When Sister Desiré Anne-Marie Findlay was considering joining the Felician Sisters, she prayed that she wouldn’t have to give up her passion for dance. Here, she talks about how she’s changed through her formation with the sisters: how she’s come to let her natural curls fly free and how her dance has become part of her vocation—and her prayer.

Sister Celine, a teacher, and Sister Marie Estelle, a nurse, explain what drew them to join a branch of the Carmelite order that began in Mexico—and what it’s like to go out (even just to the gas station) in their traditional habit.

Sr. Alison McCrary, a community lawyer in New Orleans who corresponds with inmates on death row, explains how her vows of poverty, chastity and obedience help her fully serve others in a world that values money, sex and power.

Sr. Monica Nobl, a Peruvian archaeologist, and Sr. María José Correa, a world-class pole-vaulter representing Chile, never anticipated becoming nuns until they met the Sisters of the Servants of the Plan of God, a new order of women religious who give their lives to evangelization, service and solidarity with the poor.

The late, legendary journalist Cokie Roberts explains how Catholic nuns and sisters built up some of the first schools and largest healthcare systems in the United States after their arrival in 1727.