HE CALLS WHOM HE WILLS

Sr. Mary Angela, C.P.

When I was in the second grade Sr. Anastasia, OSU, prepared us for our first Holy Communion.  She said that whatever we asked Jesus for at our first Holy Communion, He would give it to us.

Well, I knew what I wanted and so, on my first Holy Communion Day, when we had all gone back to our seats and said our prayers together, I silently added my own prayer” Jesus, please make me a Sister!”

I had been attracted to the Sisters from the start of my schooling and so, the desire to be a Sister was implanted in my heart at that time.

Now, of course, wanting to be a Religious when I was 7 years old does not mean that I never thought of being anything else!  Thoughts of different vocations came and went, especially in my more rebellious moments.  I remember thinking when I was 14 – “Just because I’ve always wanted to be a Sister doesn’t mean I HAVE TO BE ONE!”

When I was 15 I went on a Retreat at the Passionist Nun’s Monastery in Erlanger, Kentucky.  I figured that at 15 I should be considering seriously what God wanted me to be and to do, so, in the Chapel, I asked Jesus what He wanted me to be.  If I was to be a Religious (I was still leaning in that direction) what kind, where and when?

Quietly, He enlightened me – and I knew that I would enter the Passionists in Erlanger.  There were no voices, no visions – just an inner conviction that things would turn out that way – and they did!

I entered the monastery in 1959 and I can still say with the Psalmist:  “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places and I am greatly pleased with my inheritance.”