Often I have marveled at the way the Lord has directed my life.... so obvious to me as I reflect back. Growing up as a minister's daughter was a good start to live a Christian life... that is what my dad did for a living, and he could and still does give great homilies! Still does because he is now a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church! I have shared in the past that just about 40 years ago my entire family of 13 converted to Catholicism... these were the events leading up to that point on my own personal journey...
The summer after I graduated High School in Flint, Michigan... my family moved to Minneapolis. My dad was still a minister, but had started working with alcoholics. They asked him to come to Minneapolis and start a Chemical Dependency unit at General Hospital. I worked a year, so that I could be a resident of the Minnesota and go to the U of M for a lot less. I got a job at General Hospital charting lab results in the charts... I would go to all the big wards and the units and with my little tape dispenser put the lab slips in the charts... I started to think that the nursing part looked like a way that I could help people, and so I trained as an aide and worked the big wards on Men's Medical. It led me in the direction of nursing and so I started at the U with nursing as my goal!
During welcome week I met Pat's sister, Marge. We stayed friends... she lived in a dorm and I lived at home, so I spent a good amount of time there hanging out with her. When the summer came around we told our mother's that we were going to hitch hike "out west" to their horror. You have to understand that this was 1971 and this was just what everyone was doing... going out to see the flower children I suppose or to become one.... We ended up getting a ride with someone that we knew... as we camped on the way... The place we ended our journey was Boulder,Colorado. A group of Christians had set up a commune there for all these kids that we "heading out west".
The first night there I was prayed over to stop smoking... I had smoked for that first year of college and haven't smoked since. After about a week there I called my boyfriend, and told him that I wouldn't be moving in with him... he was upset and mad... I was relieved. We lived in a strict setting... the guys and girls were separated, and we had times for chores, bible reading and prayers... the women wore long dresses. I started to think that this is how it is if you are a nun, and that I would like to be a nun.... My parents and I had been attending a charismatic prayer group in Wayzata at a Cenacle Convent of Sisters. It was my first exposure to Catholic Sisters and they were wonderful!
I returned home after about a month of living there... My parents had a surprise for me.... they shared the experience that they had while on retreat at the convent doing the Ignation Silent Retreat Exercises and how my dad was led to join the Catholic Church... My parents said that I could decide if I would join them and my younger siblings since I was soon to be 20yo... "I want to be Catholic, because I want to be a nun." Eventually all of us decided to join and the rest is history!
So much more has happened with each passing year.... I am filled with such appreciation and love for the Lord and how He has personally been so involved in my life and bringing me from a brink of a life that would not have been anything like the one that I have been blessed with! How I love to share it far a wide and how I love to hear the way the Lord has touched others! There is a God and He is alive and well and crazy in love with each and every one of us! Jesus we trust in You!
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