Sister Mary Jo Sobieck
Episode 108
22 FEB 2021
She drew national attention just under two years ago when she was nominated for an ESPY for “Best Viral Sports Moment” for when she threw out a ceremonial first pitch before a Chicago White Sox game. She has been a nun for more than 25 years and is part of the Dominican Sisters of Springfield. In her days as a student-athlete she played softball, volleyball, and basketball. You’ll also hear mention in this interview about her having trained for a half marathon. Last year she concluded 13 years at a Catholic high school in Chicago, including teaching theology there.
Notable guest quotes:
“Mom was just rock solid in her prayer life and in her trust in God.”
“We learned that, and that everything happens for a reason. And so, that sense of listening to God’s voice and finding out, ya’ know, what does life really mean for us in the events of life as they happen, and as they shape us.”
“My mom was a real proponent of the rosary. We prayed the rosary together as a family during the month of October and May.”
“My dream was to be in the Olympics.”
“Sports grounded me in a sense of discipline.”
“It was on one of our last days of a retreat that I really felt overcome with this sense of God just pouring God’s life into me and God’s love into me.”
“God invited me to this and my life has never been the same and I couldn’t be happier.”
“The red carpet was just a real, that was a moving moment for me too, ya’ know, I’m in the midst of this worldly, ya’ know, all this glamour and glitz, and, what came to me was, God sees the soul, not the swag.”
“I had a profound gift and opportunity to take a group of kids to Lourdes on a pilgrimage. Well, we went to World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011 to see Pope Benedict. But, prior to that we went to Fatima and to Lourdes.”
“I had a profound experience of God’s love again for me in the Eucharist. And… in the Eucharist I thought to myself… I thought, ‘I’m going to make a triathlon of sacraments today. … I’m going to find a priest and go to confession… and then, of course, to renew my baptismal vows’.”
