Saturday, January 27, 2007

Convert's Faith Blooms into Religious Vocation

From the Gergia Bulletin, paper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, comes a nice story on a young woman following God's will in her life. Her story is like so many others, the trials that she feels, the concerns, but once opening up to where God is, there is joy. I also liked how she opened up to the Church first by philosophy, another 'Oxford Movement' convert, so to speak.

After all, this “inveterate extrovert” was very outgoing, had lots of
friends and was just “too loud” to fit the reserved stereotype of a nun and make
religious vows.
“I didn’t think people even do this anymore. I’m too bossy. I
liked to party,” she recalls thinking.
And she dated, too, always assuming
she would get married, but when she became Catholic she ended a two-year
relationship with a man because of their disparate views on religion. When she
called her mother and told her she had joined the Catholic Church, the first
question she asked her was, “are you going to become a nun?” But she somehow
couldn’t say no and responded that she didn’t know where God would call
her.

snip

She began going to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, as “eucharistic
adoration was so central to my life already.” She spoke with her spiritual
director, Handmaid of the Sacred Heart Sister Margarita Martin, and, knowing
that one doesn’t don’t marry the first man one dates, she began investigating
other religious orders but was attracted to the Handmaids’ charism of reparation
of broken hearts of the world combined with their core focus on the Eucharist.
Her director encouraged her to listen to what her heart was telling her when
considering this possibility. When she did that “every logical thought in my
head said this is crazy,” yet in her heart “I felt such joy and peace and
excitement. I thought, ‘yes, I think I’ll give it a try.’

What draws people to the vocation? Christ present in the Eucharist, and the prayer for clarity of knowing what God's call is for your life. God is still giving the call, listen in the heart to know where He calls you.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Kyle,

I see you are one step ahead of me! I was just searching to find your email address to send you this article. I am always intrigued by the way each person has been called to their vocation (religous, married or single). I also found it interesting that by sharing her story with her coworker, it prompted him to re-evaluate his life. It just goes to show how we can have profound effects on people by doing simple things. Hope to see you soon!

God Bless

Chris said...

Kyle?

Ah the good old days. I can remember my grandmother calling her son, my uncle, "Father" from the day he was ordained. Everyone else did too.
Also, thank God, my wife married the first guy she dated. I'm sure as you give more homilies and post more blogs you will find there is no limit to the number of people you can offend, unwittingly.