A Day in the Life of a Nun (or a Sister)

Hurting and Healing

2010-05-12T14:50:00.000-07:00

Some hurts can only be healed by giving them time. There is a mystery in that. Life itself, with no help from us, can bring about the healing we most hope for. We need to remind ourselves to get out of the way and life go on. The memories of the hurt churning in the mind are the biggest obstacle to healing. What we can do to help is find a healthy way of steering the mind towards more profitable pursuits. In this way work can be a great gift to us. But all of this needs to happen without mania. Let it happen and give consent gently to the great mysterious creation that is our reality in this life.

Olive Harvest 2010

2009-12-05T11:10:00.001-08:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T14:32:00.000-08:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Invitation to Launch of our new Website

2009-11-07T18:03:00.000-08:00

Make a Smilebox invite

2009-10-18T12:49:00.001-07:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

What do you hope will stay the same?

2009-10-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I am just AMAZED at how transitory things are. Even the ground we walk on that seems so solid, as in Terra Firma, is hurtling through space at 67,000 mph, rotating at 1,000 mph at the same time. Its enough to make you dizzy! When I find something that has what it takes to remain unchanged over time, I am humbled by that. What do you hope will stay the same? What do you wish would change?

What are "these times" saying to you?

2009-02-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

For myself, I have never been so hope-filled! I know that so much in our world is so up side down, yet, maybe that is because so much has not been right side up!

I just know that wherever we fall, it will be more in love with our God and more in right-living with our neighbors. Our global community is our new home, where we can find the gift of oneness and the grace of justice for all.

This blog is for any of you who are discerning "our times" and/ or your vocational response. I am finding that more and more young people are wondering what really matters in their lives, now, as things have scaled down and so many things unsure. It seems that all of our conversations come down to "loving relationships are what it is all about" be it given to one, given to a career, given to a few, or given to the world, it is all good and God is present in you, in all ways!

Remember, we all have the same primary vocation and that is to BE LOVE in the world. Now, your secondary, unique vocation (married, single, religious) is simply seeing HOW are you going to be that love in the world. The decision is yours and it is fun and exciting to take that journey with your God!

Come in and share if you have a reflection on these new times and/or your life's vocation!

Peace out and peace within, your Sis' Becky:)

Do You Have Any Special Prayer Requests These Days?

2007-12-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

I love to pray for people, some may say what does that mean? To me, to pray for others, is to stand in the wide circle of God's love...which includes ALL people and all of creation! Prayer is standing in love with another person. Prayer is walking in the faith that light shall rise from any darkness. Prayer is being in the presence of God with all I think, desire and do. Prayer is my immediate connection to your heart, where we are one in Love and God. What do you think prayer is? And I would love to include your prayers intentions to my own:) Please hold my Dad in yours, as he is challenged with illness at this time.
With Peace and Love, your sister, Rebecca

How Can We Reverence Each Other's Religious and Spiritual Beliefs?

2007-07-12T22:48:00.000-07:00

What does Jesus teach us about other's beliefs? Do you have any ideas or Scripture that reflect Jesus' message about loving and accepting all people's unique, spiritual path and journey?

Come on in and let us know:)

What Do You Think Love Is?

2007-02-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

LOVE.......One of my favorite topics and in many ways the most important one around, because it is the one thing that keeps our planet going around! So let's talk about Love, come on in with any questions or reflections you may have:)
Always here to listen, your justbebecky :)

Autumn: "Come, Explore my Gentleness"

2006-10-18T20:26:00.001-07:00

The last we talked was on Pentecost and has the Holy Spirit been flying ever since! Come on in and let's catch up:)
(And as always, I am answering any questions you may have about religious life or any spiritual wonderings)

Celebrate EASTER with me for 50 days!

2006-04-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

As Lent is over, I look back at the 40 days and see such growth all around and within me! Do you? I think my spiritual life is the greatest source of JOY in my life. And I have come to honor the dark nights that make it so. I love that saying, "GOD'S GREATEST GIFT TO US IS LIFE, AND OUR GREATEST GIFT TO GOD IS WHAT WE DO WITH IT".

I love the Easter season of celebration! I remember how happy I was when I first noticed that there were more days in the Easter season (50) than in Lent (40). We truly are Resurrection people, meant to see the hope in all situations and know that our God will find a way to help us rise up out of any suffering we may have. And, the Easter season is the time to celebrate that very thing! It's funny sometimes people find it easier to do Lent than Easter, to be more serious and remorseful, yet forget the joyful, fun filled times with our God! Easter is a time the Church wants to remind us of that, how joyful it can be to be a follower of Jesus!!! Not every day the church says "party-hearty so let's get to it'!!! :)

For the next 50 days I invite you to find a way to celebrate...small or great! It's your choice. I am going to try to come on and write one way in which I celebrate every day. Feel free to join me! :) With Peace and Love, your justbebecky

What does LENT bring up in you?

2006-02-28T16:13:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is here, the Lenten Journey! So much has changed through the years...now tell me, when you were kids did you get to 'break' your lenten-giving-up-thing on Sundays and gorge on all the candy you saved all week? :) I loved that loop hole and as a kid it really made me feel like I was really doing something worthwhile all week long.

I wonder if we need more "loopholes" in life..more room, more holes, for the Spirit to move through, instead of having everything all 'tied up" pretty, where Lent can easily become more about me than about tending my relationship with my God.

I wonder what it would be like this Lent to look for 'loopholes', like when I am 'thrown for a loop' I may just see it as the Spirit's action in my life and see what I can learn from it or when something does not go my way and I lose control (sound familiar) maybe I will just say 'Oh, just another loop hole for the Spirit to jump in and help me out!"

I looked up loophole and Webster said, 'a means of evading an obiligation', well, in this case what is our Lenten obligation? I see it as a time to grow closer to God and thus....closer to all of humanity. I guess, I rather not see Lent as much as an obligation, but as an invitation......so instead of 'evading an obligation' I will 'embrace the invitation' to grow more in love with God and you, beloved humanity, this Lent!

Yes, I talked myself into it, my word this Lent is LOOPHOLE...things are looking up already for this gals' journey! I just love it!
Come on inside and share with us your Lenten past, present intention, thoughts or feelings! And I will keep you posted on my loophole findings!
To Lent, Peace, Love and Loopholes, your justbebecky :)

P.S. Just wanted to put out there my original intent of this blog just in case anyone as any questions for me...please always feel free to ask me anytime:)

WELCOME, to all newcomers to this happenin' blog! I just love these avenues of communication that connect us across the globe. I want to share with you what it is like to be a Catholic sister in the world today, both the gifts and the challenges through the ole' day to day. I want to share with you this wonderful lifestyle that is either "unknown" or "misunderstood" by many young people. I really do believe God is inviting young women to be sisters and men to be brothers and priests, but they just do not have anyone to talk to about it. So here I am:)

I am a Dominican Sister of Mission San Jose, and live in community with four other sisters, where together we pray, eat, study, recreate and faith share, yet are active in the world in a varied spectrum of ministries...such as teachers, principals, university professors, campus ministers, social workers, parish ministers, community volunteers, justice promoters, pastoral care to the sick, detention ministry, nurses, doctors, libraians, messauge therapists, sacred energy healers, business managers, lawyers, computer techs, hospice chaplains, spiritual and retreat directors, art therapists, musicians, artists, dancers and many, many, many more ministries, which we can talk about as you are interested!

Feel free to ask any questions, comments, shared reflections along the way! I will ask for your thoughts, too, and may invite you to share on some things I am wondering about. I will be posting here and there along the way to share more what I am about! A lot of great questions have already been asked so read the other postings if you are interested:)
PEACE, on your Lenten journey!

BLESSED AND HAPPY 2006 TO ALL!!! :)

2006-01-03T16:36:00.000-08:00

Do you still make New Year resolutions? I do! But have learned a long time ago, HOW to make them so that they stick:) Come on in and share your way to "grow with God" every year! Also, I am always taking any of your questions or reflections about being a nun and how you may be discerning this awesome life choice yourself. I love to share this wonderful way of life with all:) With Love, Joy, Laughter and Prayer, your justbebecky

Autumn: "Letting Go of Something Beautiful"

2005-11-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

Thank God for another beautiful autumn day! I was at a meeting with my sisters this last weekend and the prayer was on giving thanks for the fall. As we were sharing our personal reflections, one sister shared something that really touched me. She said, “Autumn to me is “letting go of something beautiful” as the trees let go of the beautiful leaves and ready their boughs for the green of spring, they know that letting go of one good only brings another.”

I never thought of that before...and began to think of all the “good and beautiful” things in my life I have been called to let go of, not understanding why, but truly as I did let go and waited, indeed, something beautiful did follow!

So if you have “something beautiful” in your life that you are now being called to let go of, come on in and share your experience...and then go out under a tree and look for a sprig of green and call it yours...and wait for the new life within you to blossom. With Prayer and Love, your justbebecky :)

I AM BACK FROM MY 30 DAY RETREAT!

2005-09-12T21:41:00.000-07:00

I am back from the desert and my 30 day silent retreat! It was HEAVEN on earth! I am celebrating my 25th Jubilee this year of being a Dominican Sister and am soooooooo excited about it:) I want to thank BEGRATEFUL for her help on the blog while I was gone. Hope you are a regular begrateful:) Come again soon!
So we are moving into this beautiful Fall season, one of my favorites. What is it about Fall? There is something magical, more like mystical, about this season of Autumn. Maybe that could be a little jumping off point for us...What is your personal experience of Fall? Do you like this "transitional" season from the life of summer to the barrenness of winter? What does the autumn wind stir up in you? Blog on, my friends, I have missed you and it is so good to be back with you!
Always, your justbebecky :)

How do YOU communicate your love to God? And how do you feel God communicates love to you?

2005-07-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to this awesome blog site! Where we share, learn, listen and live our God journey every day! If you are new on this site, read the very bottom post and you will see what we are all about. The above question came up on our last post, so I thought I would highlight it for all of us! Come on in and enjoy conversation with those who love to explore their relationship with our loving God!

Feel free to give life examples of how you have communicated with God through your life and how God has communicated with you! It is so cool to learn and support each other on this journey of life. We are all on the road TOGETHER!

I come on every couple of days and just share about my day, so you get a feel of what a Catholic sister does in the ole' day to day. I am excited about the many young women that are coming into religious life and I feel blessed to be here to listen and walk with them! I believe they are drawn to our sense of shared prayer and community life which have been a special gift to us passed on through the ages by the many wonderful spiritual women that have gone before us!

Feel free to come on any time and ask a question or make a comment on your faith experience of our awesome God!
God's peace and special blessings, your justbebecky :)

Connect The Dots . . . .. .. Of Your Life Thus Far! PLUS...discussions on the Vows of Chastity/Celibacy and Obedience! Come on in!

2005-06-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome to "The Day in the Life of a Nun", if you are just joining us, I am so glad that you did:) Feel free to look at the two previous posts to get a feel for the great people who have passed through and the awesome conversations we have had! Please add your own thoughts, feelings, comments or questions...at any post, at any time!

Wanted to start a fresh post, so I went upstairs and asked one of my sisters what would be a good idea to throw out there. And, as she was so filled with the commencement speech that Steve Jobs gave to this years Stanford graduates, she began to tell me of his message.

In brief, it is if you are trying to figure out your next steps in life...STOP!...and connect the dots of your life that has already passed. For example, he shared how he was given up for adoption, because his birth mother knew she could not give him a the life she wanted for him - which was to go to college. As it turned out, he was adopted by working class parents who gave every last dime to his college education, but he could not bear their sacrifice, so dropped out after 8 months.

He still attended classes that interested him by selling old coke bottles, had one good meal a week from the local hare Krishna Temple and slept on a friends floor. Intrigued by calligraphy, he took a class and 10 years years later when he was designing the Macintosh he incorporated that knowledge and introduced fonts! He said, "If I hadn't followed my intuition and taken that calligraphy class, personal computers may not have had that wonderful typography today!"

Briefly, he also shared, that years later he was FIRED from his OWN company and found himself "wandering" again, but this time, saw it as an opportunity to grow in new, creative ways and invented Pixar, yes, "Finding Nemo" and all! That's when he said, " Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence and trust to follow your heart, now, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and THAT will make all the difference!"

So, maybe we can STOP together and share some of our dots...look and see what dots have "connected" in your life so far and see if you feel a new confidence and trust to take that next step, whatever it may be...it all connects in the end!

And, as always, if you have a question about being a nun, please put it out there! I am happy to answer it for you:)
God's peace, your justbebecky :)

Do you feel like a "Runaway Bride" of the Lord? or Any other question you may have? :)

2005-05-29T05:55:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our wonderful, free space to reflect upon YOUR deep and abiding love for your God. If you are just joining us, I invite you to read the post below, if you'd like, just to get a feel for the wonderful people who are a part of it! We are now looking at the "runaway bride" dynamic, it is like when the Lord touches us so deeply, instead of running towards him, we seem to run away! What's up with that? If this describes you, log on, and share your story.

Feel free, though, to ask ANY other question you would like, the "runaway" one just came up at the end of the last post... so let the Spirit fly! :)

I am a Catholic Sister and I want to share my day with you!

2005-04-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

WELCOME, to this happenin' blog! I just love these avenues of communication that connect us across the globe. I want to share with you what it is like to be a Catholic sister in the world today, both the gifts and the challenges through the ole' day to day. I want to share with you this wonderful lifestyle that is either "unknown" or "misunderstood" by many young people. I really do believe God is inviting young women to be sisters and men to be brothers and priests, but they just do not have anyone to talk to about it. So here I am:)

You may have noted in my blog title I use the name "nun", but while I have begun my conversation with you I have used the name "sister". It was amazing for me when I first learned the difference between nuns and sisters. I used "nun" on the blog because that is what most people think of though they are actually seeing a sister. So here is the difference! A Catholic nun is enclosed in a monastary, ususally with 15 other nuns, and their primary ministry is "praying for you and our world" with a specialized internal ministry, as well. We can be deeply grateful for their commitment to prayer for us. They, also, have one or two nuns that "go out" to do the business needed.

The Catholic Sister, on the other hand, like moi, also live in community (anywhere from 3-26 sisters) where together we pray, eat, study, recreate and faith share, yet are active in the world in a varied spectrum of ministries...such as teachers, principals, university professors, campus ministers, social workers, parish ministers, community volunteers, justice promoters, pastoral care to the sick, detention ministry, nurses, doctors, libraians, messauge therapists, sacred energy healers, business managers, lawyers, computer techs, hospice chaplains, spiritual and retreat directors, art therapists, musicians, artists, dancers and many, many, many more ministries, which we can talk about as you are interested!

Feel free to ask any questions, comments, shared reflections along the way! I will ask for your thoughts, too, and may invite you to share on some things I am wondering about. I will just be posting every day (or other depending) what I am about! Here and there I will share my journey B.C. (Before Convent) with you. PEACE, on your journey!