Passing Up Motherhood to Help God’s Children : Joanna Strouse Once Hoped to Be a Parent but Became a Sister

Sister Joanna Strouse took her final vows in March, pledging a lifetime of poverty, chastity and discipline.

It was a momentous step for someone just 26 years old, someone who had always planned on having a big family.

“I’ve always loved children. I used to work in day care and I always wanted to have children of my own--I wanted to have 12 children. I don’t know if that would have really happened, but that’s how I pictured life.

“But when I heard God call me, and heard him tell me that he loved me and that this is the best life I could ever have, once I really understood it, I couldn’t say no.”

When she entered the Sisters of the Society Devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus almost nine years ago, Strouse felt reassured in her decision, because the primary mission of the 57-year-old order is religious education. As a teacher, she would often be surrounded by children.

And though the long process from postulancy to final vows is filled with reflection and self-examination, her greatest test came earlier, during her senior year of high school.

“I had already decided what I was pretty much going to do. I wanted to go to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida and study engineering physics,” she said. “And after a tour of duty with the Air Force, I wanted to work with NASA in the space program and build space shuttles.”

Strouse had a 4.19 grade-point average and would be graduating as class valedictorian from Western High School in Anaheim. She had no trouble winning acceptance to the university.

But the prospect of becoming a nun was always in the background of her life. She grew up in a “practicing Catholic home,” attending Mass regularly and spending third through eighth grade at St. Polycarp Catholic School in Stanton.

“My mom always gave it as an option,” she said, “but I never really knew what that would mean.”

By age 16, after several encounters with a family friend and former baby sitter who had joined the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, she would periodically consider becoming a nun. The answer was always no.

“I thought, ‘No, I want to have children,’ and I would put it out of my mind. But it would happen every now and again. I never consciously recognized what was happening until my senior year of high school, when it was spelled out for me loud and clear.”

After visiting her aunt and uncle in Pennsylvania, she returned home inspired by their religious faith and practice.

“It called to my attention that I wasn’t praying as much as I should be. I brought that home with me. I had prayed about what I wanted to do with school, and everything was pretty much falling into place. But I realized I’d never asked God what he wanted, what his plan was for me in my life.”

Strouse attended a “come and see” day at the convent and was inspired to say a novena, a prayer or group of prayers recited for nine days for a specific purpose. She said three prayers each day: a rosary, a prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a prayer asking for guidance from St. Therese, a French Carmelite nun who was born in 1873, died at age 24 and was canonized in 1925.

“Before she died, she promised that she would spend her heaven doing good on Earth and that she would let fall from heaven a shower of roses to help those who asked for her help.

“It may seem very odd, but every day that I said that prayer, I received a rose in some way or form. Not that you have to have signs like that, but it was very helpful for me in recognizing God’s call. He made it very visible for me.”

Without knowing of her prayer, her grandmother handed her a rose on the first day.

“One day I got a letter in the mail that had a sticker on it, that said ‘a rose just for you.’ It was junk mail, but it was sort of strange that it would happen. This actually continued for two weeks after my novena was over--every day. Most of them were real roses.”

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After making the decision to enter the order, she met with one of the sisters at a Santa Ana soup kitchen.

“After we fed the homeless, we sat down and we were eating, and I was sharing with her what had been going on. And while I was talking with her, a man who was working there walked up to me and handed me a rose. It was just really amazing. It was really God’s confirmation.”

During the nearly nine years since she entered the order, which has only 54 sisters worldwide, she has continually examined her decision, becoming more confident of her calling. She is the youngest of seven sisters who live in the Sacred Heart Convent on the retreat center grounds in Santa Ana.

“When I first entered, some of my friends and even some people from my church were very afraid that I might be making a very big mistake. They didn’t understand how it works; they thought there was no turning back. But it takes a long time to reach final vows, which is good. You don’t want anybody to just jump into it, just like you wouldn’t want anybody to jump into a marriage.

“Why I came to this life is because of Jesus. That’s why I’m here. And I want to give him back my life--that’s a lot of what this final commitment meant to me. And it’s my prayer that he will constantly be my vision, and that with my eyes fixed on him, I can bring so many more to him.”

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Profile: Sister Joanna Strouse

Age: 26

Hometown: Anaheim

Residence: Santa Ana

Family: Three younger sisters

Education: Valedictorian at Western High School in Anaheim; eight years of training with the Sisters of the Society Devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Background: Three years teaching preparation for first communion in parishes throughout Los Angeles; religion teacher, director of communion program and parish religion program during three years in Reno, Nevada; religion teacher with Our Lady of the Pillar Parish in Santa Ana for two years; retreat director at Heart of Jesus Retreat Center for the last year where she is also director of the Sacred Heart Kids Club; took final, lifetime vows in March

On becoming a nun: “God calls every one of us to a vocation--some to marry, some to be single, some to a religious life. When I teach my children, one of the most important things I tell them is that no vocation is better than another. The best vocation is the one God has chosen for you.”

Source: Sister Joanna Strouse; Researched by RUSS LOAR / For The Times