Vocations

I think I was destined to be a Benedictine Sister well before I would ever admit it to anyone…even to myself. I would actually go out of my way to make sure that people knew that I would not be a good candidate for religious life. Somehow in my mind being “normal” was incompatible with a religious vocation. I am a person who loves working with all kinds of people, seeks adventure and is always willing to take a risk. But I also have a more serious side that can enjoy quiet and silence (in small doses) and loves to just be.

I always wanted to be a Benedictine Sister and I treasured the desire. I felt called and wanted to respond to that call with all my heart.

I had other interests as a child – skating and baton twirling. Sacristy work at the parish, Church choir, teaching religion on Saturdays were also favorite activities and, favorite of all, was going to our church and sitting in silence in the presence of God.

On July fifth in 2002, three months after my baptism at Saint Francis Xavier Church Tulsa, OK, I heard God calling me to become a Sister. It took me ten years to make final vows, to become a Benedictine Sister of Saint Joseph Monastery, which is a couple of blocks from where I was baptized.

I heard the first whisper in the 4th grade. “Please listen to the 1st and 2nd graders reading lesson and help them with their sums.”

The whisper came from Mrs. Pazourek the only teacher In that little country schoolhouse that housed 28 students, grades 1-8, where she taught every discipline in every grade. That whisper began my call to a teaching career . Throughout my eight years in Emerald Valley School I was privileged to tutor so many students and to experience the talents of so many gifted teachers.