NASHVILLE, Tenn. — What do you want to be when you grow up?

Every child is asked this question a couple dozen times, each time with varying responses. But Belleville native Casey Marie Loyer had a consistent answer — she wanted to become a religious sister.

Growing up in St. Anthony Parish in Belleville, Loyer always had vocational life in the back of her mind, with preliminary discernment beginning at a young age.

“It could be true that every Catholic school girl wants to be a sister at some time, but then you change your mind quickly,” said now-Sr. Casey Marie, who made her perpetual vows as a Dominican Sister of the Congregation of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tenn., on July 25.

“I always knew I needed to keep that option in my life,” Sr. Casey Marie said. “There are many ideas of what God wants us to be, and I always prayed about it. But it wasn’t until I was 22 that I figured this is what God is calling me to be.”

Sr. Casey Marie attended Livonia Ladywood High School, playing soccer, basketball and golf and working as a part-time firefighter while in college.

At age 22, she wanted to escape Michigan’s winter weather and went on a service learning trip to Mississippi to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Along the way, the group made a stop at the Dominican Sisters’ motherhouse in Nashville.

“Seeing those sisters live their lives and their joys, it was my feeling that Christ wanted me there and he wanted me for himself,” Sr. Casey Marie said. “After that, I moved to a discernment house in Ann Arbor and visited the sisters in Nashville a few more times before I entered the convent.”

Sr. Casey Marie's mother, Christine Hoeft-Loyer, said Sr. Casey Marie was set on a religious life at a very young age.

“From the time she was 12, she said she was going to be a sister,” Hoeft-Loyer said. “Her email address was [email protected], and my mother talked to her about being a sister.”

Hoeft-Loyer said when her daughter returned from the Mississippi trip, she was excited about the Nashville Dominicans and wanted it to be her new home.

Since Sr. Casey Marie made her vows, her mother said the entire family has spiritually grown.

“It’s an amazing feeling to see her take her perpetual vows after seven long years,” Hoeft-Loyer said. “She’s away from us a lot, but we find happiness in her joy. She’s getting a degree in nursing and working in a Catholic hospital, and her joy brings us a lot of joys, bringing us all close to God.”

Sr. Casey Marie was drawn to the Dominicans’ passion for learning and searching for truth, drawing on the order’s four chrisms: prayer, service, study and community.

“I was contemplating what we are, and that’s why I wanted to be a Dominican,” Sr. Casey Marie said. “We don’t simply study to study; there is an end, to bring more souls to Christ. St. Dominic in the beginning was very lenient with studying in order to save souls.

“By taking my perpetual vows, I’m becoming who I am,” Sr. Casey Marie said. “God created me to be His. The acorn has become the oak tree. This is how I can be a whole person, to give my life for His Church and for Him. I’m ready to do this for the rest of my life. I’m sure it will manifest itself in the future.”