My name is Julie Christensen, I am a first year novice with the Congregation of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas, which is also where I was born and raised. I grew up in a family of nine and spent lots of time helping my mom in our gardens and helping with my younger siblings, nieces and nephews. I love to be outside soaking up the beauty of the natural world. Throughout my life, I can remember staring out the window while at school and looking at the trees, the grass and all that is connected, and cursing the walls that separated me. I longed to be outside and up in the trees, looking at all the life that existed within nature.
I attended public schools through college and wanted nothing more than to get away from the standardization and repetition. I desired to travel the world and was fortunate in college to do so. A variety of university programs and personal interests brought me to various places in Mexico, Europe, South America and Japan. My first thoughts of religious life were on a mission trip to Mexico at the age of eighteen. Not able to calm my desires for travel and education, I kept doing just that. It was as if I was on auto-pilot… I kept going and going. Randomly I picked up bits and pieces of information about religious life along the way, but it was until 2005 I had the opportunity to live in community and experience what I thought I was being called to. I truly thought what I was looking for in life had to do with what was not already under my feet. I just kept finding my "old self," my unsatisfactory accomplishments and a sense of and a need for wildness, provoking me. At the end of my year living in community, I was still unable to say, YES. So, I went from part-time to full time graduate school, only to leave one semester later. I moved on to another bout of traveling, this time in the north east. My restlessness began to ease and I realized my availability to the world, God was calling me to, was very different than that of my married and even single friends. My decision to enter religious life came out of a very peaceful desire to delve more deeply into faith and embrace the ground beneath me as the ultimate gift of our creator.
My postulancy was spent at our mission in El Paso, TX. It was wonderful to be in desert to purify my thoughts and intentions. I got to know our CSJ mission, some other religious communities of sisters in the area and their charisms. My favorite experience in ministry was at a clinic in Anapra, Mexico run by the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati. They were truly living the mission and ministering in ways that addressed needs. Their work was quickly self-sustaining and was born out of the ability of the people. Their community, relationships with all of God’s creation, and prayer was that which sustained them. Freedom and ability to listen to and move with the Holy Spirit is my hope in life and intention in seeking religious life.
My hopes here in Orange, CA at the Federation Novitiate are to be with people from my generation who have similar questions and desires of life. Also, I hope to strengthen my spirit and CSJ spirituality.
