“Sometimes people will ask me what is the point of the Nun Run and other vocations events,” says Father Keith Romke, diocesan director of the Vocations Office. “My response is always the same: without them I might not be a priest as I am a product of our summer vocations camps!
“I guess you could respond by asking why kids go to baseball, engineering, or art camp and I think the reason would be the same: because it gives them joy and just maybe they’ll fall in love with it and enjoy it for the rest of their lives!”
2016 Nun Run agenda The annual Nun Run provided by the Office of Vocations for the Diocese of Rockford headed north to Wisconsin, March 17-20. Seven women ranging in age from 20 up to 43 took part. The women and their diocesan chaperones first visited the Cistercian Monastery in Prairie du Sac, Wis., then headed to La Crosse where they met the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. They also toured the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the chapel at St. Rose Convent, met with some of the sisters, got up for early morning (3:50 and 4:50 a.m.) prayers and drove through a surprising couple of miles of significant snow. |
This year the seven participants in the annual Nun Run had a chance to stop at a special place for considering vocations, the Mater Redemptoris House of Formation in La Crosse, Wis.
Mary Pat Davies, 23, of St. Thomas Parish in Crystal Lake says, “I really liked the formation house.
When I went on the Nun Run, I didn’t know there was something like that ... . It was really interesting to me, interesting that people there who were not in a religious community, but still were being educated in preparation for that. It was also very nice they were working together as a community as well.”
MaryMalia Shroka, 22, of Aurora, who was on this year’s Nun Run saw the house of formation as a “very fruitful way to ease (your) way into the discernment process.”
While there, the women from the Rockford Diocese received individual formation direction from Sister M. Luka Brandenburg, formation director at a unique, pre-novitiate formation house that is geared for women who are discerning God’s call.
The Mater Redemptoris House of Formation is a project of the Diocese of La Crosse and the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George (FSGM).
“We spent two and a half years experimenting … with retreats, education,” says Sister Luka. “About three years ago, (it became) a live-in program for college-age women who were interested in, but not ready for, religious life. That’s the group we’re targeting.”
Usually, she says, the women are simply too young or not yet mature enough to be accepted into a religious order’s novitiate.
Some are home schooled and have never lived away from home. What the house of formation does is pre-novitiate formation to help the women “get ready for convent life,” Sister Luka says.
“Part of it is having a very structured lifestyle,” she explains. “They pray with us … have assigned chores … do volunteer service with Catholic Charities” and take classes in “different things that people need to know how to do.”
As formation director, Sister Luka works with individual women on any particular needs they have. Each woman has a spiritual director, seeing an area priest for moral formation.
Initially, the women would pay room and board and had to get a job, Sister Luka says, adding that the arrangement, “made it difficult for us to do what we’re doing.”
She and other sisters went to the National Evangelization Teams (NET) Ministries to find out how they work with people in order to accomplish their ministry. Now the women who come to Mater Redemptoris for a year must first raise $5,000 for the diocese, which supports and maintains the program.
During the year, the women do volunteer service for Catholic Charities and in Catholic schools, and that allows the sisters to determine their schedule.
The fundraising itself ended up being a part of the formative process. The women discover “it’s not just me and Jesus,” Sister Luka says, “It’s me and Jesus and the Church.”
As they explain their goals to potential donors, the women must clarify their story and, Sister Luka adds, it makes them take the whole process a lot more seriously.
“It has worked out very, very well, better than I anticipated,” she says.
Four FSGM sisters staff the Mater Redemptoris House of Formation. There are six women going through the process this semester (maximum room for seven).
The ministry follows an academic year, from September to May, with 15-week semesters.
The formation house also provides:
♦ Educational retreats for middle school students and high school students to introduce religious life;
♦ Discernment retreats for young adults that run two to three days, providing direction on how to take the first steps in exploring a possible religious vocation;
♦ Spiritual direction for college-age women who are trying to discern in general what to do in life.
Sister Luka also provides consultation service to religious communities upon request.
The community is at work writing up a program for dioceses who want to begin a similar program, and they have become a source for up-to-date information about religious congregations all around the country.
“I tried to kill the aspirancy program three times, but it kept coming back,” Sister Luka says. “God has been good in leading us. We’ve been very successful in getting the young ladies ready to enter the convent.”
Info: www.altonfranciscans.org/apostolates/formation or materredemptoris@gmail.com.