Saying 'Yes' to Religious Life
by Sister Roberta A. Popara, OP
Professed in 1983
Saying “no” is easy for 2-year-olds. As we get older, we say “no” for various reasons, but find saying “yes” can make people like you. Wouldn’t that be even more so if you sense God is calling you to something really big?!
I was very content with my life. I was inching up the corporate ladder and beginning to think it would be better to invest in real estate than to continue to pay rent. Starting a stock portfolio was a way to insure my future needs. I liked my job and the perks that came with it.
I was very content with my life. I was involved with civic organizations and getting known in the community. In my parish, I not only was a lector, but ran lector formation workshops and served on a diocesan liturgy committee. I helped set up the first council in my parish and was a mentor candidates for our first RCIA program.
I was very content with my life. Family was close by and friendships were growing. I was dating someone whom I began to think, "This is the one." I was traveling more and considering where next in the world to go.
I was VERY content with my life. Which gave way to wondering if there was something more, something better, something that was even more real for me.
It was this "wondering" that led me to speak with one of the Sisters who worked in my parish . . . a Dominican Sister of Sinsinawa. Our talks were good, but I wasn’t going to pursue the Dominicans just because they happen to be the community serving our parish and its school. What of the other traditions such as Franciscans, Mercys, Benedictines?
This seeking and searching went on for about two years before I decided I needed to at least give it a try . . . with the Dominicans. For them, study and contemplation were foundational to giving service. This was my evolving spirituality as a young adult as well. Ultimately, I did apply with the community who ministered in my parish, but with a clearer certainty of choice than if I hadn’t considered other communities and traditions.
I also thought that saying “no" to this whole idea was a very good response. After all, I was content with my life. I gave God two years to prove this whole scheme was the right way to go!
My "becoming Dominican" began in the summer of 1981. A lot of “no’s” and “yes’” have come and gone. Dominican life has taken me to places the corporate world would have never offered. I have gone to places because of being Dominican, at times for study, at times for ministry, and at times to be in solidarity with Dominicans serving their own peoples under dire circumstances.
Today, "becoming Dominican" is not only about entering a particular congregation, but the adventure of entering into a global relationship of Dominicans through membership with one part of St. Dominic’s Family.
At Profession, a Sister is asked particular questions related to the three vows. The response is, “This is what I choose.”
The “choosing” is also made by God through the community. It is this mutual “yes” that sustains me. For in the end, the call may seem to be an individual experience, but to live this life must be deeply relational with God, with one’s Sisters, and with the people one serves.