Sister Marcie Solms, SSND

Professed in 1974

Current Ministry: Assistant Director of Service Programs, Marquette University High School

When I was a young sister, struggling to know God's will for me, my spiritual director said something to me that stays with me to this day. "God wants only three things of you." He said. "To be happy, to be human, and to be free." That is why, after three decades of living the three vows of gospel poverty, consecrated celibacy, and apostolic obedience, I remain a School Sister of Notre Dame.

I began exploring what being a sister would be like in a boarding high school for girls interested in the possibility of joining the School Sisters of Notre Dame. I had come from a Catholic grade school in the small town of Port Washington, Wisconsin. Our grade school had more than 900 students with seventeen sisters as teachers and class sizes of forty-plus students in a room.

I liked school and each one of my teachers. I experienced good teaching, which included affirmation, challenge, correction as needed, and healthy academic competition. Most of all I remember the care, interest, and personal attention extended to me by the sisters. I wanted to teach as the sisters did and be a positive influence in the lives of students. Now, after all this time, I can honestly answer affirmatively to all three parts of God's call as described by my spiritual director.

I have experienced a deep inner peace, a sense of happiness in my life as a sister. There have been struggles, challenges, and even some doubts, but this is part of any life choice. As a sister I am called to deepen my relationship with God and others. This happens for me as a woman who, as a sister, doesn't set her humanness aside, but experiences joy and sadness, loneliness and companionship, tears and laughter, and all that makes one human.

I have also experienced a great sense of freedom. Once choosing a specific lifestyle there is a sense of direction and purpose that follows. Instead of limiting or confining me, the choice allows me to focus my energy as I continue my life's journey.

God's call continues. Each of us in our own unique lifestyle needs to be still enough to listen to that call and then daily respond with a generous heart.

This profile by Sister Marcie Solms appeared as an article "The Call Continues" in RTJ: The Magazine for Catechist Formation.

Reprinted with permission from the January 2006 issue RTJ: The Magazine for Catechist Formation. Copyright ©2006; all rights reserved. Published by Twenty-Third Publications, New London, CT 06320; 800-321-0411.