Priests, Deacons, and Religious

Last night Amy's CCE class met in the church. We listened to three talks.

One from Fr. Dat, the vocations director for the Houston-Galveston Diocese, who talked about his journey to the priesthood.

One from Deacon Phil about his journey to marriage and the deaconate.

And lastly from Sister Eleanor, a wonderful nun with the Benedictine order, who shared her life.

It wasn't really a journey as she knew when she was 4 that she was going to be a nun. Her hardest decision was deciding which order to join.

She joined when she was 17 in 1959, so this year she celebrates her 50th year with the order and next year she will celebrate her 50th year as a nun.

At 8:00 she begged for another 10 minutes to share a story about how nuns influence others and how inadvertently God had her give an award to a 7th grader who had decided to commit suicide at the end of the school year. Sr. Eleanor knew nothing about this until the then-student revealed the wonder of God in her life at a school reunion a few years back to Sr. Eleanor.


Sr. Eleanor closed with a song, but first said she needed to be closer the the crucifix and walked up towards the altar. She then looked up at the crucifix and told everyone pointing at the crucifix, "That's my spouse. I'm married to Jesus. This is my ring." She then proceeded to sing a folk song - "The King's Highway", which described her life of service to wherever God would lead her.

It was a really interesting and inspiring evening.

It makes me wonder how many of those students will join the religious life.