August 2019

            “Do whatever He tells you.” These are the words the Virgin Mary tells the servants at the Wedding of Cana (John 2:5). As I reflect on my faith journey and my discernment to religious life these words continue to come to me. It was Mary and my relationship with her after all that has led me closer to Christ and where I am today.

            I, like many others in New Orleans, grew up cradle Catholic and spent my youth searching for answers about life. After a rough period in high school due to Hurricane Katrina, moving several times, and family struggles I moved to Old Metairie and St. Catherine of Siena became my new parish. During this time I also went to a Marian pilgrimage site called Medjugorje with my family. At this point in my faith life I honestly don’t think I ever prayed to Mary before but in an act of faith during the rosary one evening I knelt down and asked Mary to take my family and all of my burdens. I immediately felt her presence and started to cry warm, peaceful tears as I knew in my soul she had heard my prayer and like a good mother was comforting me.

            The next year I started school at LSU and when college life became overwhelming, confusing or life crushing, as I dramatically felt at the time, I remembered Mary and began to pray the rosary for comfort and peace not knowing she was bringing me closer to Christ. My years of college soon became full of fun and friendship as I became involved at Christ the King, LSU’s Catholic Church. My time there has been one of the greatest blessings of my life and I still have many cherished friendships from that period. It was there that a visiting priest Fr. Italo Dell’Oro, a Somascan religious priest from Houston, asked me if I had ever considered a vocation to religious life as a sister. I had never thought about it outside of having been taught by a few sisters growing up and deciding that wasn’t for me.

            After graduating from LSU and living once again in Old Metairie, I began to go to daily mass and adoration at St. Catherine’s. Not knowing what I wanted to do with my life Fr. Italo’s question kept coming back. “What about religious life?” I spent many restless nights in St. Catherine’s adoration chapel with Our Lord trying to “figure it out” as if it were a puzzle. I was 22 and had no idea what that meant so I visited a couple of religious communities in the area before getting confused and deciding to think about it again after I go to nursing school. Ironically, I ended up going to nursing school with two Catholic sisters my last year. We soon became friends as I went to their convent to tutor them and they invited me to Mass. Of course the question of religious life came up but I still wasn’t sure. At that point, even though I was uncertain, I was more open to the vocation since I had grown in my prayer life and had a deeper desire to give my life to Jesus in a profound way.

            Once I graduated from nursing school I had nothing stopping me from really discerning if God was calling me to become a religious sister. I eventually got a spiritual director, spent more time with different religious sisters, and started to really discern through a lot of prayer and counsel. One day I was doing some online nun investigating and I found the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There was something about them that drew me to think of them often and resonated deeply within me, and so, I finally got the courage to call them and made a visit with them in St. Louis, MO and later in Hamden, CT where their US motherhouse is located. After many visits I knew I could no longer complete my discernment from New Orleans and decided that if I wanted to find out if this is what God wants for me then I should trust Him and go! I have formally been accepted to enter the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and will be joining formation as a postulant on August 25.

            Please pray for me and my family as I embark on this new adventure. I want to thank especially Fr. Tim and Fr. Andrew and everyone at St. Catherine for your support. It means so much to me.