On this World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, join us in hearing Sister Meg Walsh, SNDdeN, share her inspiring journey! In a conversation with the Diocese of Phoenix, Sister Meg opens up about her call to religious life and current ministries serving the Phoenix community. Her story illustrates how we continue St. Julie's legacy of spreading God's goodness through education and service.
Transcript:
Welcome back to the Bishops Hour. I'm Joyce Coronel. And I'm Jennifer Ellis. There are so many different ways to live a religious life in the Diocese of Phoenix. We have many religious communities living and serving here. It's always a pleasure to learn more about the communities and the men and women who are living this beautiful vocation.
Joining us today is Sister Meg Walsh from the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Sister, welcome to the Bishop's Hour. Thank you. Thank you for the invitation. We are so glad you're here. And, Sister, I met with you a few months ago, and I noticed that once again, you're wearing a blouse.
It's got beautiful sunflowers on it. So tell our listeners what that means to you.
It is a visual reminder that our founder, St. Julie, who was born in France, noticed the sunflowers and how they turn toward the sun.
She encouraged all of her sisters and those people we work with to remember that as the sunflower turns towards the sun, let us always turn toward the Son of God. That is beautiful.
And I'm going to look at sunflowers differently now. Well, tell us your vocation story. How did you come to be a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur? I hope I'm saying it right. You're doing a beautiful job. I would like to always begin with, it is by the grace of God.
I am a Sister of Notre Dame. I had no intention of becoming a sister. I am from South Dakota, came to Arizona, and as an educator, I always gave myself a few days before the school year and after as some spiritual time to reflect and to prepare.
In one of those retreats, I met a Sister, Janice Bond, who invited me to a monthly prayer service. And little did I know that God was planting the seed to consider religious life.
And so I did. I was not a fan of the idea. And to let you know how God works and how patient God is, God put some men in my life that were very good, wonderful men.
And then he put the option of religious life in my life. And there was no way I could imagine I could be a Catholic nun. But strange things happened. Whenever I felt the urge to be married.
I would tell my sisters who had children, she and her husband could go away and I'll take care of the kids for the weekend. And then we'd go to parks, we'd do activities and listen to how God works. Strangely but wonderfully. We'd be at a park and somebody would say, so what order are you with?
And I kind of dropped my jaw and I said, I'm not with any order. These are my nephews. I'm babysitting my nephews, and we're having fun. Thank you. Goodbye. And we left the park. Of course, my nephews weren't happy, but I took them to another park later on at a church that I attended.
There were young people and they would come up to me and say, hey, we're going to have a retreat. We want you to work on it. And I'd say, the sister, the religious is over there. I'm just a parishioner, so I feel God was planting seeds, working through people to say, you know what?
You can be married if you want. I'll still work with you and use you, but if you want a meaningful life, why don't you take an interest in religious life and just investigate? And therefore, I did.
And here I am, 26 years later, thanking God for patience and for clues in giving me to figure out and to choose a life of service with meaning and adventure.
I love the idea of adventure. That's amazing. And so, Sister, how long have you been serving here in the Diocese of Phoenix and what kind of ministry work do you do?
The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, in general, have been in the Diocese for 75 years.
I myself have been working in the Diocese since 2000. I was here and worked in education for two years, and then I went to our schools in Peru, South America, for 18 years in Peru, Peru, South America.
I worked with teachers who were obligated to teach English if they only had one course. So I worked with teachers that taught English for 18 years. And then most recently, I've been in the diocese for the last seven years, and I have worked at St.
Matthew's Catholic Church as a religious educator for many years. After Covid, I did take a break, and I have been working now, as I say, feeding the poor, welcoming the stranger, and sharing the faith.
I have the pleasure of this big old wonderful truck. And I work with people who know me and have donations. So I am am an instrument to get the donations from one place to another.
Saint Matthews, I continue to work with in education, in the formation program at the Justice Center, which is a homeless, well, a shelter for people without homes who are 55 and older.
I support that center in any way I can, and I visit people who are newly off the streets and put into apartments. Then I also work with Welcoming the Stranger, which is the asylum seeking program we have here in Phoenix.
I have been having the pleasure of using my Spanish there. But since June 4, when the Biden administration put the executive order to halt undocumented entries. It has slowed down.
So now the center gets a few documented people to choose clothing, a good meal, shower, and to get their family member or their sponsor to send them a ticket by bus or by airplane to go where they need to to plead their case in our court of law.
All of these people are legally in our system. Wow. That is. That is a variety of ways that you serve.
That's a word. Yeah. Talk about adventure. And you know, as a Sister of Notre Dame, we proclaim God's goodness wherever we are, but we really focus on where is the most need. And in our society, it seems to be with asylum seekers, with those without homes, and with those who are interested in knowing more about the Catholic faith.
So it's really easy when you are Sister of Notre Dame to choose employment where is the most need. So expand on that a little bit. Talk about the order, the spirituality and the charisms that make it unique.
Every congregation has a gift, a charism. Ours is to proclaim God's goodness wherever we are. We started in education years ago. And then after the second counts until Vatican II, we when all were invited to study the roots of their congregation, where they came from, what the purpose was.
We realized it was more proclaiming God's goodness in education, formally and informally. So we have sisters who are social workers. We have sisters who are accompanying people who are discerning religious life.
We have lawyers, we have doctors, we have pastoral people. But the key is how are we proclaiming God's goodness in our professional life? We started in France, in France Cuvilly, where St.
Julie was born. And she was known as the small saint of Cuvilly She was the first saint to be canonized after the Second Vatican Council. She's well known as the smiling saint.
I love that. I do too. You know, you mentioned the charism is proclaiming God's goodness. And I hope it doesn't embarrass you that I bring this up, but when I first met you, we were at the washing of the feet at the basilica and I just came at the end to help clean up and pick up.
And there is a woman who came and the way you loved her, the way you treated her, the way you showed her her God given dignity was just something. It was beautiful.
You know, I firmly believe God puts people in our paths just for today for whom we are supposed to learn something from. I have learned from that woman that she has a good spirit, she has a loving spirit.
The world situation has caused her to be without a home. You know, God is in all of us if we take time to see it.
That was such a beautiful encounter and my eyes filled with tears as you were talking about it. And you too, because it's still so fresh in my mind. That was such a beautiful expression of the goodness of God. You were truly proclaiming that. And so when you think back, I mean, like, we're deeply moved by that. But you've been a religious sister now for 26 years.
What are some other highlights that you've experienced? Just living your vocation. Oh, my Lord Jesus.
The adventures. Once one determines or once one responds to the invitation to be a religious or to be a priest, God's going to use us in ways we could never imagine.
And I have to say, that's the same for the married life vocation and the single life vocation. If people are open to God and improving our relationship with God, God's going to take us on adventures that we could never have imagined.
My 26 years is about that. Sharing God's goodness and having a meaningful life. I mean, I can't say enough and say thank you to God whenever I return to God.
Well, with any vocation there are highlights, but there are also challenges. What have been some challenges in living your vocation? I think when we have found our vocation, our calling of the heart, even in the hard times, in the challenging times, we don't throw the towel in.
We might step back and reflect and reevaluate. But one vocation is a beautiful calling. And at times we are called to do something else.
But the challenges in any vocation is staying close to God. Your relationship and my relationship is premortal. Because the world is going to ask so much of you.
And remember, Jesus came and saved the world. I am not the Savior. I am working with God to do some good. Just for today. That's in all our vocations. That would be a challenge.
Maintaining focus and making sure God knows I'm on God's plan, on God's time, on God's schedule. That's some great advice right there for all of us, sisters. And so as you consider your vocation, how.
How has been like living your vocation? How has it been different from what you might have expected when you first entered religious life 26 years ago?
I would say the vows. The vows would make a great difference. The vow of chastity is not only not having an intimate relationship with somebody, but. But it is really choosing to love all equally, as God would, as Jesus did the vow of poverty is not living in, you know, dire poverty.
It is living with what you need. Do I need that new telephone, or can I use this one? I have. And then there's also the aspect of sharing. How do I share not only my material goods, but my spiritual goods with people God puts in my life?
Obedience. Obedience to God and to superiors is very important. And working with God and being intimate with God and feeling a call that may shift from 26 years ago to something new takes courage and a lot of prayer.
So it's not only being obedient to God and to the congregation, but it's also being obedient to what God is putting in my heart. To be a better sister of Notre Dame for the day and serving people better today than I did yesterday.
I would say my challenge as a religious, from thinking about it, one of them out of those three vows is the vow of community living.
Because when you're married, you get to choose the person you want to spend your life with. When you are a priest, when you are a sister, you are saying, you know what, God, I'm throwing my towel in with this group of people who are human.
Not perfect, but human. So you get different adult women living together, and you just have to say, okay, how am I serving God in my community to make it better for not just me, but for others?
I think that's a question we do ask regardless of our vocation, because we really want God's goodness to be known, you know, in our convents, too, not just out in the world, just like in our homes when we're married people, or in our churches when we're priests, wherever we are as a single man or woman.
So how has your prayer life, your spiritual life, grown through your vocation?
I have been blessed with opportunities of getting to know God better because I am a religious.
You know, I admire mothers. They inspire me. They are endlessly caring for people. I, as a religious, can wake up early in the morning, get a cup of coffee and go to prayer.
I don't have a baby crying. I don't have a husband saying, hey, I'm getting ready to go to work. Here's my lunch ready. You know, mothers are inspirational to me, and I have to take my hat off. Not that I wear one, but I do admire them, and they are my model.
So my spiritual life is very focused on my religious, my relationship with God, and the opportunities I have been given as a religious to deepen my relationship. Henceforth, I share it whenever I can, whether it's on retreats, whether it's on zoom, whatever.
Because not everybody has the same opportunities. And we're really about sharing God's goodness in all forms. Love that. Well, Sister, what advice might you have for young people who are discerning their vocation?
Get the facts and take the adventure. You have nothing to lose. As I was discerning, I had a spiritual director, and it took me a year and a half, and I was still not sure.
And my spiritual director said, you know, it's kind of like dating. You don't marry the first man you go out with. Why don't you start investigating the different congregations that call your attention? Give them a call, ask them questions, go visit them, search out.
And while you're doing that, keep talking to God and say, hey, God, what do you think about this? Because God really wants you, all young people, all people discerning life in general, to be happy because it does not benefit the world to have a crabby nun.
It does not benefit the world to marry the wrong person. It does not benefit the world to have a priest who is not happy. So please take discernment seriously. Get a good spiritual director, a priest, Sister.
A qualified, certified spiritual director who has your interest and the interest in God in number one space. Because God is going to use you. It's just a matter of how and if your life is going to be full of meaning and adventure.
What great advice. Wonderful advice. Yes. Thank you. Sister, thank you so much for joining us today. It was an absolute delight to see you again and to have you on the show. We hope you'll come back.
Thank you. It's been a joy being with you again in a different atmosphere.
Blessings to everyone listening and always here to serve. Sister Meg Walsh, Sister of Notre Dame de Namur.