1. A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon a YouTube video showcasing joyful, young women talking with young, joyful women.

    Sounds ordinary.

    But half of the happy youths were nuns.

    In this video, 20-something year old religious sisters danced and ate and simply shared their joy with a room full of teenage and young adult women who were considering joining their community.

    Some of the sisters and teenagers told their stories of faith and discernment. Seeing their joy and faith, I was moved by the beauty of these women and their vocation.

    And then I wondered, when was the last time most people saw youthful, joyful nuns?

    Who do you know that is studying for a women’s religious order? Have you ever thought – seriously – about becoming a religious sister, or maybe encouraged your daughter or friend to pray about it?

    But what can we do?

    Last week, I returned home from my hospital ministry assignment in Washington and found a letter from Kelsey, someone who helped put that video of religious sisters together.

    Kelsey co-founded “Imagine Sisters” with two other 20-something year olds two years ago. Their mission is simple and powerful: “widespread vocational outreach for women’s religious life.”

    Imagine Sisters creates beautiful videos with nuns in habits doing their apostolic works and makes those videos go viral. Imagine Sisters also engages young women who see the videos and helps them find orders that might be a good fit.

    Imagine Sisters isn’t “an order” for young women. It’s what we call a “movement” in the Catholic Church. It’s a group of people with an impassioned mission to build up the Church.

    Imagine Sisters works to build up religious vocations for two years now.

    In the beginning, Kelsey and her two friends were hand-writing thank you cards, traveling on weekends and holiday breaks, and doing as much work as they could from their college dorms. After two years of immense success and growth, they are looking to make one of these young volunteers “full-time”.

    What Imagine Sisters has done in two years is astounding. If you would like to support their work in raising up more young women as shining religious sisters, join me in donating to their cause.

    When was the last time you saw a shining example of women’s religious life? Visit ImagineSisters.org to see them and help Imagine Sisters reach even more.
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    Labels: Energizing Witness Newspaper Columns Religious Sisters Vocations


  2. Frank Mercadante is a Catholic author and youth minister. In his book Positively Dangerous, Mercadante tells the story of Mr. Schmitz. I would like to give a short version of it here.

    Mr. Schmitz is an elderly Catholic usher at a rural parish. One Sunday morning, a young man comes into the church late, with long hair, an unshaven face, and dressed in tattered jeans and a T-shirt.

    The young man had recently had a powerful moment praying on a teenage retreat, though no one in the parish that morning knew it. They knew him as a teenager from town who had lost his way.

    As the young man walked in the doors in the back, he passed the elderly usher, Mr. Schmitz. The priest was in the middle of the Gospel reading. He attracted a lot of attention walking up the aisle to find a seat up front.

    People stopped listening to the Gospel being read, and focused on the young man who was unable to find a seat. So, he walked right up in front of the left side of the church and sat on the cold, terrazzo floor.

    When the Gospel reading was finished and people sat down, Mr. Schmitz began slowly creeping up the aisle, his hard cane and shoes tapping against the floor as he went. Mr. Schmitz was respected, and with this odd behavior of the teenager, no one felt they should intervene.

    People winced, wondering, “How is this 80-year old man going to handle this teenager in church?”

    Mr. Schmitz reached the youth, dropped his cane, slowly lowered himself to the hard floor, and sat down. Some parishioners gasped, some cried, and the priest said, “What I was going to preach about love, you would never remember. This, you will never forget.”

    Faith leads us to hope which leads to love. This elderly man knew what love was. As St. Thomas Aquinas put it, love is simply “to will the good of another.” What was the good of that teenager? To be nurtured in faith, to belong.

    When we trust in God fear won’t stop us from reaching out to others and of coming to know and accept them. When we lean on this trust in God, we hope causes us to act. We know that God will provide. Love, then, will so naturally flow from our lives to others.

    To read the previous two articles about Faith and Hope, click on the August archive at the bottom of the screen and select the appropriate posts.

    Originally published in the South Gibson Star Times
    Image source

    Posted by
    Labels: Love Newspaper Columns Story Virtue Youth and Young Adult


  3. Last week we spent some time talking about the theological virtue of faith. As you might recall, faith is a belief in something hoped for.

    Hope gives us rest along the way.

    Picture this: you are driving to somewhere in Indianapolis. You set the address on your Smartphone GPS app, a soothing, robotic voice informs you that it will take approximately two and a half hours, and you exhale in peace. As you travel, you feel rather assured. You would rest knowing that you’ve set a course and will reach it.

    Dominican Father Romanus Cessario calls the theological virtue of hope the “traveler’s” virtue. It’s a virtue for those of us still on the way. It helps us feel the comfort of peaceful rest in God in difficult moments.

    The difference between our GPS example and the theological virtue of hope is that “hoping” in directions can never fully put us at ease. The battery might run out, the location pin might be a few—or many—blocks off, or the car itself may not make it.

    True hope in God, though, will never disappoint.


    Psalm 62 reads, “My soul rests in God alone, from whom comes my salvation. God alone is my rock… my fortress; I shall never fall.”

    Here on earth, in this life, we will move toward God as we become more faithful to Christ and his Church. However, we will never “arrive” as fully one with God until after death. Hope helps us find rest here while striving daily to get there.


    Father Cessario points out four characteristics of hope.

    First, hope is futuristic, because we don’t hope for what we already possess. Second, hope is always about a good thing; we don’t “hope” for something bad. Third, hope is about what is difficult. Again, we don’t hope for things that we can just do. Fourth, hope is about something that is possible. When our football team loses its first 10 games, we don’t hope for a championship. Since our faith underlies our hope, as faith increases or decreases, so can hope.

    The theological virtues are about helping us prepare and attain life with God after our time here. Hope is for our future good which, though not easy, is possible.


    If hope is like a GPS, then God is the destination—a destination from which we will never want to travel again.

    Originally published in the South Gibson Star Times
    Image source 1, 2, 3
    Posted by
    Labels: Hope Newspaper Columns Virtue
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