“Yes, Ma’am, a Cop!” | Sr. Anne Raphael, O.P.

Born and raised in the Lone Star State, Sr. Anne Raphael’s father taught her to hunt, to fish, to work; and her mom, to cook, to keep house, and be a loving mother! Raised in a faithful Catholic home, Sister studied criminal justice with the aspirations of one day becoming a police officer. God clearly had other plans!

Sr. Joseph Andrew: When Sister was very interested in entering, she would always come with her cowboy boots and she would always say, “Yes, ma’am. No, ma’am. Yes, ma’am.” And I had to say, “Okay two things: (1) Do you have any other shoes than cowboy boots? Because you’re not going to wear those as a Sister. I hate to break your heart, but it’s true. And, (2) can you say “Yes Sister?”

You struggled but Sister it’s a true sign of a vocation if you pick up your little crosses and you do them!

Sr. Anne Raphael: It wasn’t really until college that I started living the faith as my own because in high school, I mean I went to CCD and that kind of thing, but it really it was really just more of a thing that you had to do and check off rather than something to form you; so in college, I started going to the Catholic Student Center of my own choice and I got involved in a Bible study and then I went on a retreat and that’s where I met our Sisters who were down in Texas because we have three missions down there. That’s when I first became very attracted to Religious Life because I saw our Sisters happy and wearing the habit and just the joy that they had and at the time I was studying criminal justice.

I was going to be a cop and so it was it was difficult to reconcile that a little bit, but you know God has His ways and His will is better than anything we could imagine for ourselves.