Coming home: Benedictine Sister Rebecca Ann Mathauer returns to St. Barnabas

From the thrill of roller coasters to her joy about following a religious vocation, Benedictine Sister Rebecca Ann Mathauer talked to students at St. Barnabas Parish in Indianapolis, where her love for God was nurtured. (Photo by John Shaughnessy)

By John Shaughnessy

It’s a homecoming she will never forget, a homecoming to the place where she first began to realize just how much God means to her life.

Six months after taking her final vows in October 2007, Benedictine Sister Rebecca Ann Mathauer returned in early April to her home parish—St. Barnabas Parish in Indianapolis—to talk about her choice with students at the parish school and in the parish’s religious education program.

“I’ve been going to schools and parishes in Indiana and Kentucky for nine years, but this is the first time I’ve been back to St. Barnabas,” Sister Rebecca Ann said after speaking to a junior high religion class at the school. “It’s good to be here, to see familiar faces and reconnect with people.”

As she talked to the students, the 32-year-old sister told them that she grew up in a home less than a block away from the parish.

“I’m staying with my Mom and Dad this week,” said the youngest of four children of Bill and Barb Mathauer. “My family has been in the parish for 32 years. I remember religious ed classes every Monday night from 6:30 to 8:30. That’s where the seed was planted and my relationship with God was nurtured.”

Now, she tries to develop that love for God in her own students as a religion teacher at St. Andrew Academy in Louisville, Ky. She returned to St. Barnabas during her school’s spring break.

At St. Barnabas, she talked about her love of roller coasters and Harry Potter—a way of showing the students she was like them.

“They get to see I’m a real person. I’m human,” said Sister Rebecca Ann, who lives at Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand, Ind. “I like to have fun like they do. We’re real people. We’re out in the world.”

She also talked about her decision to embrace a religious vocation—to show the students they could be just like her.

“It was just an incredible experience,” she said about making her final vows. “It’s really beyond words. To know I’ve given myself totally and completely to God is a great gift.”

St. Barnabas students asked questions about her life and smiled when she told them how awful she was when she once played an interactive video game called Guitar Hero.

“The students are responding well to her,” said Laura Williams, the junior high religion teacher at St. Barnabas. “They are finding out she may be a sister, but she’s no different in her likes. For instance, she’s a Harry Potter fan and she loves roller coasters. That shocks them. She’s absolutely wonderful.”

Sister Rebecca Ann had the same feeling about returning to St. Barnabas.

“It’s great to be back home,” she said. “This will always be home.” †