Feels Like Home: A Single Catholic Woman’s Guide to Religious Life in the U.S.
I’ve been absent from the blog for a long time, but busy working for our clients as always.
I’ve also been writing a book. Now that it’s been published, I’m thrilled to tell you about it!
"Feels Like Home" is a narrative-based guidebook for women discerning their vocation. It was written with and for vocation directors from across the country.
I wrote it because, after 20 years of serving in communications ministry for Catholic Sisters (much of it supporting vocations), it was clear to me how desperately needed a guide like this was.
"Feels Like Home," which I have made available in paperback on Amazon, functions as a kind of “one-stop shop” of critical but hard-to-find insights.
It explores - through heartfelt vocation stories of newly professed Sisters from a general range of institutes including monastic, apostolic, missionary, habited and cloistered - the sometimes-circuitous paths that lead to the convent, and shares information about the institutes the women eventually call "home."
Vocation Director Sister Stefanie MacDonald, OSB, writes in the Preface, "If this book had been available to me, it would have saved me years of searching. ... Feels Like Home spells out your options for you. From vocation stories to discernment tips, it offers insight into the lifestyles of different kinds of institutes. … You’ll find a clearer picture of where God is calling you. And you’ll discover you are not alone in the process."
My faith-based work has been published by Vision Vocation Guide as well as in congregational publications. I also am a contributor to Duke Divinity Faith & Leadership, St. Ambrose University Scene, Horizon, and other publications. Catholic Media Association awarded a story from the book - published by Vision - an award for Best Magazine Feature in 2022.
It’s been my privilege to write a book that will help inquirers find their home among today’s women religious. They are the prophet-warriors of the Church, still serving all God’s creation, still standing strong.