About You:
Living Faith: Describe your vocation in life.
Sr. Melannie Svoboda: Well, I’ve been a Sister of Notre Dame for 59 years. I’ve served as a high school and college teacher, a novice director, a retreat facilitator, a writer and have worked in congregational leadership. But wasn’t it St. Therese, the “Little Flower,” who said, “My vocation is to love”? I guess that’s the vocation of all Christians. We just live out our “call to love” in different ways.
LF: Do you reach out to readers online via a website or social media?
Sr. MS: My blog is Sunflower Seeds: Celebrating Everyday Spirituality. The link is: MelannieSvobodasND.org. I post a new reflection every Monday. I started my blog in February 2012.
LF: Share a little about your ministry or daily work. (A day in the life looks like…?)
Sr. MS: I am a freelance writer, speaker and retreat director. These activities keep me happy and pretty busy, but I also make time for prayer, family and friends, music and art, relaxation, lifelong learning, volunteering and regular encounters with God’s amazing Creation.
LF: How long have you been writing, or when did you start?
Sr. MS: I like to say I wrote my first novel in third grade—in a big red tablet with yellow pages. I think the novel was three pages long. It was about a little girl who wanted a pony. She found one in the woods one day, brought it home and asked her dad if she could keep it. And he said yes! She named the pony Sugar, which was the title of the novel. In real life, I wanted a pony, but when I asked my dad if I could have one, he said no! I think I began writing to fashion a world more to my liking.
LF: What is the most difficult part of your writing process?
Sr. MS: It all depends. Sometimes, it’s just getting started. Or staring at a blank sheet of paper or blank computer screen. Sometimes, it’s a false humility that says, “Who am I to share my ideas and experiences with others? Who do I think I am, anyway?” Sometimes, the difficulty is not having anything to write about. Or (more often for me) it’s having so many things to write about I don’t know which to choose. Sometimes, writing is just hard, hard work. It’s doing the research, searching for the exact word and not settling for its “first cousin,” checking all the facts and rewriting a lot! As one journalist told me, their motto was “We work hard so our readers don’t have to.” Sometimes, writing is physically demanding: with backaches, eye strain, cramped fingers. Sometimes, I have to give up things I’d like to do because my writing time is so precious. I need to decline some social invitations, or I stay home because I have a deadline looming, or I don’t volunteer to do that good and beautiful thing because I’m in the middle of writing a book. There’s not much money in writing either—unless you make it big and write a New York Times bestseller.
LF: How many books have you written, and which is your favorite? If you haven’t written a book, name a favorite that you’ve enjoyed.
Sr. MS: I’ve written about 15. I don’t have a favorite. As I say, can a mother have a favorite child? But I will say Teaching Is Like Peeling Back Eggshells is special to me because it was my first book. And my poetry book, Picking Strawberries, is special because it is my most recent book.
LF: Where do you live today, and is that different from where you grew up?
Sr. MS: I live in Chardon, Ohio, near Cleveland. Chardon is about 25 miles from Willoughby Hills, Ohio, where I grew up. But in between, I have lived in Raleigh, North Carolina; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Middleburg, Virginia and Detroit, Michigan—wherever my ministry took me.
LF: Three words your best friend would use to describe you.
Sr. MS: I asked three best friends. Here are their words: hopeful, creative, caring.
LF: One additional thing you would want a Living Faith reader to know about you that we haven’t covered above. (A hobby, something silly or fun, an accomplishment, or an interesting fact?)
Sr. MS: I was raised on a small goose farm. We didn’t have just a few geese, we had hundreds of them. We raised them for the ethnic neighborhoods in Cleveland. Europe didn’t have turkeys, so these people who immigrated from Europe (as three of my grandparents did) wanted a goose for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We helped fill that need. My dad was a tool and die maker by profession, so the farm was his hobby. During the first years of my life, our small farm (and the geese) had a deep impact on my early formation and helped make me into the woman I am today. My love for nature and my fascination with all of God’s Creation is rooted in that farm.
About Faith:
LF: Describe a prayer practice that is meaningful to you.
Sr. MS: Hmmmmm…maybe something like this: Show up. Be there. Start where you are. Speak. Listen. Thank. Love. Ask for direction. Go. Do loving deeds.
LF: What’s something you’ve learned from the Bible or from the Mass or the Sacraments that has always stayed with you?
Sr. MS: God’s unending love for us…for me.
LF: What excites you about being a Catholic?
Sr. MS: We have so many beautiful traditions: Scripture itself, the Eucharist, the wide variety of ways to pray, all those saints—canonized or not—Pope Francis now, our social justice teachings, the universality of the church—you can go to Mass in Uganda (as I have) and feel “at home”—meaningful rituals, all those incredible religious congregations of men and women, memorized prayers, our honoring of Mary, evolving teachings and doctrines. In short: the amazing oneness and unity of the Catholic Church coupled with her beautiful and life-giving diversity. (To be honest, sometimes even reverently making the Sign of the Cross excites me!)
About the Bible:
LF: If you could spend a day with a person mentioned in the Bible (besides Jesus), whom would you choose?
Sr. MS: Mary, for sure. Then there’s Joseph, Ruth (her story fascinates me), Mary Magdalene (I’d love to know more about her friendship with Jesus), the writers of the Gospels. If they were “real” people, I’d also like to spend time with BOTH sons in the parable of the Prodigal Son.
About Living Faith:
LF: How long have you been writing for Living Faith?
Sr. MS: A long, long, long time, but I couldn’t find my earliest records. Maybe you have some of your early issues and could find out when my name begins to show up as one of your authors. I’d be interested.
LF: Do you ever get to meet your Living Faith readers? What do you talk about?
Sr. MS: Yes, when I give talks at parishes or travel across the country, I meet many LF readers. Our conversations are usually brief. Some tell me they always know I wrote a certain reflection even before they see the name at the bottom. They ask if I get to choose the days I write for. They almost always tell me how much LF means to their spiritual life—and I tell them how much it means to mine too! (I’m not only a writer for LF; I’m also a daily reader of it too!)
LF: What is one thing you love about Living Faith?
Sr. MS: The variety of writers and their different “takes” on the daily Scriptures. It’s also easy to carry anywhere. It fits into a pocket. I’m always amazed at the nourishment the daily Scriptures can provide for us. I wish more of the Bible could be used for our daily Masses. There are stories, prayers and images we almost never hear read during Mass.
*The interview was edited for clarity and conformity to style. No meaning was altered in the process.
