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Nun to reader, heart to heart: New book could promote vocations |
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By Christina Capecchi - For The Catholic Spirit
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Wednesday, 20 May 2009 |
 The decline in numbers of Roman collars is well-documented and well known, but the religious shortage is hitting women religious hardest.
From 1965 to 2008, the number of U.S. priests dropped 31 percent,
falling from 58,632 to 40,580, according to the Center for Applied
Research in the Apostolate. During the same time, the number of U.S.
sisters dropped 67 percent, falling from 179,954 to 59,208.
The Visitation monastery in Mendota Heights has followed that trend. At its peak in 1966, it housed 45 nuns. Today there are 9.
Telling stories
The dwindling numbers of professed religious bring an urgent need for
historical documentation, an initiative that doesn’t happen naturally,
spurred by curious children or glory-seeking. The Visitation sisters
practice the virtue of humility; they needed some convincing that their
life stories were worth publishing.
The book “Extraordinary Ordinary Lives” serves as a memento, a “we were here” scrolled on a wall.
It also serves as an invitation to follow the same footsteps. With a
diverse cast of nuns, many readers will relate. There’s the bookworm
and the socialite, the varsity athlete and the homecoming queen, the
rebel and the teacher’s pet. That each has found a happy home in
religious life renders it wonderfully wide.
Jackie Hilgert understands the power of personal histories. She runs
Histories in the Making, preparing video, audio and written
documentation of people and companies.
“It’s very important to document these stories because you have to
maintain the connection between generations,” said Hilgert, a member of
Immaculate Conception in St. Clair in the Winona diocese. “We can
bring forth their legacy in our own actions when we know what their
legacy was.”
She has never chronicled a priest, brother or sister, but Hilgert sees
enormous value in books like “Extraordinary Ordinary Lives.”
“It’s going to open a window into lives that people don’t generally
have access to. It gives humanity to a vocation, putting a face to it.”
You never know what might blossom from that seed, Hilgert added. “I
would hope that young people would get a hold of this book, just to
know [religious life] might be a possibility they hadn’t considered.”
To view an excerpt of the book, click HERE.
To order “Extraordinary Ordinary Lives,” call (651) 683-1700 or visit www.visbooks.org.
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