What's the Tea with Ministry?
Welcome to What’s the Tea with Ministry!
Where we spill the tea on the Jesuit and Mercy mission at the University of Detroit Mercy! Bringing you mission-centered conversation through storytelling, reflection, and community connection all over a cup of tea.
What's the Tea with Ministry?
Radical Hospitality and Personal Well-Being
How does one balance the demands of ministry with the necessity of self-care? Join us for a heartfelt conversation with Sister Kelly Williams, RSM, a cherished Sister of Mercy of the Americas, as she shares her profound journey through the Mercy tradition. From her early years in Savannah, Georgia, to her impactful work in healthcare in Biloxi, Mississippi, Sister Kelly brings to life the legacy of Catherine McAuley and the significance of radical hospitality. We even indulge in a charming exchange about our favorite tea beverages, inspired by the comforting rituals of Catherine Macaulay.
Throughout the episode, we explore the challenging yet rewarding practice of radical hospitality. Drawing from biblical narratives and the life of Dorothy Day, Sister Kelly and us discuss the delicate balance between caring for others and ourselves. The importance of self-hospitality is emphasized, acknowledging that we must secure our own well-being to effectively serve those around us. This conversation is rich with reflections on how small acts of kindness, even during trying times, can make a significant impact on diverse communities, whether in healthcare settings or on college campuses. Tune in for an episode filled with warmth, wisdom, and a deeper understanding of living a mission inspired by God's grace.
Welcome to what's the Tea with Ministry where we spill the tea.
Speaker 2:On the Jesuit and Mercy mission at the University of Detroit Mercy bringing you mission-centered conversation through storytelling, reflection and community connection.
Speaker 1:All over a cup of tea.
Speaker 2:Hosted by University Ministry and a student co-host that's us.
Speaker 1:I'm Anna Bryson, University Minister and.
Speaker 2:I'm Kateri Sollers, your student co-host. Today we're going to be talking with Sister Kelly.
Speaker 1:Williams. Sister Kelly Williams RSM is a Sister of Mercy of the Americas currently serving in Biloxi, Mississippi, in health care. She professed perpetual vows with the Sisters of Mercy in November of 2023 and received her master's in ministry from Catholic Theological Union in May of 2023. She has had the great privilege of following in the tradition of Mercy, serving in education, healthcare and social outreach over her almost 10 years in community. She grew up in Savannah, Georgia, where she met the Mercys living down the street from a convent. She is the youngest of six and is an Aunt, Kelly, to 15 awesome folks.
Speaker 2:So let's talk with.
Speaker 1:Sister Kelly. Hi Sister Kelly, Thank you so much for being here today.
Speaker 3:Hi, thank you so much for having me. I was super thrilled when I got your pretty awesome Instagram message Just the best way to receive any formal invitation ever.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, the best way to do this is let's start on Instagram and we'll go from there. Yeah, I love it. Sent Sister Kelly a lovely DM. That's my new method of communication. I'm trying to be young and hip, so we're so excited to have you here today.
Speaker 1:Something we always do on the what's the Tea with Ministry podcast is usually we're in person recording in the Briggs studio, but today we're over Zoom because obviously, as you heard, sister Kelly lives in Mississippi right now and so we always share our time, usually over a cup of tea. Today, obviously, we're on Zoom, so I didn't prepare tea for everybody on the call Wouldn't be possible. But right before we started recording, sister Kelly showed me that she already had tea ready. So she is more than prepared than I am, because I have several emotional support beverages around me, but none of them are tea. But I just wanted to share why we do the tea segment. So it's inspired by the Mercy tradition and it's around the story of Catherine Macaulay on her deathbed telling one of the sisters, as she's passing away, to make sure that the rest of Catherine Macaulay on her deathbed telling one of the sisters, as she's passing away, to make sure that the rest of the sisters sit down and have a comfortable cup of tea, and so we really take that to heart.
Speaker 1:It's part of why our podcast is called what's the Tea with Ministry. It also inspired the conversational piece, the conversation circles that are so common in the Mercy Network and the Mercy world, and so that's what we typically sit down and do, and so, instead of going around the table like we would in the Briggs recording studio, we're just going to share what our favorite tea is or, if we're not tea drinkers, what our favorite beverage is. So I'll go first and just say that right now I'm really obsessed with chai tea, specifically iced chai, mostly because it's really hot here in Detroit. So I've been drinking a lot of iced chai, which has been fabulous. Sister Kelly, what are you drinking today?
Speaker 3:Today I am drinking peppermint tea because I already had a ton of unsweet tea while I was at work this morning. But I go back and forth of whether I'm in a mood for coffee in the morning or whether I'm in the mood for hot tea, and I am a big tea snob and I do Irish berries tea that is so strong and I feel, carry you through the day, that's the best.
Speaker 1:Oh amazing, Katerra, are you a tea drinker? I don't think I know that.
Speaker 2:I love tea. I'm a huge fan of boba tea, but I would have to say my favorite tea would have to be hibiscus tea.
Speaker 1:That's really good. Yummy, all these yummy choices. I'm gonna have to try a few more new things. Sister Kelly, the reason we invited you here on the podcast today was to share a bit more with us about Mercy Spirituality. We're preparing to share it with our community, with all of you who are listening, right around the time where we will be having our Celebrate Spirit Mass and Day and Celebrate Spirit.
Speaker 1:This year, we've chosen the theme of radical hospitality, inspired by our Mercy tradition, and so that's why we've invited you here to share a little bit more about your experience with radical hospitality and the Sisters of Mercy in your role that you are currently working in. I'd love to hear how that goes. I have a whole slew of questions, but we'd love to start by just asking you to share a little bit about yourself. I know we shared your bio, but if you want to share just a little bit about yourself and maybe a tiny glimpse into how you ended up in discernment and formation, and now you've said your perpetual vows for the Sisters of Mercy and you are a Sister of Mercy- yeah, it's super wild.
Speaker 3:So my formation, like it takes a number of years and so like, well, the Jesuits have us beat for like how long formation is? My formation was nine years, so this year I'm celebrating 10 years in my community, which is very exciting. I think discernment is both like at a specific time and also lifelong Right, and so I think God was preparing me to be a mercy, whether I was prepared for that at different parts of my life or not. Like started discerning, I was looking at lots of communities and like I kept being drawn back to the Mercy community and then I like looked back at my life and I was like, oh, it was just like a series of walking with the Mercies.
Speaker 3:Throughout my life I literally grew up down the street from Mercies and it's always my favorite thing because it's the silliest thing in the world, and I think, like Catherine McCauley had a penchant for some good silliness and I definitely follow in her footsteps on that end. But when I was a kid we would go like trick or treating to, like you know, in our neighborhood Well, that includes the convent, and it was always the best, because we'd ring their doorbell and they were like, oh, hang on you go to Cabrini, like this candy has been set aside for you, and like I don't know if it was better candy or not, but I did trust that it was and I was like this is the best part about being Catholic, is like a guarantee that you will get better candy for nuns. So I had those sisters who I like, grew up with, and in fact, one of those sisters she's, I think, 92, her birthday's on mercy day, which is incredible, and she has been praying for me. And she told me she's like I've been praying for you since you were 10 to be a sister of mercy, and she witnessed my final vows in November, which was the coolest experience in the entire world.
Speaker 3:And I was thinking when you were calling about like radical hospitality and for me radical hospitality is every little individual moment of care Right, and so like, even when she was like signing my vows, like her hands are not steady, and so, like the nurse's aide who came with her was like Kelly, all you have to do is just put your hand over the top of hers and she'll go and sign, but like they're just not quite steady. And so I got to like hold this woman's hand who has been holding me in prayer my whole life, as she was the witness for, like my lifetime of being a Mercy, so it was just super cool.
Speaker 1:Sorry, no, that's so beautiful that gets me like teary eyed. I love things like that and one of the things that I've always been attracted to with the Sisters of Mercy and with lots of congregations of women in particular, is just like the immense amount of love that I witness in community with women in particular. Not that the Jesuits and other orders of priests I've been around don't also have that, but it's definitely, I think, different, maybe because I am a woman, but it feels different in those spaces, but that's just really beautiful. Thank you for sharing. Can you share? You went into it a little bit. Can you share about what radical hospitality does mean to you? You said a lot of. It's like the little moments.
Speaker 3:Yeah, in this season of disconnection that we like are finding ourselves in right Like, and I think that's across the board. There's so much disconnection that we like are finding ourselves in right like, and I think that's across the board. There's so much disconnection. But I think any moment of like creating connection or like letting someone else feel loved and appreciated and supported, like that is radical, like it is taking of the effort that you've got and however limited spoons you have, and saying like I give this to you because I see and love God in you, and like all of that.
Speaker 3:I was talking with two of my housemates who, like I got a text as I was at work and they were like we picked up a sandwich for you for lunch today and I was like that's so nice, like I don't even have to think about it, like I just get to go home and there's going to be a sandwich. That's like, isn't it? And I was like it's so, you know. And when I first entered the community, I worked as a secretary at a level one trauma center in St Louis and my hours were not great, because the newest one in the door gets the worst hours, and so I was working till like 11 o'clock at night and I wouldn't see some of my housemates right, like we would miss each other for like two days.
Speaker 3:But every day that I came home, at 11 o'clock at night, like the lights were on, like in the front, you know, just to welcome me home, and I was like that's so sweet, you know, but I didn't see how beautiful it was until the power had been knocked out in our neighborhood. So I came home and it's like pitch black everywhere and I pulled up to the house and there's a light on in the door, because they put a flashlight on so that it would welcome me home, and I was like like that is the most beautiful way of saying like we love you and you're welcome home. You know, like it's how we show hospitality to those who are closest to us, which can sometimes definitely be the hardest, and so then, but when you get to encounter someone else's radical hospitality, I think it just invites you to do the same, and once you do, like it's that invitation just changes everybody around you, right, like as soon as we are all more hospitable.
Speaker 1:Everyone is in a different space. Okay, do you want to ask the next question?
Speaker 2:Where have you received the greatest hospitality of the heart? And I do have another question. So what does radical hospitality exactly mean?
Speaker 3:I don't know that necessarily everyone's going to operate out of it, but I think, for me, radical hospitality is recognizing Christ in the other. Like for the mercies that was like Catherine's adventure too is like you just see Christ in every person that you're encountering and I do think it's recognizing, like the divine, as somebody else, and responding to that and meeting them as though you would be Christ to them and meeting them as though they are the divine. You know, like Christ demonstrated hospitality so beautifully in literally showing us like it's washing feet, like it doesn't have to be the like, yeah, it's the miracle stuff. If you're good at miracles, for sure, but like, if you're not good at miracles, guess what? What? If you go and wash somebody's feet who are tired, who are confused, who are frustrated, like I think about, like the apostles, like that whole experience is like such a beautiful one of like it's not washing the feet of somebody who knows what's going on, it's somebody who's just like trying to figure out what's happening. They're stressed out and they're worried and you're going to I want you to rest and I'm gonna give you luxurious rest right now.
Speaker 3:Like it's why we look at like the woman who breaks the alabaster jar full of oil and anoints christ like hers is radical hospitality that was to be named in the scriptures, right, and it was to be named in the scriptures because it wasn't just like I'm gonna, you know, give you like a nice little pat on the back and we're grateful that you're here, but like I'm going to give you that which I have, this is all that I've got going and it's yours, and that demonstration of love. And I think I'm constantly amazed at, like the love that is shown to me from folks and I try to be as mutual as I can and also like the hard parts of hospitality are, like when the person doesn't want to receive it and yet it's still your call to give it. You know, because it's really easy to be hospitalized as somebody who's going to turn around and be right, lovely back, but like when you see the folks that we think of like man, that person just welcomes people, like you see them welcoming people that they know will never welcome them back. And I think it's so powerful and so important today that like we create more of that and people feel it.
Speaker 3:I've worked in a cardiology office and we just had somebody who retired and she was an incredible cardiologist and she went above and beyond and everyone kind of expects everyone else to be able to do that. And it's like, well, that first of all, she was a unique individual who's incredible and wonderful, and she laid down her life for folks to be able to do. That, you know. And so, like, how do we become those spaces for people? And it means being just as welcoming and hospitable to the person who's grumpy as it does to the person who says thank you, thank you Before we go back to the question about what's the greatest hospitality of heart that you've received.
Speaker 1:What you were just talking about in your definition of radical hospitality, it always makes me think it's from the movie of Dorothy Day's life, but it's also in her book about her life, where you know she's in the chapel and she's having this moment of like I can't do this anymore, like how do I continue to be hospitable, how do I continue to bring Christ's love to people who don't want it, who are angry and upset and dirty and sad and all these other things?
Speaker 1:And that scene, the way it's depicted in the film, I think is really powerful, and so that's what I always go to when I think about that particular moment that she reflects on in her life.
Speaker 1:But that's always what I think of when I think of when hospitality is hard or when I'm feeling in the moment that, like a lot of my work in ministry is providing hospitality, and there are days where I am just tired and I'm not having the best day myself and some, for whatever reason, I don't want to be as hospitable as I normally am.
Speaker 1:I'm not maybe in my cheery state, and I always have to remind myself of that moment for Dorothy Day and think to myself that's what God's asking me to be pulled out of. It's like I am in a rut, I am having a not so great day, but this person who's come into our office, who might also be having a bad day, and I just don't know it they need my love and compassion and my welcome having a bad day and I just don't know it. They need my love and compassion and my welcome. So that's what I always think of in that your answer was making me think a lot about that particular scene and that reminder of like hospitality isn't always easy and sometimes you have to push past yourself or push past the reality that, like it might not be well received, but that's not why we're called to do it.
Speaker 3:And I think the other flip side of that is that hospitality is hard and you also have to have radical hospitality with yourself.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, that's the hardest one to give hospitality to, because it's so hard to say like, listen, it is a hard day, you do have a lot going on and you also have to be gentle with you. And like I used to teach high school and middle school religion and I had one student who just was the sweetest kid in the entire world and she had the hugest heart and she was like you know, my friends are doing all this and they're struggling and all of this stuff is happening and I don't know how to fix this. And I was like I hate to say this, but like you have to be the person on the airplane and you got to like take care of your own mask first, because you curse, because you can't help the person who's sitting next to you unless you get your own air, you know. And like it's a requirement too for hospitality that we also have to like Christ has that hospitality for us, we also have to have it for us too.
Speaker 1:So let's go back to that question. Can you share a story with us about a time where you received great hospitality of the heart, which I think can be a little bit different than just the general welcome that sometimes people experience? But whatever comes to mind when you hear the phrase hospitality of the heart, I think I was really blessed.
Speaker 3:I lived in community with several other sisters who are different communities than my own while I was at CTU in Chicago and we were all from different communities but we were all students and, like, the most beautiful experience that I think that we had was like because everybody knew people had projects and stuff coming up.
Speaker 3:Like we really created a space for like if you were in a space of stress, like everybody else took care of your needs, and so we did our best to do that.
Speaker 3:And not just taking care of your needs but taking care of like the little wants to. Like I would be sitting and stressing and writing or whatever. And like someone would bring my favorite tea and a cookie or whatever and be like you need this to keep going and it wasn't something I had to ask for, but like someone who just knew me well enough to be like this is the treat that you need in your life. Or like we want to have this space together and I think every moment of hospitality that's been truly radical is someone seeing me and I'll fully admit I am not one who is good to like ask for the things that I will want. Like I'm perfectly content to keep on rolling and like make things easy for everyone. And so when those who have shown me the most hospitality like stop me in my tracks and they're like, nope, it's time you have to take care of you, and I, hospitality, like stopped me in my tracks and they're like, nope, it's time you have to take care of you.
Speaker 2:And I think those are my moments of like huge hospitality. It's to be seen and to be known, and being seen and being known is to be loved. How has, catherine and Mercy, spirituality impacted or influenced your life?
Speaker 3:it's every piece of me. Like Catherine, I don't read her writings as much as I have, like when I first started and I entered in community, because a lot of those stories are like embedded in my heart, which sucks. Because I want to like have like all the good quotes but I'm like, oh man, I'm like a half short on that one. I gotta go like dig through it. I can find half of them, but like I always have to look for them. But I think for Catherine, like it's her spirituality, but it's her humanity, okay, like I love desperately. Like her letters are hysterically funny. Like she will have these beautiful letters of like how's everyone doing, and I know that they're sick and we're praying for you and you're praying for us, and then she'll have like PS, tell so-and-so that she needs to write me back or I'm going to be mad at her. Like it's the humanity piece of Catherine Macaulay that I love and like it's with all the saints, like we tend to like try to make them look the most holy and the most perfect and the most who've never stumbled. And yet, like it's always the stumbles that we get to relate to right and it's that that, how you turn your stumbles into the holy. That's, that's the part of sainthood.
Speaker 3:But with Catherine, like I just love seeing her humanity, like ooze into everything, and I think her spirituality was so beautiful because it was so simple and it met people where they were, and like that's the spirituality that I want and her words and her prayers, like they are embedded, like my discernment that led to, like me entering my community was 100%. I went to a Mercy High School so I knew the Sushipay. It was branded into us through like four years of high school. But let me tell you, if you sit with that prayer, it is so powerful, it is so beautiful to take from my heart all painful anxiety and let nothing sadden me but sin. And sometimes, like I just pull that phrase and I'm like that's the mantra for today Because there are things that will press on your heart and yet, like those are the things you give to God too and know that like, even if you give it to God, god's going to hold you through it. It isn't like all this stuff is going to get wiped away, but like you'll be carried with us.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that.
Speaker 1:I was definitely educated, more so in the Jesuit world, and so since coming to the University of Detroit Mercy, I've had an abundance of opportunity to learn about Catherine McCauley and the Sisters of Mercy.
Speaker 1:But my favorite is when I do get to sit down with sisters and have them talk about it.
Speaker 1:One because you've gone through a beautiful formation and so you've spent time studying very closely her life and the lives of other Sisters of Mercy, and it's always fun to hear about the things that sisters love most, and so just hearing you talk a bit more about her humor it's one of those things that like slowly over the. This is my fourth year at the university and I feel like I've gotten to learn so much more about her, just obviously in my time being here, but even just through doing this podcast over the last year and a half and interviewing different people or talking to different people about what types of topics we should have, particularly those that touch into mercy spirituality. I have always really loved hearing about Catherine's humor, and so I get to paint this beautiful picture in my mind of who she was, and I also feel like I have not done enough reading about her life and I can never find the quotes, so I have to be better I gotcha.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have to be better about that and get all the good quotes, because we're always looking for quotes for things like stickers and fun stuff for our office.
Speaker 3:It's what she's DMing people and like get on it and whatever you know, and it's beautiful, like, and if you see it in that context, it's like, oh yeah, that's exactly what's going on. But my favorite one that she wrote was one of the novices was struggling because, like her superior was like just not a great time and Catherine was a great time, right, and yet, like that superior had a lot of beautiful gifts and Catherine knew it and that's why she needed her in that role, because she needed to grow too. You know, it was everything is intentional. But there's this one poem and it's very long, but the quote that I have and I had a friend paint it, so I'm like staring at it on my wall it says turn what you can into a jest and, with few words, dismiss the rest. And like that, I will tell you, is my mantra. You got to make it light and just keep on going. Because if you sit and hold to the struggle and I think Catherine too, like I just have to share this story because it's the most ridiculous story of all time, but I think it's Catherine's hospitality to me.
Speaker 3:One of the things that we do either just before you profess final vows or just after is you get to go to Ireland and you get to be in the house of mercy and you get to like sit in the places where Catherine was and look at the moon where she sat and prayed with it on her prayer book. It is so cool and it's such a profound experience and everyone has these like really deep, powerful spiritual things and like I am Catherine's humor girl and I stay with her in that. And we had this moment where you got to like sit and physically hold like her bowel rings and it got passed around and we're all sitting in a circle and this is really profound moment and everyone's having like their own space with it. And stranger things had come out that year and that was the year that the Kate Bush song running up that hill was real big because of strangeranger Things. So this play gets handed to me and I'm like okay, kelly, you have to be serious and you have to be like spiritual, like this is a spiritual moment and you have to get into this.
Speaker 3:And I hold that ring in my hands and all of a sudden a kid outside, this little angelic voice, starts belting out be running up that hill. And it is everything within me not to like die laughing. I was like this is exactly the moment that I get to have a Catherine because Catherine goes. No, we are about to have a good time, you and me, for the rest of our life. You know like that's it. And I like handed that ring away to the next person. Kid walks away, is no longer singing, and afterwards somebody was like what was that angelic child singing? And I was the only one who would watch Stranger Things, but I was like a song from the 80s.
Speaker 1:It's a great song from the 80s. It's having a real role, Just a popular hit right now. Yeah, I love it. This kind of transitions nicely into the next question we have, which is what lesson from Catherine's life has helped to transform your life and I know that's probably hard because I'm sure there's many.
Speaker 3:There are. There's one, and again it's a quote that I'm going to get wrong. So if you ever want to fact check it afterwards, I can, like, send you the real quote and we'll dub it in just nice and cleanly Right, perfect. But it's one of like she was going to help somebody and it was somebody that, like people didn't trust, right, like she was offering hospitality for somebody who they were like they're going to turn around, they're going to do the same problems they're going to, you know, the same complaints we have today when we help people, right, like, oh, I don't trust this person. And it's something along the lines of like I would rather help 99 liars than miss the one who was telling the truth.
Speaker 3:You know, and I think about that a lot because I work with people who are like I don't trust people. You know, like people aren't always going to be right and like it's just the way of it. You know, like it's how we were wired right, and when we've been burned, we have a tendency to trust less. And so that idea of like it doesn't matter, you are there to offer the hospitality, you are not there to offer the judgment. That's them, and God you know, and I think about that often, about, like, how do I enter into spaces where it doesn't matter what this person is going to do with it, because it's not mine anymore, it's theirs now.
Speaker 2:I like that. That was a good way to put it.
Speaker 1:One of the reasons we are talking about this topic, as I said, is because it's our theme for Celebrate Spirit this year and it's also kind of the theme that university ministry tries to take on for the year.
Speaker 1:So having a particular attention to X theme I think last year it was stewardship for creation so we were very focused on the critical concern of earth and, in the Jesuit world, the universal apostolic preference for care for creation is what they call it and so this year that we've chosen radical hospitality, and so that's going to be the theme that we kind of carry with us throughout some of our major programs for the year. And one of the things I want to ask is I know your context right now is working in healthcare and you're in Mississippi, so you are not on a college campus necessarily, but you've been to a college campus you were at CTU most recently and so can you share what piece of advice, I guess I'd say, for young people in particular, for those in our community, current students at Detroit Mercy what advice could you give them to think about this year in order to incorporate more radical hospitality into their everyday life?
Speaker 3:You know, I think, and I talked with one of my former housemates about this. She's in a different community and she was like Kelly, you're allowed to share this. I was like, okay, you know, that's fine. When we moved in together, I got to our house first, so I was the first person to physically move into the house and she has like health issues and she had like a real specific diet that like had to go along with it and the amount of folks who have like allergies or special needs or like whatever it is like it is exhausting having to prep for all that. Like that is part of life. That is really hard. Like if you've got a chronic illness that's going on. Like there's so much planning that you're doing in your head all the time. So I was like, listen, like I'm going to get groceries. A, I would like to eat. B, you will like to eat when you get here. Like what is it that you need? I don't know your stuff yet, so like tell me what I can do. And she said to me after you don't know what it meant and like I forgot that we had had this conversation but like this was two years ago and I was hired there, like three days ago, and I was like tell me about radical hospitality. And she was like you're radical hospitality. Kelly is like thanks. But she just you made me like I didn't have to worry, like I knew when I walked in the door that like that is taken care of.
Speaker 3:And I think sometimes, like when we say radical hospitality, we think like I have to change the world. But you know, mother theresa had it like right and katherine mccauley had it in her time too. It's not the per. Yes, we do need to help the folks across the world, but if you don't help the person that's in front of your nose, how are you going to help them? And the other thing is it starts here so that we go here right, like so that it moves forward. So it isn't like you're always going to be a small center, because you know the world needs people who think small and local and we need people who think big and global.
Speaker 3:And I think college is the best opportunity to figure out how you think and how you are called to respond, because it's a time to work it out Like am I going to be somebody who is, like I am, a hands-on person? College is such a great time to figure out, like how you work, like it's the time for you to figure out about you with less consequences than you'll have later on, because really it's real hard to work with some folks later on in life when you're like I really wish you had figured out a little bit more about you earlier on. I mean, we're always learning and we're always on a journey and we get that. But also this is a time to do it when everyone else around you is also kind of trying to figure out like who am I and how do I and what do I like and how do I work. You know, like how do I work.
Speaker 3:Well, some people are really organized and structured and some people are not. And some people are good at helping other people be organized and structured and some people are really good at helping other people take a break. And when I was in school most recently like that was the thing is they were like Kelly, you're really good at like creating an environment that's comfortable. Because I was constantly like there's a holiday coming up, I'm going to decorate, anyone who wants to join in, we are decorating and like we were international community too.
Speaker 3:So we had people who were like I really want all the American holidays and I was like I am your girl for American holidays, like, let's go, I can celebrate on a whim, like it doesn't matter, like figure out how you are. And I also lived with somebody who was so good about like getting everything organized and having lists and I was like, oh, thank God that that's you, because it is not me and if I know what my strengths are, I can play to them and I can use my strengths to support you. And that, I think, is the time like you're figuring all that out and it's that thing that we talked about earlier. Like you still have to be gentle with you because you figure it out in college.
Speaker 3:Good night. You got to be gentle with the person next to you because they are also struggling and they are also having a hard time and they're also figuring out who in the world they are and what does it mean to be a person right now. That's a lot and it's huge to carry, but it's important. The gentleness. I think you can have hospitality in tying someone's shoes and you can have hospitality and taking someone to the airport, you can have hospitality in just holding silence with someone. But it's that like gentleness of spirit Like I think that's so necessary.
Speaker 2:I think that's really solid advice to keep in mind for college students and for anyone.
Speaker 1:Yes, Kelly, are you familiar with the Enneagram?
Speaker 3:Heck yeah, I am, I'm in religious formation in this year and let me tell you right now, we are all about the Enneagram. Like every young sister, like we've all had to do it and it's been so fun to like see my friends like go through it. You're welcome to guess mine, but I will happily share it too. I also have a fun fact that I learned about Enneagram, and whether or not it's fully true I don't know, but I've held it and I've trusted it, so like it is what it is. Yeah, the fun fact is this is my fun fact. And then you have time to like ponder what I can be For women. If you struggle trying to decide what number you are, and one of the numbers is two, you're the other number, but women tend to be conditioned to be helpers and so you might feel like a two, but really you're the other number Fascinating as someone who's definitely a two.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there is definitely true twos, but like, if ever there's somebody who's like I don't know, I really feel like I could go either way. You're the other number, but you're conditioned to be a two fair, fair.
Speaker 1:I was thinking about the enneagram. The reason I brought it up was because the thought of being gentle with myself as a two, yeah, and, but also derives like my. Sometimes I like derive my value by how well I can help people. I often have to remind myself to be kind to myself. Otherwise I'm not very kind to others because I'm stressed. Katira, are you familiar with the Enneagram? No, yeah, I have no idea. We'll have to do the enneagram test in the office sometime it's fun.
Speaker 3:it's fun there's like nine different personality types and it's how you interact with the world. Okay, and it's really fascinating because, like, once you encounter it, it's helping you figure out who you are. There's also like the myers-briggs and I have that one too, but that one I had such less feelings about it, but I lived with people who were like all about Myers-Briggs, so like I know my letters, but it doesn't mean that I gave it any weight. Yeah, I'll have to do that, what's it?
Speaker 1:called Enneagram E-N-N. I have a book in my office about it. It you can guess one through nine. It's just a fun guess. I don't know you have such great energy. I'm not like so familiar with all of them that I'm going to be able to like. I feel like I'd be better actually probably guessing Myers-Briggs for people, but you're welcome to guess that as well. I have a feeling. Are you a four?
Speaker 3:no, and, in fairness to you, get it Like fours, like have a lot of um, maybe like some drama and stuff, and it's really it's very fun. I'm a seven.
Speaker 1:Okay, that was going to be my other guess. Oh yeah, my original thought I was like she's a four or seven and I was like they touch each other on the triangle.
Speaker 3:So you have one that's like your, your good foot forward, and have one is like when you're struggling you kind of lean back on this other one and while it can be positive for someone else that's their good foot, it is not yours and so mine. I think the seven goes back to a one. Yeah, fascinating. So when I'm a little too perfectionist I know it's not me doing a great thing right now.
Speaker 1:Incredible Well, that's what it's making me think of, as like, oh my gosh. Thing right now. Incredible, well, that's what it's making me think of, as like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:this reminder constantly to be having good self-care is like subtly someone telling me as a two that I just need to be like mindful, but it is.
Speaker 3:It's so hard to like have self-care, like because we can feel guilty about it, but like really like if you don't get that rest, you're a different human. Yeah, and you can't be as good for everybody else as you want to be when you're on empty. Yeah, that's true, but like this is my like sell on the life of religious life, like that's why religious women like, and religious men too, but like because we tend to live more together than like some of the men's communities like, especially the Jesuits, like they're going to be more living, more isolated if they're priests, you know, and like getting stretched out and everywhere else. But like that time in community to like reset and to pray and to meditate for us, like we talk about, like the cycle of action and contemplation and that should be in balance. So like your action should feed your contemplation and that time and space and contemplation will give you the energy to go back into activity. And if you're not balanced with action and contemplation, like you're going to be a mess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fair, oh, my goodness, Amazing. So something we do with all of our guests is we ask two questions that are related to mission. In your context, we're just going to say the mercy mission, so the spirit of mercy, mercy spirituality. You can use that as your foundation to answer this question. Often, when we're interviewing students or faculty and staff on our campus, we highlight a little bit of our overall university mission. But basically the two questions are what is your favorite part of the mission, meaning what is your favorite part of Mercy Spirituality and the mission of the mercies, and then what motivates you to live out that mission. So we'll just start with the first question of what is your favorite part of the mission, what is your favorite part of the mission, of the Mercy Spirituality, of the mercies, of your work and your ministry?
Speaker 3:So I'm going to default to community, which is my default, and you know what? Not a bad spot to default to. But I think for me, like I know of myself, I am such a better person in community and like having a space to rub up against other people and to have, like my views brought into dialogue, but not into like a desire to tear each other down, which I feel like that's the outside world is like we're not very good about dialogue, we're very good about like destroy each other's point of view, you know. And so instead I've got people who just see things in a different light and I think the privilege of living in community with people who have different ways of viewing allows me to enter into the world a little bit gentler, right, because it reminds me that not everyone is going to approach something the way that I do and to see that. But I think for me, like the mercy, spirituality it's everywhere and all at once. Like I just my spirituality is mercy, like a full stop and like I don't know another way around it, because for me it's permeates every part of my relationship with God.
Speaker 3:Like we have some sisters who share one of our retirement convents. There's another group of religious women. They're a different community and they live in like a property that, like, we have owned and so, like they often pray together and they join them in prayer, which is beautiful. There's two different communities praying and like we're the God of mercy at all times. And at one point one of the sisters was, like did you know there's another God besides the God of mercy? And like I think about that, but like it is for us like that space of like having such a beautiful heart, that, like God's mercy is so big and that is inspiring to me to like how do I make my heart like God's heart? And I 100% forgot the second part of that question well, that's why I was gonna ask again.
Speaker 1:No problem, the other part was what motivates you to live that mission?
Speaker 3:I think God gives me the grace to see it and I've been really blessed by like. I'm somebody who needs a little bit of like. Am I on the right road? And sometimes when I'm in doubt, like God has really been very kind to me to be like. No, this is the right road and I'll show it to you through this person and that person and this person. And I think God's grace to be able to see that and to be able to contemplate it like that's it's God's grace always.
Speaker 3:But it boils down to what will motivate you. God's grace will and put you in places where you're like this is the worst part of me. And someone goes how do I deal with this? And you're like oh man, that was my worst part too. And because I've had this experience now, now I get to walk with you through that, you know like and that's God's grace to like, give me that lens. You know like, I've had a space of prayer where, like, I felt like God, how do I be better? And God was like I called you right now, like. It's not about when you're going to be at your height of holiness, like I wanted you, as you are always growing, always trying and still stumbling, because it's in those stumbles that, like you, get to relate to people.
Speaker 1:That kind of ends our little formal interview and we're getting ready to move into our lightning round. And the way we do our lightning round is we have a series of eight, 10 questions I'm not exactly sure how many and basically what we do is Kateri and I will go back and forth asking you the questions and we would just want you to share the first thing that comes to mind. Don't feel like you have to explain your answers. If you want to, you can, although I would say you don't need to explain all of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, still lightning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, still lightning, still trying to move through it quickly, and then basically we'll just go back and forth asking the questions, You'll answer them and that'll be the lightning round Feeling ready.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 1:So, Terry, I'll ask the first question and then we'll just go back and forth. So here we go. First question sweet or salty?
Speaker 3:Sweet 100%.
Speaker 2:All right, what was your first job?
Speaker 3:I helped teach dance and that was like a very early on it was. I helped teach dance but like the first like job when I had, when I was like 15 or 16 or something, I worked at a copying firm and I put labels on stickers for a lot.
Speaker 1:Amazing, it was incredible. What is one food you could not live without?
Speaker 3:It's bread. That's a good one. Love it. I thought you're going to be like what's food you hate, and I was like I'm prepared with that one too.
Speaker 2:What is your favorite holiday?
Speaker 3:Because I'm from Savannah, at St Patrick's Day, fine.
Speaker 1:What is your current favorite song? Oh no, this is usually whenever I interview students and ask that question, it's like they immediately pull out their phone. They're like I can't remember. It goes to Spotify, that's a brilliant thing, man.
Speaker 3:You know what? Here's one I keep going back to over the years. It still stays with me. It's Sweater Weather by the Neighborhood. Oh great, that's a good one.
Speaker 2:I love that song so much, great song. Who is your hero?
Speaker 3:my hero, um, oh no, what's her last name, god forgive me? Mary robert. It's mary robert. Um, she was one of the. She was one of the first sisters that I like knew and then she like passed away when I was in community, um, and she laid the foundations for me to like work in the ER that I worked in when I was in St Louis, and I only knew her for a brief period, but I got to like walk with everyone who had known her through their grief of her, and so I got to know her through them, and I think that's just a beautiful witness of what hospitality looks like, is like seeing someone through the lens of someone else's grief.
Speaker 1:Amazing. What is the favorite place you've traveled to?
Speaker 3:Prince Edward Island, canada.
Speaker 2:Island.
Speaker 3:Canada, anna Green Gables. Summer, fall, spring or winter. If I didn't live in Mississippi, it would be fall. I love fall, but fall in Mississippi is just as hot as it is in the summer. So, like winter here, fall everywhere else. If you have a pretty fall, I want your fall, if not, I will take winter. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm always hot. Yeah, my parents live in like South Carolina now. I grew up in Chicago but they live in South Carolina and I went and did them in the fall and the fall season. It was like October yeah, it's still hot, it's just summer here. I was like laying at the pool. I was like this is amazing, I've worn shorts at Christmas. Yeah, incredible, that's crazy. Here's another good person question what famous person or saint, dead or alive, would you like to have a conversation with?
Speaker 3:You know what? Full stop my grandmother, Marjorie Williams. My dad always says I remind him a lot of her and she passed away when I was really little and so like I want to know her about her life. She lived like a wildlife, yeah.
Speaker 2:What's the best advice you ever received?
Speaker 3:Best advice I ever received.
Speaker 1:Okay, the laugh is indicating there's a good story to this.
Speaker 3:You know, like as it just came to my mind, I'm like that's 100% it. So it's like a phrase in the nun community and it like sounds I don't know if it sounds weird because I'm used to it, but like I said it once to someone and they lost their mind. They're like what does that mean Is go gently? And I said that to my mom one time because she was real stressed out or, excuse me, I didn't say it to her A sister had sent her an email, like that was her closing thing, was like go gently. And she goes what does that mean? And I was like it means be gentle with yourself. But I like forgot that, like it was a phrase that is not used everywhere else and so but I think you know, honestly, it's a beautiful way to go gently with yourself or gently with whoever you're around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very true. Okay, sister Kelly, that is pretty much everything. That is the wrap up. That was our last lightning round question. I just want to say thank you for taking the time to be with Kateri and I and share a little bit about your experience as a Sister of Mercy, share about radical hospitality. Your stories were amazing. It was lovely to also just get to know you a little bit better. I feel like I didn't ask you enough questions about your family, which is what I also was trying to do, because you clearly have a nice large family. You're from Georgia, all these really cool stuff, but we'll just have to have you on another time. Listen, I'd come back anytime, yeah yeah, and get to know you a little bit better. But we just really appreciate you taking the time today to sit down with us and that kind of wraps up the formal part of our podcast. Kateri and I are going to stay on a little bit longer and do some other recording, but that's really all we have.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Thank you so much for this gift. It was so fun, nice to meet both of you, and good luck and on many more fun interviews as you keep going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. So that was a really great conversation we just had with Sister Kelly Williams, rsm. She is so fun, has such a great energy. It was so lovely to get to chat with her about radical hospitality and we hope it inspires you all who are listening to carry radical hospitality with you throughout this academic year. If you were at Celebrate Spirit, we hope that you got to hear a little bit more from another Sister of Mercy, sister Marilyn, about Radical Hospitality and how we can bring that into our year this year and have that be a focus and a theme for how we navigate 2024-2025. So just really thankful to have Sister Kelly here and get to hear a little bit more about Mercy Spirituality.
Speaker 2:You've been listening to what's the Tea with Ministry. If you enjoyed listening to us today, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Also, be sure to follow us on social media at UDM underscore ministry or check us out at what's the Tea with Ministry podcast on the Detroit Mercy website.
Speaker 1:Thank you to our guest, sister Kelly Williams, rsm, for being in conversation with us today. Thank you also to all those who make this podcast possible, especially the Communication Studies Department, our sound engineer Michael Jason, our music composer Dan Gregg, marketing and communications and the whole Detroit Mercy community.
Speaker 2:We look forward to sharing more of the mission with you next time, see you later. See you later.