Advent Expectancy and Motherhood

Hello ladies! 

I’m excited to finally venture into this intriguing world of blogging.  I do believe that this is the first time I have ever posted on any blog (add this to the growing list of ‘things I never thought I’d do after I joined the convent’…it keeps growing…). 

By way of brief introduction, my name is Sr. Anna Rose, and I work here on campus with Women’s Ministry, which means, well, a whole host of things, but it includes working with the Women’s Ministry team here on campus – this blog is one of the outreaches of this team of beautiful women.  I entered the Franciscan Sisters, TOR, a little over three years ago, and have just begun ministry here on campus this semester (you can read my full vocation story here). 

One thing that has been on my heart to share with you ladies is the beautiful reality of motherhood.  Obviously, this time of year tends to get us thinking about it a bit more than usual as images of the Madonna and Child are displayed everywhere before our eyes, so it seems.  And I love this!  For me, I’ve also been thinking a lot about one of my younger sisters, Melanie, who is currently pregnant with her second child.  MeI and her husband Paul were married about the time I entered community, and since then, as we’ve both spent the past three years growing into and learning about our respective vocations, she has consistently been teaching me about my own vocation. 

What? 

Yes, my married sister is teaching me how to be (God-willing) a more faithful religious sister. 

I could go into a whole host of reasons for this, but I will cite only one example that is particularly imprinted on my mind.  A few months after she gave birth to her first child, Dominic (who I maintain, in a completely unbiased way, is the most adorable child to walk the face of the earth), Mel was able to come down to our Motherhouse, where I was living at the time, for a visit.   

Dominic, in all his precious, adorable cuteness

Besides this being my first time meeting my nephew, this was also the first time I got to observe Mel being a mom.  It was awesome, and moved me deeply in a way that I was not expecting (I was partially just concerned about not making the baby cry when I held him for the first time…first impressions are important!).  Anyway, at the end of our visit that evening, I remember walking back to my room, mesmerized by the almost surreal images playing through my mind of watching Mel interact with her son.  And the simple but beautifully profound phrase ran through my head: “she would give her life for him.  She would die for him.”  It was one of those ‘I know this to be true at the depths of my soul’ truths.  And it moved me profoundly. 

This truth did not strike me because of anything she necessarily said or even did.  Just the simple reality of watching her interact with him communicated to me that she had a connection to this new, tiny human being that was unlike her connection to any of the rest of us.  His life will always be bound to hers in a singular and particular way, and her life will never be the same, because of him.  This tiny person, not because of anything he did, but because of his very existence, had radically changed my sister. 

And so it brought the question to my own mind – am I allowing myself to be radically changed like this?  Obviously, as a religious sister, I take a vow of celibate chastity, and so offer to the Lord the good of having biological children of my own, for the greater good of undivided devotion to the Lord as my Spouse, and the spiritual children He desires to give me.  And so I was challenged to ask myself: am I open to the new life the Lord desires to give to me – and would I lay down my life for them?  It’s a question I continue to ask myself on a consistent basis. 

Because, ladies, the truth is that regardless of where we are now, and whatever vocation we are in, or discerning, or feeling called to at this particular moment, we are always called to be receptive to new life that the Lord desires to give us, and to nurture it – this is inherent to who we are as women.  John Paul II tells us that:

“The moral and spiritual strength of a woman is joined to her awareness that God entrusts the human being to her in a special way. Of course, God entrusts every human being to each and every other human being. But this entrusting concerns women in a special way - precisely by reason of their femininity - and this in a particular way determines their vocation.”  (Mulieris Dignitatem 30)

It is every woman’s vocation to guard and nurture the lives of those around her.  The question of vocation should not be if God is calling me to be a mother, but how God is calling me to be a mother.  Each of you has a beautiful call that the Lord has placed on your life, and He’s calling you to live out this dimension of your femininity right now – with the people around you in class, with those at your work, with the women who live right next to you in the dorm, and with those whom you’ll encounter over Christmas break. 

John Paul II goes on to tell us that it’s precisely this awareness of how others are entrusted to us that makes us who we are:

“A woman is strong because of her awareness of this entrusting, strong because of the fact that God "entrusts the human being to her", always and in every way…this awareness and this fundamental vocation speak to women of the dignity which they receive from God himself, and this makes them "strong" and strengthens their vocation.” (Mulieris Dignitatem 30)

We are strong by the very fact that the Lord has deigned to entrust others to us.  This is not often the definition that the world gives us of the word ‘strong,’ and certainly not of a “strong woman.”  But this is how the Lord desires us to be strong: by receiving from Him those He desires to entrust to us, and by making a gift of self to them in return.  This is real empowerment.

So as we journey with Mary and Joseph during these days of expectancy and ‘getting ready,’ I encourage you to live with a heightened awareness of your own dignity in the gift the Lord has given you in your femininity. Consider specifically how the Lord has entrusted others to you, and you to others.  We were not made to live in isolation, but in communion with one another.  Like I said earlier, I am consistently challenged by the example of Mel, and her husband Paul, and the self-sacrifice that they live out in their lives .It’s through the ordinary, mundane ‘dying’ to self that I see the desire to give the fullness of one’s life for the other – the self-gift that we are all called to, regardless of our particular vocation.  May each of us embrace our call to be that complete gift of self for the other, and to be the mothers that the Lord has called us to be.  

In that Love which is God,

Sr. Anna Rose 

PS – This blog would not be complete without a shameless plug (although completely unsolicited by her, for the record) for my sister’s blog, http://muchmadnessblog.wordpress.com/ , where she shares her thoughts on everything from current events, mom adventures, Sesame Street, JPII, and, as she says, “all the Catholic things.”

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Sr. Anna Rose is our fearless leader here at Women's Ministry. If you see her around campus you should probably give her a hug or round of applause for all of the amazing work she is doing for all the women of Franciscan. Her story, as mentioned earlier, can be found here, and we would really encourage you to check it out. As always, we encourage you to offer her and all of Women's Ministry up in your prayers, and please know that we are lifting you up in ours!