Eight questions that will inspire your candidates
If you’re a practicing Christian, you probably tend to sneer at our materialistic culture – especially the big media.
However, the media occasionally favorably portrays Christian living. After all, they want to attract viewers, and there’s a lot of interesting religious stories out there.
In 2014, the cable TV channel Lifetime featured “The Sisterhood: Becoming Nuns,” which featured five young women as they visited communities of nuns and religious sisters to discern their religious vocations.
Below is a four-minute clip from NBC’s The Today Show of an interview of two of these women. This video not only gives insight into the thoughts of discerners, but it can be used as a teaching tool in reaching out to your vocation candidates.
You can send this video to your discerners by linking it from within a mailing program, such as I have done here. Below are highlights from the video, and discussion questions that you can ask them to think about.
Video highlights
0:52 – Sr. Maria Theresa talks about a celebration of consecrated life. It counteracts the idea that “we’re invisible” or going out of existence.
2:12 – Christy Young talks about giving up things, such as marriage, babies, jobs and careers.
2:57 – Stacey Jackson says you are not choosing this sad, drab life. You are a life-giver, a spiritual mother. What you get in return is a family of a community.
3:38 – The young women sing a song written by Christy. “We gather together with your name on our lips…”
Thought-provoking questions for discerners
- Maria Theresa counteracts some prevailing ideas about sisters. Why do you think that these notions have pervaded our society?
- Christy and Stacey talk about giving up things, and gaining things in return. Does this remind you of a quote of Jesus? (See Matt. 19:29)
- Do you know of any young women who have responded so eagerly to the consecrated/religious life?
Is there anything that surprises you about these two young women? - The secular media must be convinced that their audience will be attracted to this topic. Why is it so attractive?
- Do you think that vocations to the religious life is on the upswing in America?
- What do you think your parents or friends would say about this video?
- Would you like us to send you other videos of the Sisterhood series?
