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Vocations Stories. . .
My Vocation Story
by Sr. Maria Catherine, P.V.M.I.
Recently, when I was reading a publication of the Holy Childhood Association, I saw a picture of a missionary Sister dressed in a white habit, bending over a little child. Memories flooded in my mind and heart.
It was through just such a picture that God fist inspired in me the desire to be a missionary when I was eight years old.
At the age of 23, I re-discovered my childhood attraction to the religious life after meditating upon the life of St., Francis of Assisi. My heart desired to live radically dependent on God; to walk the streets letting people know of the tremendous love and mercy of God. I wanted to speak the words of St. Francis to everyone, “Love is not loved. Love is not loved.” I also discovered an ever-growing desire to live as a cloistered religious. I was in quite a dilemma! How could one religious community fulfill all these desires?
I contacted fifty communities, and not one seemed to satisfy the deepest desires of my heart, How could I find a religious community that continues Jesus’ work of spreading the Good News and is also contemplative? I couldn’t, but God could for me.
One evening at a Charismatic Prayer Meeting that I regularly attended, I happened to be sitting next to a Sister who noticed a rather sad expression on my face. “Is anything wrong?” she asked.
“I believe God is calling me to be a Sister,” I said, “but I can’t find a community that does what I believe He is asking of me.”
“What is He asking you?” she said.
“I want to go from door-to-door telling people of the love and mercy of God. But I also want to be a contemplative Sister, spending much time in daily prayer. Do you know of a community where I would be able to live this way?”
I am certain that Sister Marie Therese, a Parish Visitor of Mary Immaculate, had a difficult time containing her excitement at hearing me describe the life she had been living for many years. She simply said, “Well, my community does the very things you feel God is asking of you.”
“What’s the name of your community, Sister?”
Very calmly, Sister replied, “I am a Parish Visitor of Mary Immaculate. Would you like to come and visit with someone in my community who could help you?”
The contemplative-missionary vocation that was so attractive to the eight-year-old girl found its expression in the missionary visitation, catechesis and life of prayer that is the charism of the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate.
From "The Parish Visitor" Winter 2000 issue. Used with permission.
Read our feature on the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate
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