Do Whatever He Tells You....Nun-Tastic Day 6

     Back to the garage I went this morning after Mass. Yep, it was time to finish taking inventory. I emailed Sister late, late last night and when I didn't hear back, I texted her. Yep, these nuns (and most of the ones I know) email, text, tweet and Facebook like it's their jobs. I love it. So, we were all set to take inventory.
     I rang the doorbell as per the little sign on the door and was greeted by the same sister who answered the door last week. But then, another sister came bustling about. And low and behold, I knew who she was. But only from YouTube. You see she is part of the Sisters' Choir and is always on YouTube. But of course, I didn't say anything. Then my partner in crime for the day came to find me and we started on the inventory. For two straight hours we counted, documented, re-arranged and counted some more. It was a wonder I could even count straight after we finished FIVE bookshelves full. As soon as we finished (and it always happens like this), Sr. YouTube bustled me into the kitchen for lunch which she made. The four of us sat around the table and chatted, really chatted. For a WHOLE HOUR! About everything from my family, to my hobbies, to the sisters' past lives, to ministries, to school, to you name it, we talked about it. It was probably one of the most precious sit-downs for pizza, I've ever had. The sisters before letting me leave, each gave me a huge hug, thanked me for my help and promised prayers!
    The rest of the day was spent with my REAL sister de-decorating, baking and crafting. Oh and napping. I'm the type of person who never stops running, who engages in one thing right after the next. And today was a prime example. As soon as I got home, it was time to take down all the Christmas decorations from outside, and then take a nap. As my littlest sister will always be, she is a woman after my own heart. While I climbed into my snuggly warm bed, she crawled onto the staircase landing and started reading next to the bookshelf. Within five minutes, she was passed out, with her face in the book, sprawled about the landing. I had to laugh as I remembered so often doing that as a kid. It's the perfect spot.
    After dinner, we FINALLY made her brownies that she had been dying to bake. And then we FINALLY made her feast day cake. Her Feast Day was last week, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, but we had yet to make a cake. So, we made it and then she decided she wanted it to be blue for the Blessed Mother. So what did I do, I scoured the cabinets for blue food dye. THANK GOODNESS WE HAD SOME! And, so after they were all finally baked and laundry had been done, it was off to bed for that little one. But, as most little kids do, she stayed up way past her bedtime until I went to my room. Yep, she's my little sister, the protector and protectee, the baker, the crafter, the feaster and my soulmate, my best friend.

Let It Be, Let It Be, Let It Be...Done to Me

     This day in history: John Lennon was shot in 1980; in 1660, the first women to ever appear on stage in England performs in Othello; and Uzbekistan celebrates its Constitution day. However, there is one more extremely important thing that happened this day in history....decades and decades ago: Mary, Most Holy Mama of the Church, was conceived WITHOUT SIN! WOAH! She is the only person ever to be born without the stain of original sin and thus, we celebrate her goodness on December 8, every. single. year.

    When I was little, the feast of the Immaculate Conception was just another Holy Day. But then I went to college and realized how big a deal this day is. She is my school's patron as well as the sisters' patron. Feast Day is celebrated every year with a HUGE mass and then a HUGE feast in the cafeteria. AND there are no classes for the day; everyone has off, including faculty. And so, it ensures that everyone can celebrate!

     Last year, I was one of three members of the choir who sang for Mass. This year, there were nine of us and it was so beautiful. Words cannot explain how much my heart is lifted during this ONE TIME that I get to sing for the "piano nun." She doesn't play at our Sunday Masses and if I never went to daily Mass, I would never hear her play. You have to understand how accomplished this woman is. She plays the piano, the organ, is on numerous Liturgical Music boards and is simply amazing. She is a doctor of music and it is more than an honor to sing for her. It is even MORE of an honor to have her ask you to solo and then tell you how great of a job you did. Ah, that was what happened yesterday. She knows my FAVORITE composition of the Alleluia (only TRUE liturigical musician geeks can say that!) is the Weston Priory AND, we used it yesterday. Not only that, but she asked me to intone it. I was floating on High Heaven's cloud. 

     During Mass, my most favorite part is when the Sisters renew their vows. All of the sisters (and that's a :

lot) stand while we, the congregation, kneel. They say together, "Almighty and eternal God, I, Sister...., renew and confirm with all my heart, the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, which I made at my profession, and I implore your grace to accomplish them perfectly. May my life be one of faithful love, may it reflect my total dependence on you, may my will be Your will alone. In the imitation of Jesus and Mary, I make my prayer forever. Amen." Imagine how my heart was beating!!!!!! To hear those words and to know that someday I might say them at my final profession and a hundred times after truly brought tears to my eyes! God is so good. 

    After Mass, my friends and I, among the sisters (who were also floating on clouds of happiness), dined at the great feast of delicious foods. My day was then followed by a nap, a date with one of the sisters, work and homework. Oh I can't forget A Year Without A Santa Claus (yes, we watched it.) and ending the night by tweeting the Magnificat back and forth with one of the sisters over Twitter, then skyping her after I facebook chatted her until one am. Needless to say, my day in Honor of Mary was spectacular and SO REAL in the life of a college student. 

Finally Got Grandma Beat...

   Here's to: My grandma, Mommom, as I call her, the hipster. Ok, so she's not your typical hipster, but she's pretty hip, as you can see in the picture below. I'm her spitting image and her favorite. Sorry, cousins and siblings, but you all know the love a grandparent has for the first born is HUGE. Anyway, so let's talk about her hipster attitude. While she may have false teeth and spends her retired days crocheting me AWESOME blankets for my dorm, she is the most in the know grandmoo I know. Seriously.

   People think I'm technologically advanced, but my mommom beats me on that one, believe it or not. She had a computer long before I ever did and she taught me how to use it. She has digital cable while I still am stuck watching channels 3, 6, and 10. She had a digital camera before I even knew that film was going out of style. In fact, I inherited her first digi cam. Once giant computer screens were out of style, she bought a laptop with a webcam and was on skype before I even leveled up past dial-up internet. Fast forward to present day. I now have my own laptop, for school purposes only, of course and I'm on Skype. I finally have my own digital camera that aids me in my LOVE for photography and editing. And, I finally know how to work YouTube now that she's taught me. However, Grandmoo didn't know what a Facebook was until I showed her. But, of course, she made one and "likes" all my statuses, pictures and posts. I made a blog, to one up her again, and guess who follows me: Mommom. So, HI MOMMOM I LOVE YOU! But finally, FINALLY, I think I may have done the final one up. Today, after detesting the hype for years, I made a Twitter and already, I love it. And so, finally, I got Grandma beat. Until of course she follows me on Twitter and gets my tweets sent to her mobile phone...

   Follow me on Twitter : nunbetter_BG92

Sister Mary Facebook (Skype, Twitter, Blog, Text, YouTube)

JMJ

     It's not unusual for me to make a stop at one of my favorite convents while I am home from school. Often, all it takes is a quick text, email, Skype call or Facebook message to my sisters and our plans are set for Mass and Brunch. This time, however, the unusual took place. Not only was in snowing when I woke up this morning (seriously, it's October and 34 degrees outside), but my plans were for Mass and a Vocation/Formation Technology meeting. Now, occasionally, I've been mistaken for and sometimes referred to as Sister, but I promise you, I am still only in the early stages of Discernment. So why was I sitting in on their meeting?

     Well, I mentioned technology, right? The topic was, "How to reach the young people via technology." And so, we discussed together means of communication via modern technology. So many of the sisters are already on Facebook, so no problem there. And they've been using Skype for conference calls since before I knew what Skype even was. And so, we discussed adding the repertoire Twitter, YouTube, and BLOGGING! How interesting would it be to read the daily lives of the sisters via Facebook statuses, Tweets, YouTube Vlogs and Blogs? Yeah, I'm hooked. It was as they were discussing this, that I thought, hey, it would be pretty interesting to read about a discerner's journey, too. And so, immediately after the meeting, here I am writing my first blog post. 

     Like I said, it's not unusual for me to be texting (in fact, one of the sisters just texted me about movie plans for tonight), facebooking or skyping the sisters. My friends get a kick out of it, but the truth is, these sisters are real people, who really do text me all day long. And I can't enough of their smiley faces.