✦ COME & SEE WEEKEND • 13–15 JUNE 2025 • YOUNG WOMEN 18–35
Sr Mairead
Personal stories · Religious Sisters
My vocation story
It is hard to pinpoint one moment in the past when I first thought, “Is God really calling me to religious life? No, He can’t be, so I’ll ignore it!” God had other ideas though…
I grew up Catholic in Ireland. I was baptised a couple of weeks after I was born, made first confession and first communion when I was 6, and confirmation at 12. My earliest memories of God are of Christmas Mass and the crib, and from my first years in primary school. I remember a moment in the classroom when I was 6 or 7 and the thought, “I believe in God,” popped into my head and heart. That total faith in God has remained ever since. When I reflect on my life, I know that this faith is both a beautiful gift from God and a foundation stone which has helped me throughout life. The rosary, or rather a rosary novena, was the prayer I turned to in my teenage years with many prayers answered.
Through the years of desert wanderings (as I now see some decades of my life), the desire for God, searching for something I couldn’t work out, was ever present. I really struggled to figure out what to do in my life. The only type of vocation I was aware of was religious or priesthood; neither were encouraged in Ireland. It was only in the early 2000s, when I began primary school teaching that I began to understand that there are many forms of vocation – it is something that one feels particularly drawn to or called.
As I grew older, I followed what I now recognise as worldly values – some good and some wrong – all in the search for happiness and fulfilment. I was making more and more poor choices, mostly without any real awareness. I was caught up in the ways of the world, looking for happiness in what the world had to offer, gradually questioning less the choices I was making. I was putting my heart in the wrong places. When things were good, all was fine with the world; when they weren’t, I sought out God. God was for Sundays and bad days. Deep in my heart though, there was a desire to keep searching for the happiness and peace I was seeking. Looking back, God was always in my life.
Finally, a bit like the Prodigal Son, I began to “wake-up” and realise that the world wasn’t the place to seek happiness and I wondered why God seemed to always want to help me – a sinner. My growth in understanding God’s merciful love has been gradual rather than one specific moment, involving retreats, the sacraments, times of prayer, and – very much – other people. What I now know as God’s Providence has always played a part in my life and now the loving Providence of God, our Father, astounds me everyday.
Even though I have wandered in the world and worldly values, God never let me go and kept calling me back. While I didn’t have a clear thought that he may be calling me to religious life until 2019 (which I quickly denied!), the question did come up a couple of times when I was younger. Now I realise that I never said ‘No’, just a ‘Hmm, I don’t know where that came from.’ The other four Walsingham Spirituality retreats – combined with the refreshing, joyful experience of deep faith, love and hope shining out from the COLW sisters – helped turn my 'Surely not' into a serious contemplation of whether God could be calling me to Religious Life.
Then a providential moment led to me asking Sr Camilla a question and here I am just after taking my first vows! The bright, cheerful blue habit and no veil helped a little too. What was there not to like! Most importantly, these were women I could talk to.
I really feel that I am answering a call from God and trust Him in the path He is leading me on. Do I know or have a clear idea of God’s will for my life? No. But then I don’t think St Patrick had, or Moses, or St Peter, Saint Carlo Acutis, St Edith Stein, St Teresa of Avila, … or even Mary. They believed, trusted said, ‘Yes’ and in surrendering found the joy, peace and happiness which comes from God alone. Following God’s will in each moment of each day means saying my yeses and thank-yous, knowing that when I fall, Jesus is standing ready for me to turn to Him for help. As St Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 12:9:
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ (2 Cor 12:9). Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me”.
The Mission of My Life by Saint John Henry Newman
God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.
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