Jesus I Trust in You

Trust! This is such an easy word to say, but for me it is a hard word to follow. My whole vocation has revolved around this one word. My name is Miranda Edgar. I am 19 years old and I grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I recently entered the convent after graduating high school in May. I was your normal teenager. I loved to hang out with my friends, listen to music, go to all the school games, text/talk on the phone, and go to church.

I attended high school with over 800 students, but only 10 of them were Catholic. Therefore my friends weren’t attending Mass on Sunday and they weren’t going to the parish youth group to learn about the Catechism. Because I didn’t want to be different, I ran away from the Church and tried to find meaning in the world. I began to date my freshman year of high school, but no matter who I dated I always had this longing in my heart. I was never able to say, “I love you,” to any of them because of this hole that they couldn’t fill. I became very confused because my dream was to grow up, have the perfect husband, the perfect children (3 boys & 3 girls), and, well, what I thought was the perfect life. In this confusion, I felt Christ asking me to Trust in Him even though everything seemed unclear.

Longing for meaning in my life, I joined the parish youth group and began to fall in love with the Catholic Church. This caused me to immerse myself in my faith; I went to every retreat and joined every council possible in the Diocese of Little Rock. My faith became the most important part of my life making everything else seem obsolete. Because of this love, I made new friends in the Church and everything seemed to be falling into place. But God wasn’t quite done yet; He was still asking me to trust Him.

The happiness I had found began to turn into a longing; an emptiness in my heart that wanted to give Him everything. The summer before my senior year, my best friend tricked me into living the life of a sister. She told me that we were going to a convent for “mission work,” but this was God’s way of opening my eyes to His plan for me. We arrived at the convent after eight long hours of driving and were informed that wake up was at 4 am. I remember thinking that this is not for me; “I don’t even wake up until 7:45 on school days and class starts at 8.” The next morning came fast and my life seemed to flash before my eyes: daily Eucharist, prayer, mission work, and Jesus could be mine everyday for the rest of my life. I was drawn by the Sisters who were so on fire for Christ and I longed to be filled with His joy.

Once I began to pray about entering religious life I became very scared. All I could think about was what I would have to give up if I entered. I mean- I did have the perfect life planned out: college, mission work, marriage, and children. I knew this couldn’t be for me because I already had everything planned and felt that I wasn’t good enough to be a sister and that I didn’t have anything to offer. Once again that word was whispered into my heart, “Trust,” it’s that simple.

So I began to let go of my plans and surrender to His, and a year later I entered the community that I had visited, the community that I had felt His first loving invitation to be His bride. “Jesus I Trust in You.”

Simply Ready

To be “simply ready”- to be ready and willing to do whatever God calls us to do- is an often quoted saying of our foundress, Mother M. Anselma. I’ve experienced this to a small extent in the last six months as a Sister. As a canonical novice, I expected to be quietly working in housekeeping, the refectory (dining room), or somewhere else within the novitiate. Instead, I have found myself working in professed housekeeping, helping in the chapel, helping guests, and often doing other random things that need to be accomplished. Through these experiences, I’ve learned that part of being a Sister is to truly be “simply ready” to put aside whatever I had planned or thought I was going to be doing to answer God’s call through what the community and one’s superiors are asking me to do at that moment.

The past six months I’ve been blessed to see Mother Anselma’s call to be “simply ready” lived out on the much broader scale of our world-wide community. I’ve seen many of our Sisters who are originally from the U.S. come home briefly for a variety of reasons. They’re now living and working in other provinces or regions of the world ranging from Brazil to Rome. I’ve also seen four of our Sisters willingly answer the call to start a new convent in Havana, Cuba, not knowing what to expect. The lesson I’ve learned from seeing the response of all these Sisters, from a variety of backgrounds, is that we never know what path God is going to call us to walk but we have to be ready to respond “yes” out of love. In the words of Sister M. Hannah, currently serving in Japan, “Don’t set limits. Allow God to give you the strength and ability to do what He’s calling you to accomplish.”

- Sr. Karol Marie, 1st year novice

Missioned to Cuba

On December 27th four of our Sisters left for the Motherhouse in Germany to prepare for a new mission.  A few weeks later on January 10, 2011 they were going to Cuba.  Sister Eva-Maria, Sister M. Wiltraud, Sister M. Philippa and Sister M. Seraphica have responded to God's call to bring His Merciful Love to the priests, seminarians and people of Cuba as they serve at the new seminary in Havana.  Please keep them in your prayers and check out more photos!