I interviewed Sister Rose, a Catholic nun in the order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on 6 February 2005 at her convent.  She is serving as Director of Religious Education at a local Catholic church.

Sister Rose, 64, was born in Pennsylvania, the second of five children.  Both of her parents were first generation immigrants: her father's parents were from Slovakia, and her mother's, from Italy.  Both sides of her family were faithful, observant Catholics. She remembers her father's going to mass every day and her mother's saying the rosary and making novenas regularly.  Every Sunday her family attended Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and afterwards returned home for a family dinner.

Sr. Rose remembers singing in the choir and attending church more frequently during Lent.  Her mother said grace before meals and went to confession once a month on Saturdays.  At Christmas her family opened gifts after midnight mass.  Even though Rose's mother's family was Italian, the family adopted and practiced Slovakian customs such as bringing their ham, bread, and butter to church for the priest to bless on Easter Saturday. 

Sr. Rose holds dear her mother's Christmas pin and rosary.  Her mother said the rosary, a gift from her children when they were in elementary school, every day.  Sr. Rose's mother died at age 58 from cancer, four months after being diagnosed.  When Sr. Rose says the rosary with her mother's beads, she feels a sense of communion with her mother and family.  Sr. Rose recalls that her mother was a great listener who tried to help women who brought her their problems.  This legacy of listening to others' stories and trying to help those in need influenced Sr. Rose to answer the call to a religious life.

A central way Sr. Rose expresses her faith is by praying every morning and evening with her community of nuns at the convent.  An object that expresses her faith is her crucifix that she wears each day.  Each morning she kisses the crucifix when she puts it on with a prayer.  Another object that reveals her faith is her ring, a simple gold band with "I am espoused to Christ" in Latin engraved inside.  Sr. Rose says that because she moves every 5-6 years, she doesn't possess many material things.

Even though Sr. Rose has no children of her own, as Director of Religious Education she constantly considers the basic precepts essential to pass down to the children of the church.  First she feels she must be an example to children, "a person of integrity."  She practices the maxim:   "Know yourself; be true to yourself."  Next she wants to impart a sense of the sacred to Catholic children.  When she sees children slouching at mass, she worries they have lost this sense of the sacred, "the relationship with our Lord as a central aspect of their lives."  In addition, she wants children to learn to serve others.  She likes to take children to visit shut-ins, she encourages children to save money during Lent to give to the needy, and she invites children to help when the church houses the homeless in conjunction with NEST, an Emergency Shelter Team.  She emphasizes that our talents are not just for us.  Sr. Rose wants the next generation to internalize the value of service because we are "not just here for ourselves."  Finally she feels that because "the wellspring of joy is prayer," she wants to transmit the importance of prayer to the young.

Sr. Rose recognizes the gradual decline of religious vocations in America.  Instead of feeling sad about the decrease in the number of nuns, she believes this is the age of laity: today every person has a responsibility to minister to others.