"Forming me in my faith"

National Catholic Sisters Week 2020 was held in conjunction with National Women’s History Month, specifically to highlight and honor Catholic women who give their lives to serving the Lord and his Church as religious women.
 
Catholic sisters provide many different services in their communities, including teaching, nursing and social services.
 
In the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Sister Lucy Fitzmorris grew up attending Saint John Nepomuk Catholic Church in Yukon where her dad is a deacon and her mom is the director of religious education.
 
Sister Lucy attended public school in Yukon and graduated from Mount Saint Mary Catholic High School. She said her parents always stressed the practical aspects of living the faith, that it needs to be a part of every aspect of life and that to live one’s faith means to serve others.
 
Sister Lucy credits her entire parish with providing excellent examples of living out the Catholic faith. Sister Lucy’s godmother and great-aunt, Nancy Housh, worked with youth and young adults for many years with the archdiocese.
 
“She has had an amazingly mature faith since she was very young, and continues to be an inspiration to many, including myself,” Housh said.
 
Sister Lucy began to feel called to religious life during high school. After graduation, she went to the University of Oklahoma, where her dad is a professor, and earned bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in computer engineering. While in Norman, she and other women who were discerning their vocations formed a group to support and assist one another. They even took a road trip they called the “Nun Run” up the east coast to visit nine different orders.
 
Sister Lucy met the Benedictines when she was a sophomore in college. She enjoyed praying with them and learning from them but wasn’t ready to answer the call until she was in graduate school. During her discernment journey, she said God put the right people in her life, and “Christ was very patient with me.”
 
On July 11, the feast of Saint Benedict, Lucy was received into the community as a novice, beginning a year of intense study and prayer. She already is an accomplished pianist and is taking organ lessons. She is a talented baker and provides the community with delicious bread and scones for special occasions.
 
To young women who think they may have a calling to religious life, Sister Lucy quotes Saint Benedict, “What, dear sisters, is more delightful than this voice of the Lord calling to us? Delight in Christ’s invitation to you!” she said, “and then act on it; go find a sister and ask her about her life, or even better go visit a monastery or convent and experience religious life firsthand. Bring those experiences to prayer, and God will reveal his plan for you.”
 
To contact Sister Lucy about discernment, contact her community’s vocation director, Sister Marilyn at stjomonastery@gmail.com.
 
In the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Father Brian Buettner serves as vocations director. He echoes the suggestion to seek a sister and spend some time seeing how she lives and works. In addition to Sister Lucy at Saint Joseph’s monastery in Tulsa, young women in Oklahoma can contact Carmelite Sister Barbara Joseph or Sister Maria of the Trinity at Gospel of Life Disciples.
 
For additional information, visit catholicsistersweek.org or follow them on Facebook.
 
Debi Wagner is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.