We’ve written our stories short and sweet erring on the side that if we keep them short, there is this certainty that you, the viewer, will read the entire piece. And then because it’s so short you can’t help but move on to the next testimony.
Sr. Anna
I wanted to live life to the fullest but I wasn’t quite sure by what standards. I grew up in one of the largest cities in Canada, Toronto. I loved fashion, shoes, bags, going dancing with my friends, eating out with friends and having enough money to make it down to the Caribbean for some fun. But this lifestyle ‘rubbed shoulders’ with my parents who wanted more for me. They were living life with God at the centre of it and wanted me to have the same. In time, and through their fervent prayer I began to wrestle with what it meant to live life to the fullest.
You see, I began to realize how empty the world was with its promises. It never quite filled what my heart, my soul was longing for. And it was in my late twenties that I took a great leap of faith, joined NET ministries, an Evangelization ministry for young adults where God turned my life 180 degrees. NET was a launching pad for this deep hunger in me to discover what living life to the fullest meant. God captured my heart and my search began. I moved to Ottawa, Canada and every time I learned more about the faith, the more I hungered for a deeper and personal relationship with God. His love for me became the realest thing I ever experienced. Needless to say, it still is. I now know what it means to live life to the fullest. I know where I want to go in life and share it in abundance with as many people as I can, that is, eternal life with God himself.
Sr. Monique
I grew up in a big French-Canadian Catholic family in a small town in Saskatchewan. A big family meant over twenty sets of uncles and aunts and many, many cousins. There was lots of love to go around and I grew up always feeling loved and feeling that I belonged. Subconsciously I sought this love and sense of belonging wherever I went. When I started university, I found this sense of belonging with a campus missionary group called Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO). I was free to grow in my faith and to get to know Jesus on a personal level.
Then a few years later after I served on a missionary team where I was able to share that love of Jesus with others, I began to discern my vocation. I wanted to know in what vocation I would be happiest and where I would feel loved and that I belonged. I saw that my siblings were finding their vocation in marriage and beginning their own family. There was a tug in my heart, a desire to ask God ’who is my family?’ And in that very moment, He responded, ‘I am your family. You belong with me.’ There was an immediate peace in my heart. I sensed that I had come home to love. I sensed this was God’s way of revealing to me my vocation to be solely His as His beloved bride. He captivated my heart. I felt a deep peace. I felt loved and that I had found my home, where I belonged! I didn’t hesitate and responded to be His entirely! I found my family in Him.
Sr. Melinda
The simplest way to describe my vocation is to think of making a cup of tea. You’ve got a tea bag. You need boiled water. Put them together, and something wonderful happens!
The tea bag – lifeless and tasteless on its own. The tea bag has a hint of aroma, flavour potential, but it needs to be partnered with something more. My tea bag is that I was raised in the Catholic faith. Yet up until my first year of university, I lived life my own way. I was selfish, prideful, spoiled in some respects, and I felt empty. There was a yearning in my heart to live to my full potential, to have ‘flavour’. I was searching for something, someone to fill the emptiness and loneliness I felt.
Boiled water – there is power when you see water at a rolling boil. When I think of boiling water, I think of the Holy Spirit. The moment I encountered the Holy Spirit in a powerful way was on a weekend retreat. My life was changed! I experienced God in a way which changed my understanding from God who is ‘out there’ to God who is personally interested in me. This combination of my desire for something more – that tea bag, and the power of the Holy Spirit – boiled water, came together to create something tasty.
Steeped tea – a beautiful combination of flavour, power and time. When I received God’s love, my heart changed, my plans changed, and my way of life changed. I became more giving, more loving, and found joy in serving those around me. I spent time growing in my relationship with the Lord. I spent time learning to love without counting the cost. I spent time asking God the big questions about where best to serve him with my life. And the answer was the deep, rich, flavourful gift of my vocation as a Sister.
So what do you do with a cup of steeped tea? Savour every sip. I am so grateful for every moment of my religious life, and the new taste experience that comes with each sip.
Sr. Michael Penelope
I remember experiencing a conversion of heart when I encountered Jesus through the book “The Way of Divine Love.” I was touched by God’s boundless love and mercy. I learned that it was very easy to save souls! In the book it read that “A little act of generosity, of patience, of poverty… may become the treasure that will win a great number of souls to my Heart.” (August 7, 1922)
God’s love moved my heart. Knowing God’s power to convert hearts brought me joy. Understanding how I could pray for the world and how I could participate in the plan of salvation brought me peace. Page after page, the words Jesus spoke to Sr. Josefa Menendez penetrated my heart. I cried and prayed. I rejoiced and hoped. I surrendered and offered my life to Him. I wanted to be like Sr. Josefa, to be a Saint. I wanted to be close to Him, close enough that I could hear His Heart say to me just as He said to her, “You are ever in My Heart, for it is an abyss of love. I am with you.” I wanted all of Jesus. These words have never left my heart. I could see how He could act through me, speak through me and that together, we can make the Father known to the whole world.
Sr. Alison
As I reflect over my relationship with God, I can see where we’ve moved from acquaintances to friends. For many years I knew of Him, but I did not know Him. In 2008, I attended World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia where I had an amazing encounter with the Holy Spirit. That encounter set my heart on fire and opened my heart to receiving God’s love. I was captivated by His love for me. After that moment all I wanted to do was learn more about Him and serve Him in whatever way I was able to. I realize that the encounter in Sydney was a precursor to what the Lord was preparing in me. I may have been brought up in the Catholic Church, but it was not until this point that I was given a real hunger and thirst for our Lord and my faith.
I literally met Jesus at a retreat that was offered at my church, a Life in the Spirit type of retreat. I remembered asking over and over again in my heart, “What do you say to Jesus?” During the retreat, one of the team members who acted as Jesus stood in front of me, took the paper that my sins and struggles were written on and threw it on the floor and held out his arms and waited for me to embrace him. As I threw my arms around him, he then embraced me as to say “Welcome home”. I remember him whispering to me, “I love you. You are mine”. I held him tight for what seemed to be forever. It was in that moment, having a physical encounter with the person of Jesus Christ through this team member, that my heart was forever captured.
Sr. Meagan
I grew up in a Catholic home, yet, God seemed so far away. When I was fifteen, I went to a retreat where I encountered God’s powerful love for me and His pleasure in me. I realized that God was so different than I had ever imagined! I experienced God’s joy and delight, and we soon became best friends.
After this retreat, the Lord slowly began to speak to me about my vocation. This was through a Catholic conference where I saw nuns for the first time. I was shocked! And delighted. I was blown away by their kindness, gentleness, and love. I worked up the courage to talk to some of them and began to collect their pamphlets like trading cards. I stuck these into a shoebox and when I was alone in my room, I would pull these out and ponder over all the different orders. The Spirit began to stir in my heart.
My fervor faded after a few years when I met others who were also discerning religious life. I became discouraged and thought the Lord must not love me in this way. After years of putting these thoughts to the side, a seminarian friend visited my university. His lifestyle of radical availability to God amazed me. I began to ask myself again what happened to my desire for religious life.
This began a period of restlessness. Though I had many experiences that pointed me towards religious life, my heart wasn’t convinced. I struggled to truly listen to where the Lord was calling me and I began to date an old friend. In short order, the restlessness and heaviness increased. I couldn’t pray. I wasn’t myself. It became unbearable the more I tried to pursue this relationship. In reflection after the experience, the Lord revealed to me why this was so. This was一I discovered一because the Lord made me for Himself. This set me free and joy returned! I needed a concrete experience to know for myself that: “I am not my own, I am Jesus’; He must be my only love” (St. Kateri Tekakwitha). I realized then that the Lord had already captured my heart and in response, I chose to be His.
Caroline
I was thirteen when God planted a seed within my heart to become a religious sister. At the time I felt fearful at the thought, but something certainly changed when I heard a Sister share her vocation testimony.
Years later when I started university, I gradually started opening my heart to the idea of being a religious sister and I began to delve deeper into my faith. While I had consciously chosen to have a personal relationship with Christ by grade seven, I still carried some misconceptions about God with me into university. It was when I met a campus-based group called Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO) that I started to see Jesus as someone I could personally and intimately relate to and even converse with. It was also a place I could share in fellowship and be inspired. By God’s grace, the desire to take up my identity as a missionary disciple of Christ began to blossom as well.
In my second year of university, I had become more serious and intentional about discerning my vocation, and the Lord continued to fill me with His Spirit. That same year I went on a mission with CCO within my home city. I got to lead faith studies and even evangelize in public. I felt full and on fire with God’s love from being able to serve the Lord in this way!
A few months later, I attended a Virtual Come and See which was hosted by the Servants of the Cross. This was a turning point for me as I became certain of God’s call for me to religious life. From there the Lord only continued His pursuit of love for me, and I am delighted to be on this adventure He has taken me on.
Cathy
I grew up in a big Catholic family, where the basis of my Catholic faith foundation was formed. Initial seeds of faith and encounter with God were introduced in my life in early childhood through family prayer.
For many years, I knew about the Lord Jesus, but I did not know Him. Despite receiving the sacraments of initiation in the Catholic Church, and participating in Holy Mass every Sunday, I did not have a personal relationship with God. In my teen years I remember attending a Charismatic healing retreat with my mum;I loved the encounter, but I don’t quite recall experiencing any visible transformation.
In January 2009, I attended a five-day retreat, organized by Vincentian ministries, in Nairobi Kenya. This was an exceptional experience that led to my conversion and transformation. I experienced the love and mercy of God in a profound way.
This experience gradually began to transform several aspects of my life. I developed an immediate thirst for the Word of God right after the healing retreat. Consequently, I continued attending other healing retreats, since I desired to grow deeper in this newly found friendship with the Lord. The more our relationship grew, the more I desired more of Him.
As I sought the Lord, he led me to discern more deeply. Despite participating in daily Holy Mass, I needed more personal time with the Lord. I felt drawn to spend time daily in the chapel, adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. It began with a few minutes, then one hour, and with time, an hour passed very fast and didn’t seem enough.
During my prayer time, I shared with Jesus my joys, sorrows, concerns, and life in general. It was during prayer, that the possibility of religious life dawned on me, and with time became clearer and took shape. The more our relationship grew, the more I desired more of Him. The amazing love of God, mercy and grace, won my heart.
Anna Lise
My discernment story began at age fourteen. I was at a summer camp when I was asked if I would be open to God’s will for my life, including being called to religious life. That question sparked a desire in me to search out His plan for me. At eighteen, I began discerning with a community close to my home. My time spent with them was an incredible experience. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was calling me to continue my discernment of a religious vocation. However, the community asked that I pursue my education before applying for entrance.
Thus, began the long road of university. I loved this time in my life. I have always had a passion for learning, and by the grace of God, I was able to accept that my studies were part of His plan for me. Throughout my pursuit of an education degree, I continued to feel God calling me to religious life. Over time it became clear that God was calling me to a different charism than the community I was journeying with, but I was not exactly sure what that would look like.
Alas, having completed my permanent certification as a teacher, I was pointed towards the Servants of the Cross. The more I talked with the Sisters, the more I felt a pull on my heart toward the community and religious life. I am so excited to see what God has in store next!