More from my Little Book

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.