'If young people don’t encounter Jesus in you, Jesus is dead to them,' sisters tell members of St. Serra Club in Grosse Pointe
GROSSE POINTE FARMS — Sr. Mary Jacinta, OP, and Sr. Mary Bernard, OP, grew up in very different situations — one in a devoutly Catholic family, the other raised by unmarried, fallen-away Catholic parents. Yet for both, the path to religious life ran through Eucharistic adoration.
“There is no vocation story that doesn’t include the Eucharist,” Sr. Mary Jacinta told the audience at a Nov. 6 meeting of the St. Serra Club Detroit-Northeast, inside St. Paul on the Lake Parish’s Canfield Center.
Sr. Mary Jacinta and Sr. Mary Bernard are both final professed members of the Ann Arbor-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Both are veteran teachers, currently missioned to St. Isaac Jogues Catholic School in St. Clair Shores. And true to their role as educators, they assigned homework to the St. Serra Club: to read “The Laity,” the fourth chapter of Lumen Gentium, the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.
“The call to holiness is universal,” Sr. Mary Jacinta said. “Holiness is reachable for all.”
A culture of vocations cannot exist unless the laity is committed to living as true disciples of Christ, she explained.
Sr. Mary Jacinta’s parents cultivated their 10 children's relationship with Jesus, and exposed them to religious life from an early age. Those experiences bore great fruit, with two daughters in religious life and a son in the priesthood.
“Foster the habit of Eucharistic adoration,” Sr. Mary Jacinta advised. “I’m a sister because I was given the opportunity to nurture a relationship with Jesus through time spent in silence before the Eucharist.”
Her participation in the work of the Missionaries of Charity in Detroit in the 1990s, as well as her consecration to Mary, also helped foster her vocation, she added.
Although Sr. Mary Bernard’s parents did not practice the faith, her mother did send her to a Catholic K-8 school, where she experienced stability and love from her teachers. As a teenager, she started going to adoration, lectored at Mass, and became active in her parish. People in her parish noticed her, encouraged her, and gave her financial support to join the sisters.
“I’m here because those people loved me,” Sr. Mary Bernard told the audience. “The world is starved for affirmation, and young people are struggling with needs. Love them where they are. If they don’t encounter Jesus in you, Jesus is dead to them.”
Both sisters encountered obstacles to their vocations. For Sr. Mary Bernard, it was the temptation of worldly success as a rider and trainer of horses. For Sr. Mary Jacinta, it was her desire to be a mother and raise a family. “I have learned that I am called to be a spiritual mother to many,” she said.
To nurture a culture of vocations, both sisters emphasized living the evangelical counsels and being open about one's faith, including a commitment to Christ and to daily reading of Scripture.
The sisters also cautioned against assuming young people will have the same questions about religion and faith that their parents did.
“Ask them what questions they have,” Sr. Mary Jacinta suggested. “They might be in a very different place than those of 20 or even 10 years ago.”
For example, the sisters said it used to be common for young people to ask, "What is it like to be a nun?" but now, fewer young people even know what sisterhood is.
In addition to stressing the importance of Eucharistic adoration, the sisters counseled countering the “world’s messages” by “finding out where we can meet young people and challenge them.”
For example, “the world says, ‘autonomy,’ putting the self at the center in its own little world,” Sr. Mary Bernard noted. “The counter message is ‘gift of self.’ The world says, ‘Go rogue.’ The counter-message is ‘virtuous courage.’”
And for young people trying to discern their vocations, the sisters advised: “Talk to Jesus and ask him. You’ll get an answer.”
Marcia McBrien is vice president of communications for the St. Serra Club Detroit Northeast.
St. Serra Club of Detroit-Northeast
The St. Serra Club of Detroit-Northeast is a local lay apostolate dedicated to fostering vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Named for St. Junipero Serra, there are more than 1,100 Serra Clubs throughout the world, with the goal of fostering a culture of vocations in every parish. For more information, contact Seve Deters at [email protected].
