What ministries did sisters say were not meaningful?
Doing office work or work where they are confined in an office, or doing things mechanically and doing it for many years. They said, “I didn’t come to the convent to do this. I can do something more, something more meaningful.” And for some, what is meaningful is directly being engaged in helping people grow. What was your own experience of midlife passage? As a junior professed, I taught in high schools, and after final vows I started orienting myself to retreats, because that’s really where my interest was. Two years after my final vows in my 30s, my mother superior asked me what I wanted to study and I answered counseling. I don’t know why I answered counseling. Maybe I felt that it would help me through my own development, because if I don’t understand my own development I cannot be of help to anybody. During retreats, my retreatants also were asking questions about midlife and I began to ask myself the same questions. As a Religious, (professing) your final vows is a big moment, b
