Meet Sister Jeanne Weber

As far back as 5th or 6th grade, I had a hunch that I might be called to be a sister. I had sisters from our community as teachers in grade school, and three aunts in the community — so I was no stranger to of religious life. Still, I didn’t want to entertain the notion that I could be called to this life, so in about the 6th grade I decided that I was going to become a nurse. You see, all the nuns I knew were teachers, and in my youthful logic, I decided that if I became a nurse, I could not be a nun. So began many years of running 180 degrees the opposite direction from this vocation.

During those years of running I found God is persistent, and in some part of myself I was listening and kept drawing closer to that call — by changing colleges in my sophomore year to Mount Marty, (where I would again meet up with our sisters) by breaking off my engagement to be married when I was a senior in college, and finally by approaching the sister who was then vocation director to talk to her about entering. It was at that time that having relatives in the community was a blessing. I heard only much later that the powers-that-be in the community thought it wasn’t a good idea for me to enter at that time — they thought I was “on the rebound” from my engagement. My aunts, Srs. Stephanie and Rosemary, and Theresa knew me well and saw truthfully that my engagement was me running away from my true vocation. They advocated for me and I was allowed to enter in 1979 after I finished college.

Reflection

Reflecting on my experience of call, I began to see that I had this idea of God as someone who would always want hard or difficult things for me–things other than what I wanted for myself: I wanted to get married and have a family. God wanted me to become a Benedictine sister. I can remember the moment that I truly embraced my vocation. It was a year or two after I had made first vows. I was at prayer in my room and was flooded with the sense that God wanted this life for me because he/she knew that this is the life that would make me happiest — that God, having made me, knew me much better than I knew myself, and knew what would make me happy. Guess what — God was right! I’ve never regretted following God’s lead in this vocation. It truly is who I am.