Interview with Sister Mary Pieta, SV
A conversation with Sister Mary Pieta Breen, SV — daughter of this parish, a Sister of Life — on growing up at Sts. Anne & Joachim, the journey to final vows, and what it means to be a spiritual mother. Video and transcript below.
Fr. Luke: Welcome everyone. Today we’re here with Sister Mary Pieta, SV, and she’s from our parish. She’s from Saints Anne and Joachim. She grew up here, the daughter of Deacon Pat and Brenda Breen, and she’s a Sister of Life, helping the great pro-life cause — a great order of religious women founded by John Cardinal O’Connor in the 1990s in New York, but is now all over the United States, East and West, and everywhere in between. So, Sister Mary Pieta, welcome. Glad you could join us today.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Thank you so much, Father. It’s a joy to be able to be here. It’s nice to be able to come and visit and be at the parish where a lot of my initial graces, I think, have honestly happened for my life, to lead me to where I am now.
Neighbors with the Priests
Fr. Luke: Let’s rewind a moment. What was it like to grow up at Saints Anne and Joachim, and what were some of those graces of parish life that really helped plant seeds for you?
Sr. Mary Pieta: So at the very beginning actually of our parish’s foundation, in all honesty, we had been going to Nativity, and actually started going to Riverview Place, and there was just an announcement made at Mass that, well, there’s gonna be this new parish coming in. And not too long after that, literally like kitty-corner from our house, the priests moved into the building, to the house there, and actually became our neighbors. So for the first several years of the church’s existence, we were literally neighbors with the priests.
Fr. Luke: Monsignor Groes and the rectory were like your neighbors.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Exactly. We would ride our bikes all over the place, and usually we’d be going over there, and sometimes we’d go over there to have confession if we hadn’t made it in the month. And then one of the years — it was like ’95 or ’96 — where we couldn’t get out to, I can’t remember which location it was at in those early days, but we actually went over to the rectory and had Mass in their basement so that we could still make the Sunday obligation.
Sr. Mary Pieta: It’s like we were the lucky ones on those Sundays that we got to actually be with a priest and actually receive Jesus, and see the importance of the daily living of a faith life. And just that being around the priests, being around this sense of consecration became a normal thing for us.
Fr. Luke: So you had a little inside window into what is very ordinary for priests and religious, but what seems so special, right? The times of prayer, just the humanity of people as a bridge to God. Habits of the sacraments. The importance of Mass and confession.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Absolutely. And it was beautiful, because even the priests themselves made going to confession very easy. My parents really made it a habit of us going once a month, just because it was important for us to make sure that we go once a month. Later on in life, when sometimes that space would get a little bit longer, I would feel it. So I knew how important that was. As time went on, to establish that early was so foundational for me. And now even as a sister, the practice of going every one to two weeks is so important.
Sr. Mary Pieta: As a religious, we’re working in this place of growing in perfection. But in a particular way, we definitely need to know how much we need the Lord, and His forgiveness and His mercy in that too.
The Spirit of a New Parish
Fr. Luke: Well, how good is that. You look back on those early days of growing up in Saints Anne and Joachim. What was the spirit of the community that you experienced in your early days here? What was the character of the parish that you really look back on with gratitude and fondness?
Sr. Mary Pieta: Really, there was a sense of newness in our parish. We hadn’t really established a whole lot of traditions that I think at this point may be more of what people are experiencing when they enter the parish here. It was kind of a figuring out our way. Being a young person, it’s just — what sorts of things would we do to be involved? I actually started off going to CCD while I was going to Catholic schools, just so I could get to know the other kids that were my age.
Sr. Mary Pieta: It was that kind of a — who are the other ones that are here? So just growing in this place of seeing the community life grow.
A Church Far Bigger Than Fargo
Sr. Mary Pieta: One of the things that I actually am so grateful for that our parish has done is actually taking groups to World Youth Day. As a parish, we had gone to World Youth Day when I was involved — to Toronto in 2002, and to Germany in 2005 — and really have met some of my dearest friends because of those trips. One of them actually is my sister-in-law, Laura, and her friend Val.
Sr. Mary Pieta: We spent so much time together between that and Search. So it’s like knowing some of the people in the parish during that time, but having this part that’s us as a community become part of something larger that’s the Church at large. Going to World Youth Day, especially getting that sense in Toronto for the first time, and just seeing so many people of so many different backgrounds. And we had items — we had buttons that we got to be able to share and trade with other people from other places. And so it was just really cool to get this sense of, wow, the Church is far bigger than my tiny little home back in Fargo, North Dakota.
Sr. Mary Pieta: There’s a world out there where so many people are living the faith in different ways, and the enthusiasm was so catching at that time.
“Now, What Are You Gonna Do?”
Sr. Mary Pieta: It was actually after that experience of going to World Youth Day that Father Andrew, who was the associate that was there at the time with us on the trip, said, “You know, we’ve done pilgrimage, and you’ve experienced the power of that. Now, what are you gonna do? Let your life be changed.” And this was going from my junior year to my senior year of high school. And at the time, our parish was just built here, and we were having Mass in the social hall. And I decided, I think, after that — I think I want to go to daily Mass.
Sr. Mary Pieta: So I actually started going to daily Mass from that summer through my senior year, and it was just one of those things — again, kind of like that place of confession — where you start to go, and you keep going, and then if you miss a day, you feel when you miss it. It’s like there’s that grace that’s there. It wasn’t just, “I’m going to Mass because Mom and Dad tell me to go to Mass,” but, “I’m actually going to Mass because I’m being fed, and I’m meeting Jesus here. And actually, there’s a word for me in the Gospel.”
Sr. Mary Pieta: I kind of had those other things around that help us to engage in Mass. Mass is actually something now so much more, but it’s like those little parts of — it’s not so long, and you don’t get bored at all during this time, or get distracted. You get distracted plenty of times during Mass, but to be able to bring yourself back to what this gift is of the sacrifice, now, as I’m looking back on that. But what the gift of it was, to be able to say, “I think I can do that.” And it’s not a long time. And it’s something I actually think I can do every day. I’ll run down to Mass here and then go back to Shanley, because Shanley now was down here, which was just, at that point, a great blessing.
Sr. Mary Pieta: When I was going through high school, Shanley was all the way on the north side of town, and my senior year is when they opened the new building. So it’s actually just been really neat to see things kind of build up around here. But it’s lovely to be able to even drive down 25th Street and be like, “Tabernacle, tabernacle, tabernacle. Jesus is so present right in my own neighborhood. This is just wonderful.” So as I’ve been growing, it seems that the Church in some sense has been growing down here too, and it’s actually been a great gift to have it so close.
Fr. Luke: Great parallel.
The First Tug
Fr. Luke: And then as you grew in faith, what were some of the first stirrings of thinking about religious life? What was tugging at your heart and mind? How old were you? What were some of the circumstances? What made you start discerning religious life?
Sr. Mary Pieta: That’s a great question. Those questions come up for everybody as far as, how am I being drawn to relationship with the Lord? And I think one of those first moments of really feeling this sense of a pull — and kind of an unexplained pull towards religious life — actually happened in seventh grade.
Sr. Mary Pieta: So back a few years, I had been at a vocations day or something like that at the seminary, Cardinal Muench in town, and they had done for us, you know, what does married life look like? What does religious life look like? What does priestly life look like? What does single life look like? So the boys went to the priestly life one, but there was a sister that came and spoke with us. And I had never met — I don’t think I had really met sisters with even different colored habits. And this sister was wearing a light blue habit at the time, and it was one of those things, it kind of struck me — and she’s happy.
Sr. Mary Pieta: So just even seeing the two of these things kind of come together, it struck a chord in my heart that almost scared me, in the sense that even within that year I’m like, “Ah, can’t even look at that.” I’m the oldest of seven kids, and my parents have a beautiful marriage, and so it’s one of those things — I saw so much of the good. And being the oldest sister, there’s something in me that’s so mother. You just can’t turn that off. So mother, and just this desire to be loved. And so to even see something like that, where I don’t even know what my classmates are gonna say.
Sr. Mary Pieta: People can be holy and they can be married. It’s like there’s this desire to be a saint, but not know exactly how to let that move forward. And so it was one of those things where I just need to shut the door and can’t really look at that right now, and it’s too scary to think about.
Sisters at the Newman Center
Sr. Mary Pieta: And that actually came up again later on, in my college years, while I was involved at the Newman Center at NDSU. I went to Moorhead, but I went to the Newman Center at NDSU. And there were sisters that would come and visit there, and it was actually something to see them there and to experience something of religious life. The Community of St. John had come a couple of times.
Fr. Luke: Eagle Eye.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Yeah, exactly. I did one Eagle Eye year, and it was one of those things of — to enter into this rhythm of prayer and adoration, and they said, “We do four hours of prayer every day.” I was like, “How on earth am I gonna ever be able to do that?” They made it easy. It’s like the rhythm of their morning prayer, evening prayer, and Mass, and holy hour, and all of a sudden I find out, oh, I’ve actually spent all this time in the chapel.
Sr. Mary Pieta: And there was something just so rich in that. So even just to have those kind of things to introduce it to my heart, even though I’m still not quite ready to open that yet.
Learning to Trust Providence
Sr. Mary Pieta: I became a missionary with FOCUS, because it was one of those things where there’s desire to live it out, needed to land somewhere. And so after graduating college and a year or so after that, I thought, “You know what? This is gonna be the way for me to be able to find out where God actually wants me in all of this.” And so I was a missionary down at South Dakota State for two years, and then one year at Georgia Southern.
Sr. Mary Pieta: And with that time with FOCUS, it was such a good formation, in the sense that we were supposed to pray an hour every day. And I had been continuing doing — kind of cut back a little bit on some of my daily Mass, but actually started having the time to be able to do daily Mass again. So having both of those, having a rosary every day. Even when I was at South Dakota State, we would do some of the office during the day. Sometimes we would do morning prayer as a local team, and then sometimes do compline. Which was always kind of neat, just to be able to have some of those parts at the bookends of the day.
Sr. Mary Pieta: And when I was on a team of other missionaries — I chose to become a missionary, but I didn’t necessarily find that I chose my teammates, and you knew that you were gonna live with them for the year. So it was just like this new intense level of living community of, we have to work together. And we’re all trying to grow in holiness. So that was another dynamic that was new to me, to have this experience of that.
Sr. Mary Pieta: And I was fundraising too, which is its own dynamic of, I actually have to trust in the Lord’s providence that he’s gonna provide people for me to be able to help me to raise my funds, so that he’s gonna be the one to do that. But it’s a cooperative work — that I lean into prayers and I lean into other people’s support to make it happen. And I had been nervous about doing that as a FOCUS missionary, but it was actually one of the greatest joys of being a part of it, was sharing that mission and that work with other people.
A Brochure on a Shelf
Sr. Mary Pieta: And so with all these different dynamics, by the time I moved to Georgia Southern, my third year on staff, it was far enough away from home. Oh, sorry — back a year. When I was at South Dakota State my second year, there was a moment I was walking through the Newman Center and had seen a brochure on one of the shelves about these sisters — like Capuchin Sisters of Nazareth or something in Pennsylvania. I never ended up discerning with them, ever. But it was one of those things, I’m like, it was this particular brochure that did something. I picked it up and looked at it, and was just kind of opening it up and looking at it and just thinking, “Okay, well, this is interesting.”
Sr. Mary Pieta: Even just to see, what is God planning? You know, I’m planning on being a FOCUS missionary for five or six years, and had just received this invitation from the Lord to say, “What are you doing? I might have something else for your life than this. You need to discern with me. You don’t just decide what’s gonna happen in life. Maybe prayer is actually gonna be a good thing to help you to know that I might have something in mind for you.”
Fr. Luke: Yeah, let’s talk some more.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Yeah, exactly. That’s what it always says, right? It’s just like, “I’m sorry, God.” And that was at one of the FOCUS conferences, like maybe about a month before this point where I was in the Newman Center walking through. So I pick this thing up, and kind of this in the back of my mind, and I open it, and one of the things that’s mentioned in it is evangelization. And obviously that was my life at that point.
Fr. Luke: Yeah, you were already living that. But drawn to it some more.
“For the Rest of Your Life?”
Sr. Mary Pieta: Exactly. And so the question that was posed to my heart was, “Would you consider doing evangelization for the rest of your life? You know, not just a few years, but for the rest of your life.”
Sr. Mary Pieta: And I thought, “Yeah, I’d consider that.” And all of a sudden I realized what I was saying yes to. It was like this yes to the Lord that opened up this whole place of actually an openness to consecrated life. And so I ran into that chapel. And as I was in there I’m like, “Lord, what does this mean? I love families. I want to have a family. I want to be a mother. Am I gonna be lonely? Am I gonna be happy? What’s gonna happen? I want children. Where’s all of this gonna go?”
Sr. Mary Pieta: And the Lord is like, “No, I will give a hundredfold. You know, just entrust those things to me and I will give it.” And at that point I could just feel that sense of peace of, okay, here’s a surrender right now. I could call it a surrender now. At that point I’m just like, “All right. We’re kind of floating on air right now and not exactly knowing where we’re gonna land, but this is where we are.”
Fr. Luke: It feels so unsafe not to have the plan, but there’s safety just in him. That’s what we experience sometimes. It’s like he’s holding it. It’s like you’re not safe on the ground, but you’re safe in him.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Exactly. It’s a very vulnerable feeling. You don’t know what’s gonna happen next, and you don’t know what your family’s gonna say, and all these different sorts of things. So it took a while even to come to terms with that idea.
A Desert in Georgia, God Provides in Poverty
Sr. Mary Pieta: So the next year was the year that — that was while I was at South Dakota State, and the Lord had said, “Okay, we’re gonna do this next year, and then we’ll discern from there.” So at this point, all right, we’re in that next year, we’re at Georgia Southern, and I don’t even know if it’s gonna happen, or where I’m gonna go, or where I’m gonna discern.
Sr. Mary Pieta: It was after Mass one day — or just after communion. And just a snapshot of where I was: I was in Statesboro, Georgia, in a tiny little parish that was kind of connected to the university. And most of the people in the area were not Catholic, and it was like the Bible Belt. So far from home. I barely know any of the people in the area, so it was just very much so kind of a desert in some ways. “Jesus, I don’t even know where to start. I don’t even know where to start discerning.”
Fr. Luke: Perfect place. Place of poverty.
Sr. Mary Pieta: It was. I was totally in this place of poverty. And as I made this prayer, images and different ideas flooded into my mind of — I do love family life. And I do love prayer life, and FOCUS has been something that, that place of community and family has been something that’s been so good for me. And I want something that’s gonna keep me going to daily Mass and keep me in daily prayer.
Meeting a Sister of Life
Sr. Mary Pieta: And actually, because of this love for family life, I’ve also had this resonance with this community that I met. You know, my first year on staff, I was at our new staff training, and there was this young sister that was there, and I could not believe how joyful she was, and what attracted me to that — just that she was so happy.
Sr. Mary Pieta: It was one of those things that my experience of religious life has been somewhat limited. Which that in itself, too, has grown over time, but that’s also a different story.
Sr. Mary Pieta: But so just to see a sister in full habit, really only a year older than myself, and telling about how she was involved in basketball, and she was a nurse. And she was so happy where she was, and I couldn’t believe it. That kind of lodged into the back of my brain, and started kinda knocking at that door again of religious life. This is something to consider.
Sr. Mary Pieta: And so this was a Sister of Life. And later on that year we had gone and visited with our sisters. And so all of that to kind of wrap around into this moment of — back in this third year on staff, of thinking, “Oh my gosh, this is the place where I need to start, is with the Sisters of Life.”
Not Only the Babies, but the Woman
Sr. Mary Pieta: I was involved in pro-life work in college, and going on a Walk with Christ for Life.
Fr. Luke: The annual procession.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Exactly. And so that was something of just like we would go there. 40 Days for Life started around the time that I was in college, and so I had gone and prayed at abortion clinics. But there was something actually even about our community that resonated with me so deeply, was this place of accompaniment with women, and not just “let’s save the babies.” But it’s like to see the woman and to see her goodness, so that she could then carry and love the life of the child that’s within her.
Sr. Mary Pieta: I’m like, “That’s it. That’s it.” It’s like that place of showing her her goodness was what resonated so deeply with me. “I gotta go to New York. I gotta go check this out. This is gonna be our first step.” And there is always just enough grace for the next step. Just enough grace for the next step. Again, still vulnerable, but it was actually such a gift to be able to, first of all, fill out the form online. Send it off. Okay, it’s out of my hands. It’s out of my hands. If they ever contact me — like within a week I got a response, and it’s like, “Okay.” Phone call, they gave me a number. The answer. You know, it’s just like these sorts of things, but there was this place of peace and of receiving joy in those conversations.
Fr. Luke: That’s how God leads us sometimes. It’s not by showing us the destination, but it’s like in the dark or in the fog, and he gives us the next streetlight. And then we get there, and then the next one, we see the next stop. And then there’s peace there.
“Persevere”
Sr. Mary Pieta: And there’s hurdles sometimes getting to those steps. One of my dear friends that I’ve known from the same congregation here is Sister Mary Ruth Rhodes, with the School Sisters of Christ the King. And we actually were involved — we had gone to World Youth Day to Toronto together, and had gone to Eagle Eye. And it was actually at Eagle Eye when she was entering her community that it was just so beautiful to actually see someone with a sense of peace.
Sr. Mary Pieta: And so even just before I entered, she was one who I ran into, and I’m so grateful I did. But there was something so good about a word she gave me. I asked her, I said, “What’s helpful when I come into religious life? What would be something that would be good for me to remember?” And she said, “Persevere.”
Sr. Mary Pieta: It’s like making it through the really hard times kind of helps. And honestly, that’s been one of the things that I’ve found has been a grace, to know that — I mean, we hunker down through a lot of different things in life, but if the Lord is inviting, and it’s hard, but I feel this desire to keep going forward, to persevere through it. There’s such a gift in that. So formation in a lot of sense was like that. Not everything in formation.
What Formation Actually Looks Like
Fr. Luke: How many years of formation is there in the Sisters of Life?
Sr. Mary Pieta: Good question. So we start with one year of postulancy, and then two years of novitiate. And then we profess first vows, and so that can be as short as five years and as long as nine. And then with that, you would renew every few years. So that’s kind of how those years work. But the first year is really just kind of getting to know the community. You’re not wearing the habit yet. You’re wearing something similar, but not quite.
Fr. Luke: But it’s distinctive clothing. You start to live in it a little bit.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Exactly. Very much so. It’s disorienting when I first stepped in, but at the same time, there’s others that live like me.
Fr. Luke: It changes things both in private and also in public, right? There’s all these different elements.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Exactly. It’s like the external actually shapes so much of what’s going on internally. It’s surprising actually how much that helps. And it’s actually such a great aid to that. Even now, there’s times you see me kind of sometimes playing with my rosary, but it’s just again a reminder that the Lord is present with me, and that there’s something different, and I belong to the Blessed Mother in a certain way that I didn’t before.
Sr. Mary Pieta: So that’s the first year’s postulancy. At the end of postulancy, you’re clothed in the habit and you receive a new name. And so that first year of novitiate is called the canonical year. And so that year is really just kind of steeping in the grace and the gift of what the vows are. So we take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. And our community — not every community takes on another vow, but we take on the vow to protect and enhance the sacredness of all human life.
Sr. Mary Pieta: And so actually as novices, one of the things that we do — and even before final vows, just to be able to refresh it, and it’s such a beautiful time — is we do what we call vows workshops. And it really gives us the time to pray with each of those vows and to see what the yes is in them, and not necessarily what the no is. I mean, the no and yes, it kind of has to be told.
Fr. Luke: Well, there’s a no for every big yes. But it’s a huge yes. It’s all about the yes. ‘Cause to belong to Christ alone. And that’s really — the evangelical counsels are really paths to communion and friendship with Christ.
Mother Mary Francis
Sr. Mary Pieta: Amen. And it’s such a gift to be able to see. I mean, it’s a gift to be able to actually live in those things. And one of the things I love — I don’t know if you’ve heard of Mother Mary Francis.
Fr. Luke: Yes, I love her works. I have some of her books right there. I love her book on Lent.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Oh, yes, The Time of Renewal. Yeah, I absolutely love her. And I only heard about her in the first place actually when I was a postulant — was the first time that we had read her at table — was a book called A Right to Be Merry.
Fr. Luke: Yes, that’s a great book.
Sr. Mary Pieta: It’s a great book if you wanna get just a glimpse into religious life. I love Mother Mary Francis. She’s so wonderful. She’s got great wit, and she’s sharp, and she kinda zings you, but at the same time, it’s like it’s a loving zing. You know that you’re loved when she shares with you the truth of what’s there.
Sr. Mary Pieta: So that’s actually been neat to be able to read her. But one of the books that I really love is My Beloved Is Mine and I Am His. And it’s reflections on brideship and on what our life of consecrated life looks like. And it kind of takes nuggets of each of the three vows that all religious take. So one of the things that she says is, “We take vows not because we’re good enough, but we take vows to help us to keep them.” So it’s kind of a — oh, that’s interesting. I’m really paraphrasing that. But it’s this sense of my vowing myself to the Lord also means that he makes his promise to me.
A Ring at Final Vows
Sr. Mary Pieta: One of the things I found so beautiful actually about final vows — so in my whole journey, I actually did end up taking those nine years, and kind of watching the Lord unfold, taking those years, those extra years, but not really extra years, because these are years where the Lord gave me great graces of freedom and of love, and of ability to be where I am and who I am before Him, and actually to live in that gift of vulnerability that He’s given our community in particular, like being vulnerable like the child in the womb.
Sr. Mary Pieta: But at final vows, I received a ring. And I think one of the gifts that’s even just seeing that is, when a couple gets married, the man gives the woman a ring, and the woman gives her ring to the man. So it’s like you’re actually giving the other person a ring that doesn’t fit you, but it fits the other person.
Sr. Mary Pieta: So when Cardinal Dolan put that ring on my finger — it’s one of those things, like, how hard are you gonna shove it on there? But actually, it was very gentle. It was one of those things of, this is God’s ring to me. This is his promise to me. I’ve made my promise to him. I’ve laid down my life. So I didn’t get to literally put a ring on his finger, but he put one on mine, to be faithful to me as I’m faithful to him. So this is that reminder of his faithfulness to me and all of that. So I can be faithful to him, and I can lean into that and trust that he’s gonna give the grace.
Fr. Luke: Our response in faith is really a response. Our first step is not a first step. It’s really a second step. It’s a response to God’s initiative, God’s faithfulness, God’s love, God’s goodness. And it just really takes the pressure off of us. It’s not this stoic endurance of human freedom.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Oh, glory. Right? I would be white-knuckling through it all. I mean, yes, there’s perseverance, but there’s like, “I am so poor, I need to lean into his grace for these things.” And he does. It’s like the tried and true of the experience of, he’s faithful, and he continues to be faithful, and he continues to be faithful. And even in the suffering, that’s a place where we unite to him. But it doesn’t end there. It doesn’t end there.
Why the Formative Years Matter
Fr. Luke: In the formative years, we often wanna jump ahead and like, “Oh, I’m ready for mission. I’m ready for evangelization,” but those years are so important, right? They stretch us. They expand our hearts in love. It’s like this time of year I think we read Augustine’s letter to Proba in the Office of Readings, right? The Lord makes us wait, to expand our hearts, and a greater place for his grace to land. And it sounds like some holy years, and perseverance.
Sr. Mary Pieta: They are. They’re hard years. Yeah, they’re hard years, but at the same time I would not trade the world for them.
Fr. Luke: But they bear such great fruit. I look back on my own seminary years with great fondness. Even though there’s this time of growth and evaluations, right? And people directing you and evaluating you, but yet it’s a time where you look back, and it’s like, if I didn’t have that, I’d be lost.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Oh, amen. Amen. And I don’t wanna scare people in the sense of, you know, formation is hard, but formation’s actually for my good. So to trust that every time — and actually, it’s not only even for my good, it’s for the good of the community. It’s actually gonna be for the good of the world.
Sr. Mary Pieta: The presence of consecrated religious does something to the world. It’s like God has set us aside — not, again, not because we’re good, but because He’s chosen.
Fr. Luke: It’s part of His plan. It’s part of His wise and loving plan. The Church not only needs spiritual fathers and brothers, but the Church needs spiritual mothers, right? And these witnesses of the bridal grace — those who respond with that Marian yes, as brides of Christ.
Spiritual Motherhood
Sr. Mary Pieta: And so, even in light of that, I find that our community does a great job of actually giving us apostolates that allow us to live in that place of spiritual maternity, and again, that place of spouse-ship. So I do receive those places of having my heart being fulfilled in those ways of maternal love and being a spouse. It looks different, but my heart is given.
Sr. Mary Pieta: For the women that we serve, I work in our Visitation Mission, where we walk with women who are pregnant and are vulnerable to abortion. So many times they’re struggling and suffering through different challenges in their life, and to have someone who’s willing to walk and accompany them during that time — it’s a great gift to be able to be there, to walk with them then.
Sr. Mary Pieta: In a certain sense, we get to walk with the mothers and not necessarily the babies. And it’s like it’s a beautiful thing to actually see how a mother comes to life in that way, and to just delight in her and her goodness. Like the Lord has given that sort of gift, to be able to move in that way.
Fr. Luke: It’s almost like spiritual motherhood for the sake of motherhood. You’re accompanying for the sake of so many other yeses — to the yes to giving oneself away in motherhood. So, back up to your earlier sharing, right? Like this, all these questions in youth, like marriage and family, and that the Lord takes that. And it’s not canceled or taken away, but it’s rather fulfilled in a whole new way, in a whole new level of fruitfulness with spiritual motherhood.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Oh my gosh. There’ve been so many times where I’m just like, even with being in the convent, it’s just like, oh my gosh, hashtag only in the convent, you know? It’s just like I never would’ve thought these things would’ve brought me joy. But it’s been beautiful to see how there’s a flourishing of it, and those desires of my heart have been fulfilled in ways that I never could’ve imagined.
Fr. Luke: To care, to nurture. To see new life flourish and heal.
An Active Contemplative Community
Sr. Mary Pieta: And actually, because our community also lives — we’re an active contemplative community. So we do both. We have a set time of prayer that we do, as well as work out kind of with the people. So it’s kind of the both-and of those things.
[ In the recording Sister said “apostolic contemplative.” She asked afterward that the term be corrected here to “active contemplative,” which is the phrase she was reaching for. ]
Sr. Mary Pieta: And within that too, because Cardinal O’Connor wanted us so much to live under the rule of St. Augustine, there’s something of a communal aspect in the way that we live our lives. So there’s actually an experience of family life — different, but family life. We eat meals together. We pray together. We work together. Our apostolates are done in community. I don’t meet with women unless another sister is with me.
Fr. Luke: Two by two.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Exactly.
Fr. Luke: It’s just a beautiful expression of sort of the web of grace within the Church, right? Within the Christian community, we’re never alone. We’re working with friends, family. We’re in communion so often on so many different levels. Vertical communion, horizontal communion. All the above. It’s just all there. It’s just so wonderful.
The Gift of Coming Home
Sr. Mary Pieta: It’s just so good. And so, like I said earlier, my desire and love for family life in a certain sense is filled out in a different way. And it’s beautiful to be able to come back home and see my family, and see how they’re working and striving and wrestling to live out the beauty of their lives. And to know that even though my life doesn’t necessarily look the same, there’s a gift and a richness to it, that they complement each other, actually, very well.
Fr. Luke: It’s so complementary. It’s like these vocations in the life of the Church need each other so much, you know? And they amplify each other in goodness.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Amen. So it’s good to be able to come home actually too, and have the experience of family life, because there’s so many lives that we do encounter that are broken. And just even being able to receive the messiness of life as it is here, but also to recognize this is where grace comes from. And to see, and to be refreshed even in family life, kind of on the natural level.
Fr. Luke: You see that on the natural level, then you’re like, “Oh, this is how we’re supposed to live as sisters,” right? And then you remind them of, oh, we belong to God first, even in marriage and family life. And so I think there’s this beautiful kind of — it’s like a cross-pollination of so many charisms and gifts, on a home visit here to little Fargo.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Yes, exactly. Exactly.
How You Can Pray for Sister and her Community
Fr. Luke: Well, how can our parish pray for you and for your community as you get ready to go back here at the end of the week? As you look forward to your fall, what are the things you’re looking forward to about your mission work? And how can we pray for you?
Sr. Mary Pieta: So each year we receive a mission for what our next year will be, so it could be staying in the same mission that we’re in or going into a new one. This year I’m continuing in my mission at Visitation. So I would just love for prayers for the women that we’re serving, prayers for openness for their own hearts, and prayers for our discernment really in many ways, because I think we wanna discern well and we wanna be able to uphold them.
Sr. Mary Pieta: And I think there’s many times where it’s just like more grace for them is — more grace is better. I’m always up for more grace. Free will is a very real thing that we come up with, and so to be able to have the bolstering of grace, to be able to know and to experience love and to be able to choose love — both for ourselves, and even just living in community life, as our community changes, because people will go out of mission and move into new missions. So not everybody that I’m with will stay with me, so it’s just this kind of transition into the new year, as well as for all the women that we serve.
Sr. Mary Pieta: And for the women who have suffered from abortion, we also have a work of hope and healing. So for all the women who have suffered, just to be able to pray for them. And if anyone in the parish has ever experienced that before, that experienced the pain of abortion, to know that the Lord actually does have this place of mercy and healing, and so desires their good. And just to know that our sisters are available for that, to be able to reach out to us — or there’s also Project Rachel here in our diocese too. So to be able to not be afraid to come to that place of the Lord’s mercy.
Fr. Luke: Yeah, for perfect love to cast out all fear.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Amen. Amen. So my prayers are also in that way too, for those who’ve suffered, but also for those who struggle. And for parents and families who go through difficult times.
Sr. Mary Pieta: To let everyone in the parish know of my own prayers, and my own gratitude for many of the ways in which you’ve supported me, and have been a support for me over the years, in my time of FOCUS, as well as my time as a sister. And continues to be my time as a sister. And the joy of being called a bride of Christ, and how that has supported me so far, and will continue to support me in the future.
A Small Corner of the World
Fr. Luke: Well, you’re in the right spot, Sister.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Amen. Amen.
Fr. Luke: Your joy is overflowing. We’re edified by your yes. A yes in peace, and in confidence, and in joy. And we’ll pray for you. Pray for us as well, in our own, that we might grow in faith, hope, and love. That we might be generous in our own response to our mission here in South Fargo, in our neighborhoods and our communities here. To be witnesses, and joyful witnesses, to the truth and the love of God.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Amen. It’s a small corner of the world, but I tell you what, it touches the world. It’s a beautiful place to be able to be. So what a gift to come home, and what a gift to bring it back here.
Fr. Luke: You may see Sister at daily Mass, or at adoration, or at vespers when she’s here, and feel free to say hello. And also check out Imprint. That’s the magazine that your community puts out. We get bulk copies of that and put it out. And Imprint’s a wonderful little quarterly magazine that’s not just about the life of the sister, but really it’s about the Christian life. It’s about the ups and downs, and so many different topics.
Fr. Luke: Well, you’re in our prayers, and thanks so much for taking some time just to share more today here — here in, I call it my studio, my library.
Sr. Mary Pieta: Wonderful. Thank you so much, Father.
Fr. Luke: All right, Sister. Peace be with you.
Sr. Mary Pieta: And with your spirit.
The Sisters of Life were founded in New York in 1991 by John Cardinal O’Connor. In addition to poverty, chastity and obedience, the sisters profess a fourth vow to protect and enhance the sacredness of human life. Copies of their quarterly magazine, Imprint, are available in the gathering space.
