National Vocations Awareness Week concludes this weekend, but God isn’t restricted to a schedule, and his ‘calling’ to our respective vocation anytime whether we are aware or not. As the insert in our bulletin illustrates, we have eight men presently in formation responding to God’s call to the priesthood. Each of us have a vocation we are called to embrace whether marriage, the single life, religious life or ordained ministry; no one is exempt. However, with the various distractions in our culture, our awareness of the vocation God has chosen for each of us may be obscured, especially the calling towards the priesthood. Our prayers, especially shared as a family, can aid those presently in formation and, in a very real way, encourage your daughter or son’s ‘calling’ whatever it may be. Please remember in your prayers the seminarians in formation and those whom God continues to call towards ordained ministry and religious life. I was taught by the Franciscans of Milwaukee, but realized over the years the Catholic identity and values the various orders of Sisters brought to the many communities they served as educators and nurses, (especially in Carroll and surrounding towns). One FSPA Sister in particular has a rather unique path or calling to religious life. In the words of her personal friend, Bishop Edward Braxton, the story of Sr. Thea Bowman’s ‘calling.’ “Dear Sr. Thea Bowman, F.S.P.A., was one of my closest friends and a profound influence on my life as a Priest and Bishop. . . .This self-assured black woman [born in 1937] began life as Bertha Bowman. Bertha’s father, Dr. Theon Bowman, practiced medicine in Canton, Mississippi. As an African-American doctor, he was not allowed to operate in the nearest hospital; her mother, Mary Esther Bowman, was a teacher. The Bowmans’ home was what Sr. Thea called an ecumenical home. She was baptized in her father’s Episcopal church and went to Methodist Sunday school with her mother. When “the Catholics came to town” and opened a mission, Bertha began spending all her free time there. On her own initiative, she entered the Catholic Church shortly afterward, (baptized) in 1947. . . .She was drawn there through “the day-to-day lived witness of Catholic Christians who first loved me, then shared with me their story, their values, their beliefs.” Her attraction deepened into a decision to enter religious life. In 1953, at the age of fifteen, Bertha Bowman left home and traveled to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, to enter school with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. With zest and determination, she adjusted to a new climate, diet, lifestyle, and way of praying. When she entered the congregation of Franciscan Sisters, she also took a new name—Thea—in honor of her father. The name has its roots in the Greek word for God. Sr. Thea threw herself into her studies. She got her undergraduate degree, spent ten years teaching, and then earned her Ph. D. in English at The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. Fascinated by the role that music and oral tradition had played in preserving African-American values, history, and faith, Sr. Thea put together a presentation on the topic and brought it to colleges. Over time, as Sr. Thea honed her ideas about the value of cultural diversity. . . . “We do not all look alike. We do not sing, dance, pray, play, think, cook, eat, wash, laugh, or dress alike. Praise the Lord, we are not alike. If I begin to believe that we are all alike, look at what I’m going to miss: the richness, beauty, wholeness, and harmony of what God created.” Increasingly in demand as a speaker, Sr. Thea traveled extensively, and she had no time for hatred and negativity. . . .and was not blind to problems, however. She brought the essential question squarely to the forefront: “Within the Church, how can we work together so that all of us have equal access to input, equal access to opportunity, equal access to participation? . . .We don’t want to change the sacraments. We don’t want to change the theology of the Church.” In 1984, Sr. Thea learned she had breast cancer. By 1988, it had spread to her bones, confining her to a wheelchair. . . .Like many Christians who become chronically ill, Sr. Thea didn’t know how to pray about her illness at first. Should she seek healing? Should she pray for life or for death? Finally she found peace in praying, “’Lord, let me live until I die.’ By that I mean I want to live, love, and serve fully until death comes. If that prayer is answered, if I am able to live until I die, how long really doesn’t matter.” Sr. Thea Bowman’s brief, remarkable life of love, service, and joy ended on March 30, 1990 and people of different races, religions, ages, and economic status filled the visitation and the church for the Liturgy of Christian Burial.” Whatever our vocation, our ‘calling’ from God, Sr. Thea’s oft repeated mantra holds true: “Remember who you are and whose you are.” God Bless, Fr. Tim FYI: In a world so torn apart by rivalry, anger, and hatred, we have the privileged vocation to be living signs of a love that can bridge all divisions and heal all wounds. (Fr. Henri Nouwen)