‘Got Sisters-Nun Run’ for Indianapolis area is set for Feb. 21-22

By Sean Gallagher

Kara Davis had spent time in prayer discerning whether or not God might be calling her to religious life. Then she felt it was time to get “out of the chapel” and visit religious communities.

The Eastern Illinois University graduate student started this stage in her discernment in 2011 in Indianapolis with a “nun run” in which she and several other young women visited several religious communities over the course of one weekend.

Three years later, Davis is set to enter the Daughters of Charity in August.

This year’s event, now called “Got Sisters-Nun Run” will begin at 5:45 p.m. on Feb. 21 and conclude at 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 22.

It is sponsored by the archdiocesan vocations office and a number of women’s religious communities that minister in Beech Grove and Indianapolis.

“Got Sisters-Nun Run” participants will visit, pray and share meals with members of the Daughters of Charity, Little Sisters of the Poor, Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Sisters of St. Benedict, Sisters of St. Joseph and the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis.

Through the course of the “Got Sisters-Nun Run,” the participants will discover the broad variety of ways that these communities minister in central Indiana.

There is no cost for participants, and all transportation, meals and overnight accommodations are provided.

The event is open to single women ages 18 to 40 who are open to the possibility that God might be calling them to religious life.

Davis, 24, appreciated the 2011 “nun run” because of how it introduced her to other young women like herself open to religious life.

“You feel kind of alone when you don’t have that support,” she said. “So that was something that I definitely liked about the nun run.”

Davis also liked seeing the diverse kinds of religious life on display in just one weekend.

“One of the most helpful things was just to realize that religious life just doesn’t look like one thing,” she said. “There are a variety of ways. And no one way is better or worse than another. You just have to find what fits for you.”

It was on the 2011 “nun run” that Davis met members of the Daughters of Charity for the first time. She thinks that seeds of a possible religious vocation were planted in her that weekend.

“It was during that ‘nun run’ that God really was talking to me,” she said.

Davis had encouraging words to participants in this year’s “Got Sisters-Nun Run,” hoping that they, like her, might “discern beyond the chapel.”

“Go out there and meet communities, meet sisters,” Davis said. “What brought me to ask for an application was building relationships with sisters. That can start with a ‘nun run.’ ”
 

(To register or for more information about the 2014 “Got Sisters-Nun Run,” call Daughter of Charity Sister Theresa Sullivan at 812-963-7563 or send her an e-mail at SisterTheresa.Sullivan@doc.org. The registration deadline for the 2014 “Got Sisters-Nun” is Feb. 14.) †