Engaged to a man she'd dated for three years, Sister Maureen Skelly knew there was something missing in her life. And that something was life as a religious woman.
"While I did love him, something was bothering me," says Skelly.
"I knew there was something more, something I wanted to try -- like a pair of shoes -- except this wasn't something you could throw away," she adds.
Skelly says it didn't come to her as a big revelation. "It was just a nudge. Eventually it began to not only fit, but to feel good."
She joined the Sisters of Charity and worked in the public school system for 10 years. Now Skelly counsels the poor, the sick and the less fortunate at a Jesuit retreat house and is happy as a "woman religious."
"I have a wide scope of friends and experiences. I enjoy living with others, sharing ideals and values in a community and ministry. It's changed my life enormously," she says.
For Sister Mary Macaluso, there was never any doubt she'd become a woman religious. "I wanted to be a Sister of Mercy since I was nine years old. I had the Sisters of Mercy in grade school. I was very attracted to the religious life and I guess that was the calling God gave me," she says.
Now a professional speaker, Macaluso calls herself Fun Nun and tours North America with her message to live more joyfully, reduce stress levels and improve interpersonal skills. "I'm trying to help people love themselves as God meant when he said, 'You are to love your neighbor as yourself,'" she says.
Macaluso says she has great peace about her vocation. She loves the support the Sisters of Mercy have given her in her 48 years as a woman religious. "They respect me and allow me the freedom to do my ministry," she says.
Skelly says she loves being free to work with the poor and the sick and introduce God into their hearts. "I present to them a loving presence and that laughter and joy are very important. I find that they are empty and I say that life is to be full of laughter and to experience as much as you can. That excites me to see they are discovering themselves," she says.
While it's never occurred to Skelly to change her way of life, there are difficult times. "It's hard not having my own children, my own house and car and not owning things. It's always a choice."
She says there are hard moments when she visits with the children or grandchildren of others. But it's not overwhelming. "The feeling doesn't last long, but it's there. No person can have everything," she says.
Sister Linda Herndon says the hardest part for her is living with more than 200 other women. "When living with that many women, we have lots of different ideas about how the furniture in the living room should be arranged, what color curtains we want in the hallway, what kind of ice cream we would like for a birthday party...and so on. These little things can be frustrating at times," she says.
However, Herndon says the 213 sisters aged 26 to 100 are also very special to her. "These women have taught me so much about living, praying, having fun, working together, how to grow old and how to die. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything," she says.
For those considering life as a woman religious, Skelly says young woman need to listen to see if they are looking for more. "Is there something in your heart? Are you never satisfied?" she says.
Macaluso agrees. "I would encourage a young woman to become a nun only if she felt some attraction toward the life -- felt that God was calling her in that direction," she says.
But she says they should take a serious look at the work of religion and the spirituality of the religious before they'll know if it fits. "How can one feel attracted to some vocation unless that person knows of the life?" she says.
"I would encourage young women to seriously consider this vocation since I think God is calling many more women to be sisters than are actually joining religious communities," says Herndon.
Sister Marietta Schindler says having women come out and want to join is the most exciting part of her vocation. "[We encourage others] because we have something to offer to the church and to the world -- praying for the needs of the world, a sense of tradition and reaching out to the poor," she says.
Schindler says being a Benedictine has made a difference in her teaching and pastoral ministry, and now as a vocation director and treasurer. "I meet lots of different people and challenge them to think differently, come and experience our way of life."
During her time as a woman religious, Macaluso has spent a number of years acquiring an advanced education, including a PhD in anatomy. She was the first nun to attend the University of Nebraska's medical school.
"The fact that I went to the medical school was a big story in our local [paper]. I think that there was the mentality that there are men, women and nuns in the world," she says.
At that time, she wore a nun's habit and felt she was being looked at like "someone from outer space." Her non-Catholic professors were so concerned, they wanted to excuse her from taking gross anatomy -- where they dissect a human body -- because most of the cadavers (bodies) were male.
"After all their concern, I ended up being assigned to work on a male cadaver with four men: one Catholic, one agnostic and two Protestants. We made a great ecumenical [representation of the Christian world] group. I called my cadaver Lazarus. It was a very interesting time in my life!" says Macaluso.
Macaluso speaks to 10,000 to 20,000 people each year in her ministry as a professional speaker. She says if she has only made one other human being smile, her life has been a success. She says every day has great meaning.
"Being a Sister of Mercy has brought out gifts in me I had no idea I even had. Being a Sister of Mercy is one of the greatest blessings God bestowed on me. How I rejoice in that."
Skelly says there's never a doubt in her mind about staying a woman religious and that's been supported by her former fiance. "I often meet the man I was once engaged to and he says he's glad I did what I did because he says I would never have been fulfilled," she says.