Vocations retreat offers women information and time to discern religious calling
OGDEN — Young women from around the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City gathered for three days at a retreat intended to help them discern if they are being called to a religious vocation.
The retreat, which had the theme “Discovering God’s Dream for Me,” was guided by Sister Lisa Laguna, DC, the vocations director for the Daughters of Charity’s Province of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Los Angeles, Calif. The days were filled with prayer, reflection, quiet time, sessions of questions and answers, and an Emmaus walk, among other activities. Representatives from the three women’s religious communities in Utah also chatted with those attending and spoke about their charisms.
The three women attending the event were from of Saint Rose of Lima Parish in Layton, the St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center in Salt Lake City, and the Cathedral of the Madeleine.
Mother Therese Bui, OCD, vocations director of Utah’s Carmelite community, and Sr. Veronica Fajardo, CSC, a licensed clinical social worker who is with Holy Cross Ministries’ health team, were also in charge of some presentations and activities of the retreat.
Mother Therese Bui began her talk asking if those attending feel the call to the religious life.
One of the women said she was open to what God has in store for her, but that she was unsure whether the cloistered life of the Carmelites was for her. “I think I would like to be more an active sister,” she said.
Another of the women, who is graduating from college, said she is exploring the idea of a religious life, while the third said she is discerning how God is calling her.
“Well, this is the right place for you to be at,” Sr. Lisa replied.
Mother Therese told the young women that God has a lot of beautiful ministries, and all vocations are wonderful, including the vocation of being single and the vocation of being a lay person.
She explained that some religious orders, like the Sisters of the Holy Cross and the Daughters of Charity, are engaged in active work, while others, like the Discalced Carmelites of which she is a member, devote themselves to contemplative prayer within a monastery.
“We live joyfully our vocation of love, prayer and union with God to pray for priests and the salvation of all the souls,” Mother Therese said, adding that the Carmelite order is a special calling.
“When I told the sisters [at the monastery] that I was going to be here today with you, I asked them to pray for you, that you open your hearts to God’s will,” she said.
“People say ‘I am open to Gods will,’ but how do you open to it? It is easier said than done,” she continued. “If something in our hearts is missing when we look at our lives, it’s a matter of what your heart is telling you; is a matter of you and God.”
Mother Therese, who has been a Carmelite for 25 years, said when she arrived in Utah 31 years ago, she attended Mass regularly and volunteered in the community but she always felt that that was not enough.
“I wanted to do more for the Lord,” she said. “… It took time, and God let me know that I cannot basically help all people at once, but I can pray for them, so that was the beginning of my calling to Carmel.”
One of the most important things of Carmel life is prayer, Mother Therese added, and asked the participants to pray and take time by themselves in the quiet so they could listen to God.
Life as a vowed religious is “really not about us, it is about something bigger, it is about working for something that lasts forever,” Mother Therese said.
Holy Cross Sr. Veronica Fajardo, who is a licensed clinical social worker, said she, like Mother Therese, has taken the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, but Sisters of the Holy Cross “express our vows in different ways. … A lot of what we do is spend time outside of our convent, working with people.”
Sr. Fajardo was born and raised in Nicaragua, but moved with her family to the United States when her country was going to war. She was teaching fifth grade in North Carolina when she got an invitation from Holy Cross Ministries to go to Ghana, where she taught elementary school.
After returning to the U.S. in 2011, she made her perpetual vows with the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. “In Ghana my thoughts about what was going to be my next ministry became stronger,” Sr. Veronica said. “The ministry that I wanted to work for was the immigration one. ‘I am a migrant, too,’ I thought.”
The Sisters of the Holy Cross’ mission statement calls for “joyfully participate in Jesus’ mission by proclaiming God’s transforming love for all creation,” she said. “Compassion moves us to reflect on the signs of the times, discern the needs of God’s people and our world, and respond as we are able.”
A different charism is expressed by the Daughters of Charity, who consider that “serving the poor is a form of prayer,” said Sr. Lisa, adding that for her “the greatest joy in a consecrated life is living the community life, living and journeying with [other] sisters.”
“Our charism is our service to the poor and those in greatest need,” she said, with efforts such as Ogden’s Give Me a Chance, which teaches marketable skills to low-income women and offers after-school programs for children.
“When we’re young people, we think God isn’t calling us right now, but God is calling us,” Sr. Lisa said. She urged the participants to begin to say “yes” to God not only with the mouth but also with the heart.
The participants were encouraged to spend time with each of the religious communities as well as invite others to approach them.
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