To nun or not to nun: That is the question
Dr Elizabeth Julian rsm
Recently, a young woman asked me how and where I ‘nunned’. She had already asked me the ‘who’ and ‘what’ questions when I said I was a sister. There was a blank look. I added, ‘You know, a Catholic nun.’ So that’s what sparked ‘nun’ as a verb. I’ve been nunning (no sex, no money and no power) as a Sister of Mercy in Wellington since 1976, the year I also began teaching after five years at Massey University and Palmerston North Teachers College.
Almost 40 years is quite a long time these days to spend in one commitment and ministry. How do I know if I’m in the right place? Or doing the right thing? The same way as everyone else knows: I’ve heard God’s voice many, times.
Where do I hear God’s voice? God’s voice comes through Scripture, the liturgy, people, creation and the events of my day. I just have to listen for it.
When I was at Teachers’ College and running out of excuses as to why I should not at least try religious life, I used to sit in the Palmerston North Cathedral during the afternoon.
I think Margaret Anne Mills was sometimes there at the same time thinking about the Sisters of Compassion. (Sr Margaret Anne is now congregational leader of the Sisters of Compassion.)
We probably used Kiwi – ‘Yeah-Nah-Yeah’ – when trying to answer God’s persistent niggle. My cousin, Richard Shortall, had joined the Jesuits a couple of years earlier.
The three of us are all religious today trying to live out the Gospel according to the charism of our congregations.
At my baptism in the Palmerston North Cathedral, I was anointed as priest, prophet and king.
I am called to the same holiness as all the baptised. Like all the baptised I am called to proclaim and witness to, the death and resurrection of Jesus wherever I am.
However, as a religious I live out that call in a different way.
I have professed publicly, visibly and forever that God can fulfil the longings of my heart. That is my vow of celibacy.
My vow of poverty shows it is possible to live through sharing resources rather than accumulating wealth.
My vow of obedience means I am committed to discerning, with other Sisters of Mercy, God’s voice in the midst of the all the voices around me.
These three vows are not ends in themselves. They are ways to help me be about God’s reign for the sake of the world.
They help me keep the God question and the questions of God on the front burner, whether I’m in pottering in the garden, at work, or buying groceries.
Catherine McAuley, the foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, was a woman of wild and daring imaginings who accomplished amazing things for the poor of Dublin.
I wonder if she thinks I should be more wild and daring in my nunning?
Sister Dr Elizabeth Julian rsm is Distance Education Coordinator for The Catholic Institute of Aotearoa New Zealand.