An American sister in Moscow - working to rebuild the Church in Russia

Arlington, Va (Catholic Herald) - "With God you can make a difference."

It was those words, written on a banner at an Arlington Diocesan WorkCamp some 20 years ago, that inspired Daughters of St. Paul Sister Roberta Hummel to first consider entering a religious order.

At the time, she was a student at St. Mary's Academy in Alexandria, which would later merge with Bishop Ireton High School. She was an ambitious student who played the flute, participated in the National Honor Society and had her sights set on medical school.

Little did she know, but those words would change her life.

"As a teen you internalize a message like that and you don't even realize it," Sister Roberta said.

She began to focus more of her attention on her spiritual life, getting more involved with the youth group at St. Louis Parish in Alexandria and attending daily Mass during her senior year. In her free time, she began to visit the Poor Clares at their monastery in Alexandria.

These activities helped her realize that, despite her plans, God had something different in mind.

"He wanted me to be a different kind of doctor, a spiritual doctor," she said.

When she heard about the Daughters of St. Paul, a religious order that uses books and media to spread the Faith, Sister Roberta was fascinated.

"I liked the idea of helping to bring comfort to people through books and media," she said. "I thought, this is kinda cool that with God you can make a difference and here's a group of nuns doing that in a way that's unique."

The idea that she could have a vocation that would allow her to be a "contemplative in action" excited Sister Roberta. She entered the Daughters of St. Paul in 1988, soon after her high school graduation.

After a nine-year period of formation, Sister Roberta took her final vows in 1998 and started a series of assignments around the country. First, she was stationed in Miami and would spend her summers in Chicago. Then she worked with young adults in Philadelphia, where she coordinated events similar to the Arlington Diocese's Catholic Underground programs.

Ministry came naturally to Sister Roberta and it wasn't long before her passion for her work led to a surprising new assignment -- working to spread the Faith in the Archdiocese of Moscow, a place where Catholics make up less than one percent of the population.

In her new position, which she has held for nine months, Sister Roberta works with three other sisters at the Pauline Book Center, in the heart of Moscow. She specializes in the Internet and spends her days brainstorming on ways to better reach out to Russian Catholics online.

It's a unique assignment, and one she never could have predicted.

"I never would have imagined I'd be living 20 minutes from The Kremlin and Red Square," she said.

As part of living in Russia, Sister Roberta has found herself in the middle of a grassroots movement -- one that aims to rebuild the Church in a country where religion, including Catholicism, was persecuted for 70 years under the Soviet Union.

This movement is working for the reunification of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, separated since the Great Schism of 1054.

Sister Roberta hopes the book center will foster a sense of unity between the two religions.

"We want to continue to make it a pastoral and cultural center, a neutral zone where Catholics and Orthodox can come and find resources and talk about when the Church was still one and all the things we have in common," she said. "There's a lot to do helping people understand their faith and breaking down the walls. Really, they're just like us, but estranged from our faith centuries ago."

As she helps others learn about the Faith, Sister Roberta is enjoying learning about her new home -- the sights, the culture and the language, which she spent the summer studying in a total immersion program in Vermont.

"It's only been 15 years that Catholics have been able to practice, but I see things like the church right down the street from the KGB building that never closed," she said. "Witnessing, seeing and learning about a culture where people had to risk their lives to practice the Faith because of the circumstances has been amazing. Growing up (in the United States), it may not always have been the cool thing to be Catholic, but I always had the freedom to do it."

And though the Catholic population in Moscow is tiny -- six parishes housed in two churches -- Sister Roberta sees signs of growth.

"This year, there was an Easter Vigil that was jam-packed with 30 people baptized," she said.

This spring Sister Roberta attended the first pastoral conference for the Archdiocese of Moscow. There, she was inspired after seeing many young priests and religious.

"It's exciting to be in Russia at this time," she said. "The Holy Spirit seems to be awakening the desire in the Church to do the little steps in making us one again."

More than anything, her new assignment has shown her that the sky's the limit when you put your trust in God.

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"God just worked out everything," she said. "The providence of God has been incredible. He's taken care of a lot of details for me."

With that in mind, she advises those still discerning their vocations to become as involved with the Church as possible and open their hearts to God.

"Young people, don't be afraid to be a part of the Church," she said. "He can't be outdone in generosity."

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Republished by Catholic Online with permission of the Arlington Catholic Herald , the official publication of the Diocese of Arlington, Va. (www.catholicherald.com).