“While I desired marriage and family life, I discovered that my heart was shaped differently. It was almost as if marriage wasn’t big enough for my heart,” says Sister M. Karolyn Nunes, FSGM, explaining what led to her vocation.
Sister M. Karolyn, of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George (FSGM), in Alton, Illinois, took the name “Mary Karolyn” to reflect her admiration of and devotion to Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope John Paul II.
“Originally, I thought I would take the name ‘Mary Xavier’ because St. Francis Xavier was a zealous, missionary, set-the-world-afire kind of saint, but after prayer and conversation, I recognized that Pope John Paul II encompassed those same qualities,” says Sister M. Karolyn, 43, who serves as her community’s vocation director. “When we take our names, we write a paper about it, and each year I reread the paper as a reminder of why God invited me to take this name. It becomes more pertinent each time I review it, and I see the significance that I am Sister M. Karolyn, not Sister John Paul. It was as Karol that his profound understanding of young people, women, sexuality, and suffering were formed, and those are all things that are important to me in my relationship with the Lord.”
Not a Recruiter for Women Religious
“Everyone thinks my job is to recruit women to our community, but I’m not out to get someone to sign on the dotted line,” she explains. “I look upon what I do as teaching people to pray and discern what they are to do with their lives. God, who is love, creates us in love and calls us to love, and I help women to determine how to respond in love to him.”
Sister M. Karolyn knows that discerning a vocation takes time, reflection, prayer, and patience, as it took her some time to realize that she was called to religious life. “I grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the oldest of three children—my sister and brother, who are twins, are three-and-a-half years younger,” she says. “We were born and raised Catholic, but we attended public schools; I was a CCD kid.” Mass attendance was nonnegotiable with her parents, but they didn’t pray the rosary together every day or engage in any other family devotions.
It was while she was attending Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, that the seed for her vocation was planted. “We had a summer seminarian at our parish who was familiar with the university, and I began to research Franciscan [material] online,” Sister M. Karolyn recalls. “It was also at that time that I took an aptitude test that said I was suited to religious ministry, theater/drama, and education, and that was probably true, but I didn’t like being profiled like that.” Still, she decided to attend to study theology and religious education.
“I met the Franciscan Sisters of the Martyr St. George at Steubenville, and their joy was attractive,” she says. “I’d only known old and angry nuns, but these were different.
“Our community has a variety of apostolates where we make merciful love visible, including working in health care in positions such as nurses, X-ray technicians, and hospital administration. Another large percentage of sisters serve in education, from teaching in day cares to colleges. We also work in parishes, administration, and care for retired priests,” says Sister M. Karolyn, who noted that there are 110 members in their community in the United States, and that she lives with half of them at their provincial house in Alton, a town located about 25 miles north of St. Louis, Missouri.
A Stirring of the Heart
Upon graduation in 2003 from Franciscan University, she took a job in Tennessee serving as a youth minister and working in religious education. “In retrospect,” she says, “it was a stepping stone to my vocation.
“At this time, I was only going home one to two times a year because I lived so far away,” she recalls. “I loved my job, dated some, but I was restless. Once, when I was in class in Steubenville, my professor read this line of Scripture from John 19:37, ‘They will look upon him whom they have pierced,’ and something popped in my heart, but I tucked it away.”
In September 2004, Sister M. Karolyn made her first visit to the FSGM provincial house, and she knew she belonged there. She applied in November 2004, entered the community in September 2005, and professed her first vows later that year.
She then worked for seven years teaching in New Jersey and Kansas, and, in January 2016, she was asked to become the vocation director for her order. Currently, there are two postulants, four novices, and three women in the application process for next year. Sister M. Karolyn says that, on average, it’s a three- to four-year accompaniment until a woman gives her yes.
“I tell women that God works in the concrete, not in the abstract,” says Sister M. Karolyn. “There are so many options now, and we have so many expectations, and [we] are grasping. If you are interested in a vocation, I advise women to pay attention to their heart. Investigate what you know. If it feels like work trying to be something you’re not, it’s not a fit. I always ask: What does it feel like when you visit the convent? Do you feel like your true self?”
She also tells women that their humanity doesn’t go away when they enter the convent. “Things like the way some people annoy you or the temptations for certain things don’t disappear. This life is not magical,” says Sister M. Karolyn.
“I help women discern where they fit,” she says. “If you take a square and try to force it into the circle slot, you may have to manipulate it, or you may have to break the toy to make it work. Discernment shouldn’t be forced. I help women to find out where they fit in a place that suits how they are made.”
Sister M. Karolyn knows that she is a good fit in her vocation. “God has fulfilled me in so many ways that I couldn’t have dreamed possible,” she says. “I wanted kids, and I have tons of them through teaching. I have been able to love so many people. I know I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, and it becomes clearer every day.”
