Nun: Running is a good time to pray
SEATTLE — In a fitness-forward city like Seattle, it's not surprising to see street athletes in all manner of pants, capris, shorts, bras, tanks, tops and tights in every color, fit and form.
What is unexpected, however, is seeing someone in a habit.
“It is a bit unusual to see someone running down the street dressed like that,” said Hayley Tapp, nodding at Sister Mary Kelli Ann Lopez, who was running down a residential street wearing a white veil, a plain, dove gray, three-quarter length habit and a pair of multicolored running shoes.
“It's amazing,” Toby Thoresen said. “You never really see a nun running unless you're out here in Ballard.”
Lopez — a 32-year-old novice with the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity who will take her vows later this month in Corpus Christi, Texas — has drawn more than her share of stares, double takes, questions and even a few puns since she began running in the neighborhood regularly a year and a half ago.
“The first time I saw her, she was with a group of about five nuns,” said former runner Charles Gordanier. “Now it's apparently something she's decided to do on her own. Which is great. There are a lot of benefits if you can make it a habit.”
Although Lopez has occasionally succeeded in getting some of the four sisters she lives with in a convent on the property of St. Alphonsus Parish and School to join her in a short walk or run, she's generally solo on the 6- to 9-mile runs she takes five days a week.
Her religious society, which was founded nearly 60 years ago in the United States, is among those that have chosen to retain wearing habits in public.
“It's very humbling and lets people know who we belong to,” Lopez said. “We see it as an outward sign of our inner commitment to our vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.”
Whether she returns to Seattle once she's taken her vows and traded in her white veil for a gray one will be up to her Mother Superior.
But regardless of where she ends up, Seattle will always have a special place in the story of her spiritual preparation, she said.
“This city has done wonders for me,” Lopez said. “It's here that I've learned we don't have to compete with anyone or compare ourselves to each other. We don't have to be somebody we're not. God loves us for ourselves.”
She's found, too, that while she started running for the physical benefits, she's reaped devotional benefits as well.
“I use it as a time to meditate on the way God is working in my life that day,” she said, “and I pray that the Lord will put his blessing upon the people I encounter; you never know what difficulties they may be having. Being outside, surrounded by God's goodness, is a perfect time to pray.”
