, and experiences of prayer and community life help the young women grow closer to Christ and expose them to elements of religious life they might normally not see. It is a chance to meet other girls who share a desire to "check out" religious life.

For Miriam and for some of the others it was their first chance to see religious life "close-up." That in itself was an experience...for them and the community. "The Sisters are all different. They’re real people," Miriam reflected. "They each have their reasons for being here. And they like normal things like dancing, singing, listening to music." Sheila Silverio remarked, "Here there’s a group of ladies so dedicated to God. It is so neat."

Though this isn’t the first time Sheila, an 18-year-old from New Jersey, has visited the Sisters, she is still amazed at what she finds. "The classes were great. I learned that to say, ‘Hey, God is alive!’ is to say everything. God, I notice you, and I want you to be part of my life." But that’s not so simple to explain to a group of peers who say to Sheila, "We need more people like you out here."

Sheila said she thought about it a while and later responded, "I will be out here with you all, but I’ll be consecrated. I think people are made for loving. Don’t you think God deserves some love too?"

The young are religious. Don’t let anyone tell you anything different. Miriam first felt interested in religious life when she was fairly young. "What if it is for me?" she remembers wondering. "If it is, it would make me completely happy." Sheila, who also considered a call to religious life fairly early on, reacted differently, "Not a bad idea." Sarah, at 14, was absolutely sure the answer was "NO!" But a call is, as Sr. Martha said, "irresistible."

Each of the young women who had a passing fascination with being a Sister is still learning more about that fascination. Gradually they’ve built into their lives ways of listening to God, to hear what he says. Miriam sets aside daily prayer time to be alone with God. Sheila concentrates more on listening to the Word proclaimed in the Liturgy. And Sarah, despite her emphatic "No," started going to daily Mass. Now, this isn’t to say that they didn’t attend a few dances, play a few pranks, skip a few classes, flunk a few tests. But it is to say that "even normal, healthy, unsuspecting girls can discover that God might have something in mind for their life that they hadn’t quite expected," Sr. Germana said.

Sr. Carmen Christi, who as vocation director works with many youth groups, says that although women usually enter the Congregation between the ages of 18 and 30, "many start thinking of it long before. What matters is that this budding relationship with the Lord is fostered.

"We try to help girls cultivate an attitude of listening. Young people have many voices that bombard them. If they listen to their heart and God’s voice deep within them, they will be put in touch with their vocation. Prayer strengthens us to respond generously and with faith."

Teens dream of a world that is a more peaceful and loving place to be. For Sarah, the clincher was this: "We teens looking at the world tend to rely on ourselves. We see faults and corruption, and we want to change that. But here in the convent, I found out religious life is about total trust in God. I sensed for the first time that everything is based on something outside ourselves. That there’s something bigger than ourselves. You Sisters have such meaning for the things you’re doing. You have so much passion. Maybe teens need to discover that God is the way to go!"

If you are curious regarding religious life, wonder if you have a vocation, feel a tug in your heart, give it a chance. Come and See retreats are sponsored periodically at the Daughters of St. Paul Novitiate House. Contact Us

Sr. Kathryn James Hermes, FSP

The Daughters of St. Paul are present in 49 nations around the world: Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Congo, Equador, South Korea, Ivory Coast, Philippines, France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, India, Italy, Kenya, Macau, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Perù, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, United States, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zaire, and Zambia.