The Vocation of Sr. Marie Elizabeth

I felt attracted to religious life from a very early age, having three aunts who were teaching Sisters and who inundated me with religious material. The Sisters who taught me in grade school had a high school aspirancy at their motherhouse, and I would have gone there if my parents could have spared my help with our large family and farm. In high school, I became interested in a career as a medical doctor and thought I might like to join the Medical Mission Sisters, though the freedom I found in getting my driver’s license and salary from a small job made me wonder if I wouldn’t find any kind of religious life too confining. People who knew me told me I belonged in the Carmelite Monastery, but I assured them that nothing would induce me to give up so much of my freedom that I would be cloistered all my life. So deep was my commitment to God’s will that my chief interest in each religious group of women was to discover who had the longest summer vacation!

Because I won a scholarship to a girls’ Academy at some distance from my home, I went to live during the week with my aunt where she was housekeeper at a rectory nearer the school. The Carmelite Monastery was on the opposite hill across the town, and I could hear the bells from early morning into the night. I was curious as to why those bells were ringing so often and began to go there for some of the Advent hymns that I later found were associated with a daily procession, for Eucharist and for the evening half-hour of Christmas carols during the holidays. Soon I found I couldn’t stay away and on December 8 of my senior year in high school I applied to enter. I chose October 3, then the feast of St. Therese, to go to a place where there is no summer vacation scheduled at all, but I have never regretted a moment of it. I have received so much more than I gave up and have enjoyed the 52 years of spiritual adventure that God has given me in living with and listening to Him. God is good!