Nun Run participants take to the road to experience life in religious communities

Twenty-three young women from the Archdiocese of Omaha received a close-up view of everyday life in a religious community, visiting five convents in the Kansas City, Missouri, area and one in Nebraska – joining the sisters in their work of cooking, cleaning, ministering, adoring and worshiping.

The trip, called a Nun Run, is an annual tradition in the archdiocese and is supported by the archdiocese Vocations Office, local Serra Clubs and private donors. This year’s group of 23 was the largest ever, said Vicki Herout, one of the two women who coordinate the visits.

Traveling by bus July 30 to Aug. 1, the group got a taste of cloistered life with the Benedictines of Mary Queen of Apostles in Gower, Missouri, and active ministry with the Little Sisters of the Lamb, Sisters Poor of Jesus Christ, Little Sisters of the Poor and Sister Servants of Mary, all in the Kansas City area, and the Marian Sisters in Waverly, Nebraska.

Learning about different religious orders and their charisms is one thing, but to witness and briefly join in their lives is another, said Herout and co-coordinator Paula Bastian. Serving as spiritual director for the group was Father Marcus Knecht, associate pastor of a rural family of parishes in Bloomfield, Brunswick, Cedar County, Crofton, Creighton, Niobrara and Verdigre.

The participants, from a variety of rural and urban parishes, had opportunities to pray at Mass, during morning and evening prayers, Holy Hours and with the rosary.

Some of the high school and college-age women have been on several Nun Runs and are actively discerning a call to religious life, while others are just curious about what that life looks like, Herout said.

“It’s always a grace-filled trip,” she said. “It’s always a beautiful thing to see how open the girls are to what the Lord wants for them.”

The women on the Nun Run loved working and worshiping alongside the sisters, Bastian said, and the fruits of that experience were visible. “There was a light in the sisters that just transferred to our girls.”

Anyone interested in religious life or participating in next year’s Nun Run can contact Father Scott Schilmoeller, vocations director, at 402-558-3101, extension 3011, or saschilmoeller@archomaha.org

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