I don’t watch daytime TV, so I can’t tell you for sure that Oprah has never had a story about nuns, but my guess is that yesterday’s show featuring a group of Dominican Order sisters was a first. Correspondent Lisa Ling interviewed a congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Mary based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She even spent the night at the convent, just outside of Detroit, and you can view her experience in this video.

This particular congregation is only 13 years old, and represents a trend occurring across the landscape of faith – young people in search of a more traditional way of living out their relationship with God. Whereas some of the older congregations of religious sisters are dwindling in vocations, these newer congregations are attracting many young women wanting to follow what they see as a call to be in the world but not of the world; the Ann Arbor congregation has nearly 100 sisters in various stages of formation.

Like all religious women and men, these nuns take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (to the church and to their religious superiors). Unlike religious men and women who came of age during Vatican II, the average age in this convent is 26 and the women fully embrace outward signs of their religious status, such as the habit, that many older congregations have set aside.

I think it is very cool that the Mother of Media decided to feature women focused on modeling themselves after what Christianity teaches is the Mother of God for a number of reasons. First, Lord knows daytime TV could use a few fresh faces and a story line not based on the seven deadly sins. Additionally, there is so much misinformation out there about what it is to be a nun or a sister (and, among people older than 55, some really bad memories of pre-Vatican II schooling featuring nuns who were anything but loving).

But most importantly, the show demonstrates to young women that there are options in the world besides marriage or the single life. If a woman feels a call to serve her fellow humans, the religious life is one way she can do that.

My late cousin was a nun in a religious congregation in California. She became a nun during a time when religious life was the best choice for brilliant women. Few universities were accepting female students, especially those of limited means, and if you wanted to be a physicist you were in for a long, hard road trying to convince what was still a highly patriarchal society that you had the brains to do it. You didn’t have to convince religious congregations, because they were frequently the repositories of brainiac women. Kathy eventually lived out her religious calling as a sister who was also bio-physicist and professor at one of California’s Catholic universities.

The intellectual rigor of a religious life is often overlooked or unknown. People readily forget how Catholic nuns helped shape America, and it is far to easy to imagine religious life as dull, dreary and lonely. Yet every nun I know frequently seems happier than my married and single friends. (To get an idea of religious life nowadays, visit A Nun’s Life.)

Entering the convent is a calling, just as entering the seminary is a calling. And like all life choices, following a religious vocation requires sacrifice. But as I observed in my cousin and other nuns, it rewards in a joy in service and frequently, a life of action on the front lines (see this). To the shame of the Church, sometimes religious life involves being forgotten by the Church you’ve served (see this), but as more people become aware of that, more pressure is brought to bear on the heirarchy (usually by fearless women) to take care of nuns and sisters who’ve served long and hard. The key here is that a calling to religious life is a calling that too few smart, young women consider out of ignorance of what it is. Perhaps the Oprah segment will change that.

As for other interesting stuff today – see here for a discussion of overdiagnosed, overmedicated kids in special education.

Interesting talk this week for the thinkers among us: University of Arizona philosophy professor Shaun Nichols will be speaking Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the St. Thomas More Catholic Newman Center on the topic of free will. His talk is titled Our belief in free will: Why we have it and what if we lose it? and is part of the St. Albert the Great Forum on Science and Theology.

These talks draw a wide variety of people, many of them brainiacs, but I’ve been assured by a friend that Prof. Nichols’ talk will be accessible to non-eggheads as well. They are fun, even if most of the theory goes over one’s head, if only to show folks how little they really know about the intersection of philosophy, ancient thought, science and theology. A good time is usually had by all at these free talk/discussions, which are held downstairs in the Center, located on the northwest corner of 2nd Street and Cherry on the UA campus.

And then, next month, we have the 7th Annual Muslim-Jewish Peacewalk. This gathering is open to people of all faiths and traditions who share a “vision of coexistence and mutual understanding,” according to this year’s flyer of the event. The 2-mile walk starts at 2:30 p.m. at the Al Huda Islamic School on River Road, and ends about 4:30 p.m. at Congregation Ner Tamid on Allen Road. There’s a mid-walk rest break at St. Philips in the Hills on the corner of River and Campbell so the Episcopalians can show off their great hospitality to all walkers.

While the walk doesn’t start until 2:30, people are encouraged to arrive at 1:30 for some welcoming events and snacks to fuel their peaceful endeavor. So, if you’ve never seen Jews and Muslims side by side, join in on the walk. You’ll spend a peaceful Sunday afternoon having your mind opened a little bit. For more specifics on the walk, go to www.peacewalktucson.org.

More on the superbowl ad featuring the Tebow family over here at the WPost, written by pro-abortion-rights writer Sally Jenkins. She’s on fire this morning! I’ve got too much classwork to comment on this all, but wanted to bring it to readers’ attention. Have a great Thursday!