Consecrated Life: Religious Life
Hearing and Following the Call
by Sister Janet Horstman
I grew up in Mitchell, SD. I went to Catholic school all my life. The Presentation Sisters were my teachers. As I moved into junior high and into high school, I found myself very impressed by, and attracted to lifestyle of the sisters. One of the main things was just how they were so dedicated and committed to their ministry in the Catholic schools and the hospital in Mitchell and their deep commitment to prayer. I would see them in prayer individually and also in prayer together as a community, primarily in the Church in Mitchell. As I moved through my high school years I found myself pondering if that might be something God might be calling me to. I think it was when I was a senior in high school or maybe it was when I was a junior, I can’t remember, one of the sisters actually took me aside and asked me if I had any interest in being a Presentation Sister or if perhaps God might be calling me to that. I was struck by that because she had apparently seen something in me…
When I was in college, I went to Presentation College in Aberdeen. Again, I was with the sisters. That time, I was in the college- it was connected with the convent and so I had the opportunity to observe a little bit more closely the lifestyle of the sisters. One of the things that was a real stumbling block and made it difficult for me to think about was just leaving my family and friends and going to the convent. Well, then Vatican II happened about that time and the sisters’ lifestyle changed, and the formation program changed. It was no longer necessary to make that complete and total break with family and friends and college and so on, going into the convent. The program at that point was more flexible and allowed women to continue their college education, stay in contact with their family and friends, etc., and to begin to discern their vocation gradually.
I entered what was called the Associate Stage. I had this connection with the sisters. I shared meals with them and shared prayer with them and spent time with them on a somewhat regular basis and yet still went to college and maintained my relationships with my family and friends, etc. It was kind of a gradual discerning of the vocation. For me it wasn’t a life shattering experience where the clouds opened up and God spoke. It was more just a gradual realization and at-homeness with what I was experiencing. It’s like that took root in me and grew more and more to the point where I really did believe that God was calling me to do this and said “yes” to it.
The Joys of Becoming a Presentation Sister
I was a teacher when I first started out in ministry. That along with the community life, sharing a common purpose and a common vision, sharing a charism, a real sense of being called to participate in something bigger than myself, a real sense of being called to give my life completely to God and to this community and to the People of God and the Church and to express that as a teacher in the Catholic school system. It was the relationships that I developed with the sisters and with my colleagues on the faculty in the schools I taught with, and so on, a sense of sharing a common mission and that sense of continuing to live out the Gospel and the call of Jesus to love God with my whole heart and to love the People of God.
My Life as a Presentation Sister Right Now
I spend in prayer personally each day and on my annual retreats. I do an 8 or 10 day retreat each year… Right now I am in a ministry called Caminando Juntos, which means Walking Together. We really try to be a welcoming presence to the newer immigrants that are trying to make a home among us. I really believe that it’s a way to continue the mission of the foundress of our congregation because she had a deep, deep love and a commitment to the poor, people that in her day lived on the fringes and on the margins that were on the edge, and to me that’s what being a Presentation Sister is all about, following that charism and that deep commitment of the woman that founded our congregation in the 1700’s in Ireland.
My specific responsibility or ministry here is providing immigration legal services. I help people apply for citizenship, I help people apply for permanent residency, renew their work permits, help them to apply to bring their family members here after they’ve already become a permanent resident or US citizen, they can petition to bring family members here so I help them to do that. I basically help people that have legal status to maintain that and for people that are here without legal status, I try to counsel them and help them determine if there’s any way they can obtain legal status, or what seems to be the best course of action for them.
Shortly after we got here, I had a woman that showed up on our doorstep one Monday morning. She had been in Sioux Falls 7 days, she was from Mexico, and she had 6 children, and she had been abused by her husband, beat up, and that had been going on for twenty years. She knew nobody in Sioux Falls and somehow found her way to our office. Somebody brought her here. To make a long story short, over the course of about 2, 2 1/2 years, I worked with her to get her a job, get her a social security card, get her an identification card, try to help her find a place to live, get her furniture, all the basic necessities of life to be able to survive and then in addition to that, I was able to help her find a way to work through the legal process so that she was able to self-petition under the Violence Against Women Act and become a legal permanent resident. After about 2, 2 ½ years, she and her children obtained their legal permanent residency and are now on their feet. They have their green cards. Some of her children are now married and have families of their own. One of the children is starting a business. That was a really challenging and difficult and painful and yet heartwarming experience.
This life has been so rich and so rewarding. God continually amazes me and gifts me and all of us, I think, in our congregation would say the same thing.
Our Charism
I think the Presentation Sisters have a charism or gift or call from God that is very much needed in our day and age. What we are really called to do is go where other people are not going or not able to go, to try and identify the most pressing needs of the day and to respond to those. To do that together, in community, to do that out of a deep relationship with God and a prayer life that is individual, personal, and communal, and to carry out the charism of our foundress, Nano Nagle, to make sure that that charism is kept alive in our day and age. Her charism was basically to work for justice, to promote human dignity, especially among the poor, to love and care for our neighbors, to stand for what’s right and just and to serve in the spirit and the name of Jesus and to do that with joy and a sense of humor!