The history of our community is intimately related to Sister Susan's personal story.  Here is an updated and edited excerpt from an article that appeared in the New Oxford Review on the history of the Apostles of the Interior Life

                  ttttttttttt               

“Would you consider becoming a saint?”

Twenty-five years ago in Napa, California, a visiting priest from Italy spoke these words to 19-year-old Susan Pieper, a lively, intelligent, witty, and attractive girl planning to attend college and find a career.  Father Salvatore Scorza’s question – a challenge really – shocked her.

Today, she is Sister Susan Pieper, the first of a community of sisters dedicated to helping souls find salvation and achieve sanctity.  She and the other consecrated women work, as did the Apostles, going directly to those in need of Christ and His Church.  They speak to people on the streets and university campuses; they preach missions; they counsel, acting as spiritual advisors both to laity and Religious.

Attempting to relate closely to modern youth, they dress in simple street clothes and speak clearly about God’s grace, modern temptations, the lack of devotion to God, and the necessity to save one’s soul.  Thus emulating the Apostles, their community is appropriately called the Apostles of the Interior Life (Apostole della Vita Interiore).

All this came about because twenty-five years ago Susan, struck by the priest’s words, decided she must, through prayer and meditation, discover Gods will for her life.  She said recently, “A whole new world opened up to me with Father’s words.  I always thought sanctity was for a few chosen people, but he said sanctity can and should be for all.”  Deeply influenced by Fr. Scorza’s remark, and seeking a Catholic education, Susan began college at Notre Dame in Belmont, California, in 1977.  While there she incorporated the priest’s challenge into her own life plan - to form a community of sisters who would be evangelists and spiritual counselors.  To her knowledge no Religious group dedicated itself solely to these pursuits. Convinced that God wanted her to prepare, she went to Rome to study theology after receiving her college degree.  There she kept in contact with Fr. Scorza, worked hard to improve her limited knowledge of Italian, and undertook her course of studies.

In 1990, Susan began the community with five young Italian women.  Their formation is critical and demanding, and the women must demonstrate that they have a profound desire to serve God in all things.  The discernment of their true vocation requires the concentrated prayer of the entire community.  And they must, just as Susan did, study five years of philosophy and theology in a pontifical university, and education similar to that of a seminarian.  This training is vital because a very important part of their work is counseling priests, brothers, and nuns.  Sr. Susan believes that to counsel well one must be fully prepared intellectually as well as spiritually.  The young women spend four hours daily in prayer.  No matter the demands of their work, the base of their lives is prayer because without this their work would not succeed.

In September 1996, the community was officially recognized by the Diocese of Rome.  Sr. Susan comments:  “The Church is saying we have trust in you.”  On one occasion she spoke with Pope John Paul II.  Astonished at the rapidity of the community’s growth, he asked, “Are they all consecrated?”  Indeed they are, and each year they renew their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

The community was founded by an American in Rome, dedicated to prayer and saving souls, staffed by orthodox Religious women who dress casually, seeking to speak with all those who want to learn about salvation and sanctity.  The apostolate depends on God’s Providence and produces no tangible bounty. 

Remarkably, it is the fastest growing Catholic community in Italy.  In 1999, they were invited by the Bishop of the Diocese of Peoria to open a house at the Newman Center at the University of Illinois.  In 2003, the AIL were invited to open a house at the St. Lawrence Center at the University of Kansas, and in 2005 at the St. Paul's Center at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI. Currently, there are fifteen Apostles of the Interior Life who have already professed their vows, and three women who are discerning their call at the house of formation in Rome. The male branch has gotten started with seven young men in formation.

Enthusiasm abounds among the sisters.  Talking to them, hearing their stories of God’s help and the joy they find in their vocations, one becomes convinced that they are sorely needed in this country as well as in Italy.  And their peacefulness is contagious.  “Susan is the happiest person I have ever met,’ said a Protestant friend of mind.  People wonder at the source of their joy.  Listening to her moves them to look more closely at their own relationship to God.  Sr. Susan amazes listeners with her forthrightness.  As she has said more than once, I fell in love with someone, and that someone is Jesus.”  As she and the other Brides of Christ know, His love is sufficient for all.