Sr. M. Xavier Schulze
Episode 403
26 OCT 2026
She starred in basketball at Anna High School AND won individual state titles in track (800-meter run) and cross country. She played basketball at Ohio State from 2007-2011, with her teams going 106-30 and winning three Big Ten titles over that time. She was a starter her final two seasons, leading the Buckeyes to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 as a senior co-captain. Just 18 months after her final game for Ohio State, she entered as a novice in the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George. Nine years later she made final vows and became a perpetually professed Catholic sister. Today she is Head of Campus Ministry at St. Cecilia Middle and High School in Hastings, Nebraska.
Notable guest quotes:
“My sophomore year in high school I was pretty much on top of the world athletically. I had already won state in track and even in cross country … And I was all state in basketball my freshman year and really my world just centered around me.”
“I tore my ACL and to me my world ended in that because I had to stop playing for a little bit. But really what God did was open my heart to receive the graces of my confirmation and it really was the start of a lifelong relationship with Jesus now, and really the start of my journey to becoming a sister.”
“The Holy Spirit had to be a little bit more loud, I guess, in college. You know, college can be a mixture of atmospheres, and I found myself in the sports world obviously.”
“I found myself really struggling with some moral issues and just struggling with sin and in that struggle while at the same time learning about Jesus and falling in love with Jesus and struggling, I started to see (that) not only is he real, not only is he becoming my best friend, but I started to encounter just his mercy and his patience and just how much he was giving me.”
“I loved playing basketball, like, loved it. And I still do; anytime I can shoot around, it just brings me so much joy.”
“I just knelt down to pray, and it was like this overwhelming, like, waterfall heart explosion grace… I just felt so joyful and so loved by the Lord, and I just knew at that moment he was inviting me to be his bride.”
“God gave it back. I ended up finishing the season without my ACL and through that process of surrendering to the Lord but then being able to continue to play, it was again just this very personal experience of his love for me.”
“Really, it is a time of spiritual battle and a lot of discernment between you and the community because it’s not just, ‘I want to be here,’ it’s the community also discerning, ‘Is this woman supposed to be part of our community forever’?”
“I have a heart that was made to be a mother to thousands not just a couple. And that has really been the most beautiful part of my religious life. It’s just the spiritual motherhood that we’re called to.”
“If I really focus on talking to God or to Mary or to whomever I’m praying to, one of the saints, if I really focus on talking as a person to them, it’s like prayer becomes super easy.”
“I think the sacraments in general have just, they’ve blown me away in my whole life. But confirmation was the initial conversion experience that I had in high school.”
“I need time with the Lord, and not just to fill me up but because I love him, so I want to be with him. And so, throughout the day I will make sure that I have time with him just like spouses would make sure they have time with their spouse. I want to be with him, so I make sure I have time with him.”
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