Episode 3: Sister Mary Forman

In the next 4 episodes, I wanted to share with you some bits of conversations that I had with Sisters that cover some of the very basic questions I had when I first connected with the Monastery. I was not at all familiar with how monastic communities work in general, or with the specifics of St. Gertrude’s. I was very curious about what kind of person decides to join a Monastery and what life is like for people after they join. If you’ve ever wondered about any of these things, the next 4 episodes are going to be really useful for you. You’ll hear from 4 different Sisters who have 4 very different stories of how they came to be a part of the Monastery of St. Gertrude and how their life paths have gone since they joined. It turns out there are a lot of different ways that people have come to be a part of this community! If you already know a lot of these things, I think you will enjoy hearing from these folks anyway, as they tell the stories of how they became a part of the Monastery and what it means to them to be here.

In this first episode of the series, we’re going to hear from Sister Mary Forman, the current prioress of the Monastery. One of the things I was very curious about was how does someone become the prioress. I didn’t know if there were elections or appointments, or what it means to be prioress. Sister Mary gave me, and hopefully you too, some great insights into how she found herself in that role and how her relationship to the community and her educational history has helped her to be successful.