The Roaming Nun

She was known as the desert nun , an order of one .
Sister Cathy was never content in a convent .
The Bishop had many discussions with Cathy before granting her a special blessing that was accepted by the church hierarchy .

Her apostolate was in bringing Christianity to isolated communities and to farmers and those who worked in places without a church .

Sister Cathy moved around constantly in a caravan as a free agent in religious life .

Her mission was in fostering and administering prayer to those in the forgotten places . She had a depth of human understanding along with a great listening ear .

She lived in her caravan and brought her radical approach to religion into the wilderness . On the back of her caravan she had a large sign that read ,
I am an echo of that voice who cried out in the wilderness .

Every time she arrived at a town she would throw handfuls of holy medals around in unseen places . It was her way of blessing that particular sopt .

She also built small shrines with holy statues in quiet forest areas and erected wooden crosses in other spots .
Sister Cathy’s trail of personal sacred spaces were never marked out on any map it was just a place in the world that she claimed for Christ .
It wasn’t the kind of thing many other people would or could do . That was part of Sister Cathy’s mission .

There had been some blessed occasions when in the wilderness she came across other people on a spiritual retreat from life . In those secluded spaces they shared their life experiences and hopes for the future .

One evening as the light was trapped by the curtain of night Sister Cathy saw in the distance a shimmering light .

She drove her caravan to the place it was coming from and eventually pulled up and got out walking the remainder of the way .
Eventually she arrived at an open shaft of an opal mine where a n imber of miners had been trapped in a freak cave in accident . Within an hour or two Sister Cathy had been able to contact the authorities on her communications network and a rescue was put into operation . During the waiting time Sister Cathy went over asnd prayed with the trapped miners who took great strength in her powerful intercessory prayer .

One other evening in the wilderness as twilight said farewell Sister Cathy saw another light streaming out of a mountain side cave . With further investigation she discovered a man sitting beside a small fire meditating .
This spiritual traveller had retreated life to live in this cave where he had been living for three years liker a hermit .
He spoke of having received enlightenment and invited Sister Cathy to stay as long as she wanted .

Sister Cathy declined and continued on her own path where she stumbled upon lonely farmers on the land in need of someone to talk to or women who had issues with family life on the land . Every where Sister Cathy went there was a need o f some kind or another .
Often she left holy medals around every place she went . Mostly in unseen places . It was her way of placing a blessing on those who lived there .

The various situations that Sister Cathy came across gave validation to all that she was doing . She was encouraged and inspired by all those she met and in within all that she knew God was present . For many out there in the wilderness it gave them a reason to believe .

In her caravan she had boxes and boxes of holy medals and other items that were donated by her many list of supporters in the religious business world .

Sister Cathy was quite well known in many areas .Her mission as a desert nun was respected and admired .

Years passed and Sister Cathy got old . She was getting more tired and she found it difficult to stay on the journey she had taken as a desert nun

Eventually she decided to rest and found a quiet spot in a valley cradled by a mountainside .. There she parked the caravan and let go of the work she had done most of her life .

It was there and then that things came to her .
All she wanted was to live out the rest of her days quietly alone in her little caravan but her isolated spot was discovered by a few who knew of her works .

The word soon spread around about the desert nun who was living in the valley and before a month of sunsets builders with their machines arrived to build her a home and beside it a chapel for her prayers and also for visitors
who would come . Sister Cathy was speechless and joy had filled her .

She asked if she could over see every thing as it happened and so she was able to throw her own ideas to the project .
Of course no one saw her throwing holy medals into the cement and concrete before it was poured . There were handfuls of holy medals pushed into eh mortar between each row of bricks as there were being laid .

Indeed the finished structures were blessed in every way .
A small community of desert nuns soon came to be and the work Sister
Cathy had began was continued long after her passing from this life .

THE END
By Paul McCann