What an Episcopal nun teaches us about vocation, timing, and trust. 

By Katie Rea — spiritual director, writer, and companion for those listening deeply to life as it is.

Sister Hannah described her spiritual calling in this way: “Instead of a moment, it was more like a very slow and gradual awareness of my call.”

Sometimes, a calling is recognized as something that has been selecting us all along.

She grew up loving The Sound of Music and Sister Act. 

The vocation now feels obvious. 

But she was raised Southern Baptist, and she didn’t imagine that the life of a nun could ever be hers. 

So, she decided to follow another path. 

She loved science. In high school, her fascination with nutrition developed into a habit of reading labels and studying how all the ingredients affected the body. 

Her grandmother’s nursing career also inspired her to pursue a path. Especially since her mother wished for her to be a nurse. And she felt a call to help people, so she began her path as a hospital dietitian. Eventually, she found herself in Greensboro, NC. She loved the diversity of helping patients from different units: ICU, surgical, and oncology. 

Yet, she felt she wanted to help people more than on a superficial and medical level. She desired to connect with their souls. 

With the help of a fellow hospital chaplain, she found a home in the Episcopal church. She also found out that there was such a thing as Episcopal nuns. Yes, not all sisters are Roman Catholic. 

She did a simple Google search of “Episcopal convents near me” and found the Sisters of St. Mary in Sewanee, TN. And she said, “The rest is history.”

My initial interview question assumed that her vocation was like a lightning strike, a single moment when everything became clear. But her story reminded me how for many of us, our calling arrives the way a gentle dawn might: slowly, quietly, almost imperceptibly at first.

I loved the simplicity of her story. No thunderclap mentioned. No dramatic revelation necessary. 

Just a simple unfolding of her calling, which was just as impactful. She followed her joy. 

Sister Hannah was excited to become an episcopal nun, but she also thought “all her medical nutrition therapy and work experience would be put on a shelf.”

Instead, those skills were used and transformed. 

Sister Hannah said, “Even though becoming a nun was a dramatic shift in my life, the skills and talents I had have proven useful in my ministry. For example, when I joined, we had a Sister with dementia and I was able to work with the Sisters to ensure she was getting the texture of foods she needed and the nutritional supplements she needed as well.

I also worked with one of our first Organic Prayer Program interns to co-lead a presentation on how to flavor foods without using only salt. 

Years later, I gave a presentation on Aging Gracefully that covered the different changes in your body as you age including hydration and changing protein needs, changes in dentation, taste, smell, and hunger. I have also been asked to use my dietitian skills to lead a retreat about linking both physical and spiritual nourishment.

 So what I ‘gave up’ God has returned to me many times over.”

One truth in Sister Hannah’s story is this: your calling does not have to arrive as a lightning strike to be real, or to be holy.

Sometimes, it looks like paying attention to what has always drawn you.
Sometimes, it looks like following a curiosity that won’t quite let you go.
Sometimes, it looks like choosing the next faithful step, without needing the whole path mapped out.

Nothing is wasted.

So, if your own calling feels unclear, or slow, or quieter than you expected, you’re not behind. You’re not missing it.

You may simply be in the middle of the unfolding.

A gentle invitation: Where in your life is something slowly dawning? What small joys or persistent longings might be whispering you toward your next “yes”?

A newsletter by Katie Rea.

Donate to St. Mary’s Convent or learn more here!