Community Essential for 'Younger' Member

Community Essential for 'Younger' Member
by Lou Anglin, BVM

I think my first “oh, so THIS is community” came during my sophomore year at Clarke College. I’m not sure I remember the exact time of year, but it was busy, and it was time for the Quito carnival.

I was on the basketball team at Clarke and spent many an evening in the gym where I’d encounter BVM Katherine Ann Beckman who supervised the gym.

Katherine Ann loved the Working Boys Center in Quito, Ecuador and regularly held a fundraiser for the Center. Her time spent in the gym was put to good use making crafts to sell at the carnival.

Any of you who know Katherine Ann probably could have predicted that before long the entire basketball team was helping make things for the carnival, volunteering at the carnival, promising to come and buy things at the carnival. We all dutifully went—anything for Katherine Ann. It was held in the student union and the place was packed.

During one of the busiest times of the year every BVM at Clarke was there working the booths, selling raffle tickets, and having a blast. Hundreds of students had shown up to do what they could. All for Katherine Ann, the BVMs in Quito, and the families that the Working Boys Center helps.

Two years after I graduated from Clarke I entered the BVMs, drawn by the sense of community that I encountered that evening in the student union. Despite the fact that I’m still referred to as one of the “young ones,” next July 16 I will have been a BVM for 20 years.

While some of my ideas and experiences of community have grown and changed over the years, the basics have remained the same.

I choose this life because God and how God calls me to be in the world is central to my life. The women that I share life with have supported me, challenged me, helped me to grow into a healthier person.

I know why the Working Boys Center is so critical to the poor of Quito, Ecuador. I’ve been educated about how some welfare legislation hurts women and children. I’ve been taught and I’ve been challenged to make choices based on how it will help or hurt all of God’s creation. My world is so much bigger than it ever was before.

People will sometimes ask me if being a “young” member is hard because I live with women who often are much older than I am. Sometimes it is, but more often I feel blessed to be surrounded by so many faithful, wise women.

Sometimes people wonder what it feels like to know that the number of younger people in community is so low. Sometimes it’s scary, but more often I see it as a challenge to open up membership to share this great gift of community we’ve been given with all kinds of people.

People will ask me if it’s hard not to be married and have a family. Sometimes it’s lonely, but more often I’m grateful for the great freedom I have to be in relationship with all kinds of people in a great variety of places.

Since that night in the student union I’ve had lots of “oh, so THIS is community” moments. They’ve been many and varied but always times that inspired hope.

It’s been at funerals where we celebrate the life of a Sister who generously ministered for 50-plus years.

It’s reading of someone’s gratitude for our congregation’s financial help so she could continue her education.

It’s talking with my colleagues about how to best help the young women we teach.

It’s gathering with friends at the School of the Americas protest to pray for peace.

It’s times where I’m called to remember that when people are working together for good that God is at the center of it all.

So I’m grateful to Katherine Ann and the Quito carnival. While I probably could have been happily married with a family these past 20 years or so, I think that religious life has been a good fit for me.

I’ve always loved and found to be true the words of Joan Keleher Doyle, BVM from We Did It Ourselves:

I see us as

women of the Lord, women who laugh and dance and sing,

women who weep not because we have lost something

but because we have been given so much.

Women who struggle for justice,

women faithful to prayer,

women whom the Spirit continues to disturb.

Women who are warm-hearted with the capacity to

accept and forgive all who belong to the same flawed

and yet wondrous family.

Women who know what it means to give our lives for life.

Women striving to become as human as Jesus was.

Women who are a sign that the Good News has come and is coming.

Women who dream dreams and continue to promise.

About the author: Lou Anglin, BVM teaches theology and is campus minister at Nerinx Hall High School in St. Louis. She is also a member of the BVM Initial Membership Committee.