National Catholic Reporter’s Global Sisters Report has posted a reflection by Sr. Annie Killian, OP, a member of the leadership team of the Pax Christi Young Adult Caucus, on her first profession:
Consider the caterpillar, suspended in midair by a single silken thread. It is tethered to the leaf on which it was feeding before it fell off. Now, it slowly pulls itself back up toward the source of nourishment. I imagine how the caterpillar feels, floating through space, holding on to its line of silk for dear life, like a bungee jumper.
That’s rather what it feels like to enter a religious congregation.
I made my first profession of vows as a Dominican Sister of Peace on July 3, 2022, three years after entering the community. A few weeks before the momentous day, I went on retreat in upstate New York. It was late spring, and gardens around the retreat house had burst into bloom. One morning, I walked out the door of my hermitage to find a monarch butterfly fluttering among the irises. Around the neighborhood, I noticed one caterpillar after another dangling from tree branches. A voice within prompted me to attend.
For me, entering religious life was less like falling and more like leaping out of the normal life I had known. I wasn’t in free fall; the formation program, with its stages of candidacy and novitiate, provided a safety net. Yet I felt like I had launched myself into a new element, tethered only by a single thread: the desire for transformation.
Use this link to read the entire piece at the Global Sisters Report website.
Thank you Sister Annie for your heart felt and earth centered reflection on your vows. Religious life is about allowing yourself to be transformed – not transfigured.