Sister Anna

When I was growing up, I hated to have to get up early for anything! I would pull the covers up and then burrow my head under the pillows.

Look at me now!

I am up so early every day it is never light outside! And I love it!

So, what happened?

How did I go from the girl who never wanted to get up to the woman who loves to get up?

I didn’t consider that I might have a vocation to the life a Sister until I had finished college. Starting out at the U, I loved to party. Late. (Another reason I didn’t like to get up early.) I also loved to study. I was really into science, especially physics. I could imitate inertia really good by not getting up and staying in bed.

Seriously, though, it was in my junior year that I began to wonder what it was I would be doing with my life. The party thing just wasn’t important. I started taking some courses in the world’s religions.

I had never really thought of myself as a “religious” person, but when I did some volunteer work with the Catholic chaplains at the University’s hospital, I saw the power of prayer to comfort and I was really impressed.

I continued to study for a degree in physics, thinking that I might teach it someday.

Right after graduation, before starting on my teacher certification, I did some intense thinking about my future. I now know that this “intense thinking” was actually “praying.”

From this “intense thinking,” I decided I wanted to know more about what life as a Sister might be like, so I asked my friend, the Sister in chaplaincy, for some help.

She suggested getting to know some of the Sisters living in the different communities of Sisters in our part of Arizona.

One of the visits I made was to a beautiful monastery near the mountains.

My 24 hours with the Sisters actually became the first 24 hours of the rest of my life. What I saw, what I heard and what I experienced introduced me to the life of a Contemplative Sister.

Getting up early? You have no idea how early!

We get up so early to join our voices in singing God’s praises and to pray for His peace and healing throughout the world. Much of our day we are silent. I hear and learn more about our world during this silence than I could have ever imagined. We Sisters all have different jobs and responsibilities within our community, but our shared call is to be an expression of God’s love to each other and to all we meet.

Getting up early?

I wouldn’t want to live my life in any other way than getting up early for God!

You can find out more about my life as a Sister by getting in touch with Sister Rina Cappellazzo at the Diocese of Tucson. Give her a call at 520-838-2524, e-mail her at srrc@diocesetucson.org or visit her Web page here.