My Call Through Our Lady

I converted to Catholicism at the time I was working as a Public Relations Manager for a leading cosmetic company in my native Japan. I was born into a Buddhist family and grew up not knowing God.

One day I was browsing in a bookstore and came upon a book about the Blessed Mother. As I read the book I felt this strong desire to know more about the Catholic Church. I went to the nearest Catholic Church and met a priest who led me into embracing Catholicism. At my baptism I experienced a feeling of having stepped from the grave into God's power and love. I knew I did not want to go back to that dark place anymore.

In the months that followed, I frequently went on retreat to Akita where the statue of the crying Virgin is located. During this time I nurtured a quiet longing to be committed to Jesus in a deeper way. Was God calling me to religious life?

Three and a half years later I began to inquire about the Sisters who were dedicated to adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist. Through friends, I made contact with the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in Canton, Ohio. I experience fulfillment now. Every day I praise and thank God for my Eucharistic vocation and this community.

Sr. Dominique, PCPA
Formerly Miyako Ando from Toykyo, Japan

• What sustains me in religious life is my community. My sisters in Religious Life are there to share my success as I share theirs. They provide me with enough support when I've fallen to allow me to get back up again. Hopefully, in their hour of need, I return that support to them without delay. My community challenges me to grow. It also allows me a place to rest safely in the arms of the Lord.
  
  Sister Kristin Quicker, OSHJ
  Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
  
  

• Should I or shouldn't I? Was religious life for me? As a visitor to the Benedictine Monastery in Lisle, Illinois, I was pondering these questions when I met Sister Clotilda. She was so bent over I could not see her eyes. I leaned down to greet her and met friendly blue eyes that danced with unconcealed joy. I had my answer. Here was an elderly woman, obviously living in discomfort if not constant pain, who was truly happy in her vocation. I reasoned that if religious life could bring such happiness, I wanted that life too.
  
  Sister Agnes Knapik, OSB
  Byzantine Benedictine Sisters
  
  

• God persisted. Many years ago while in elementary school, the thought of becoming a religious like "the Sisters" who taught me came to my mind year after year. Of course, that thought was always put to the back of my mind each time it was evident. I think God persisted.
  Again in high school years, for four years the Benedictine Sisters educated me. I often attended prayers with the Sisters in their chapel. During these years, I came to know the story and life of St. Benedict, who gave up his family and his life in Rome to just "seek God." He really wanted to detach himself from everything in the world. The example of Benedict was also a factor in God's call to me. God persisted those four years.
  At the end of high school, when it came time to register at a college, I had to make a decision. God's persistence won out. I knew He was calling me to serve Him in the order of St. Benedict. I have lived the Benedictine way of life for more than 55 years. I never regretted one moment of it. I firmly believe I heard God's call all those years. I always sought to answer "yes."
  
  Sister Margaret Mary Schima, OSB
  Byzantine Benedictine Sisters

• What attracted me? From the time I was a little girl, I always had great esteem for priests. I always felt it was so special when they came to our home for a visit. My thinking … "What good friends they must be to Jesus." As I got older, I came to understand, in depth, my earlier thinking.
  After being widowed, and in my heart coming into full knowledge of God calling me into a second vocation, I looked through the "Vision Magazine" at many different orders, and when I saw the charism of the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and their mission of caring for priests, I knew this was where God wanted me. He called, I came - thanks be to God!
  
  Sister Mary Barbaranne Haggblom, OSHJ
  Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus