Features
Two Diocesan Women Entering Religious Orders
This fall two women from the Diocese of Raleigh are entering religious congregations. On August 23, Alexandra Larsen, 28, entered the Benedictine Sisters of Ferdinand, Ind. The Ferdinand Sisters describe themselves as “monastic women seeking God through the Benedictine tradition of community life, prayer, hospitality, and service to others.” This month Kathryn Sharpe, 33, will begin formation with a cloistered congregation of contemplative nuns, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, in their newest foundation in Black Canyon City, Arizona.
Larsen moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., from Madison, Wisconsin, at age 3. Her parents divorced when she was 8. “I did all the usual girl things,” she says. “Girl Scouts, ballet.” She attended St. Thomas More School through 5th grade, and in high school she joined the church choir with her mom. “I was considering religious life by the time I was confirmed,” she says. “I even had an Order picked out.” When Larsen announced her intentions, however, her mother was firm. “She said, ‘No, I’m your mother, you’re my only child, and I’m putting my foot down. You’re going to college.’” So Larsen attended Belmont Abbey College, a time she now calls “the best four years of my life.” Active in campus ministry, she volunteered at the Sisters of Mercy’s homeless shelter. One year she was chosen Volunteer of the Year.
She also became a member of what was called the Faithful Daughters Household. “We lived together, prayed together, served together and attended Mass together,” Larsen recalls. “We actually reserved a part of the dorm and had morning and evening prayer together. So it was really an experience of community life.”
Larsen majored in Early Childhood Development. After college she started working in daycare. But her sense of vocation remained. “I dated in college and a year after,” she says, “but didn’t think it was for me. So my friends said, ‘Well maybe you’re called to be a single lay person.’ But I said, ‘You know, I’m too outgoing to be single. I want someone to come home to; I want to be connected to other people.’”
Two years ago she contacted the Ferdinand Benedictines. When she visited them, she knew she’d found her future: “You know how at the end of a long day you get home, you see your house, your driveway, and you feel this inner peace? You relax and you say, ‘I’m home, this is the best place ever.’ That’s exactly what I feel at that community.
“There’s a huge range of ages and I can talk to all the Sisters and I learn so much from them. They have a variety of ministries – teachers, social workers, a veterinarian, Sisters in hospitals and parishes. When you go for the Benedictine Life week you can follow some of the Sisters ‘on mission.’ They may live in a house; they pray together in the morning, go to their jobs, then reconnect in the evening.”
Larsen’s formation will begin with classes at St. Meinrad seminary, and will last three to six years. “The community has been so welcoming,” Larsen says. “So many of the Sisters have sent cards. I heard that when my commitment and acceptance were announced at the community meeting, there was loud applause and even cheers. I’m very happy. I can’t wait to get started!”
Kathryn Sharpe says that for years, “I never thought of religious life.” The adopted daughter of two doctors, she grew up in various parts of the country – Alabama, Connecticut, Illinois, Tennessee. “My parents weren’t real devout Catholics,” she says, “but my mother put my brother and me in Catholic boarding school when we were teens, and we both loved it.” Her brother eventually joined the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. Sharpe pursued a degree in Industrial Engineering, eventually getting her Ph.D. in Marketing from Duke University.
She had a corporate career with companies like Home Depot, and several long term relationships. “I just didn’t feel like God wasn’t calling me to that, though,” she says. Some friends suggested religious life, but Sharpe didn’t think that was her path, either. “I thought if God’s call was real, it would be like getting hit over the head with a 2x4. But you have to stay still enough and quiet enough to hear Him.” After a third relationship ended, Sharpe decided to take a break. “I thought, ‘You know, I haven’t been single in ten years. I’m going to give the Lord a year.’”
Asked how she decided on the Poor Clares, Sharpe laughs. “God decided. I had been investigating a Franciscan community where I would have been teaching or running a hospital, exactly my skill set. But then through my brother I met a couple of Poor Clares who were starting a new foundation. I visited, and when I came back I rededicated myself to discerning God’s Will.”
Like Alex Larsen, Kathryn Sharpe radiates joy as she speaks about the future. “I finally feel like I’m coming home and doing what God created me to do. All my life I’ve been doing and fixing and jumping in to solve situations, and now I see how much He loves me just the way I am. People ask, ‘How can you do this?’ but I’m amazed, and so grateful that He would ask this of me! Before I go to Arizona we’re having a Mass of Thanksgiving, and it’s not a sending away but a Mass of gratitude.
“We know people throughout the Diocese are praying for vocations but they don’t always know what’s happening, and I want them to know that I’m the beneficiary of those prayers! And also the people who are praying for life! I was adopted, and recently met my birth mother and learned that I was conceived in a rape when she was 16 years old. Imagine! Only God could take a rape and turn that situation into a contemplative vocation. That’s the triumph of the Cross!”