XV: Young Women and the Higher Life

GOD uses all His creatures in His designs. To womenkind He has paid the greatest honors. He asked for the coöperation of a woman when He sent His only Son into the world. And Christ while engaged on earth in doing His Father’s business, accepted the help and ministrations of women, and set them as examples of piety and charity. At the great sacrifice on Calvary, there stood at the foot of the cross the sinless Mary and the penitent Magdalen. The mission of Christ was only begun while He was among men. By the Church He continues that mission and will continue it to the end. His Church turns to women for their help even as He Himself did. Good Catholic mothers are real helpers of Christ. The woman who gives a good example as mother and wife in the home is doing God’s work. The family is her mission field. If she does her work there as a good Catholic mother, she will receive an eternal recompense. Millions of women have become saints just by being good Catholic wives and mothers. Women, you have a noble work right at home.

But there are some women who experience an inclination to a life higher than the ordinary. They feel a strong impulse to devote themselves to lofty ideals. They desire to lead a life of sublime virtue and to spend themselves for the welfare of others. They are not satisfied with doing merely what they must, but aim at doing all they can.

They reflect that Jesus Christ so loved them as to give His life for them. And they hear His appealing words: “Behold My heart which has loved you so much; child, give Me thy heart.” Knowing that Jesus wants their services, but that He does not command the higher life, but only invites them to it, they desire to satisfy that divine Heart.

Many women spending their lives in the round of worldly duties strive to lead this higher interior life. By frequent Holy Communion and by deeds of zeal and charity, they satisfy somewhat their lofty spiritual aspirations. Some are so circumstanced that they cannot aspire to anything more. They have the spirit and desire to advance higher, but their duties of life do not permit it. In God’s sight, these pious souls have all the merit of supreme sacrifice, for God sees the heart and the intention and rewards accordingly. There are many cloistered souls in the world.

There are other women, many in fact, so situated in life that, if they receive the call to a life consecrated entirely to the service of God and their own sanctification, they are able to follow it. These favored souls become the beloved spouses of Christ. They leave home and friends and the comforts of life to belong entirely to Jesus.

Are you one of these? Are you so situated that you can give yourself unreservedly to the service of God as a sister in a religious order?

The Church of God today has need of the sisterhoods more than ever. Every bishop in the country is appealing for sisters for his diocese. No one can do certain work in a parish like the sisters. There may be devoted women who teach and care for the little ones and the helpless, but only the sisters can give all of their time and their first interests to it, in the way that helps most the service of God and the salvation of souls.

Every parish that has a convent feels itself blessed. The sisters are truly the Red Cross Society of God’s army. They help priests and people in a way which only their sublime ministrations can do. Besides, they are sanctifying themselves while helping and sanctifying others. They are working for Jesus Christ and with Him.

Like the holy women who accompanied our Lord in His missions throughout the Holy Land, ministering to His wants, the sisters help Christ by ministering to Him in His church. The Church is Jesus Christ in the world, carrying out by human instrumentality the work He inaugurated while on earth. That is why He says of it: “He who hears you, hears me.” That is why the sisters, in giving their ministrations and their lives to the service of the Church, are consecrating themselves to the person and service of Jesus Christ. What a noble career for the young woman who feels the call to the religious life and is in a position to respond!

God in the mystery of His plans sees fit to depend on men and women for the carrying on of His work. He could do everything directly if He wished, or He could employ angels as His ministers. Instead, it pleases Him to choose weak men and women as His aides. He employs the ministry of priests, brothers and sisters to accomplish His good purposes among mankind.

Perhaps His reason for so doing is to honor us mortals. What a glory it is to be associated with God Almighty in His work! We may envy the Angel Gabriel, who was employed by God to carry the message of the Incarnation to Mary. But do we realize that God employs priests and religious men and women to carry the fruits of the Incarnation into the souls and lives of men!

Every time a sister, by her prayers, penances, good works or sufferings, helps a soul to draw nearer to Christ, she is doing in a certain degree what our Blessed Mother did who gave Christ to us by the Incarnation. Mary gave us Jesus. The good sister, by her consecrated life, brings Jesus into the souls of men. She brings Jesus to those who, except for her devoted zeal, might never have known Him.

Of course we can all do that by being zealous Catholics, but the sister does it as a profession. It is her life. She is bringing Jesus into the lives of little children in the classroom. She brings Jesus into the lives of worldly men by her silent and holy presence as she walks through the streets or attends devoutly the services of the Church. She brings Jesus into the hearts of sinners whom her gentle ministrations affect in hospitals, in homes, and even in prisons. She is saving souls not only when she is teaching catechism, saying her beads or reciting the office, but all day long, by every act she performs, since she does all for Christ. Her every act is thus the very best of prayers.

Many women feel that life is empty, that there is little in it worth while, that it is one round of vanity or disappointment. Sisters in religion never feel that way. For them every day is full, full of the things which count most, the things which count for time and eternity. They spend themselves in efforts for the spiritual and bodily welfare of others. Their deeds are truly worth while, benefitting as they do their fellow beings.

Besides being worth while here, these deeds also reach out in their effect to the hereafter. The actions which fill up the life of the sisters go with them beyond the grave and stand with them before the tribunal of God. The good sister realizes that all she does is done for her Spouse, Jesus Christ.

What a joy it will be to her in that final hour, which most people dread, to know that she is going into His presence, whom she has loved and lived for. Her hands will be full of the very things God values most, things which cost service and sacrifice.

It is the abiding thought that all they do is for Jesus, that gives the sisters their wonderful serenity which all admire and envy. They know that they are pleasing God and have His favor. What does all the rest matter! They know that He takes as done unto Himself all that they do for others in His name and for His love. That is why they are so content with what people ordinarily consider a hard life. Sometimes you will hear persons say that they do not understand how so many of our refined and delicate young ladies can stand the arduous life of a sister. No one finds that hard which is done out of love. Love much, and no labor will seem too great or too mean.

There is no love like that which Jesus Christ inspires in the hearts of His followers. Once it is enkindled in the soul, heaven begins. The sisters have that strong love of Christ which has made heroic characters. All through the ages, Jesus has attracted to His service the noblest of souls.

Do not fancy that the call to the sisterhoods is only for the very exceptional girl. True greatness in God’s estimation is a pure heart and a generous will. All can cultivate these qualities. The desire, the strong desire, to be dear to God and worthy of a vocation, is the first step toward becoming worthy.

A holy life must precede a vocation to the sisterhood. A young woman must show God, by doing her best where she is, that she aspires to ascend higher. Let her do her part, and He will do His. He is more desirous of advancing His children than they are of being advanced. Prayer and Holy Communion are the best arguments with God for one who desires Him to accept her among His chosen ones as a sister.

If you only knew how much the Church needs devoted lives now, you would pray hard for yourself, for your friends, that God might grant vocations to the sisterhood. Every order of sisters is short-handed. There is so much for them to do, and there are so few to do it. In many orders, one sister is doing the work of three. Many are breaking down from overwork. They offer joyously even this sacrifice of health for their Beloved, Jesus Christ, but surely we have young women who will go to their aid, not only to help them, but to help the countless souls whom they serve.

It is a call to the colors. The standard of Christ summons our young women to fight under it. That standard is carried by Jesus Christ, who first sacrificed Himself for us before asking us to sacrifice ourselves for Him. He invites our young women to take up His cross and follow after Him.

The life of the sisters is a way of the cross. It is also a royal road to heaven. The girl who becomes a sister, has much to suffer; she carries the cross of Christ. There are privations and hh fatigue and misunderstandings and disappointments in convent life as in the world. But Jesus experienced all these before us. There are sufferings, no doubt, but, oh, what consolations! We have to suffer anyway, no matter what our career in life. What a joy to realize that we are suffering for One we love and One who loves us!

Only the young woman with a generous soul can think of being a sister. Selfish persons cannot follow close to the generous Christ. And the sisters follow Him very close. But if a girl has a strong desire to belong to our Lord, and a will to serve Him in all things, He will strengthen her as He has strengthened so many others.

The sisterhoods need recruits. They are appealing for help. But desirous as they are for new members, they want only the right kind. In the Great War, our country needed helpers of all kinds, but eager as was the government for recruits for the various departments, it was nevertheless exacting in its requirements. The sisterhoods, too, have a high standard.

What requirements, what qualifications, must a woman possess in order to be a sister? That all depends on the order in question. There is one basic requirement for all the sisterhoods— virtue. That does not mean that the novice must be faultless. But it does mean a true desire to be good and a firm determination not to yield to temptation.

Those who are most sorely tempted sometimes turn out to be the holiest and the most serviceable to others. Those who rise promptly after a fall, and endeavor not to fall again, are practising virtue. A sublime character is frequently developed by self-conquest, and those who have hard struggles with themselves know how to be helpful to others. The virtue, therefore, which is required for a sister’s career is a strong will to keep God's law, shown by the avoidance of whatever tends to sin.

Moreover, as the sisters form one large family in the convent, it is necessary that a congenial, or at least not a disagreeable, disposition should be associated with virtue. Sisters are brought into contact with people of all sorts. Their disposition should be such as to win rather than repel those among whom they work.

Some orders which are devoted entirely to higher education, require a good general education in those who desire to join them. Other orders, engaged in primary or secondary teaching, demand of prospective members just an ordinary grammar school or high school education. But the majority of the orders have a place for all women of good will, regardless of education. Some sisters care for infants, cripples, the aged, the wayward and the orphan. Sisters have a part in everything which ministers to the welfare of others. No woman of normal qualifications need feel that the sisterhoods are closed to her if she is willing to do what she is best fitted for. For further details about the sisterhoods read Convent Life,* a book written for those who want definite information about nuns and vocations.

If after consideration, you feel that you have a call to a higher life as a sister, consult your pastor or confessor. Or, better still, go to one of the convents known to you and have a talk with one of the sisters. Do not be afraid that they will capture you unawares. Desirous as they are of adding to their order, they cannot accept those unsuited to their work and rule. It is harder to get into the convent than to get out of it.

The step is too important for precipitate action, taken without every consideration. Where there persists a strong and constant desire to leave all and follow Christ, nothing should keep the maiden back. She must expect difficulties and

*CONVENT LIFE—the meaning of a Religious Vocation. By Martin J. Scott, S. J. discouragements, but a true vocation becomes stronger by such obstacles.

No one ever accomplishes anything worth while without opposition. The only way to escape criticism and opposition is to sit down and attempt nothing. That brings you nowhere. If a vocation is worth anything, it is worth a struggle. And what a glorious thing it is to be associated with Jesus Christ in carrying on His work! What an honor to be a partner of God in saving souls and bringing peace and cheer and holiness into the lives of men!

Oh, it is hard, yes. The life demands a great deal from weak human nature. But look to what it leads! It is a path which leads straight to God. Moreover, even in this life, it gives a peace which surpasses understanding. The knowledge that she is the beloved companion and spouse of Jesus Christ transforms her, and makes her feel that she is blessed indeed to be able to work and suffer for Him.

And He will give Himself as the reward exceedingly great. We cannot surpass Him in generosity. We can never regret anything we have done for Him. If He gives eternal life to those who keep His commandments, what will He give to the good sister who has sacrificed herself and all she possessed to His holy service!

We must all part with the world and its allurements some day. What a joy that last hour, so dreaded by many, will bring to the sister who has left all, of her own accord, at the call of her Beloved! Death for such a one will only be the removal of the barrier which separates Lover and beloved.

All of us may attain to that blessed union with God, but the good sister’s path is serene and secure and glorious. Hers will be the very perfection of espousals, for on earth she listened to Christ’s voice saying: “If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come follow me!” In life she followed Him. Beyond, He will be hers for all eternity!