As promised, today I am returning to the questions I found in a little notebook from when I was on my journey toward religious life.

How many sisters are in the community? How many convents do you have?
Three of us live and work here at St. Anne’s.  In our North Dakota province, there are about 15 sisters.  World-wide, there are several hundred Franciscan Sisters of Dillingen, in Germany, Spain, Brazil, India and the US. We currently have three convents in North Dakota.  There used to be many more.
 
Does your prayer style vary between locations?
We all have the same prayer commitments (liturgy of the hours, meditation, etc.); some are in common and some private.  The time of common prayers can vary from one convent to another.  Sometimes, a particular local community has certain prayer customs that are not universal to our whole province.  For example, at St. Anne’s here, we pray a prayer to St. Anne’s in the evening before vespers.  Our other Sisters do not have this custom.  In Hankinson in the summer, the Sisters often pray the blessing of the crops since they live in a more rural setting.  We do not have this custom in my local community. 
 
Do you have a say in where you go?
A Sister is welcome to share her thoughts on this, but it is ultimately the decision of the superior. 
 
Do you have involvement with a parish or outside?
I attend Mass at the local parish on occasion.  With the COVID restrictions, I was less active for a time.  I am hoping to find opportunities for more involvement in the parish in the near future.  I am very much involved in our Grand Forks Area Catholic Women’s group, which meets on the first Saturday of each month.  I really enjoy it and appreciate the chance for faith and fellowship with the other ladies in the group. 
 
What does the vow of obedience mean?  What decisions are you able to make yourself and what do you need permission to do? 
That question is a little bit complicated to answer.  We are supposed to “discuss our plans with our superiors.”  We don’t ask our superior which blouse or jumper to wear in the morning, but if we’re going out somewhere, it’s good to talk it over/get permission from our superior, especially if we’ll be missing prayer or a meal or doing something out of the ordinary. 
 
What are the challenges and rewards of this life for you? 
One challenge is in the fact that we’re all different.  We have different ways of doing things, we grew up in different environments; we sometimes see things differently.  We have to live with the fact that we’re all different…and that’s okay.  I have to accept my fellow Sisters’ differences as they accept mine.  On the other hand, there are many rewards to our life as well.  It is wonderful to live and work under the same roof as Jesus in our tabernacles!  Our life makes a rhythm of prayer easily accessible.  We also, ideally, have support from our fellow Sisters in living this life.   We are working together for the same mission.  There is something beautiful in that.

Last evening, I searched my bookshelf for a small notebook to use for some charting I have to do.  After taking out a couple of notebooks and finding them all used up, I found a hard cover book with lines to write on that had few entries.  I grabbed it.  This little red journal would suit the job well. 
 
For fun, I looked back on what I had written there years ago.  I found a letter I had drafted to my mother to try to persuade her to my way of thinking about giving my little sister rides to school.  It was very interesting, but a little embarrassing!  I was quite an opinionated teenager!

I also found questions I had prepared, some years later, for a visit to a religious community when I was trying to find “my place.”  I had asked the questions of one of the Sisters there and recorded the answers. 
 
I though it might be interesting to share these here, and provide the answers I would now give if asked.
 
How did you come to be a [Franciscan Sister]?
That’s a long story!  Read my previous post for more about that one!
 
How often do you see your family?
We are supposed to get two weeks a year for vacation/home visit.  My family does come to visit from time to time as well. 

Are you able to maintain relationships that you had before joining?
That’s a good question…Things change when you move away, whether or not you’re in religious life.  You don’t see and talk to people as often as before.  Live moves on!  Strong friendships, though, can endure even with minimal contact.  I usually make a point to see certain people when I’m home.  
 
Are Sisters placed in services that match their talents and training? 
Ideally, the answer would be yes.  However, sometimes, we’re placed in an apostolate for which we don’t have a ton of experience/training.  Gifts we didn’t know we had can be drawn out of us, though.  Our directives, however, do urge superiors to keep a Sister’s aptitudes and training in mind when placing her out on a mission.
 
How long did you take between being acquainted with the Sisters and joining?
I first spoke with Sister Jean Louise in July.  Later that month, I visited.  By mid-August, I was back for an extended stay as an affiliate.  In January, I moved in, and on February 2nd, I became a postulant.  I guess that makes it about seven months. 
 
What is/was the mission of your order?
According to our founding,  the Sisters are to “serve God our Creator peacefully, prayerfully, ​and zealously, praising and honoring Him ​to the consolation of all believing souls.”  The Forward to our Constitutions states that “To imitate Christ in love is the way and the goal of our vocation.”  Over the centuries, our Sisters have been involved in quite a variety of ministries, from social work to making vestments to working with disabled children (to name a few).  There was even a time period when we were pretty much cloistered.  This points to the fact that, as religious, our mission is far more than what we do. 

Watch for more of this Q&A in the next week or two.

In past months, I’ve had ample cause to ponder the topic of love vs fear (inspired by 1 John 4:18).  Without too much ado, let’s just say that I’m a firm believer in balance and in taking a holistic approach, something that seems to have become somewhat counter-cultural in the past fifteen months…
 
In recent days, though, I’ve seen progress; I’ve seen signs of the triumph of love! 
 
On Sunday, my absolutely favorite feast of the liturgical year, Corpus Christi, we had Mass in our chapel.  It was absolutely wonderful!  We hadn’t been able to worship together there for a long time.  At the end of Mass, we even had our own Corpus Christi procession through the halls here.  The weather was threatening to rain and indoor walking posed less challenges for those with limited mobility, so we decided not to go outside for it.  
 
The day before, as I brought things back from the other wing (where we’d been having Mass) and put them in their rightful places in our chapel, tears welled up in my eyes.  There was such a sense of joy, restoration, and peace!
 
It certainly will be a weekend to remember.  There were other blessings as well, but I won't go into all the details.  There were some less-than-desirable occurrences as well, though.  I ended up going into urgent care for my elbow, which had become infected after a bike accident Friday morning. 
 
When one of the residents here heard about it, he said, “I hope that doesn’t stop you from riding a bike again.”  I assured him that it wouldn’t.  I will reconsider certain choices (such as taking the dog along on a leash), but I won’t let fear ruin my enjoyment and exercise.