Sister Agnes, Bride of Christ

On St. Valentine’s Day, a group of young women gathered at a busy café to listen to a Catholic nun talk about vocation, celibacy and her relationship with Jesus Christ.

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Sister Agnes of the Community of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal (CFR) had traveled back to her hometown of Jacksonville to meet with a discernment group and share how she had chosen her vocation of serving the poorest of the poor.

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It’s hard to not notice Sister Agnes. She stood out from the other customers with her grey floor-length tunic and a black veil covering her hair. The religious habit is considered a wedding dress, an outward sign of her vows to obedience, chastity and poverty.

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“I never thought of religious life as a young person,” Sister Agnes said. “I had a misunderstanding of a sister. I had a stereotype that you became a sister if you couldn’t get married, which is terrible.”

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Sister Agnes now considers herself a Bride of Christ.

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The night before, Sister Agnes and her companion had spoken to addicts at the Cenocolo Community in St. Augustine. Later today they will go back to the city to talk to Flagler College Students.

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Traveling has become part of Sister Agnes’ occupation; through donations, she travels to preach at conferences and meet with various Christian groups. She will fly back to her convent in New Jersey the next morning. Her schedule was tight and she had yet to visit her parents in town.

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But at the moment, Sister Agnes was at ease, sipping her coffee and chatting with the women who were using a discernment book written by her mother superior.

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She smiled easily and listened carefully to each women’s life stories. She shared her own discernment story in return.

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“I met a sister who came to our young adult prayer group and she had been a sister that had graduated from my high school,” Sister Agnes said. “She talked about being the Bride of Christ and sweeping the chapel for Jesus and there was something in my heart that I desired that. I also desired to be married, but I also desired to be the spouse of Christ. So, I began discerning.”

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Sister Agnes is now the vocation director for the order and guides women through what she calls the “agony of discernment,” the period of time when one wrestles with the choice between living a secular life or giving everything to God.

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For Sister Agnes, the decision to become a nun was a difficult one. After graduating from the University of North Florida and becoming a registered nurse, she worked as a pediatric nurse oncologist. She spent a year caring for children with cancer, dating on and off, and spending her vacations visiting various religious orders.

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It became apparent to her after praying a 54-day rosary novena and a pilgrimage to Rome that God was calling her to become a sister and that she had to leave her rewarding job as a nurse.

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“You’d think that it would be very fulfilling, and it was in many ways, but not enough for one who has a call to be totally given to Christ,” Sister Agnes said. “I had this restlessness that was in my heart that I still wasn’t giving all, that it still wasn’t enough.”

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In 2001, she left Jacksonville and became a CFR sister.

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The order, following the teachings of St. Francis, serves the poorest of the poor in inner cities in New York and New Jersey. Soup kitchens, food and clothing pantries and home visits are just some of their ministries. The rest of their hours are spent in prayer.

For Sister Agnes this isn’t a job, it’s a vocation lived 24/7.

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Sister Agnes said that what attracted her to the order is that they really believed in the Rule of St. Francis who had lived the Gospel by serving the lepers of society.

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“Today the lepers of society are really the poor and the outcast—those who are homeless, those who are mentally ill, the addicted, those on the streets. So, we live amongst the poor and serve the poor.”

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As vocation director, Sister Agnes helps other women decide if they are also called to give up everything and serve the most vulnerable.

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One such woman is Emily Gehret, also of Jacksonville and also working in medicine as a pediatric physician’s assistant. She has been receiving guidance from Sister Agnes for the past three years and had invited Sister Agnes to speak with the discernment group.

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“I noticed immediately that she was so easy to talk to,” Gehret said. “I felt I could really be honest with her about my questions and fears, and also my desires and dreams. One of the best pieces of advice she ever gave me was to just focus on figuring out the next big step that God was calling me to.”

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With Sister Agnes’ help, Gehret has applied to become a CFR sister and hopes to enter this year.

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Sister Agnes had one last piece of advice to give the women who sat around her, women who were experiencing the same fears and excitements about the future as she once had.

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“Seek first the kingdom of God and pray, pray, pray.”