the meetings

First the spiritual director. She told me I absolutely must set aside prayer time ("You must care enough to give God your best time.") She also challenged me to set some time lines ("Okay, so when will you step up your job search? When do you expect to pay off your debt?")

Next is mass with the Sisters where I go for spiritual direction. Definitely not my kind of crowd.

After that is the first meeting with this Sister to get a feel for their community. She's assistant director in her ministry. Our meeting was punctuated with phone calls and pop-in's for quick consultations. Hers was the voice that seemed unwelcoming over the phone. Well, her ministry with the disenfranchised requires something of a hard line, I suppose.

What I found across the table is someone whom I feel would swim the ocean for me if need be. She's not a picture of contemplative piety, but rather a "doer."

We touched very briefly on issues of my concern: inclusive language, feminism, fidelity to the Vatican, and perspectives on gay priests -- just to throw out where I stand on those and maybe get a feel of their stance.

I laid out my concerns and a little history. She told me very briefly her story and a little about their community. Hers is an amazing story of how she felt called out of the clear blue, though she was engaged at the time; and how "unfit" she felt starting out. It's a vocation that almost was not. Now she loves what she does and she mentioned that several times. We are basically incompatible insofar as that I'm more "conservative" and they are more "progressive." However, neither one of us closed any doors. She even mentioned having vocational materials for me next time and asked to stay in touch. She thanked me for meeting when, in fact, I'm always so ...um, honored? blessed? ... to meet a Sister. God bless her, her community, and the work they do.