![](\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SLs_dmZ8Q8I\/AAAAAAAAC4M\/ZedeiE4p9OM\/s400\/COLOR+Emily+Morse.jpg\")
<\/a>At 19 years of age, to the world, Emily Morse has her whole life ahead of her. She has time to travel, time to date and time to just \u201cdo whatever.\u201d But, that\u2019s not what she wants.<\/p>\nShe wants to be a nun.<\/p>\n
Not only does she want to be a nun, but she believes God is calling her to be one. Yet, this lively and energetic girl has encountered skeptics.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times I\u2019ll get, \u2018Wow, you\u2019re just finishing your freshman year of college. Don\u2019t you want to see a little more of the world? Aren\u2019t you afraid of giving up marriage?\u2019\u201d Morse said.<\/p>\n
Her answer is simply \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf God is calling me to do something then I want to do that one thing,\u201d said Morse, a parishioner at St. John the Baptist in Bancroft. \u201cTo grow in holiness, that\u2019s what I want to do. So, why put that off by trying to entertain myself with a life God didn\u2019t call me to? He called me first to be a sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morse will be entering the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr of St. George on Sept. 8, the feast of the Nativity of Mary. She will be entering at their motherhouse in Alton, Ill. Throughout the United States, 122 sisters belong to the community, whose two main charisms are nursing and teaching, both which Morse said she loves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was drawn to the order by their life of prayer and service, their very good balance between the both of them, and just their joyous spirituality there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Morse, who would have been going into her sophomore year at Iowa State, will only be allowed to bring with her necessities for life, such as a coat and hat, and a few meaningful religious items.<\/p>\n
Her first year of life at the convent will be her postulancy, where she will be mainly working with the community at a daycare, hospital or at the convent. During this time, Morse will wear a jumper instead of a habit and veil.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a year of discernment and immersing yourself in the life of these specific sisters of that Franciscan lifestyle,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
At the end of her postulancy, Morse will receive the habit, white veil and religious name. The next two years will be her novitiate, after which she will make first vows and enter her juniorate, which lasts another four to six years. At this point Morse will be sent to school for either teaching or nursing, though she hopes nursing. From the time she enters, it will take about eight years before she is a fully professed sister.<\/p>\n
The religious life has always been very attractive to her, Morse said, but it was in high school that she began to take that attraction more seriously. She began to visit different communities, like the Missionaries of Charity, to get a feel for religious life. Morse said that was when she began to think she could live that life, and that God wanted her to live it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was through prayer that I discovered that call initially, but through visiting the sisters and seeing how joyous they were and finding I could be myself there, . . .that was the moment that I knew this is it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As a religious sister, Morse is giving herself to Christ as his bride, as a sign of the full communion she\u2019ll have with him in heaven, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s saying, \u2018God, I\u2019m willing to give that sacrifice of a human marriage to you, in gratitude for the union that we will have in heaven, to draw the eyes of my friends and people that I meet throughout the world to that greater union that will be in heaven,\u2019\u201d Morse added.<\/p>\n
This summer, Morse was a Totus Tuus teacher in the diocese. She said her experience in the program helped solidify her call to religious life by giving her a taste of community life, as well as having a structured prayer life that included the Liturgy of the Hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helped me have more confidence that I could live in a community,\u201d she said, \u201cand it helped me to be brutally honest with my brothers and sisters, which were my teammates throughout the summer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Visit the link<\/a> for more. And keep this great kid in your prayers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fellow blogger sent his my way, and it’s too good and too rare to pass up. It’s the story of a teenager who is planning to become — are you sitting down? — a nun. From The Catholic Globe newspaper of Sioux City, Iowa: At 19 years of age, to the world, Emily Morse…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-vocations"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. 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