Lisa Buscher, RSCJ
Lisa Buscher was born in Charleston, Illinois, and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. She attended college on a volleyball scholarship. She professed her first vows as a Religious of the Sacred Heart in 2005.
What attracted you to religious life?
Prayer was a very important part of my daily life long before I entered the Society of the Sacred Heart. And as a woman doing lay ministry in the Catholic Church, I found myself wanting to work hand in hand with others for a common mission, to serve other people and be about something more than myself.
How did you learn about the Society of the Sacred Heart?
As a lay student studying theology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, I was required to choose a spiritual director. I had noticed a woman who came to daily liturgies and had such a prayerful spirit about her. I asked a friend of mine, "Who is that woman who comes to pray all the time?" She told me it was Barbara Bowe, a Religious of the Sacred Heart. Barbara became my spiritual director and through her I came to know the community.
Why did you choose to enter the Society?
I found myself at home in the mission of the Society – to discover and reveal God's love in the heart of the world – because of its focus on both prayer (discovering) and service (revealing). It is that double movement of "wholly contemplative and wholly apostolic" that attracted me and that permeates every aspect of my life today. I was, and am, inspired by the educational impact of an international congregation whose mission is to share God's love in the heart of the world.
What is your present ministry?
I am coordinator of campus ministry for Schools of the Sacred Heart, San Francisco. My work includes planning liturgies, getting students involved in justice and peace issues, and keeping the Society's mission in the forefront of school life. This summer, I will move to Boston to work part time in vocation ministry, while continuing to serve the San Francisco schools as a consultant in their formation-to-mission program for faculty and staff.
What advice would you give a woman considering religious life?
Ask people you trust to help you discern, and have the courage to see and leap beyond cultural stereotypes in order to experience "the heights and depths, width and breath" of a God who is beyond all names and calls us to make love known in our needy world. Follow your heart and be assured that God will lead.
Kimberly King, RSCJ
Kim King was born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in cities around the state. She is a published poet who enjoys sharing poetry ñ her own and that of others ñ with her middle-school-age students. She professed her first vows as a Religious of the Sacred Heart in 2001.
What attracted you to religious life?
I wanted to spend my life with others who share my passion for discovering and delighting in God along the journey and adventure of a full life – a life of broad love, challenge, laughter, joy, and wonder. Religious life seemed to offer me the freedom to do that.
How did you learn about the Society of the Sacred Heart?
At a time when I was moving from Wisconsin to New York City, a friend gave me the name and phone number of a woman in Manhattan, knowing that I would appreciate having someone to connect with there. That friend turned out to be a Religious of the Sacred Heart.
Why did you choose to enter the Society of the Sacred Heart?
In the first community of Religious of the Sacred Heart I met, I saw clear connections among their prayer, conversation and way of living, between the world's reality and their own relationships with God. The world was brought to prayer and the fruit of that prayer was returned to the world in word and deed. The contemplative and apostolic aspects of life were never separate, but rather were in a constant inner-outer flow. Also, I loved the fact that the Society in the United States was all one province, not broken up into dioceses or regions. There is a clear focus on internationality as well, and there is a heritage of strength – both intellectual and spiritual – that has for more than 200 years been paired with a deep, generous love. Drawing from this history, while living as a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is a positive, life-giving, challenge. I find a freedom here to focus on God while opening my arms wide to touch many, many lives, and to be enriched by each one in turn.
What is your ministry now?
I am the middle school librarian at Convent of the Sacred Heart ("91st Street") in New York City, a Catholic independent girls' school founded 125 years ago by Religious of the Sacred Heart. I am responsible for designing and running a comprehensive library program for girls in fifth to seventh grades.
What advice would you give a woman considering religious life?
Bring who you are, whole and complete. You will need and use it all: the past experiences, the humor, the love, the growing edges, the joy and depth of God within, the desire for challenge. Religious life is one adventure among many that you could choose for your life, and you are not alone in considering it.
Mary Frohlich, RSCJ
Mary Frohlich was born in Athens, Ohio. She grew up in Spearfish and Rapid City, South Dakota, and in Baltimore County, Maryland. She is a former novice of a cloistered religious order and has a special interest in the spirituality of St. Thérése de Lisieux as it relates to the spirituality of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. She professed her first vows as a Religious of the Sacred Heart in 2004.
What attracted you to religious life?
Even when I was very young, I felt a spark when I met women who had dedicated their lives to Christ. As time went on that became more defined. I recognized it as the light and warmth that flows from a life of prayer, generosity, and commitment to rebuilding the world according to Christ's values.
How did you learn about the Society of the Sacred Heart?
I met the Society through the three Religious of the Sacred Heart who were on the faculty of Catholic Theological Union when I began teaching there.
Why did you choose to enter the Society?
What I saw in the Religious of the Sacred Heart was a joyful contemplative life, a loving community life and a passionate commitment to being educators and scholars. I had been pursuing each of these separately without being able to bring them into harmony. The Society is a great fit for who I am for several reasons. I am sharing life with women who practice prayer, community and mission with great integrity and verve. I am part of a long and deep tradition of spirituality that nourishes me on spiritual, emotional and intellectual levels. I belong to an international community that challenges and enriches me with different languages, cultures and ways of thinking and being.
What is your ministry now?
I am associate professor of spirituality at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. I teach graduate courses in spirituality and direct the master's program.
What advice would you give a woman considering religious life?
I would say the future is yours to create. We are in a time of demanding transition, which calls us to develop new ways of living religious life in the 21st century. Joining a religious community will put you among loving and wise women who will support you as you strive to create these new ways. You will also have as your heritage the many generations of women who courageously confronted the needs of their times as they created and recreated traditions that helped them live out their dedication to God and God's people.
Kathleen McGrath, RSCJ
Kathy McGrath was born and raised in Newport, Rhode Island. She worked for thirteen years as a contract negotiator for the federal government before joining the Society of the Sacred Heart. She professed her first vows as a Religious of the Sacred Heart in 2002.
What attracted you to religious life?
I had been attracted on some level to religious life many years before I entered, beginning when I was in my late teens, but it was only years later, when I was in my late 30s and had begun to deepen my relationship with God, that religious life seemed like a real possibility for my life. I didn't completely discount marriage as a possibility, but over time I have recognized that I would be less satisfied as a married person than I am in the life I have now.
How did you learn about the Society of the Sacred Heart?
I knew two Religious of the Sacred Heart in Rhode Island, where I grew up and attended college. I met one at a retreat house during a time of adult spiritual formation. I met up with the Society again while studying at Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Why did you choose to enter the Society?
To me, there is something very different about the Society. I don't believe that I would be able to live religious life in another congregation. Part of this has to do with the Society's deep contemplative dimension and the fact that my primary inclination is toward living the contemplative life. I also know through experience that I do not belong in a typical monastery or cloister. In the Society, I live a contemplative life in which ministry and prayer are deeply intertwined. That I can live this life and share this experience with others – with Religious of the Sacred Heart in this country and around the world – makes it so much richer.
What is your ministry now?
I am an instructor in the Moving Ahead Program at St. Francis House in downtown Boston. It is a fourteen-week life skills and career development program for men and women who are homeless and/or are re-entering the community after a period of incarceration.
What advice would you give a woman considering religious life?
A vocation to religious life has to come out of a woman's primary relationship with God. If it is meant to be, it will become clear within that relationship.
Jane O'Shaughnessy, RSCJ
Jane O'Shaughnessy was born and raised in the Boston metropolitan area. She formerly worked on financial software as a systems analyst and programmer. She is one of three "sister-moms" in the Society – women who raised children before entering religious life. She professed her first vows as a Religious of the Sacred Heart in 2004.
What attracted you to religious life?
I have always had a sense of the sacred and a desire to follow my inner calls, even while I was married. After my husband died in 1997 and my two daughters were grown, I was free to respond to ways I felt God was calling me.
How did you learn about the Society of the Sacred Heart?
I knew an RSCJ who lived nearby, and learned that the Society of the Sacred Heart was beginning the Sacred Heart Associates program. It was exciting and inspirational to work with many of the Religious of the Sacred Heart in the Boston area as we discussed Society writings and history and envisoned a new program together ñ one that gives men and women the opportunity to deepen their connection with the Society and learn more about its history and spirituality.
Why did you choose to enter the Society?
The Sacred Heart Associates program took me to Taiwan, where I lived with a community of Religious of the Sacred Heart. It was there that I heard the call to religious life. I appreciated the wholly contemplative, wholly apostolic charism that now seems so obvious to me. In reading some of the Society's more recent documents, I was attracted to the mission, and gradually it became my own. It is rooted in the Heart of Christ and open most particularly to the wounded and marginalized of our world. This frames my spirituality. I love the internationality of the Society – the fact that 2,800 women are in union around the globe – and believe it is a great gift for our world today
What is your ministry now?
I am a spiritual and retreat director on the staff of the Spiritual Ministry Center in San Diego. The center is a ministry of the Society of the Sacred Heart, U.S. Province.
What advice would you give a woman considering religious life?
To be aware that religious life is in flux and that it is definitely counter-cultural. It is neither well understood nor appreciated by most people. It is a challenge on many levels, but we are in it together, listening to one another, to the events of the world, and to the stirrings of the Spirit in our hearts. It is a journey rooted in God's call that will facilitate growth in authentic freedom, will lead us to deeper peace and greater love as we respond to the great needs of our world.
Elisabeth Brinkmann, RSCJ
Elisabeth Brinkmann was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and raised in Germany, England, Florida and Texas. She worked as an electrical engineer, a parish youth minister, and a hospital chaplain before joining the Society of the Sacred Heart. She enjoys playing the violin. She professed her first vows as a Religious of the Sacred Heart in 2003.
What attracted you to religious life?
I considered marriage and even remaining single as options for my life, and I spent quite a few years trying to escape the whole idea of religious life. Still, I had a strong attraction to prayer and to a more contemplative life, so finally I decided to give it a try. I thought this would allow me to decide whether religious life was right for me and move on. Ultimately, it was getting to know the sisters, and what I saw in them, that convinced me.
How did you learn about the Society of the Sacred Heart?
I was working as a youth minister at a parish in the San Francisco area and met a Religious of the Sacred Heart who was the pastoral associate at a neighboring parish. Through her, I got to know many other RSCJ in the area.
Why did you choose to enter the Society?
For me, the integration of the intellectual and spiritual life is important, and this has been a big factor in the tradition of the Society as well. I am drawn to the Society's emphasis on the contemplative life and on education. The international dimension of the Society is a big attraction for me too. I like being part of something bigger than myself and knowing that I am part of a group in which everyone is committed to making known the love of the heart of God in the world ñ and quite literally, all over the world ñ in whatever ministry we are engaged.
What is your ministry now?
I am assistant professor of religious studies at The College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, New York.
What advice would you give a woman considering religious life?
I think it is really difficult for a woman in our culture today to figure out whether she has a vocation to vowed religious life. For a long time, I felt really weird and shy about admitting that it was something I was even thinking about. It helped me to talk to people I trusted, people who knew at least something about vowed religious life, and to find out that they didn't think it was such a bizarre idea at all. Based on my experience, I would tell a woman not to spend too much time or energy trying to run away from the thought. If religious life is meant for you, you won't be happy until you try it.
Diana Wall, RSCJ
Diana Wall grew up in San Francisco and formerly worked as a registered nurse and in real estate as a property manager. She learned nursing home and real estate management from working with her father, a physician and businessman, in his nursing home and real estate businesses, and is putting that background to use in her present ministry at Kenwood Convent of the Sacred Heart in Albany, New York. She professed her first vows as a Religious of the Sacred Heart in 2001.
What attracted you to religious life?
I was thoroughly enjoying living a typical 20-something lifestyle ñ dating, thinking about a career and marriage – but realized that I wasn't being fulfilled; that there had to be something more to life. I had thought about religious life often, but had not acted on it. There seemed to be plenty of time, and it seemed such a counter-cultural choice. In my mid-20s I decided to explore religious life and put this recurring call to rest, one way or the other.
How did you meet the Society of the Sacred Heart?
I attended Schools of the Sacred Heart in San Francisco and was educated in the Sacred Heart tradition like my grandmother, my sisters and several of my cousins. I had two great-aunts who were Religious of the Sacred Heart. I guess the Society is in my blood.
Why did you choose to enter the Society?
What attracts me to the Society is the women – their oneness of mind and heart in fulfilling the mission, their strength of character, level of intelligence and their very definite individuation. I like the Society's spirit of generosity and simplicity, the diversity of ministries, and the acceptance of the way each of us expresses our spirituality. I did not find any "cookie cutter" nuns in this order, and thus did not need to try to make myself fit a certain mold. I knew some members of other religious orders whom I liked, but it was in the Society that I found my home.
What is your present ministry
I am a member of the elder care transition team for the Society's U.S. province, helping with the transition of our elder sisters from Kenwood Convent in Albany to assisted living and skilled nursing facilities. I am also chair of the Kenwood property committee and am helping to prepare the property for sale.
What advice would you give a woman considering religious life?
Don't be afraid to take the risk and explore religious life as an alternative. You might be surprised.
Regina Shin, RSCJ
Regina Shin was born and raised in Seoul, Korea. She is a painter and photographer and loves film, opera and plays. She professed her first vows as a Religious of the Sacred Heart in 2000.
What attracted you to religious life?
I knew that I had a single vocation. I did not have much desire for marriage. I searched for more, and something that lasts forever and that is beautiful, such as gemstones, the fine arts. This led me to the greater and internal beauty that, to me, is religious life.
How did you learn about the Society of the Sacred Heart?
I had a friend who was a Religious of the Sacred Heart.
Why did you choose to enter the Society?
I chose the Society because I appreciate the "wholly contemplative, wholly apostolic" charism as well as our internationality. I also appreciate having "the heart of an educator," and becoming an individual with a genuine and caring heart.
What is your ministry now?
I am an art instructor and a volunteer after-school program coordinator at an inner city school in Oakland, California.
What advice would you give a woman considering religious life?
I would tell her, "Discern with someone you trust, and listen to the Spirit."
