My Thoughts On Vocation

Sr. Hope Therese

I am thrilled that I recently celebrated three years of religious life and love. Every year grows more beautiful in every way. I struggle to remember a time when I did not want to be a sister. As a young child playing nun I did not have a full understanding of the sacrificial love

required, but religious were so beautiful and admirable to me. I went to public school, so I knew very few religious. I was more enamored with concept of giving my life to Christ than with any individual who had done it. I wanted to give back to Lord after all he had given me.

It just seemed so natural. So the years passed. I graduated college and my mother asked if I still thought of religious life. I said yes, but I was not yet ready to give up the idea of being a mother. So I got a job as a COTA (Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant). I left the job because I felt it was not what God was calling me to do. I helped take care of my mother who was sick with breast cancer. When she got well she asked me again If I still thought of being a sister. The answer was a resounding yes. There were no more excuses. It was time.

 I visited other orders, but the as soon as I met the Carmelites I knew they were the ones. I discerned with them for a year. I entered three years ago on the day I prayed to enter a religious order on, St. Valentines day. The rest, as they say, is history. A sister once told me that God would never call me to someplace place I was unhappy. I can't say religious life has never been difficult for me, but I can say I have never been happier. I do not regret a moment of my life as a Carmelite Sister for the Aged and Infirm. The love and kindness of the sisters, staff, and residents here at Carmel Manor in Kentucky continues to increase my confidence and fulfillment in my vocation. Having the title of Sister in front of my name does not, in itself, make me me holier than anyone else. I am called to live out the love the title implies. Loving communion with, and service to God and those He puts in our path, absorbing and reflecting God's sacrificial love, and carrying out His will in our daily life are the the things that sanctify us.

 I have a religious vocation because I believe it gives me the grace to carry all of this out most effectively. Many people do not have vocations to religious life, but are still being sanctified just as, perhaps even more, effectively. There have been saints that have been lay people and saints that have been popes. What made them holy was that they followed God's will for them to the highest degree. The greatest title anyone can have is Child of God. Everyone created by God is a king or queen of the Lord's heart and should be treated with due love and respect. Anyone who is where they see love most clearly, experience love most fully, and give love most freely is living out their vocation. That is because God is love! All that will matter in the end is how well we loved.