Sister Rita Clare Yoches

Episode 14

06 MAY 2019

She played professional football for four years after having previously been an athlete in another sport, having earned a full basketball scholarship to Detroit Mercy, where she played for four years.  Last year she took her final vows and became a nun, and currently she is a campus minister at Florida State University.  During this conversation you’ll hear her say – among other observations – that she definitely sees the synergy between our faith life and our sports life.

Guest Quotes:

“My story… makes me a little bit relatable because (people) see something other than just the religious garb.”

“Playing aggressive sports and having a deep faith life can go together because Jesus is the ultimate warrior and the best athlete out there and, all of sports, they mirror our image of fighting for good over evil.”

“We are all children of God and that’s the only thing that matters, and whatever we do beyond that is supposed to glorify God and it doesn’t have to fit a specific mold at all.”

“The story is God’s story.  Only God could write a story like mine.  And so it naturally does point back to the Lord in all aspects and draw people to Him.”

“People just didn’t have any idea of how happy I was on the inside with my new relationship with the Lord.  But, it wasn’t bad at all because it just became this amazing point of discussion and it turned so many people who never thought about God or talked to God to think about it after hearing my story.”

“I heard the Lord say to me, ‘You should do this, you could do this,’ and I was like, ‘Do what? Become a nun?  Are you crazy’?!”

“I felt excited, like, the Lord picked me to be His bride, but then I was like, ‘Why me? Why do I have to do this?’  And then I was like, ‘I’m not worthy to do this’.”

“All saints have a past and all sinners have a future.  The stuff that we’ve endured in our life, the evil that we’ve endured, it’s our path to heaven.  It’s what we do with it and how we allow God to turn it into good.”