IGF017 In Good Faith with author Jane Knuth, recorded live on May 23, 2012. Produced by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include meeting God at St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, a lesson in forgiveness, unexpected spiritual companions, Medjugorje pilgrim.

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Guest: Jane Knuth

Jane Knuth is the author of “Thrift Store Graces” and “Thrift Store Saints,” which recently won first place for “Popular Presentation of the Catholic Faith” from the Catholic Press Association. She has been volunteering at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for the last 15 years. She is also an eighth-grade math teacher. Jane and her husband, Dean, live in Portage, Michigan.

We’ll talk with Jane about her experiences as a volunteer at St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in Kalamazoo, MI, about how her faith has been transformed one donation at a time, how her sense of humor factors into her faith, and her pilgrimage to Medjugorje in Bosnia.

Details: The broadcast is free and open to the public. You can tune in from any place you have internet access. We also have a chat room for you to use during the broadcast in order to connect with one another and with us. You can also submit your questions ahead of time by using the comment box below.

If new to A Nun’s Life podcasts, the podcasts are basically like tuning into a radio program, but instead of broadcasting it on the airwaves, we broadcast it on our website. All you have to do is visit our website and make sure the volume on your computer is up.

More information including upcoming shows and recordings of past episodes can be found at the In Good Faith program web page.

AS110 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on May 9, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Prince of Peace causes anxiety, romantic relationships a productivity downer, good discernment questions to ask nuns, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What to do when thoughts about Jesus, God, and religion lead to great anxiety, not feelings of peace?
• How do I know if the pure path (abstinence from worldly pleasures ) is the right path for me?
• Romantic relationships take a lot of time. How can a person deal with relationships issues and still have a productive life of service?
• What are some good questions to as nuns when you go to talk to them about discerning religious life?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS109 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on May 2, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: disappearing prayer, Rules that nuns follow, charisms and Constitutions, mom encounters mum nuns, religious role models in schools.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Where did the prayer at the beginning of the podcast go?
• I hear people in religious congregations speak of a “Rule,” a Constitution, and a charism. Can you explain what is meant by these terms?
• A reading from the 1920 IHM Constitutions and the current Constitutions.
• Ways to understand the vow of obedience.
• Do you ever speak of a particular sister being an example of a “living rule”? If so, what would be her defining characteristics?
• A mom wonders if she overlooked her calling to religious life when younger. Would her choice have been different if her nun-teachers had talked with her about their lives?
• If more sisters were teaching in schools, wouldn’t that help get the word out about religious life and increase the number of vocations?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

Join us today for a live broadcast of In Good Faith, a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie.

On Air: Today from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Central Time (your time zone)

Where: www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE

Guest: Sister Patricia Wittberg, SC

Sister Patricia Wittberg is a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati who ministers as Professor of Sociology at Indiana University – Purdue University. She is also on the vocations team for her congregation. She is the author of many articles and books including Creating a Future for Religious Life and Pathways to Re-Creating Religious Communities. Among her most recent articles is “A Lost Generation?” in America on young women in the Catholic Church.

The sisters will talk with Sister Patricia about her life and ministry, how she got into the field of sociology, and some of her insights and discoveries along the way of bringing sociological study to bear on religious life and vocations. In particular, we’ll talk about her article Lost Generation? and the situation of young people in the church today. We’ll also discuss Sister Patricia’s understanding of the “religious virtuoso“, the attraction to intentional communities, and analogies such as “family” for understanding and negotiating religious life.

Details: The broadcast is free and open to the public. You can tune in from any place you have internet access. We also have a chat room for you to use during the broadcast in order to connect with one another and with us. You can also submit your questions ahead of time by using the comment box below.

If new to A Nun’s Life podcasts, the podcasts are basically like tuning into a radio program, but instead of broadcasting it on the airwaves, we broadcast it on our website. All you have to do is visit our website and make sure the volume on your computer is up.

More information including upcoming shows and recordings of past episodes can be found at the In Good Faith program web page.

AS108 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on April 4, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: what to do with blessed palms after Palm Sunday, how nuns decide to relocate, a mom desires different life, convent vs. plain old house.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What’s the significance of palms? What should we do with blessed palms after Palm Sunday mass is over? WWJD about the huge number of palms used and the ecological issues that raises.
• How do nuns make decisions about moving? Does the vow of obedience come into play? Sister Maxine and Sister Julie tell the moving story of their upcoming relocation.
• A mom asks, Is it possible to live God’s call to religious life while residing with one’s family as a habited nun?
• Is a sense of failure in life the result of not acting on God’s call?
• I mentioned something about coming by the “convent” at a certain time and was told “It’s not a convent, just a house.” What makes a house a convent, and vice versa.

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS107 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 28, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guest: Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson. Topics include: nuns in history books, following God’s call into chaos, saying yes to God when tempted to say no, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

SPECIAL GUEST: Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson, professor of History at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, where she also holds appointments in the departments of religion, political science, and women and gender studies.

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I want to study the history of Catholic sisters. Can I find that in a Women’s Studies course? In a U.S. History course?
• Why does history include primarily the experience of men but not women (let alone nuns)?
• In ecclesiastical history, which is often organized by a bishop’s term of office, where do Catholic sisters and nuns fit into that kind of organizational scheme?
• Dr. Thompson offers suggestions around how to research the history of congregations of women religious
• What if I take a risk and follow where I think God is calling me, and then all hell breaks loose? Is it a sign I should quit? Is God testing me or what? The nuns discuss a number of themes including Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s understanding of consolation and Saint Alphonsus of Liguori’s understanding of “il distacco” or “detachment“
• In scripture, Mary said yes to God without hesitation. But what if we’re tempted to say no?

On the broadcast we mentioned a number of great resources on Catholic sisters and nuns in history. Check ‘em out!

• Dr. Thompson’s own 18-lecture series on The History of Women Religious in the United States. The publishers of this series, Now You Know Media, have provided the first lecture for free. Listen to the Introduction and Lecture 1: Discovering Foremothers: Origins of Women’s Religious Life.
• Dr. Thompson on our show “In Good Faith” back in 2011
• Building Sisterhood: A Feminist History of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Women and Gender in North American Religions. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1997. (be sure to check out the bibliography which we’ll post as a PDF asap!)
• Weavers of the Tapestry – the story of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland by Kathrine E. Bellamy, RSM (2006)
• Rebel, reformer, religious extraordinaire: the life of Sister Irene Farmer by Geraldine Anthony (1997)
• Work by Elizabeth Smythe including Wisdom Raises Her Voice: the Sisters of St. Joseph (2001)
• Work by Rosa Bruno-Jofréas at the University of Ottawa on Canadian French-speaking sisters
• Conference on the History of Women Religious

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS106 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 21, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: unresponsive vocation directors, disappearing nuns, is religious life dying?, body language at Mass, what nuns study in the novitiate, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I’d like to be a nun who works in health care or with people with disabilities. Book mentioned: Adam: God’s Beloved by Henri Nouwen
• I’ve thought about becoming a nun for a long time. But when I called the vocations director at a local convent, she never called back! What should I do? Links mentioned: How to Become a Nun and The Vocation Forum
• It is a very rare thing to see a nun these days. There must have been something that not only drew the young girl to a convent but also kept here there pre-Vatican II. What happened? The nuns put to rest some incorrect information about the decline or religious life with the very good news that it is very much alive!
• What is the proper hand-folding protocol at Mass? Should everyone keep their hands folded whenever we’re standing at Mass?
• What do nuns study when they’re in formation? Find out how the nuns are taught not to smoke, drink, or curse!

Do you have a question for us? Contact us and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF015 In Good Faith with drummer David Nantais, recorded live on March 14, 2012. Produced by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include the spiritual roots of rock music, redeeming qualities of “the devil’s music,” music as a spiritual exercise, and more!

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Guest: Drummer and author David Nantais

What can rock music teach us about God? Quite a lot, according to David Nantais. Dave is the author of the book Rock-a My Soul: An Invitation to Rock Your Religion. He’s also the director of campus ministry at the University Detroit Mercy. A rock drummer, Dave has played in numerous bands over the past 20+ years, including a band called Skill-o-Bexx. He has attended over 150 rock shows since 1986.

Show Notes:

• A brief history of rock music–and its transformation from “the devil’s music” to prayer.
• A listener who wasn’t alive for most of the 70s or 80s asks Dave for advice to a newcomer to rock and roll — what are some “must hear” songs?
• The inspiration for the band name, Skill-o-Bexx.
• How campus ministry, biochemistry, theology and rock fit together for Dave.
• Dave talks about the African influences on rock music
• Dave’s playlist for rock music with soul: “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by the Who, “Human Touch” by Bruce Springsteen, and anything by Kings X

Details: The broadcast is free and open to the public. You can tune in from any place you have internet access. We also have a chat room for you to use during the broadcast in order to connect with one another and with us. You can also submit your questions ahead of time by using the comment box below.

If new to A Nun’s Life podcasts, the podcasts are basically like tuning into a radio program, but instead of broadcasting it on the airwaves, we broadcast it on our website. All you have to do is visit our website and make sure the volume on your computer is up.

More information including upcoming shows and recordings of past episodes can be found at the In Good Faith program web page.

AS105 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 7, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. With special guest Audra Turnbull. Topics include: spiritual inventory, advice to a celebrity, singing nuns, finding patience, picking a religious order, etc.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

SPECIAL GUEST: Audra Turnbull, author of the blog The Awkward Catholic.

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• How to take stock of your spiritual life using a spiritual inventory. Consider the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love; the Beatitudes, the Examen of Consciousness, the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, Mindfulness, and more as helps in taking stock of your spiritual life.
• A celebrity seeks to escape the pressures of the world. The nuns offer advice about discernment, religious life, the convent, and sensible shoes.
• Our guest, Audra, tests her knowledge on the fine points of religious life. Questions that people often have about religious life … but hesitate to ask. For example, are nuns allowed to throw snowballs? Check out the video below for a preliminary response from Winter 2011!
• What to do about being impatient?
• What is the difference between enclosed and cloistered?
• How to pick a religious community when there are so many?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS104 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 1, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: self denial as a spiritual act, Jesus and the widow’s mite, why God answers some prayers but not others, and does God hear our prayers

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Self-denial as a spiritual act–is there meaning in making a sacrifice?
• What to do when asked to give to a good cause? Revisiting the Gospel story of the widow’s mite (Mk 12:38-44).
• Why does God answer some prayers…but not others?
• Does God really listen to our prayers?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/ and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS103 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 22, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Sr. Marie Gabriel and Sr. Dorothy guest nuns, living the life of Jesus, too much bling in church, ways to pray in everyday life, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Sister Dorothy and Sister Marie Gabriel share their stories about the journey to religious life.
• What does it mean to “live the life of Jesus”? How the gospel stories influence our lives.
• Opulence in the church. What about fancy vestments, expensive church buildings, etc., in the face of poverty and need in the world? WWJD?
• Churches as praise to God and as a reflection of the image of God.
• Walking outdoors, poetry, music, meditation, and other ways to pray in everyday life.

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS102 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 16, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: becoming a nun in the old days? hopeful husband-to-be wonders if convent trumps marriage, online vocation help, professional nuns, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What do today’s teenagers think about nuns?
• I have known a dear friend for over two years. One day I wish to be her husband. However she is seeking a life as a nun. Should I keep my feelings to myself in fear I may be in her way to a life as a sister, or should I confess my feelings?
• I have seen a few convents that have weekend retreats where women can go to experience what it is like. Is there any website where I can get a list of all convents that have these events? Be sure to check out Vision Vocation Network!

• • Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Peace
  • Poor Clares of New Jersey
  • Redemptoristine Nuns

    More info on scoping out nuns at aNunsLife.org/comeandsee – links to resources to help discern how to become a sister or nun

• What to do if you don’t get a good vibe from a religious community? Does that mean you don’t have a vocation?
• Can you be a speech language pathologist and a nun too?
• Knowing what you know now about past nun life, as opposed to modern day nun life, would you have joined then, or not?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/ and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS101 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 9, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: how nuns elect their community leaders, saying no to nun smear campaigns, the common good, the book of Genesis, varied images of God and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• The IHM sisters recently elected a new leadership team. How is this done?  Do sisters run against each other? Are there term limits? Is the process similar for most orders?
• What about general chapter for contemplative monasteries or for international communities? And differences or similarities?
• A listener named Anna talks about her joys and challenges in reading the book of Genesis and encountering a myriad of images of God — are there any wrong images of God? What happens when one image is used as the only image of God?
• Mentioned in the broadcast: “Are Our Images of God Growing?” by Pat McCloskey, O.F.M. in Catholic Update

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF014 In Good Faith with Meredith Gould, recorded live on February 8, 2012. Produced by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include: real-life ups and downs in ministry, the domestic church, social media in parishes, insights from Judaism, religious kitsch.

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Guest: Meredith Gould

Meredith Gould the author of eight books, including The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions(Doubleday) and Why Is There a Menorah on the Altar? (Morehouse) and most recently, Getting #Married, Using Social Media to Celebrate the Sacred. She’s founding moderator of the weekly Twitter-based chat about church social media (#chsocm) and blogs about culture and faith at More Meredith Gould.

Show Notes:

• How Meredith’s faith journey led to full-time ministry using social media
• The practical challenges of responding to the call to service–and making a living in the process
• Home-based rituals that extend practices of the faith into the “domestic church”
• The foundational role of Ignatian spirituality
• How Judaism informs Meredith’s understanding of Catholic Christianity
• Religious kitsch as an expression of spiritual passion
• Encouraging the use of social media in the parish–risks, successes, and new insights
• The power of social media for evangelization
• Advice for others who seek to use social media for ministry

Details: The broadcast is free and open to the public. You can tune in from any place you have internet access. We also have a chat room for you to use during the broadcast in order to connect with one another and with us. You can also submit your questions ahead of time by using the comment box below.

If new to A Nun’s Life podcasts, the podcasts are basically like tuning into a radio program, but instead of broadcasting it on the airwaves, we broadcast it on our website. All you have to do is visit our website and make sure the volume on your computer is up.

More information including upcoming shows and recordings of past episodes can be found at the In Good Faith program web page.

AS100 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 2, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Highlights in honor of 100th episode, World Day for Consecrated Life, GPS rosary for religious life, vow of obedience vs. doormat, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• In honor of the 100th episode of Ask Sister, audio clips of some of our favorite shows: tin-can podcast #1, Chloe the Convent Cat, putting the “man” in “mantilla,” and the sisters’ best jokes.
• World Day for Consecrated Life–an opportunity to celebrate God’s calling in our lives.
• The Rosary as a GPS for finding one’s way to religious life.
• The Rosary as a Marian devotion, and the role of Mary in our lives and in the tradition of religious life.
• Fond memories of the glow-in-the-dark Rosary.
• How does one live out the vow of obedience, without falling into the unhealthy habit of being a doormat? The ups and downs of obedience not just for sisters but for all Christians!

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/ and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS099 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 19, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Mass fracas over word changes in liturgy, unruly use of church rules, finding a spiritual mentor, does God have plans for the world, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Why are some people vehemently upset about the changes to the Mass? Jesus is still Jesus in the Eucharist — isn’t that why we go to Mass anyway?
• Can I be a sister if I am not a conservative Catholic (or in other words, have a problem with strict applying of rules in the church)?
• Where to find a spiritual mentor when it seems there’s not one anywhere nearby.
• What are God’s plans for today’s world?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF013 In Good Faith with Coach Cathy Rush, recorded live on January 18, 2012. Produced by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include: coaching 1st national champs in women’s basketball, working with nuns, Mighty Macs movie, Future Stars summer camps & more

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Guest: Coach Cathy Rush

Cathy Rush was the head women’s basketball coach at Immaculata College (now University) from 1970-1977. She led Immaculata to three consecutive AIAW national titles from 1972-1974. Coach Rush also led the 1975 U.S. Women’s basketball team at the Pan American games to a gold medal finish. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on April 7, 2008. She was inducted into the women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. She is the founder and president of Future Stars Camps.

Be sure to check out The Mighty Macs movie featuring Cathy and the Immaculata IHM Sisters!

Show Notes:

• From underdog to national champion–Cathy talks about her experience as a young head coach at Immaculata College and the team that won against great odds.
• What it was like to work with nuns at a women’s college.
• Cathy talks about the making of The Mighty Macs movie and its depiction of the nuns, the team, the school, and herself.
• How Title IX affected women’s sports at Catholic universities.
• Sports, femininity and young female athletes today.
• What it means to follow your dream, even when it leads to unexpected places.
• The development of Future Stars Camps for children.

Details: The broadcast is free and open to the public. You can tune in from any place you have internet access. We also have a chat room for you to use during the broadcast in order to connect with one another and with us. You can also submit your questions ahead of time by using the comment box below.

The podcasts are basically like tuning into a radio program, but instead of broadcasting it on the airwaves, we broadcast it on our website. All you have to do is visit our website and make sure the volume on your computer is turned up.

More information including upcoming shows and recordings of past episodes can be found at the In Good Faith program web page.

AS098 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 12, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: the difference between penance and sacrifice, speechless God, is grief a rejection of faith, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What is the difference between penance and sacrifice?
• Austerities and asceticism
• I don’t feel like God is telling me much. Am I going to hear a voice one day before graduation telling me to go to a convent? Or is saying “I want to go to college and study anthropology” sufficient?
• Measuring up to the holiness of friends and other people.
• My mother died recently and I’m very sad. But some of my bible study friends say, “She’s in heaven with God now and you should be happy about that.” Is my sadness somehow a rejection of my faith?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF012 In Good Faith with Sister Patricia Daly, OP, recorded live on January 11, 2012. Produced by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include gospel values in corporate culture, Catholic nuns, corporate responsibility, socially responsible investing and more.

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Guest: Sister Pat Daly, OP

Sister Patricia Daly, OP, is a Dominican Sister of Caldwell , NJ and has worked in Corporate Responsibility and Socially Responsible Investing for over 25 years. She serves as the Executive Director of the Tri-State Coaltion for Responsible Investment, an organization of 40 Roman Catholic Dioceses and Congregations of Women and Men in the NY metropolitan area. Pat represents these institutional investors to the national Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility: 275 Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish organizations holding more than $110 billion in investments. Pat is also the Corporate Responsibility Representative for the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell , NJ and consults for the American Baptist Churches in their Socially Responsible Investment Program. See Sister Patricia onCBS News!

Show Notes:

• Sister Pat’s community, the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell, New Jersey, and her attraction to their commitment to social justice
• what it means to do socially responsible investing
• personal investors and institutional investors (including dioceses and other Catholic organizations)
• asking the question about where people who are poor, hungry, homeless, etc. fit in with our choice of investments
• “the power of one is not to be underestimated”
• helping companies do good in the community and also have just practices within their corporate structure and policies and how they are impacting society as a whole
• sometimes (especially in the early days) it’s a struggle for companies to engage with their shareholders about social responsibility
• how Jesus informs Sister Pat’s ministry — Jesus as a change agent who understood the abuses in the economic governance and faith systems and challenged them
• a critical vocation to speak up for people who have no role or power in society
• successes that Sister Pat has seen through the years, e.g., working with General Electric (responsible for much of the contamination), other companies, religious orders, and the community to clean up PCB contamination along the Hudson River
• the effects of global warming being addressed more and more compared to 20 years ago when they filed the first shareholder resolution on climate change
• criteria to evaluate companies in which one wishes to invest can be found at iccr.org, tricri.org, greenamerica.org
• disappointments that Sister Pat has encountered, e.g., addressed the irradiation of food but didn’t at the time have the resources to address concerns around genetically-modified foods
• is better to only invest in companies that have their social-responibility acts together or to stick it out in less socially responsible companies and demand change?
• it’s all about dialogue — understanding a companies culture and bringing in one’s concerns so that both can walk away and say “I did a good thing”
• the Catholic Church’s role in promoting socially responsible investing
• a quandary when a company that has questionable practices invests generously in church and community work
• the Occupy Wall Street movement
• abuses around compensation for senior executives
• what it’s like to be a Catholic sister in the board room and in the media spotlight
• Ford on the “best of” list of the really good guys in terms of social responsibility — also Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Red Lobster) with food sustainability, Walt Disney Company with concerns in supply chain — not only make changes with their companies but instigate change within their industry
• a company that could do better is Exxon Mobil, especially around greenhouse gas emissions
• the so-called “sin stocks” — gambling, liquor, and tobacco stocks
• myth busted — the truth is that you can do well investing in socially responsible investing

Details: The broadcast is free and open to the public. You can tune in from any place you have internet access. We also have a chat room for you to use during the broadcast in order to connect with one another and with us. You can also submit your questions ahead of time by using the comment box below.

If new to A Nun’s Life podcasts, the podcasts are basically like tuning into a radio program, but instead of broadcasting it on the airwaves, we broadcast it on our website. All you have to do is visit our website and make sure the volume on your computer is up.

More information including upcoming shows and recordings of past episodes can be found at the In Good Faith program web page.

AS097 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 5, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: travel troubles for road nun, Christian feminists – do they really exist?, building the kingdom of God locally and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What happens when a nun is traveling and runs into really bad weather? Is prayer her only option?
• What does it mean to be a Christian feminist?
• What does it mean to build the kingdom of God? How can we do that locally?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS096 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on December 29, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: run-ins with the Blessed Virgin Mary, hanging on to pre-Vatican II stuff, adopt-a-nun, how to know and respond when God is calling, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I’m not Catholic but have had a few run-ins with the Blessed Virgin Mary. What could this possibly mean?
• Is it wrong to hang onto pre-Vatican II understandings and expressions of the faith? Of religious life?
• I’d love to spiritually adopt a nun. How to I go about doing so?
• How do you know if God is calling you to something, and what can you do about it?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from which you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS095 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on December 8, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: nature and theology of grace, renouncing things one never had, nun vows, the Trinity as two men and a hen?, my church NO my church!, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What exactly is grace? Is it like The Force or getting a shot of Red Bull?
• How does grace lead to freedom?
• Two men and a hen — A new image for the Trinity?
• Can a person renounce something if they’ve never had it? e.g., can I give up sex if I’ve never even had a romantic relationship?
• Aren’t the vows about renouncing things?
• Whose church is it, anyway? Is the Church my church, your church, God’s church, or our church?
• A Sister is interviewed on CBS News regarding the Apostolic Visitation and sisters’ responses

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/ and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF011 In Good Faith with Father Anthony Gittins, recorded live on December 1, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include mission, evangelization, discipleship, and liberation; magisterium and ministerium of the Church; discernment and more!

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Guest: Father Anthony Gittins, CSSp

Father Anthony Gittins is a member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spiritans) and a professor of mission and culture at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, Illinois. For the past twenty-five years he has with and among homeless women on the streets of Chicago and in a shelter. For seven of those years he was part of Genesis House – a community where women struggle to escape from prostitution (from CTU website).

Show Notes:

• How Fr. Tony’s faith journey informs his sense of mission
• Edwina Gately and working at Genesis House

“Just love them, she said. And I thought how simple it sounds, and how complicated it is to love people.”

“Our job is to love them, not to judge them. And once they begin to love themselves then they have the responsibility to love their neighbor as themselves. But meanwhile it is their neighbor’s job to love them.”

• Ministering  as a pastor in Sierra Leone to learn the “grammar of the language and the grammar of the culture”
• Teaching theology at Catholic Theological Union through the lens of culture, e.g. the cultural implications of reading Scripture
• The relationship between mission, evangelization, discipleship, and liberation
• Mission is about God is intrinsically a God of movement, of engagement, of relationship — reaching out into the world … it is like God’s dynamic breathing out God’s spirit (God’s cosmic, creative breath that is sending forth) — and God’s breathing in (God calling people, reconciling people, embracing people, forgiving people)
• Evangelization is the way we talk about Jesus, the incarnation of God’s mission … Jesus’ mission brought down to earth … describes everything that Jesus does because Jesus is utterly and totally committed to God’s mission
• Discipleship is a one-word job description for us, a faithful living out of what Jesus was doing — not doing our own t hing but learning how to do Jesus’ thing by watching and learning from Jesus
• Liberation – Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and has SENT ME to liberate people, to set people free from anything that binds them in any way.”
• God’s mission has a church! The church’s job is to do God’s mission
• Discernment is required to know where we fit in God’s mission
• Discerning and making decisions “in good faith”
• The difference between feeling comfortable or content and feeling peaceful
• The Church and the relationship of tension between “power” and “piety”
• How to deal with “catechism flame-throwers”
• The relationship between Magisterium and Ministerium

Details: The broadcast is free and open to the public. You can tune in from any place you have internet access. We also have a chat room for you to use during the broadcast in order to connect with one another and with us. You can also submit your questions ahead of time by using the comment box below.

If new to A Nun’s Life podcasts, the podcasts are basically like tuning into a radio program, but instead of broadcasting it on the airwaves, we broadcast it on our website. All you have to do is visit our website and make sure the volume on your computer is up.

More information including upcoming shows and recordings of past episodes can be found at the In Good Faith program web page.

AS094 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 30, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: nun hairstyles, a question of morals, debunking nun myths for your friends, explaining nuns to a 4-year-old child, weird detours, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• A novelist wants to know what’s under the veil for sisters circa 1960: hair or no hair?
• A listener asks if there are moral qualifications to be a nun. We’ll expand the convo to talk about moral qualifications for vocations of all types.
• What to tell friends about nuns and virginity, nuns and trust funds, and nuns who are parents.
• Can sisters and nuns keep assets and inheritances when they enter religious life?
• Do nuns get an allowance or stipend?
• A mom wonders how to explain what nuns are to her four-year-old.
• Are weird detours part of God’s plan?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS093 Ask Sister podcast published on November 24, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. This is a Special Edition on Saints, holiness, and joy. The nuns are joined by Catholic superstars Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, and Father James Martin, SJ.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

Sister Sandra Schneiders

• What is the Scriptural basis for the saints?
• In iconography and in various visual renderings, the saints are often pictured with some kind of symbol that speaks to something about their life — Teresa of Avila is pictured with a dove and quill, Saint Joseph with carpentry tools. Centuries from now, what symbol would you hope would be associated with you?
• What does holiness mean in general as well as in the ups and downs of our daily life?
• What was it like first getting to  know the author of the Fourth Gospel?
• Check out Sister Sandra’s new book Prophets in Their Own Country: Women Religious Bearing Witness to the Gospel in a Troubled Church

Father James Martin

• What role do saints play in our prayers?
• Is it considered a miracle that some saints do not decompose after dying?
• Isn’t holiness a pretty serious thing? What role do joy, humor, and laughter play in the spiritual life?
• What’s the deal with relics?
• What advice would you give to people who want to live a saintly life?
• Check out Father Jim’s new book Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS092 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 17, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: call and dread in discernment, a novelist seeks info on real-life nuns, ministry to and with children, cooking and cleaning nuns, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• The work of discernment: call and dread. Really?
• Novelist asks about nuns in childcare ministries, and Sister Camille Brouillard responds by describing what it was like to minister to children with AIDS.
• I found a description of sisters and nuns on a diocesan website that describes their lives in terms of cooking and housekeeping and wanting to be loved and, oh yeah, some prayer too. What’s up with that?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS091 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 9, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry.  Topics include: novelist needs info for nunfiction, hanging up on a call from God, how nuns pray, submissiveness, unholy spirits, gay saints

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• A novelist is looking for info for a new work of nunfiction
• Hanging up on a call from God? What happens when a nun leaves religious life?
• A rosary a day? How nuns pray.
• What is submissiveness?
• Unholy spirits and what to do about them
• Are there any gay saints?

Do you have a question for us? Using your computer, record your question on voice mail. It’s easy to do! Just click this Record link to get started! Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS090 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 3, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Special Saintly Edition. Topics include: saints in a cave, saintly symbols-coffee and ice cream, decommissioned saints, saintliness in scripture

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• How St. Syncletica ditched her entourage and headed for a cave
• Coffee, bicycles, trees, open vessels, ice cream and other symbols of sainthood
• When saints go marching off the General Roman Calendar–where do they go?
• Sister Sandra Schneiders on holiness from the perspectives of St. Paul and the Fourth Gospel

Do you have a question for us? Using your computer, record your question on voice mail. It’s easy to do! Just click this Record link to get started! Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS000 Ask Sister podcast, encore edition for August 11, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: requirements for nunhood, telling the nuns that you’d like to join, nuns put to the test, fasting, married–and called to be a sister.

We hope you enjoy this encore edition of Ask Sister! We’re at World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, this week and will be broadcasting live from the event. Stay tuned to our program schedule for details in the next day or two!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!
Here are some of the questions we address in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Does one have to be a virgin to become a nun?
• Stories of joy, fear, and wonderment — what it’s like to tell nuns that you’re interested in religious life
• Do you have to take written tests before you can be a nun?
• Fasting – historical perspectives and its place in faith and church life today
• Are Catholics allowed to practice yoga?
• What happens when you’re married and have children but feel called to religious life?

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/ and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

Welcome to a special ENCORE PRESENTATION of Ask Sister podcast. The nuns are in nunly meetings all week but wanted to be sure you still had an opportunity to listen to an Ask Sister podcast. This is one of our favorite ones with special guest Sister Kathie Budesky, IHM, the director of Visitation North Spirituality Center.

As you listen to this podcast, jot down your questions and insights and then head on over to the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and start a conversation! Go for it!

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In this podcast episode, we chatted about the “Examen Prayer”, God and free will, the difference between vowed religious vocations and ‘non-vowed religious vocations’, and what to do when you don’t feel connected with God.

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS079 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on July 21, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: bible books aplenty, dropping “sisters” from liturgical language, control freaks and God, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!
Here are some of the questions we address in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I came across an older bible recently. It has more books than one I recently bought, e.g. the book of Enoch. Why are these bibles different?
• Do you find yourself allowing God to direct your ministry and life or do you need complete control over such matters?
• Why do some churches omit “and sisters” from parts of the Mass such as the penitential rite which says, “and you, my brothers and sisters”?

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS078 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on July 14, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: engineering nuns, total consecration, when the saints go marching off the General Roman Calendar, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we address in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Can I use my engineering skills as a sister? What kinds of ministries could I be involved in?
• What does “total consecration” mean theologically and how does it fit into a person’s daily faith life?
• Who in the Catholic Church decides if a saint like Christopher or a “place” like limbo no longer exists? How do they decide?

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS077 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on July 1, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: The sisters fav Catholic jokes; discerning religious life; origins of A Nuns Life Ministry; why stay Catholic; and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we address in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Guest host Regina Heater interviews the sisters about their experience of discernment
• The sisters’ favorite Catholic jokes
• What was the sisters’ “pre-nun” life like?
• How did A Nun’s Life Ministry begin, and what’s ahead
• Adventures of A Nun’s Life
• Why Catholic, why now?

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from which you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS076 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 23, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: going on retreat, detachment from (YIKES) gadgets, nun-fiction writer seeks authentic religious life, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we address in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I want to go on retreat. Where would I go and what should I expect?
• Could you talk about what detachment from material things means? I’m thinking about religious life, and I’m scared about giving up my things especially my gadgets!
• Another novelist contacts the nuns! The author wants to authentically portray a modern-day nun for her sitcom-esque story. Help the nuns in their advice for the story.

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS075 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 16, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: college grad talks about volunteering for a year, recognizing God at work in daily life, called to be a nun or doctor (or both?), and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we address in this Ask Sister podcast:

• How to recognize God at work our daily lives — putting on our God goggles
• Should I become a doctor or a nun or can I do both?
• SPECIAL ON-AIR GUEST: Eilis talks about volunteering for a year and living the three pillars of service, community, and spirituality. We talk with her about the Franciscan Community Volunteers, helping refugees resettle in the U.S., how it has affected her faith, and more!

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS074 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 9, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: testing God, praying for safety in risky situations, religious medallions, psalm selections, does prayer really work.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!
Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Does participating in something inherently risky, like bike racing, equate to “testing” God?
• A lot of bike racers have religious medallions. My Mom also puts guardian angel pins in my car. Do medallions actually do anything?
• Does prayer really work? How can you tell?
• How does the church pick which verses of a psalm to use?
• What does it mean to test your “readiness” for a vocation?

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF010 In Good Faith with Sister Barbara Reid, OP, PhD, recorded live on June 2, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. The nuns talk with Sister Barbara about finding God in everyday life, Sacred Scripture, prayer, biblical spirituality, and more!
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Guest: Sister Barbara Reid, OP

Sister Barbara Reid, OP, is a Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She holds a PhD in Biblical Studies from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC and is professor of New Testament and vice president and academic dean at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Her most recent books are Taking Up the Cross: New Testament Interpretations Through Latina and Feminist Eyes , The Gospel According to Matthew: New Collegeville Bible Commentary Series , the three-volume work Parables for Preachers, and Choosing the Better Part? Women in the Gospel of Luke.

Topic: The sisters talk with Sister Barbara about her experience of living faith in everyday life, drawing on her work as a scripture scholar and as VP/academic dean of CTU, the first woman to hold that role.

Show Notes:

• The Bible as a way to understand our present experience of God in light of the experience of our ancestors in the faith
• New to the Bible? Suggestions for how to get started
• Conflicting images of God in the scriptures – who is the “real” God?
• Jesus, the incarnation of the loving God
• Biblical spirituality
• Ways to pray with the Bible
• Saint Dominic’s Nine Ways of Prayer
• Women in the scriptures and their messages for us today
• ”Feminism” – a commitment to dignity and equality for all people
• How the feminist perspective challenges interpretations of scripture that justify violence and abuse
• How to keep the scriptures “fresh”

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

AS073 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on May 26, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: does the bible prohibit women from teaching the faith, God and suffering, romance-mystery novelist returns, lessons from the rapture.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!
Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What is your take on why God allows suffering?
• Our romance-mystery-suspense novelist returns with more questions about her nun character (and assures us that the nun won’t get bumped off … yet)
• Does the bible say that women shouldn’t teach the faith? Which verses do that, and how should we interpret them?
• Rapture update: what have we learned?

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS072 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on May 19, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: the surfing Madonna, purgatory discovery, why Jesus was baptized, dealing with mockers and naysayers, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!
Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• How to deal with people who mock your life and the choices you’ve made
• Is it a myth or legend or truth that Saint Patrick discovered Purgatory?
• Why Jesus was baptized
• An apparition of Mary that’s causing waves in one California town
• Up for discussion: “The more someone is present on the internet, the less they are present in real life.”

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS071 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on May 11, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Lady Gaga and Judas, blessed and cursed, dieting and Eucharist, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What’s your take on Lady Gaga’s music video “Judas”?
• Biblical imagery in Lady Gaga’s “Judas”
• If we are blessed by God when things go well, does that mean we’re cursed by God if things aren’t going well?
• Rohald Rolheiser’s and “blessed consciousness”
• Update on Lenten fasting by a province of Felician sisters
• Dieting and the Eucharist

 

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF009 In Good Faith with Father James Bacik, PhD, recorded live on May 5, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. The nuns talk with Father Jim about finding God in everyday life, prayer, Christian spirituality, theologian Karl Rahner, and more!
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Guest: Father James Bacik

Father James Bacik, a priest of the Diocese of Toledo, is the pastor of Corpus Christi University Parish in Toledo, Ohio and serves as a campus minister and adjunct professor of humanities at the University of Toledo. His doctorate in theology is from the University of Oxford in England. His many articles, chapters and books include Apologetics and the Eclipse of Mystery; Contemporary Theologians; Catholic Spirituality, Its History and Challenge and most recently A Light Unto My Path, a book on preaching he wrote with psychologist Kevin Anderson. He has lectured throughout the United States as well as in China, Latin America, Japan and Russia. Father Bacik combines the academic study of theology with the pastoral work he has been doing for many years.

Show Notes:

• Father Jim’s intersecting roles — pastor, theologian, academician
• Father Jim’s intersecting roles — pastor, theologian, academician
• Encounters with theologian Karl Rahner
• The Method of Correlation — bringing the scriptures and Christian tradition to bear on people’s everyday concerns
• The human orientation to Holy Mystery, Gracious Mystery
• “Jesus, the ‘P.S.’ at the end of a long letter of service”
• Contemporary Catholic apologists and the long tradition of Christian apologetics
• Mystagogy
• Even sin can be revelatory of God’s mercy and love
• Prayer as “truth-telling”
• The increasing diversity within the Catholic Church
• Father Jim’s current work on the issue of Catholic identity

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

AS070 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on May 4, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: feeling okay about the filioque, Ninja Nuns, living community, following in a religious brother’s footsteps. A surprise guest joins the nuns!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What’s up with the two Anglican Nuns at the Royal Wedding? Is the taller one really a ninja?
• Please explain the filioque and how the trinitarian relationship has implications for our daily life.
• How do ideas about the filioque relate to generosity and kindness?
• What has been your biggest struggle and/or benefit from living in community?
• Living in community, and living community
• Is God really calling me to be a religious sister or could it just be because my brother is a religious brother and I want to follow in his footsteps?

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS069 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on April 28, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: what are nuns good for? Dial 666 for Devil, nun generations, romance-thriller novelist consults the nuns, Great Schism of East and West and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Is there a generation gap in orders of women religious? Do the older nuns ‘think’ different from the younger ones? or does ‘community’ transcend that type of thing?”
• We wanted to know what religions nuns are for. [Nun Note: So many ways to take this question but we'll do our best tackling it from all sides!]
• What’s the deal with 666? Is it really a sign of the devil? Should we be concerned when it pops up? [For more on hell-related items, descend to the depths of our blog and read Free Trip to Hell]
• Could you talk about what the Great Schism of the East and West is?
• A romance-thriller-suspense novelist asks for help with the character development of a young woman who may be thinking about joining a religious community.

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS068 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on April 15, 2011, at the Motherhouse of the Racine Dominicans. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include: making your own scapular, opposing human trafficking, becoming a nun, the Stations of the Cross.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Can you make your own scapular?
• How can scapulars be blessed, and what does the blessing do?
• Do the Racine Dominican sisters have associates, and if so, what is associate life like?
• The call to social justice–how the Racine Dominicans and other sisters are working against human trafficking?
• Ways to pray the Stations of the Cross, including an app for your smart phone!

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF008 In Good Faith with Bren Ortega Murphy, PhD, recorded live on April 12, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. The nuns talk with Prof. Murphy about nun images in popular culture, such as Nunzilla, Boxing Nuns, movie nuns and more!

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Guest: Bren Ortega Murphy, PhD

Bren Ortega Murphy holds a joint appointment in Communication Studies and Women’s Studies/Gender Studies at Loyola University Chicago. She is the co-author of two books, Cultural Hegemony in the Unites States with Lee Artz and Voices of Strong Democracy with David Droge. Dr. Murphy has also written, directed and produced one radio documentary and two video documentaries, the latest of which is “A Question of Habit: The Image of Women Religious in U.S. Popular Culture.”

Visit the film’s website and check out the trailer below.

Show Notes:

• the fascination with Nunzilla, the Boxing Nuns, Late Night Catechism, and other images of nuns in popular culture
• what’s the big deal about nun images – they’re just funny, right?
• A Question of Habit, The Image of Women Religious in U.S. Popular Culture—Bren Murphy’s latest documentary
• why habits almost always are used in nun images in popular culture
• why so much nun kitsch but not so much priest kitsch in comparison?
• portrayals of sisters and nuns in popular culture “that got it right”
• buying nun image products – does it perpetuate stereotypes?
• the intersection of images of nuns and of women in popular culture
• the glass-ceiling phenomena in business
• what nun images reflect about popular culture

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live every first Thursday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

AS067 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on April 8, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include: leveraging nunly shareholder powers for good, obedience and authority, associate commitments, marriage, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Can spouses release one another from marriage vows in order to enter religious life?
• What does it mean to make a commitment or covenant as an Associate of a religious community? What would such a commitment look like?
• The vow of obedience as it relates to authority and how the vow affects a Catholic sister or nun in daily life (for context, see our last episode AS066 Ask Sister)
• Plus the Sisters talk about nuns in the boardroom and how congregations are leveraging their shareholder powers for good

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS066 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on April 1, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include: trash-talkin nuns, questions about becoming a religious after having been in prison or divorced, the vow of obedience, bathtub Marys, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What is the converse of the vow of obedience? Is that a struggle for you in everyday life?
• Is a divorced person whose ex-husband dies free to become a nun?
• The sisters consider a new podcast series … Trash-Talkin’ Nuns
• Is it possible to enter a religious community after been a felon?
• What’s the deal with bathtub Marys?

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from which you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS065 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 25, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include: psychics and nuns, meditating on Scripture, sisters in the parish, Celibacy in the City TV show?, meet Sister Mary Evoca, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I visited a psychic who told me to go to nuns for direction. Help!
• What does it mean to meditate over (or on) scripture?
• What is the role of Catholic sisters and nuns in parish life?
• What’s up with that new recording gizmo on aNunsLife.org/contact (aka our new portress Sr. Mary Evoca)
• Celibacy is CRAZY! Can anyone really live that way?

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS064 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 18, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guest: Sister Julianna Vagnozzi, CSSF. Topics include: confession and reconciliation, chapel veils, Lent, a real nun on the set of Sister Act II, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• New Protestant religious order seeks advice on habits.
• What’s up with chapel veils and mantillas in church — too old-school, sign of respect, gender stereotyping?
• Confession and reconcilation
• Do habits “cause” vocations?
• Lenten solidarity with people who are poor
• A real sister gets into the act in the movie Sister Act II

Do you have a question for us? Visit “Sister Mary Evoca” at http://anunslife.org/contact and record your question or comments for us and the A Nun’s Life Community. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS063 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 11, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guest: Sister Kathie Budesky. Topics include: the daily Examen prayer, God and free will, different notions of vocation, feeling unconnected to God, and more!

This episode was broadcast live from the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan, with an in-house audience! Sister Kathie Budesky, IHM, the director of Visitation North Spirituality Center, joined Sister Maxine and Sister Julie on air.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Can you talk more about the “Examen Prayer”? What is it? How do you use it/apply it?
• How do we make sense of God and free will?
• What is the difference between vowed religious vocations and ‘non-vowed religious vocations’?
• What do you do when you don’t feel connected with God as usual?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF007 In Good Faith with Mike Hayes, co-founder of BustedHalo.com, recorded live on March 8, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Our hosts talk with Mike about parish ministry with young adults, technology, young adults and the church, and more!

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Guest: Busted Halo’s Mike Hayes

Mike Hayes, co-founder and senior editor at BustedHalo.com. Mike is also author of Googling God. He is currently in campus ministry at Saint Joseph University Parish in Buffalo, NY. His website is http://GooglingGod.com/.

Show Notes:

• being called to minister with young adults
• some of the spiritual challenges faced by young adults today
• parish ministry on a university campus
• the inspiration for creating BustedHalo.com
• Googling God — the Internet and the search for the Divine
• difference between on-line and face-to-face communication
• “Brief Relief” — a creative social justice approach
• campus ministry at the intersection of pre-professional coursework
• keeping it real — talking with young adults about controversial social issues
• how to make a place in the church for young adults
• advice on starting an online outreach to young adults

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live every first Thursday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

AS062 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 4, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: common v. personal prayer, spiritual poverty, preparing for Lent, ways to pray, and prayer and healing.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Is there a dynamic in community prayer that you cannot get from praying on your own?
• What is spiritual poverty? Should I run from it or embrace it?
• With Lent approaching, how do you plan to honor the season?
• The nuns’ favorite ways to pray
• Does prayer promote healing?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS061 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 25, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: cathedral v. basilica, dealing with depression, the basics on Catholic prayers, encountering less-than-nice vocation/formation personnel.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What is the difference between a cathedral and a basilica?
• Do nuns and sisters get depressed? Can prayer help?
• Unpleasant encounters with vocation/formation personnel — should this be a determining factor in whether or not to enter religious life?
• How to listen to Ask Sister in Spain…and other places around the world!
• Is there a comprehensive resource for basic Catholic prayers and practices?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

Today instead of our regular live broadcast of Ask Sister podcast we’d like to try a little something different. We worked with a couple religious communities to test out a new podcast series called “In Their Own Words: Stories about Catholic Religious Life told by those who live it.” We’d love to get your feedback on the pilot podcast we did with the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Use the comment box below!

Our guests are Sister Nancy Roberta Schramm, OSF, and Sister Lovina Francis Pammit, OSF.

If you are a member of a religious community of sisters, brothers, monks, nuns, or other form of consecrated life and are interested in having A Nun’s Life Ministry produce a podcast like this for you, contact us at .

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AS060 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 11, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: praying to Mary, missing God’s call, nuns in India, Saint Scholastica, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Do Catholics pray to Mary? What is the Church’s teaching, especially in
  light of 1 Timothy 2:5?
• Finding Catholic sisters in India — be sure to check out our interview with Sister Sabitha
• Can you become a nun if you have a child? (see also episode AS059 where Sister Hildegard talks about being a contemplative nun with grandchildren!)
• Is it possible to miss God’s call? What do I do if I did?
• Thoughts on Thursday’s feast of Saint Scholastica

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

DM006 Digital Ministry with Cliff Ravenscraft, the Podcast Answer Man, on techniques and technology around all things podcasting. Recorded live on February 10, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Be inspired by technology, technique, and theology.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Guest: Cliff Ravenscraft, the Podcast Answer Man

Cliff Ravenscraft is the founder of GSPN.TV and is a full-time podcast producer and consultant. Among his shows is Podcast Answer Man, a weekly broadcast on techniques and technology around all things podcasting!

Topic: The nuns talk with Cliff about podcasting, what it is, how to get started, tips and secrets to a successful podcast, and growing online community.

We welcome  your questions for our guest. Please submit them using the comment box below or you can type them in the chat room during the live broadcast.

Show Notes

• what is a podcast and podcast basics
• The 11-step Checklist to Starting a Podcast in depth
• how does a podcast compare to a blog?
• what does an RSS feed have to do with a podcast
• deciding to go from podcasting as a hobby to podcasting for a living
• how do you make money as a podcaster?
• gaining financial insight from Dave Ramsey
• understanding podcasting and online community as a form of ministry
• the influence of Leo LaPorte
• the Generally Speaking Production Network – gspn.tv
• growing online community
• getting past the dreaded episode 7
• crossing multiple genres (entertainment, tech help, spiritual, etc.) in a single brand and keeping consistent
• do you need special equipment if you are starting out as an amateur?
• how do you “structure” your daily “work” day when there’s so much to be done to produce a podcast?

Digital Ministry covers a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. The show airs on the second Thursday of the month (today was an exception) from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Visit the Digital Ministry web page for more information including how to download this podcast after the live broadcast and our full podcast schedule.

AS059 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on February 4, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guest: Sister Hildegard Pleva. Topics include: becoming a parent, nun, or actress, am I worthy of God’s calling?, apostolic or contemplative life, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• How did you decide between being an apostolic sister or a contemplative nun?
• I’m 23 and feel like something is missing, the sense of fulfillment and happiness. I feel God is calling me, but I wonder, “Why me? Am I worthy enough of God’s call?”
• I am attracted to both being a religious and being a parent. This tug-of-war makes it difficult to listen to God’s voice, and I wonder if you have any advice for me.
• My dream is to be an actress – acting makes me happy. But when I’m at church I feel at peace and hear a call to be a nun. Help!

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF006 In Good Faith with Sister Laurel O’Neal, a diocesan hermit, recorded live on February 3, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Our hosts talk with Sister Laurel about about the life of a hermit, eremitical solitude, chronic illness, and more!

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Guest: Sister Laurel O’Neal, diocesan hermit.

Sister Laurel O’Neal is a diocesan hermit, theologian, spiritual director and author of the blog notesfromstillsong.blogspot.com.

Show Notes:

• what a hermit is
• historical origins of the eremitical life
• eremitical life in the Camaldolese Benedictine tradition
• discerning a call to eremitical life
• relationship of diocesan hermit to the diocese and bishop
• difference between eremitical life and other forms of consecrated life
• the daily pattern of life for a hermit — the horarium
• lay hermits
• the digital hermitage — a blog as a window to the world
• common misperceptions about the life of a hermit
• chronic illness and vocation
• the unusual vividness of chronic illness
• solitude in the life of a hermit
• deepening the relationship with God through solitude

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live every first Thursday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests on In Good Faith, please visit the program page of In Good Faith.

AS058 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 28, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: pooh-poohing a vocation, a matter of conscience, original sin and sex, sudden conversion, female Doctors of the Church, and more!

Special Guest: Sister Sarah Foster, RSM

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• How do you talk to people who do not understand your calling (e.g., to religious life) or who react in negative ways?
• Conscience. What is it? Is it formed by nature or nurture?
• Is original sin all about sex? Is sex really sinful?
• Why are there so few female Doctors of the Church?
• Is it possible to have a sudden conversion and have it “stick”?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS057 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 21, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: legit baptisms, stuff and the vow of poverty, novitiate reception ceremonies, looking for faith on the Internet, commitment to God, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Is baptism in other Christian traditions recognized by the Roman Catholic church?
• When a person enters the religious life, what becomes of the person’s stuff?
• What was your novitiate reception ceremony like? How did you plan it?
• What are you thoughts on Christian websites with lots of inspirational articles, podcasts, etc. Is this a trend for future generations? Should people also incorporate an outreach such as attending a church service?
• How do I as a layperson consistently dedicate my life to God?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling, and an email address in case we need to contact you. We’ll play your message and respond on the next Ask Sister podcast — your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS056 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 14, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Benedictine monastics outside the monastery, godly anger, church-going dilemma for a Catholic-Protestant couple, not feeling called, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I feel I have a vocation but recently I’ve felt “not called” anymore. Should I be worried?
• How can Benedictines be considered monastics when so many of them work in the world? … Sister Christine Ereiser, OSB, responds
• What would cause God to be angry with us? (from a discussion about Meribah)
• Is it okay to be angry with God?
• What are some healthy ways for a couple to attend church when one is Catholic and one is Protestant?
• Plus, an update from the “nun-ordering-pizza” debate!

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

DM005 Digital Ministry with Father Robert Barron on the theology of ministering online, how to proclaim the Gospel in a digital age. Recorded live on January 13, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Be inspired by technology, technique, and theology.

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Guest: Father Robert Barron

Father Robert Barron is a sought-after speaker on the spiritual life-from universities to YouTube to national conferences and private retreats. The Catholic theologian and podcasting priest is one of the world’s great and most innovative teachers of Catholicism. His global media ministry called Word On Fire has a simple but revolutionary mission – to evangelize the culture.

Topic: The sisters talk with Father Barron about WWJD? What would Jesus do given today’s digital technology and media? Does Scripture give us any clues on why or how we might use digital media for the sake of the Gospel? We discuss these topics and more on this episode of Digital Ministry.

Show Notes

• Fr. Barron’s ministry at WordOnFire.org and teaching at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake Mundelein seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago
• the variety of media that Fr. Barron uses to minister online
• the importance of reading and studying theology and the faith before ministering online
• using other people’s language to communicate the Gospel
• talking about the Gospel to people who are unchurched, or unfamiliar with religion
• like Jesus, hanging out in the “courtyard of the Gentiles,” a place where unbelievers can engage with the Catholic faith
• YouTube and the Internet as a virtual Areopagus (cf: Saint Paul preaching in the Areopagus, Acts 17:16-34)
• how ministering online affects one’s own prayer life
• the influence of Fulton Sheen
• the “YouTube heresies”
• Father Robert’s reviews of the movies Gran Torino and True Grit
• responding to people who show anger in their comments on YouTube or other websites
• thoughts on WWJD — what would Jesus do in today’s digital world
• themes from scripture that can encourage us in our online ministry
• the spiritual needs of people online and adapting to them
• balancing multiple ministry responsibilities and interacting online
• and thoughts on what sermon Fr. Barron would ask Jesus to preach!

Digital Ministry covers a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. The show airs on the second Thursday of the month (today was an exception) from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Visit the Digital Ministry web page for more information including how to download this podcast after the live broadcast and our full podcast schedule.

For more information, including upcoming guests and our full podcast schedule, visit the program page of Digital Ministry.

Continue the conversation day or night at the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and look for the topic “Digital Ministry Podcast Listeners.”

AS055 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 7, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include:nun eating habits, ordering pizza, cultivating mindfulness in daily life, making and breaking religious vows, the four-week psalter, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What vows do a nun take? What would happen to a nun if she broke one of her vows?
• How can we live mindfulness, especially when we are always multitasking?
• What are samples of your typical meals? are you allowed coffee?
• Do nuns order pizza?
• Why the variety in styles of dress across religious congregations?
• What’s up with the four-week psalter and how do I know what week we’re in?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF005 In Good Faith with the Catholic Foodie, Jeff Young, recorded live on January 6, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Our hosts talk with Jeff about recipes, essential items in the kitchen, the connection between food and the Sacred, and more.

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Guest: Jeff Young, the Catholic Foodie

Jeff Young is the creator of Catholic Foodie, a podcast “where food meets faith”. The Catholic Foodie show brings to the table recipes and reviews, and it highlights how food can be a sign to us of God’s love and care for each of us and our families

Show Notes:

• the nature of a “Catholic foodie”
• ministry through food and a podcast
• favorite recipes and foods
• food and equipment necessities in the kitchen (behold, the mortar and pestle)
• meaning and symbols in sharing a meal
• connection between food and the Sacred
• the Eucharist as meal and symbol
• Scripture passages and food
• the Mary and Martha story
• being more mindful/intentional about preparing and eating food
• eating healthy
• eating whole foods and close to the earth
• things to look for when reviewing a restaurant
• a seafood gumbo recipe for listeners
• King Cakes and Epiphany
• the Cheese Nun
• dinner and decor for a visit from none other than Jesus

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live every first Thursday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests on In Good Faith, please visit the program page of In Good Faith.

The Catholic Foodie’s Seafood Gumbo Recipe (discussed during the episode)

Ingredients

• 2 lbs shrimp (with heads attached), peeled, retain the heads & shells
• 4 yellow onions, 2 chopped, 2 quartered
• 4 ribs celery, 2 chopped, 2 quartered
• 2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 6-9 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 pounds tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 1 pound okra, sliced (1/2-inch slices)
• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Cayenne pepper, to taste
• 3 bay leaves
• Sea salt, to taste
• black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 1 pound lump crabmeat
• 4-6 gumbo crabs, optional
• 1-2 dozen oysters (with their liquor)
• Filé powder, to taste
• 1 bunch parsley (flat-leaf), chopped
• rice
• Crystal Hot Sauce or Tabasco, to taste

Method

FOR THE STOCK:
Peel and devein the shrimp, removing the heads. Refrigerate shrimp until ready to use. Place heads and shells in a stock pot. Quarter 2 onions lengthwise. Quarter 2 or 3 cloves of garlic. Cut the celery into 3 to 4 inch pieces. Add 8 to 10 cups of water to the stock pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 2 hours. Strain through fine-meshed sieve. Discard shells and veggies. Return stock to pot and set aside.

FOR THE GUMBO:

1. Chop the yellow onions and the celery. Seed, trim, and chop the bell pepper. Set aside. Peel and seed the tomatoes, chop and set aside. (Alternatively, you can use the equivalent in canned tomatoes). Trim and slice the okra into 1/2-inch slices. Set aside.|
2. Make your roux. Roux is made with equal parts flour and oil. In this recipe, we use butter to make the roux. Heat a deep skillet (stainless steel or cast-iron) on medium heat (#6). Cut up the butter and add to the skillet. When the butter melts and begins to bubble, start adding the flour slowly, stirring constantly with a spatula (preferably wooden). Remember to stir constantly to prevent burning or scorching. The roux will quickly change colors. For the gumbo, you want a dark brown roux, the color of chocolate. This should take about 5 to 7 minutes.
3. Once the roux has reached the right color, quickly add the onions, celery, and bell pepper, continuing to stir until all is mixed well. Sauté the veggies until they soften, about 3 or 4 minutes. Add the minced garlic and continue to sauté, stirring another minute or two.
4. Bring reserved stock to a boil. Add the veggie-roux mixture to the stock using a large spoon. Stir in the spoonful of mixture until fully integrated before adding another spoonful. Add the tomatoes, okra, bay leaves and thyme. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Add the gumbo crabs. Return to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for about an hour. Occasionally skim and discard any excess oil that pools on the surface.
5. Add the reserved shrimp. Allow to simmer for another 2 minutes. Add the crab meat and the oysters. Simmer for another 2 or 3 minutes, until the edges of the oysters start to curl. Taste and adjust seasoning. Add some of the green onions and the parsley (save some so that each guest can add to their bowl according to taste).
6. Remove bay leaves and discard. Serve in bowls over rice. Sprinkle bowls with green onions and parsley. Have Crystal Hot Sauce or Tabasco on hand, and gumbo filé, in case anyone wants to thicken up their bowl with a dash or two.

Bon appetit!
Servings: 10
Source: Jeff Young, the Catholic Foodie

AS054 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on December 31, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: angels, nuns exchanging gifts, finding meaning in life, letting go of expectations and control, centering prayer ideas and tips, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

During this special edition broadcast, we discussed 3 of our favorite segments of 2010:

• the spouse of Christ and other images to view our relationship with God (episode AS039)
• Chloe the Convent Cat responds to a question about Mickey Mouse (episode AS032)
• angels and choirs thereof (episode AS053)

We also addressed some of the questions in the book Nuns Having Fun such as:

• What do you wear to bed?
• Do you get to choose where you live?
• What do you carry in your pockets?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS053 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on December 17, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: angels, nuns exchanging gifts, finding meaning in life, letting go of expectations and control, centering prayer ideas and tips, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What are some of the Catholic views on angels and their role in God’s service?
• I feel like there’s a distant meaning in life, but I don’t know if it’s religious or not. Could you shed some light?
• Do nuns exchange gifts for family and friends at Christmas?
• How can I let go of expectations and control when I am on the precipice of change?
• Could you talk more about centering prayer, what it is different ways to do centering prayer, and any tips?
• … and much, much more!

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS052 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on December 10, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guest: Sister Donna Hart, IHM. Topics include: military sisters, convents defined, Franciscan knotted cord, down and unmotivated, why be Catholic?, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Can Catholic sisters be in the military or national guard?
• What makes a particular abode a “convent”?
• How does one find the knotted cord that Franciscans wear?
• I’m feeling down and have no motivation unless I become a nun. What do I do?
• Why be Catholic if there other ways to get to heaven?
• Do you find your lives particularly stressful? When you are stressed, what do you do? How do you cope with the unknown?

Today we’ll be joined by special guest Sister Donna Hart, IHM. We’ll ask Sister Donna about her life as a Catholic sister, and in particular what it was like to experience life as a sister before the Second Vatican Council, during the Council and now 40+ years later.

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

DM004 Digital Ministry with Avinash Kaushik on web analytics, search engine optimization (SEO) and getting visitors to your website. Recorded live on December 9, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Be inspired by technology, technique, and theology.

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Guest: Avinash Kaushik

Avinash Kaushik is the Analytics Evangelist for Google, author of Web Analytics 2.0 and Web Analytics: An Hour A Day, and co-founder and chief education officer for Market Motive. He is also the author of the popular blog Occam’s Razor on web analytics.

Topic: The sisters talk with Avinash about how what web analytics and search engine optimization (SEO) are, how to attract people to one’s website, how to keep them coming back, and how to track and measure one’s website.

Show Notes:

• a first for Avinash: being interviewed by nuns!
• how Avinash got into working online
• what it means for Avinash to be an “evangelist” in his line of work
• a basic primer on web analytics and search engine optimization (SEO)
• a free downloadable PDF: Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide
• how to increase ranking on the search engines
• things search engines like
• things search engines don’t like
• what is meta-data — tags, keywords, descriptions — and how to use them
• a few ways to promote a website at no cost
• using Twitter and Facebook in conjunction with one’s website
• the value of making comments of value to other readers
• starting up with web analytics
• using WebsiteGrader.com to see how well is your website doing, if it’s getting traffic, if it has any SEO problems, and how popular is it in social media
• being yourself when writing a blog
• good content is always queen or king
• a case for why web analytics is important to have for any website
• understanding what a bounce rate is … see Avinash’s blog post on bounce rate for more info
• and more!

Digital Ministry covers a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. The show airs on the second Thursday of the month (today was an exception) from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Visit the Digital Ministry web page for more information including how to download this podcast after the live broadcast and our full podcast schedule.

For more information, including upcoming guests and our full podcast schedule, visit the program page of Digital Ministry.

Continue the conversation day or night at the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and look for the topic “Digital Ministry Podcast Listeners.”

AS051 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on December 3, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: cool stuff v. vow of poverty, understanding changes to Roman Missal, tattoos, converting and becoming a nun, prayer, transfer nuns, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What makes a particular abode a convent?
• Can you bring your awesome cool stuff to the convent when you enter? What about the vow of poverty?
• Why are there changes to the Roman Missal?
• How long do you have to wait after you’ve converted to Catholicism to enter a religious community?
• How do each of you pray?
• Can nuns have tattoos?
• Can sisters transfer from one order to another?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF004 In Good Faith with Father James Martin, SJ, recorded live on December 2, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Our hosts talk with Father Jim about his vocation and life of prayer, faith in real life, Ignatian spirituality, the Examen and more.

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Guest: Father James Martin, SJ

Father James Martin, SJ, is author and culture editor of America magazine and author of the new book The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything. He writes for a number of publications and is a regular commentator on religion and spirituality for major media networks.

Topic: The sisters talk with Father Jim about faith in real life, Ignatian Spirituality, what it means to be a contemplative in action, incorporating prayer into the hecticness of daily life, and more!

Show Notes:

• Father Jim’s calling to become a Jesuit priest
• a vocation to be a writer
• signs we know we are where God wants us to be
• what is spirituality?
• Ignatian spirituality as distinct from other spiritualities
• finding God in all things
• being a contemplative in action
• freedom and detachment
• using the imagination to pray
• Saint Ignatius of Loyola
• The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything
• Father Jim’s “spiritual tool chest”
• the saints and their role in our lives
• living simply
• incorporating prayer and faith in a life already packed with activity and commitments

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live every first Thursday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests on In Good Faith, please visit the program page of In Good Faith.

AS050 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 26, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Special Thanksgiving Edition. Topics include: festive meals, turkey sound effects, recipes, prayers, our favorite Thanksgiving stories, gratitude, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the recipes and stories mentioned in this special edition Ask Sister podcast:

Pumpkin Cheesecake from Suze

9″ or 10″ spring-form pan

Crust:
1 1/4 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs (about 27 or so cookies crushed fine)
5-6 tablespoons melted butter

Filling:
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup cool water
1 cup heavy cream
2 – 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 – 16 oz can pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

For crust combine the gingersnap cookie crumbs with melted butter and press into the bottom of the spring-form pan. Refrigerate for 15 or so minutes to set the crust.

For filling, in a one cup glass measuring cup, combine the unflavored gelatin with the cool water, let sit for 5 minutes to soften. Place the measuring cup into a small saucepan with an inch of boiling water, cook over medium heat until gelatin is dissolved (about a minute or so, don’t overcook). Remove the cup from pan and let cool.

Beat the heavy cream until stiff peaks form. In another bowl beat the softened cream cheese and the sugar for about 2 minutes. Add the pumpkin puree and spices to the cream cheese, beating just until combined (I use a wooden spoon for this step). With the wooden spoon, stir in the softened gelatin until combined. Gently fold in the whipped cream just until incorporated, mixture will look a bit streaky that is ok. Refrigerate at least 4-6 hours or overnight. Sometimes I make pie crust shapes (cut outs of numbers for birthdays, leaves in the fall, a turkey at Thanksgiving and a snowman for Christmas, etc) to decorate the top. If you do this, bake the crust pieces then put onto the cheesecake just before serving.

Sweet Potato Pie from Suze

Single layer pie crust, uncooked. Cover the edges with foil for the first 20 minutes of baking so edges don’t get too brown then remove foil for remainder of baking time

1 cup boiled sweet potatoes, smashed with a potato masher to smoothness or riced if you are a purist (like my mom was)
1 cup sugar (I use only 1/2 cup)
2 beaten eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or you can use 1/2 teaspoon, I like lots of cinnamon)
1/2 cup brown sugar (the dark brown sugar gives a nice color to the finished pie)
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup broken pecan pieces

Mix the smashed sweet potatoes, sugar and eggs together. Add milk, flour and spices and blend all together. In a separate bowl, mix the brown sugar, melted butter and pecan pieces together and set aside. Pour sweet potato mixture into unbaked the pie shell. Bake at 325 about 20-25 minutes (TOTAL baking time is 45 minutes or so, until the custard is set). When you remove the foil from the crust edge, sprinkle the top of the pie with the brown sugar, butter and pecan mixture then continue baking.

Let cool completely before cutting into the pie as this recipe is based on a chess pie so the pie will be a bit puffy when first out of the oven but settles into a simply delicious consistency.

Colcannon from Julia

Here’s a recipe that I like, called Colcannon (don’t ask me how to pronounce it). It’s an old Celtic way to make mashed potatoes, traditionally made by the Irish on All Saints day to predict the future of the children. For the divination: after the dish is ready, stir in a thimble (spinster), a ring (marriage), a button (bachelor), coin (wealth), and a cross (priest or nun). I’ve never done that game, but if you do, I recommend you sterilize the game pieces, and warn everyone to eat carefully.

4 cups mashed potato’s
2 1/2 cups cabbage, cooked and chopped fine
1/2 cup butter (avoid corn oil margarine as they will not add the needed body and flavor)
1/2 cup cream or evaporated milk
3/4 cup onion, chopped very fine and sauteed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper

Saute onions (traditionalist’s saute in lard or grease, but butter is acceptable). Boil the potato’s and mash them (don’t use artificial potato flakes). Boil (or steam) the chopped cabbage

In a large pan place all the ingredients, except the cabbage, and cook over low heat while blending them together.

Turn the heat to medium and add the cabbage. The mixture will take on a pale green cast. Heat and serve.
(Serves eight.)

AS049 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 19, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: no desire for a vocation, saints and symbols, Therese of Lisieux and Teresa of Avila, exercise habits, putting the holy in holiday, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Can you be called by God to a vocation that you don’t really want? NOTE: The article mentioned in the conversation is 4 Steps for Discernment and Decision-Making
• In art and on holy cards, why are saints pictured with symbols?
• Two Saint Theresa’s? How are they different?
• Can nuns go swimming with their habit on? Horseback riding?
• How do you put the “holy” in “holiday”?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS048 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 12, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: images of God, dreaming about Jesus, priesthood and/or romance, Blessed Mary v. Mary Magdalen, becoming Catholic, serving God in blue jeans!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

This is a special Ask Sister IHM Edition which was broadcast from the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan, before a live studio audience of IHM Sisters. In addition hosts Sisters Maxine and Julie were joined by their IHM Sisters Theresa Koernke and Angela Hibbard, both trained in theology and in liturgy.

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Is it okay to be more of a “Mary Magdalen” than a “Blessed Mary,” that is, to be not quite so perfect, to serve God and still wear our blue jeans?
• What is your image of God? Can we have more than one image of God? Do our images of God ever change?
• Can you discern a calling to become a priest and have a romantic relationship simultaneously?
• What does it mean if you have dreams about Jesus? And what do nuns dream about?
• I’m on the fence about becoming Catholic. What should I do? What questions would be helpful for me to ask to help me figure out what to do?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

DM003 Digital Ministry with Sr. Christine Ereiser, OSB, on using Twitter and providing meaningful content in 140 characters or less! Recorded live on November 9, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Be inspired by technology, technique, and theology.

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Topic: Using Twitter and providing meaningful content in 140 characters or less!

Guest: Sister Christine Ereiser, OSB

Sister Christine Ereiser is a Benedictine nun and the prioress of Saint Joseph Monastery in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and an avid user of Twitter to promote Benedictine values. Sister Christine encourages the use of the Internet and social media within the Benedictine community and at Monte Cassino School, a pre-school through 8 grade school started by the Benedictine Sisters in 1926.

Listen to her story and be inspired!

Show Notes:

• ministry in 140 characters or less
• getting started with Twitter
• tweets and ministry potential
• getting retweets
• choosing topics or themes to tweet
• when not to tweet
• tweeting in support of corporate ministry
• the Benedictine values of hospitality and of stability on the Internet
• amount of time needed to tweet
• Twitter: distraction or ministry?
• advice for Twittering beginners
• a leader’s advice on getting leadership involved in today’s Internet communication
• and more!

Digital Ministry covers a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. The show airs on the second Thursday of the month (today was an exception) from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Visit the Digital Ministry web page for more information including how to download this podcast after the live broadcast and our full podcast schedule.

For more information, including upcoming guests and our full podcast schedule, visit the program page of Digital Ministry.

Continue the conversation day or night at the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and look for the topic “Digital Ministry Podcast Listeners.”

AS047 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on November 5, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Trent and Second Vatican Council, growing in understanding God, a devil for loving, joining a religious community in another country and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I’m a guy in love and want to go out with girl who wants to be a nun, does that mean like I’m the devil or something?
• Is it possible for someone discerning to be a nun to join a religious community in another country? How would this work?
• Could you describe the Council of Trent in a nutshell and how it affected the church?
• What do you think was the greatest positive impact that the Second Vatican Council had on the church?
• What do you know now about God that you wish you’d known in the beginning?
• What are somethings to consider before making a big life decision?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF003 In Good Faith with Sister Bernie Lynch, MM, recorded live on November 5, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Our hosts talk with the Maryknoll missioner about her life, the book Bernie Becomes a Nun, and being a missioner in everyday life.

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Guest: Sister Bernie Lynch, MM

Sister Bernadette Lynch is a Maryknoll Sister and was the subject of the book, Bernie Becomes a Nun (1956). She has served as a missioner for many years in Peru, El Salvador and Guatemala and also has worked with families affected by HIV/AIDS. Sister Bernie has been worked with the Maryknoll Sisters mission awareness team visiting U.S. schools and parishes to help educate people about the missions.

Topic: The sisters talk with Sister Bernie about her life as a missioner, including her unique mission around the book about her journey to becoming a sister, and her insight into how each of us is called to be a missioner.

We welcome your questions for our guest. Please submit them using the comment box below or you can type them in the chat room during the live broadcast.

Show Notes:

• the path to discovering her call to become a Maryknoll sister
• the supportive role of her parents and parish in helping her choose religious life
• being missioned to Peru and then Central America
• the adventure of being a missioner
• facing danger and unpredictability and the unexpected in mission
• spiritual grounding  during the tough times
• new learnings about God
• being a missioner means being able to receive as well as to give
• the effects of the Second Vatican Council on religious life
• Sister Bernie’s “mission” with the popular book Bernie Becomes a Nun
• how she was chosen for the Cosmo article and why Cosmopolitan was interested in a story about a nun
• working with photographer George Barris who would later photograph celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor
• on recreating the process of becoming a sister with help from the book’s author Sister Maria del Rey Danforth, MM
• advice to someone discerning their vocation to religious life
• Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, the Maryknoll sisters who were killed in El Salvador
• stories of the people Sister Bernie ministered to/with
• culture shock after coming back to the US after almost 40 years in Peru, El Salvador, and Guatemala
• everyone is called to be a missioner in a way unique to each person

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live every first Thursday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests on In Good Faith, please visit the program page of In Good Faith.

AS046 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on October 29, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: mother superiors, nun rings, sin and voting, solitude v. loneliness, called to be a nun, prayer and having a Mass said for someone, and more.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Who determines who will be the leader (sometimes called the President or Mother Superior) of a religious congregation?
• Did Saint Francis of Assisi wear a wedding ring?
• Can religious leaders attempt to influence voters by suggesting that voting for or against someone is “sinful”?
• From a spiritual point of view, what is the difference between solitude and loneliness?
• How do I know if I’m called to be a nun?
• Did religious life change in the past 30 years?
• Does your prayer change as you progress in religious life?
• Can a person from one country join a religious community from another country?
• What does it mean when a person asks you to say a Mass or have a Mass said for someone who is living or has died?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS045 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on October 22, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: philosophy and theology, gifts for nuns, God active in our thoughts, choosing a religious community, responding to the call of God, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Can all these thoughts I’m having really be an invitation from God?
• Which religious community is for me?
• Why did you want to become a nun? Why did you choose IHM as you community?
• What is an appropriate gift to a nun celebrating her diamond jubilee?
• Why do some Catholics not like the philosophers Kant and Descartes?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS044 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on October 15, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guest: Sister Joyce Durosko, IHM. Topics include: recycled nun rings, spiritual detachment, how prayer changes and stays the same, rosaries, nuns, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Can you say more about the tradition of newly professed sisters receiving a “recycled” ring from a sister who has since pass away?
• Other thoughts on nun jewelry?
• What does detachment mean in a spiritual sense? Does it mean being detached from people or from things?
• How has your prayer life stayed the same and changed over time?
• Did you wear a wedding dress when you became a sister?
• Plus Sister Joyce offers insight into her life as an IHM Sister and on discernment

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

DM002 Digital Ministry with guests Maureen McCann Waldron and Father Andy Alexander, SJ, of Creighton University Online Ministries recorded live on October 14, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Be inspired by technology, technique, and theology.

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Guests: Father Andy Alexander, SJ, and Maureen McCann Waldron

Father Andy and Maureen are partners at Creighton University’s Collaborative Ministry Office and Online Ministries. Online Ministries has a 12-year history of responding to people’s needs in real language and real-life experience.

They have visitors from around the world and are conscious of tailoring their resources to fit people’s spiritual needs as well as their language, culture, and available technology. One of many current projects is to translate their resources (including their very popular online retreat) into a variety of languages, most recently Chinese!

Listen to their story and be inspired with new ideas for how you engage in  your online ministry.

Show Notes:

• starting small with online ministry
• making the online experience user-friendly, especially across languages and cultures
• getting a variety of sources of content
• promoting one’s online ministry (getting people to show up)
• how working collaboratively affects your ministry
• the inspiration behind Online Ministries
• authentic Catholic websites
• key websites for connecting with young people
• having a full-time job and ministering online as an “add-on”
• creating a website and web experience based on people’s needs
• content vs. form
• Jesus’ use of the technology of his day

Digital Ministry is a podcast on using Internet technologies and social media for ministry. The show is hosted by Sister Maxine and Sister Julie of A Nun’s Life Ministry and covers a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. The show airs on the second Thursday of the month from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests and our full podcast schedule, visit the program page of Digital Ministry.

Continue the conversation day or night at the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and look for the topic “Digital Ministry Podcast Listeners.”

IGF002 In Good Faith with historian Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson recorded live on October 7, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Our hosts talk with Dr. Thompson about the history of U.S. Catholic sisters and nuns and find out some surprising things.

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Guest: Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson

Dr. Thompson is professor of history at Maxwell School of Syracuse University, where she also holds appointments in the departments of religion, political science, and women and gender studies. She is a leading expert on the history of Catholic sisters and nuns in the United States.

Topic: The History of Catholic Sisters and Nuns in the U.S.

The sisters talk with Dr. Peggy Thompson about calling and history, her experience working with women’s religious communities across the country, the significance of Catholic sisters and nuns in the context of the American experience, and what the “good old days” of religious life was actually like. We’ll also talk about how many of the stories of founders and pioneer sisters can inspire us today in our daily quest for God.

Dr. Thompson recently did an 18-lecture series on The History of Women Religious in the United States. The publishers of this series, Now You Know Media, have provided the first lecture for free. Listen to the Introduction and Lecture 1: Discovering Foremothers: Origins of Women’s Religious Life.

Show Notes:

• from broadway aspirations to history scholar
• history, it’s not about “dead things”
• the first sister-President of the United States (and Vice President too)
• what the lives of pioneering sisters can tell us about living an active live and a life of prayer
• what we can learn from religious founders about living a faith-filled life
• sisters caring for the wounded during the Civil War
• the impact of Catholic sisters and nunson U.S. culture
• skeletons in the closet and other surprising tales from religious archives
• habits for apostolic religious — not as traditional as they seem
• revisiting their founding inspiration — lots of surprises along the way
• apostolic orders : are they morphing into Beguines?
• prayer: always central to Catholic sisters and nuns throughout the ages

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live every first Thursday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests on In Good Faith, please visit the program page of In Good Faith.

FP006 Feature Podcast on Discovering Foremothers: Origins of Women’s Religious Life by historian Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson. Published in her 18-lecture series, The History of Women Religious in the United States, through NowYouKnowMedia.com.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Introduction and Lecture 1: Discovering Foremothers: Origins of Women’s Religious Life

If you are interested in purchasing or learning more about the lecture series, visit Now You Know Media.

Listen to Sister Maxine and Sister Julie’s interview with Dr. Thompson on the In Good Faith program.

AS043 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on October 1, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: inclusive language and using male pronouns exclusively for God, Catholic stance on gambling and bingo, nun titles, a right to life, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Where does the Church stand with gambling such as betting on matches, playing poker, etc.? What about bingo?
• What is “inclusive language” all about? What’s wrong with using all-male language in prayer?
• What are the different titles that Catholic sisters and nuns use to refer to themselves and to their sisters in leadership positions?
• The nuns talk about what it means to have a right to life. Backdrop: young people, bullying, outing of others, controlling others, taking care of ourselves–and others–in the midst of our relationships in school, family, online communities, etc.

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS042 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on September 17, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guest: Sister Connie Supan, IHM. Topics include: getting rid of loans, athletic asceticism, sport and God, nun uniforms, high school nun project, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Is there help for paying off a loan even if one isn’t discerning with a specific community? (see also Ask Sister 041)
• What is “athletic asceticism”? Is there a relationship between sport and pursing God?
• What are the different levels of importance in the hierarchy of nuns?
• Do you have traditional foods that you eat that non-nuns eat?
• Do you always have to wear your “nun uniform”?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS041 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on September 10, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: debt and entering a religious order, dealing with the Dark Night, understanding the idea of a sister, what’s up with Satan?, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What advice do you have for wanting to enter a religious order but having debt?
• What can you do when God is distant and you have a “dark night of the soul” moment?
• What happened to talk about Satan or the Devil in religious education, preaching, or other teachings of the church? It’s still one of our biggest temptations.
• Do I have the “idea” of a sister right?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

DM001 Digital Ministry with guest Lisa Hendey of CatholicMom.com recorded live on September 9, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Sponsored by Vision Vocation Network. Our hosts talk with Lisa about social media, faith, building community and more.

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Guest: Lisa Hendey of CatholicMom.com

Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com, a web site focusing on the Catholic faith, parenting and family life, and Catholic cultural topics. The site includes Lisa’s blog, articles by a variety of columnists, podcasts, videos, and many other resources. Lisa is author of the book, The Handbook for Catholic Moms.

Topic: A pioneer’s experience using digital technology & media for ministry

Show Notes:

• the meaning of “digital ministry” compared to “ordinary” ministry
• getting started with online ministry
• how being a mom helps
• a few “ah-HA” moments
• Lisa’s book The Handbook for Catholic Moms (nuns like it too!)
  
• using Facebook as part of one’s digital ministry mix
• making a website more interactive
• getting people to actually come to one’s web site or social media page
• on whether YouTube videos or podcasts should be “professional”
• advice to people starting or already involved in digital ministry
• energy for when the batteries run out

Digital Ministry is a podcast on using Internet technologies and social media for ministry. The show is hosted by Sister Maxine and Sister Julie of A Nun’s Life Ministry and covers a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. The show airs on the second Thursday of the month from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests and our full podcast schedule,  visit the program page of Digital Ministry.

Continue the conversation day or night at the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and look for the topic “Digital Ministry Podcast Listeners.”

Many thanks to our program sponsor VISION Vocation Network.

AS040 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on September 3, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: spiritual direction, being an only child, lost vocations, is God really calling me?, a good age to consider religious life, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Who can be a spiritual director? How do you find one?
• How do I address a vocation director’s concern that I am an only child?
• How do you know that God is really calling you? I feel like I have a void in my life.
• What happens when we are called but say no? What happens if we feel we are being called again? Is there such thing as a lost vocation?
• What’s a good age to start thinking about religious life?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

IGF001 In Good Faith with guest Sister Sandra Schneiders recorded live on September 2, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Our hosts talk with Sister Sandra about vocation, discernment, the Gospel of John, biblical spirituality, and religious life.

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Guest: Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM

Sister Sandra is a leading authority on Catholic women’s religious life and a renowned author. She is professor emerita of New Testament Studies and Christian Spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley. She is the author of a number of books on scripture and religious life. Among them are Written That You May Believe: Encountering Jesus in the 4^th Gospel and The Revelatory Text: Interpreting the New Testament As Sacred Scripture. She is also completing a three-volume series on religious life: the first is Finding the Treasure and the second Selling All are already published and the third book is on the way.

Topic: Exploring God’s call in everyday life.

The sisters talk with Sister Sandra about her call as a Catholic nun as well as her call as a scholar and theologian. The sisters also discuss her work with the Gospel of John and how biblical spirituality can help us in our daily quest for God.

Show Notes:

• on being a self-described “God junkie”
• putting out the last cigarette before entering the convent
• take time to discern but not too long lest you fall into “analysis paralysis”
• on whether and how we can know for sure that God is calling us
• favorite passage in the Gospel of John
• how biblical spirituality can help us in today’s quest to find and to live God’s calling in our life
• the bible as one story and many stories, like our own lives
• ecumenical and interfaith dialogue
• young women discerning religious life
• on having one’s affective needs met in religious life
• living community v. living in community
• “Staying in the Fire” Phyllis Kittel
• the Apostolic Visitation and women religious
• on being faithful to our own identity, not to give it up because it’s been called into question, but “to affirm it more strongly, to claim it more firmly, to live it more truthfully”
• on experiencing loneliness in one’s life
• does God make bad things happen to us?
• the most rewarding aspect of living as a religious

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live every first Thursday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests on In Good Faith, please visit the program page of In Good Faith.

AS039 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on August 27, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: vocations to religious life, images of God, respect for other religions, pink bunnies, temporal punishment and forgiveness, and more!

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!
Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What is temporal punishment and does it mean I’ll still be punished even though I’ve gone to confession and been forgiven?
• What is the best way for a Christian to address the controversial issue of plans for building a mosque near the World Trade Center memorial in New York City?
• What are some ways or images that you use to view your vocation? (e.g., marriage with Jesus, covenant relationship with God, etc.)
• Can God be imaged in different ways? What does this mean in terms of our own relationship with God and spiritual growth?
• Why are bunnies pink? (a deeply philosophical issue!)

We welcome your insights and conversation on these topics and more by interacting with us via the chat room during the live broadcast.

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS038 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on August 20, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: file cabinets in the image of God (do animals or rocks have souls?), vows human or God made, religious brothers, nun terms, obedience and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!
Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Are the vows that Catholic sisters and nuns take made by God or by humans?
• Do file cabinets have souls?
• Is the vow of obedience always understood strictly?
• What are some of the distinctions between the terms nun, sister, consecrated virgin, and lay sister?
• Are brothers the male equivalents of sisters and nuns?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS037 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on August 13, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: lies, sins, and truth; women Doctors of the Church; having a religious life without being a nun; hanging out with the IHM Sisters, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!
Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• If a nun or a sister goes along with what she knows to be a lie, what is her sin?
• How does a person become a Doctor of the Church and why are there so few women recognized as Doctors of the Church?
• If it’s not possible for me to become a nun, what kind of religious life can I have other than being part of my church choir and handbell chorus and attending Mass regularly?
• Can you tell us about your weekend at the IHM Motherhouse for Jubilee and Final Profession?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS036 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on July 30, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Special IHM Sisters Edition. Topics include: vocation stories, prayer and relating with God, ministry, and responses to questions from listeners.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

This is a SPECIAL EDITION episode as we broadcasted live from the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan. We were joined on air by two of our sisters — Sister Mary Ann Hinsdale, IHM,  Associate Professor of Theology at Boston College, and Sister Katherine Collard, IHM, Director of Liturgy & Adult Faith Formation at Saint Andrew Catholic Church in Roanoke, Virginia. Plus you’ll hear the live studio audience of IHM Sisters and Associates and some folks from A Nun’s Life community who were visiting.

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Could you each tell us a little about your ministry?
• When did you first think you might want to be a nun?
• What do you find helpful in your prayer life? What might you recommend to others?
• Why does God feel so distant sometimes?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS035 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on July 23, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: forgiving someone who has hurt us and not getting stuck, nuns as missionaries, religious names of sisters, habit pockets, home altars, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• How is it possible to forgive someone who’s hurt you, and to move on?
• What is the historical reason sisters received a religious name? What is the practice today?
• Do you have a home altar? What do you think about them? (see Sister Sarah’s blog post on this topic)
• What’s the difference between a regular nun and a missionary nun?
• Was it ever the custom that nuns were required to hide their hands in their habits all the time? What was the rationale?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS034 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on July 16, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: Wikipedia entry on nuns, waiting to become a sister, is God angry with me?, having a college degree before entering, prayer, discernment advice.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What do you think of the Wikipedia entry for Nun?
• What can I do as I wait to begin the process to become a Catholic sister?
• Do I have to have a college degree before I enter religious life? What about people who can’t afford to go to college?
• Do you think God is mad at me because I should have become a nun?
• Is it required to go to daily Mass when you are discerning or to go to confession more often?
• What things are not recommended for a person who is discerning?
• Is there any point in praying for specific things if all we need to say is “thy will be done”?

PLUS: An update from the novelist mentioned in last week’s Ask Sister podcast.

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS033 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on July 9, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: choosing from many religious orders, nuns and orphanages, vows essential to religious life?, a novelist’s nun character, age to enter, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• With so many religious orders to choose from, how do I begin to make sense of them?
• Is it possible to become a nun and to own an orphanage?
• Is it true that not all religious orders profess the vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience? Aren’t these evangelical counsels required for religious life?
• Is the nun in my soon-to-be published novel a plausible character?
• What is too young or too old to become a sister?
• Do I need a visa to enter a religious community in a country in which I do not have citizenship?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS032 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on July 2, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Guests: Immaculata IHM Sisters. Topics include: considering religious life, telling parents, other kinds of nuns, having a dowry, vocation story of Sister Julie.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

During this podcast Sister Maxine and Sister Julie were joined by cohosts Sister Rose Bernadette and Sister Danielle, both IHM Sisters from Immaculata, Pennsylvania. Our gratitude for the wonderful hospitality of all the sisters at Villa Maria House of Studies.

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What advice do you have for a 15-year-old feeling called to religious life? Also, my mom wants me to become a mother not a nun. What should I do?
• Are there nuns in Christian traditions other than Catholicism? What are they like and how would I find one?
• In “The Nun’s Story,” Audrey Hepburn’s character was required to bring a dowry when she entered the convent. Is that common today?
• What is Sister Julie’s vocation story? How did she discern her calling to become an IHM sister?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS031 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 25, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: is Mary a mere saint? is being a nun a waste of time? spiritual v. religious? am I called or not? the vocation story of Sister Maxine, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Does the Catholic Church consider Mary a mere saint?
• Have you ever felt that being a sister you wasted your time? Have you ever thought that you cheated yourself?
• Is it okay to be spiritual but not religious?
• How do you know if you are called and that it is not just an idea of yours?
• What is Sister Maxine’s vocation story? How did she discern her calling to become an IHM sister?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS030 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 18, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: cultivating patience, personal opinion v. official church stance, right- and left-brain discernment, entering novitiate, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• How do I become a better “patience person”?
• What does a believer do when personal opinion on a “hot topic” issue (like women priests, abortion, gay and lesbian issues, immigration) differs from the official church stance? Can a believer have a different view and still be Roman Catholic?
• Can we turn our backs on people who are gay or lesbian?
• Is discernment a right-brained or left-brained activity?
• What might my first year of novitiate look like?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS029 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 11, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: prioritizing religious communities to visit, a worried mom, steps in becoming a nun, dealing with a semi-supportive parent, and more.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• When you were discerning how did you prioritize what orders to go visit?
• Do you have any advice for dealing with a mom who doesn’t seem to realize how important my calling is?
• What are the steps in becoming a nun? (see our article How to Become a Catholic Nun)
• How do I relate with my daughter when my husband and I are worried about her enthusiasm about becoming a nun?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS028 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on June 4, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: feeling distant from God, relating to loved ones who don’t get the nun thing, being attracted to religious life but unable to see self as a nun.*

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

* NOTE: This podcast was recorded on the road and without our usual equipment.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Do you ever feel distant from God?
• I want to become a nun but people I love disagree with me. What do I do?
• Can you take A Nun’s Life live shows on the road?
• I have a boyfriend, a past, and health issues, yet I keep being drawn to become a nun even though I can’t see myself as one. What advice do you have?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.