Sister Esther

Hesitantly, I approached a lady waiting for her friend outside a shop in the Vatican City. I just felt I needed ask her for an interview, but wasn’t quite sure how or where to start. ‘Parla inglese?’ I hedged. A Canadian accent replied warmly and affirmatively. My conversation with Sister Esther was one which will stay with me for a long time.

I wonder if you could tell me a bit about how you came to live and work here?

I’m from Canada but I was working in the States. I had just been named Superior of a little community in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, and I arrived there August 24th. Then, in the middle of November I got called to the General Chapter, which is kind of like where the heads of the government and representatives from all the countries of our congregation get together and make big decisions. One of the big decisions is election or re-election of the Mother General, who’s in charge of everything, and four councillors. I was only a substitute, so I wasn’t even really supposed to be there, but somebody couldn’t make it, I ended up going, and I got elected as a councillor. I’m here in Rome for a six year term - I got here February last year, and so I’ve got another four and a half years. (Laughs)

Wow, and how has your experience here been so far?

Amazing because as a councillor of an international congregation, we have to get to know our sisters and their works, and the best way to do that is to go where they are - I’ve been to Spain and Switzerland and Romania, I’ve been to Columbia and Brazil. Sometimes the sisters will come into Rome for whatever, but it’s different when you see somebody, say from Brazil, here in Italy and then when you see them in their own home. So that’s been really an amazing and a great gift, because I’ve gotten to know a lot of the sisters that I would never have known otherwise, and a lot of the cultures that I would never have known otherwise.

"The Lord... In my life he loves to pull jokes."

If you don’t mind me asking, how did you feel called to the religious life?

(Laughs) You know, the Lord is... In my life he loves to pull jokes. I was not thinking of religious life, because I was not... I mean, I knew God existed and every now and then I would talk to Him, but usually it was like “What are you doing?! How come you didn’t let me do whatever?”. But, things were not going real well. I had my own car, I had my own job, I had an apartment, I had a boyfriend, but something was not quite right. So I thought, well, when I was little I had gone on a retreat. The only thing I had remembered was time of silence. So I said okay, let me go on a retreat, it will give me time to think about what I want to do with my life, not what He wanted to do with my life. He didn’t enter anything... I thought. As soon as I got there they added the schedule and it said right on the front, ‘Religious vocation’. I thought, ‘Oh no – this is for people who want to be a nun, like argh!’ Well, I was there, so fine, I stayed.

"Oh no – this is for people who want to be a nun!"

Watching the different sisters, I saw that this one sister had such a peace and joy about her. I said that’s what’s missing in my life, so okay, how do you go about getting that? Well, He made it be known that the way I was going to get that was to change my life, because there were things that were not really... religious. I had to make a few changes, and then, it’s gonna sound silly, but I got the feeling that He wants me to be a saint. The only way I could do that obviously wasn’t on my own, coz I had gone way astray. I needed other people to help me, so then that meant being a religious sister. Then it was deciding which congregation, coz there’s lots. The one that I chose, Daughters of St Mary Providence, was like a family, and, as soon as I got there, even though they didn’t know me and they didn’t know if I would be a sister or anything – for all they knew I was just going to be a volunteer –they welcomed me. So, I kind of pledged the deal!

"This one sister had such a peace and joy about her. I said that’s what’s missing in my life"

And so now, how does your relationship with God influence your daily life?

Everyday. I mean, everyday you have to say yes again, you know. (Laughs) Coz, you know it’s challenging. But yeah, it’s been great, it’s been wonderful... This is one of my sisters.

Sister Esther’s friend, a lady with whom you feel warmly acquainted at the first hello, then came out of the shop and joined us. One same God and an appreciation of his sense of humour and often unexpected ways united the three of us in this unlikely meeting. We eventually parted ways.

Very good. God bless you, you take care, okay.