The Vocation of Sr. Ellen Jane

A LOVE STORY 

In spite of His best efforts, God did not get through to me about a call to religious life until I was a twenty-three year old kindergarten teacher.  When on retreat, a priest asked me if I had ever thought about becoming a religious, I answered that I had never considered it seriously.  Through prayerful pondering IT ALL BEGAN TO COME TOGETHER that God had been preparing me for His call all along life’s way.  To share with you a few highlights:  As a youngster I was impressed by my Sister-teachers along with my Ursuline aunt, and at times would find myself draping a towel over my head to see how I’d look in a veil.  The faith-filled example of my parents always reaching out to help those in need was a continual inspiration.  My mother loved St Therese and gave me a copy of her Autobiography, which meant much to me.  A priest had given my dad Cardinal Mercier’s prayer to the Holy Spirit which became a family favorite.  After recollecting oneself for five minutes, one prays:
                
O Holy Spirit, Beloved of my soul,
I adore You.  Enlighten me, guide me,
 Strengthen me, console me.  Tell me
 What I should do; give me Your orders.
 I promise to submit myself to all that
 You desire of me, and to accept all that
You permit to happen to me. 

Let me only know your will.   Amen.  

When in third grade, a vocation talk given by a religious brother stressing the importance of doing God’s will made quite an impression on me.  “Yes, one should really answer God’s call” I later told a friend, “but he wasn’t calling me”.  During high school I became devoted to Our Lady through the Sodality, often attending weekday Mass and also continuing my nightly prayer to the Holy Spirit.  I attended a vocation tea at the convent one Sunday afternoon, telling my friends I was going just out of curiosity.   During college, as I majored in elementary education and later became a teacher, God continued to deepen my relationship with Him, drawing me to make retreats every now and then.  By the end of the above-mentioned retreat, I became dead serious about this possibility of having a call to religious life.  I wondered if I should give up my plan to go on a Newman Club-Marian tour to Europe, but was advised to go ahead with the tour before entering.

Which order?  I thought of a teaching order, known for its excellence, Sisters of the Humility of Mary.  Since I was still dragging my feet, I also checked in with a priest from a neighboring parish who concluded I could well have a religious vocation.  Then one day while ironing, the Holy Spirit brought me to a STRONG REALIZATION that in light of eternity, nothing in life is worth-while except knowing God’s will and doing it.   A phone call put me in touch with an HM sister whom God provided as guide and before long, God gave me the courage to enter the HM Sisters.  After my novitiate, I taught elementary school for fifteen years.  As time went on I began to desire more time for prayer.  When re-reading St. Therese’s Autobiography, I noted especially how she was drawn to offer part of Jesus’ prayer after the Last Supper for priests.  While making a short retreat at a Carmelite Monastery, and talking with one of the Nuns who had been a talented teacher, I came to the realization that the gift of following a call to Carmel was more important than using the two degrees I had in education.  As she said, “God calls many to be teachers, but fewer to be Carmelites”.  “Life begins at Forty” and so on my fortieth birthday, I entered the Carmelite Monastery in Latrobe, PA for a year of further discernment.  Carmel’s main apostolate is to pray for the Church, especially for priests, along with the world and its needs.  It was there in Carmel that I found the Lord’s niche for me and have been there ever since, offering my every effort to help answer Jesus’ Prayer after the Last Supper, “that all may be ONE”---in His loving Heart forever.