During spring break this year instead of heading for Daytona Beach, 12 young women decided to participate in a “Nun Run,” a beautiful journey of faith which allowed them to see different communities and their apostolates up close and personal. All twelve students were from Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, whose 2 traveling minivans were decorated with the words: “BC Nun Run” and “Honk if you love nuns!”
Their journey took them to 5 IRL Affiliate Communities: the School Sisters of Christ the King; Marian Sisters; The Benedictine Sisters, Mary Queen of the Apostles; the Little Sisters of the Poor (see their write up on the 4 days spent there); and the Sisters of Saint Francis of the Holy Eucharist. The “run” ended at the IRL Midwest Meeting in Independence, MO, where Fr. Thomas Nelson, O.Praem., offered advice on the practical steps for vocational discernment in general and discerning a religious community in particular.
One young women said, “The breathtaking truth that is found in religious life was clearly felt and experienced. And it has helped me so much to grow as a person, to love others, to live and share my life with others. It has been great!”
I think I might recognize one of the girls in that picture! She is at the far left in the top row, with the light purple shirt. If it is who I think it is, she had been a novice with the Nashville Dominicans, but she left before she was to be professed. I know that she’s a student at Benedictine College; her father is in Perpetual Adoration with me, and he told me once that his daughter was going to school there after she left the convent.