Diocese of Lafayette
Spring break ‘Nun Run’ inspires joyful journey
A visit with the Dominican Sisters of Nashville, Tenn., was included on the “Nun Run” completed by six girls from St. Patrick and St. Joan of Arc, Kokomo. (Photo provided)
By Caroline B. Mooney (The Catholic Moment)
KOKOMO — Instead of heading for the sunny beaches of Florida or visiting an amusement park, six girls from St. Patrick and St. Joan of Arc parishes here spent their spring break on a “Nun Run.”
From April 5 to April 11, the girls and two chaperones visited five religious orders in three states.
Kelli Conlon, family life director at St. Patrick, organized the trip, which she said was planned by “the Holy Spirit.”
“It started from a conversation I had with a sister manning a booth for the Franciscan Sisters of the Martyr St. George in Alton, Ill., at the last National Catholic Youth Conference,” Conlon said. “She talked about how we could bring a group and live with the sisters to see what their lives are really like.”
High-schoolers Alexa Richey and Olivia Lupine, eighth-graders Monica Schultz and Jessica Hemmer, fifth-grader Arika Richey and home-schooler Marianne Brown traveled with Conlon and chaperone Karla Richey. Conlon had taken her Theotokos group from St. Patrick to visit different convents on day trips before, but this was the first time she took a group out of town for an extended period.
While planning the trip, associate pastor Father Andrew Dudzinski suggested a stop at the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart in St. Louis.
“Then, (associate pastor) Father David Hasser said we just had to go visit the Dominican Sisters in Nashville, Tenn.,” Conlon said. “The priests in Kokomo were supportive and instrumental in planning the trip.”
She called St. Patrick parishioner Karla Richey, asking if her daughter, Alexa, who has said she feels the call to religious life, could go on the trip with the group.
“I told Kelli that our family was planning to go to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Ala., ... for spring break,” Richey said. “At the St. Patrick’s Parish festival, I had bid on and won a stay at St. Mary’s Guesthouse on the grounds of the shrine. My husband couldn’t go, so I had decided to take both my daughters there. After Kelli’s call, we decided to add Alabama to the ‘Nun Run’ and I donated my winning package to the group.
“On the trip, there was a general excitement radiating from all the girls, but especially from Alexa,” she said. “She just couldn’t stop smiling because she was so happy to be visiting all those places.”
After the trip, her daughter, Arika, said she also felt the calling to religious life.
“It made me feel closer to God visiting the different orders,” Arika said. “I felt the calling while I was there and I still feel that way. I would really love to go on another ‘Nun Run’ next year.”
The group began the trip in Terre Haute, with a quick tour of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, home of the Sisters of Providence founded by St. Theodore Guerin. A five-hour drive then took them to the Franciscan Sisters of the Martyr St. George in Alton, Ill., where they stayed for two nights.
During the week, the group was up “between 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. every day for morning prayer with the sisters,” Karla Richey said. “The times when we weren’t with any religious, Kelli would gather us in the living room wherever we were staying and we prayed morning and evening prayers together.
“That was really the best part of the trip,” she said. “I was so excited and elated we had these six young girls who never once complained.
“As a mother, the opportunity just to help to foster vocations was wonderful,” she said. “Lot of kids aren’t subject to that. The trip is for anyone — you don’t have to be called to the religious life.”
The group went on to St. Louis, where they spent a night with the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart.
Next was a quick stop at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis to visit with Father Randy Soto, former associate pastor of St. Patrick, Kokomo, and Deacon Matthew Barnard, a seminarian from Oxford who will be ordained in the Archdiocese of St. Louis this month.
An eight-hour drive then took them to Alabama and the Blessed Sacrament Shrine, where they stayed for two nights. The final overnight stop was in Nashville, Tenn., for a visit with the Dominican Sisters.
“While we were at the shrine, after Mass and before the rosary, Jesus was exposed,” Conlon said. “The monstrance is huge, and when the sun hit the Holy Spirit window, the girls were so reverent. Watching them communicate with God in that place was wonderful.
“The Dominican Sisters took us to a concert by Matt Maher (Christian singer and songwriter) at Vanderbilt University,” she said. “There was also Eucharistic adoration at the concert.
“Everywhere we went, we had dinner with sisters and heard their vocation stories,” Conlon said.
“I loved how the sisters always had a smile on their faces, no matter how tired they were,” Alexa Richey said. “I really loved it when one sister said, ‘We have something special because we’re married to Christ on earth, so it’s like we live in heaven on earth.’ … I thought that was beautiful.”
Being a nun would be wonderful, “because you’re always with God,” she said. “But, it would be hard not being with your family all the time. It seems limited in that way, but they do get home visits.
“The best thing about the trip was everything!” Alexa said. “I liked being able to pray the office every day and being able to spend time with Jesus. I liked the Carmelites and Dominicans the best. I want to go again.”
“I liked the (Nashville) Dominicans the best,” Marianne Brown said. “I liked their joy. All the sisters had lots of joy, but theirs was special. I was surprised that one of the Dominican sisters said it was inspiring to see a group of younger girls visiting. We were inspired by them and they were inspired by us.”
Monica Schultz liked the Carmelites and the Dominican sisters the best. “I liked the Carmelites’ apostolate because they help people at the beginning of life and then in nursing homes, also.
“The coolest thing on the trip was being able to be close to Jesus,” Schultz said, “being able to pray and bring others closer to God.”
“It was a beautiful, prayerful trip,” Conlon said. “To know that there are beautiful souls praying for you every day is powerful.”
(Go to the website of The Catholic Moment) †