My NUNcommon Life

The author grew up in Chicago, the third of seven children in a happy Irish Catholic family. In the format of short vignettes, she describes the childhood influences on her decision to become a Catholic nun in the early 1960s. Her stories unfold answers to the three questions she is most often asked: Why did you become a nun? Why did you leave religious life? And what did you do next? Readers will recognize the youthful idealism of the author, and the ongoing search for the ideal in the midst of the realities encountered throughout her life. The author's life spans the "Baltimore Catechism" Church, the Second Vatican Council, and the recent sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. She describes an encounter with Mother Teresa, as well as her acquaintance with a KKK murderer. Readers will meet friends and co-workers who taught her lessons about justice, sexuality, alcoholism, and dying. In the end, they will have met a woman whose idealism set her on a unique journey filled with blessings and struggles, a journey about which she peacefully claims, "no regrets." After careers as a teacher, parish minister, a fundraiser, and an executive director of a charitable foundation, the author is now retired. Her life is nourished by family and friends, many of whom are mentioned in My NUNcommon Life, and for whom she is grateful.