Vocation Story 3...

Sister Eloise Marie

Why did I become a religious?  This is a question I sometimes ask myself.  It’s a good question because it helps me realize the reality of my vocation and help me put my priorities in perspective.

As a child I wanted to go out and win the whole world for Christ.  I dreamed of being a missionary in far away, strange lands.  I wanted to save all the “Pagan Babies” I heard and read about in Mission magazine.  I had my own mission bank where I would drop pennies, nickels or dimes, which were not used for candy or gum.  With $5.00 you could buy a “Pagan Baby” through the Holy Childhood Association.  I did it.

Looking back, I would have to say it was my love and compassion for the underprivileged and the poor linked with my desire to bring Christ to them that triggered my vocation at an early age.  Many other factors were also involved as I’ll share with you later.

Now let’s take a look at the structure of religious life.  The basic structure of religious life requires the taking of vows or promises.  They are usually three of these: chastity or celibacy, poverty and obedience.

Chastity is a very personal vow.  It involves the very stuff that makes me, “Me.”  Through it I give and consecrate to God one of my greatest gifts, the tender and intimate part of me: my sexuality, my spirituality and my emotions.  This does not mean that I lose these gifts. I simply direct them to the service of God. 

I will never have children of my own, but each year the Lord sends me a classroom of little children to love, nurture and instruct in His ways.  I have offered Him the gift of not having a family of my own, yet I am blessed with a beautiful, loving, caring family, my Religious Community.

Physical intimacy is offered in exchange for spiritual intimacy with my chosen spouse, Jesus.  This intimacy is ever growing through prayer, Scripture, reading, retreats and companionship with my Sisters.  This is a challenge as nothing worth while comes easy in this life.  But the joys far outweigh the effort and struggle. 

Chastity is not meant for only priests and religious.  Everyone is called to remain faithful to his/her commitment regardless of their state of life.  It is just as wrong for a married person to cheat on his/her partner, or for a young person to indulge in pre-marital sex as it is for a religious to re-neg on her vow.  All must live chastity according to their state of life.

One important benefit that comes to us through the vow of chastity is the freedom for total service.  We are not tied down by family obligations.  St. Paul explains in Chapter 7 of First Corinthians how the married woman is taken up with finding ways to please her husband.  Much of the remaining time is filled with the pressing needs of the household and care of the children.

Marriage is a great sacrament and brings with it the graces required for a happy, fruitful family life.  Consecrated chastity commits us to generous service and prayerful support of the people of God, the Church.  Religious consecration also has a sign value; a witness to the beauty, purity, and sacredness of human life.  Christ is our Spouse, our life, and our “enough.”                    

The second vow or promise is poverty.  Poverty is not a negative reality.  It is a call to simplicity, to be poor, to be free of spirit so one can trust and depend more on God.  Human nature has a drive to acquire, to possess.  Yet possessions do not bring real happiness.  Through poverty we strive to not grasp at things, to detach ourselves from unnecessary baggage.  There are a peace and freedom that develop when we look to God with trusting love.  We might call it a holy, happy insecurity.

Poverty, to a great extent, depends upon the vision of the Community, but even more so upon that of the individual.  Each person must decide how closely he/she wishes to imitate Jesus, who “had no where to lay His head.”  Poverty is a sign of the call to freedom from things.  It is a sign of the dependence a Christian must have on God alone.

The third vow is obedience, which could be defined as “attentive listening to God’s will.”  It is reading the signs of the time, recognizing the needs of God’s people and responding.

Organization within the Community provides a framework for seeking God’s will and for commissioning its members through the Church to carry out a specific mission.  Obedience calls us to service.  We are the heart, the ear, the hand, the feet of Christ. Liberated through poverty and chastity, the religious is free to give her all.

Prayer is a vital part of religious life.  Just as a happy and sustained marriage depends on communication between partners, so a happy and sustained consecrated life depends on prayer, the communication between the religious and her God.  Morning and evening praise are celebrated in Community.  Scripture reading, meditation and personal prayer are the responsibility of the individual.  Prayer attunes a person to God’s ways.  It is the foundation to dying to oneself in order to respond more fully in service to the Master. 

Earlier I promised to share with you some of the events surrounding my vocation or call to religious life.  Each call, though somewhat similar, is very different and unique.

Our heritage, faith and family background have much to contribute in preparing the seed and ground for a vocation.  Whenever I think of vocation, or call, I can’t help thinking of my dear mother.  As a teenager she moved to North Dakota from Springfield, Illinois.  I loved to hear her tell the story how one Sunday in church she saw a tall, dark, handsome young man.  In her heart and mind she said, “That’s my man.”  That Sunday morning she sensed God’s call to become a wife and a mother.  That handsome young man became her husband and the father of her 10 children of which I am the fourth.

My own vocation was much more gradual.  As a child I remember my mother speaking of the Ursuline nuns who taught her in Springfield and how she regretted we had no Sisters in our area.  When I was in 4th grade our teacher asked us what we planned to be when we grew up.  I firmly announced I would be a Sister, even though I had never seen one.  I used to pray a lot about this.  In my attic room I built a shrine/altar to Mary and the Sacred Heart.  All summer long I would keep prairie flowers on this little altar.

When I was in the 7th grade, the Sisters came to our parish for the first time to teach religion for two weeks of vacation school during the summer.  This was a great source of joy for me.  One of those Sisters is still my very close friend to this day,. 

I had the good fortune to make my high school with our Sisters.  It meant boarding school for nine months out of the year.  The thing I loved most during those four years was to sneak up to the Chapel during free time in the evenings.  The glow of candles flickering at the tabernacle and around Mary’s statue brought great peace, love and confirmation of my vocation, my dream to serve God as a religious. 

I graduated in May and entered the convent the following October.  I have now been serving God as a religious for over 50 years and have no regrets.

Go back to Vocation Story 1