Thursday, November 8, 2007

Sestra Lucija

We had a visitor last night...Sestra Lucija, parish nun...and sometimes parish mule (...but for the good). I've seen her bring teenage boys, resting with tranquillity alight their butts when they should have been kneeling, to their knees, during church. She clucks her tongue at ornary members of the church choir. When a man, clearly mentally-ill, tried to abscond with a consecrated host, she almost tackled him. She can't sing a note to save her life but God loves her. So...in a country where priests are demi-Gods, we thought it would be nice to call Sestra Lucija, for a social visit.

We asked her about her calling.

Lucija (nee Anica) was the youngest of five children. Her aunt, a nun, came for a visit and took young Lucija's arm and said, simply, "she's coming back to the convent with me."

"Ok." said young Lucija (age 15).

...and that's the end of the story...

We were completely charmed.

If given the opportunity to live a 100 lives, she told us later, she would choose this path all over again. This all sort of exposes the modern idea of vocational discernment, which is the cold examination of preferences and rewards, for what it is...spiritual narcissism. Don't you think that God, who is infinitely intelligent, knows all that we are capable of percieving and will communicate with us using those means? Sometimes there are no extraordinary signs...laser beams and light shows...sometimes the signs are as ordinary as "she's coming back to the convent with me."