Make Christ's Merciful Love Visible
Abby shares her vocation story:
My journey of coming to know and encounter the Heart of Christ began my junior year of high school. Resting in adoration, He gently opened my eyes to the possibility of a relationship with Him. This was new for me. Religion was not really mentioned or practiced within my home. I maybe went to mass a handful of times apart from what was necessary to be “Catholic.” I attended PSR and received the sacraments because it’s what you did, but the relational aspect of the
faith was missing, until that day. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was face to face with Christ Himself in the monstrance.
He affirmed my broken identity and encouraged me to continue pursuing a life lived for Him. It really was a moment of intense grace. And this encounter changed everything. I desired to love more deeply and seek Him more closely. It was His heart that transformed the way that I lived, the way that I spoke, and the people I chose to surround myself with. He took me from a place of great despair and planted a seed of hope, faith, and love within me. From this, I started praying and attending bible studies. I was earnestly looking to love Him with everything. I thought this was later fulfilled in college worship nights and non-denominational services, but my heart somehow knew I was missing the fullness of His love.
By His grace, I fully met Him at a retreat in the sacraments. And there was no more denying His presence in the Eucharist and in confession. I had received His merciful love, in its fullness. So in October of 2023, I ran back home to the Catholic Church. Since that day, I have never been more joyful or more myself. Even in all the trials, He has continued to pursue a relationship with me and I want nothing more than to return the love that He has given me. And I knew this began with prayer.
The growth in my prayer life over the years is a direct result of the intimacy I have found in relationship with Jesus. This deep intimacy first began after attending SEEK24. I was given tools to establish more of a daily prayer routine, and I started attending mass more throughout the week. In these small, daily sacrifices, I started to discover the person Christ is, and not just what I read about Him. He became someone I could actually relate with. Our relationship became incarnational. This was only elevated by the Ignatius spiritual exercises during the Lenten season in 2025. I had come to know Christ closer than ever before, and I started to hear His voice more clearly. He became the one person I could come to with anything that was weighing heavy on me, and the one who could rejoice with me! He became my safe place.
As my prayer grew, I truly began to discern the idea of religious life. However, I think it’s something that has been on my heart for a long time now. I’ve always felt that God would call me to something greater, but I was unsure of what that was. Growing up, I had never encountered Religious and I didn’t even know Sisters existed. It wasn’t until I began to take my Catholic faith seriously, when I learned that religious life was an option. And the more that I learned about religious Sisters, the more I questioned if I was called. That way of living was the “something greater” my heart pondered. The love. The prayer. The service. The sacrifice. It was fascinating to me and I slowly began to desire this way of living, but I still didn’t know where to go with all of my questions. The Lord in His kindness provided me with the opportunity to meet the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George in February of 2025, and as I had come to know them, the more I encountered Him. And I knew that I was home.
That feeling only continued to deepen as I began seriously discerning a religious vocation with their community. While on weekend visits, the Lord continued to give me sign after sign and so much reassurance in prayer that He was calling me to say “yes”. I could spend hours describing the God-winks that He has shown me, but I will leave you with this. Everywhere that I am, the Sisters are. I cannot run from their charism or their community. The Lord placed them in my life for a reason, and I think I now know why- my heart was created to “Make Christ’s Merciful Love Visible.”
It’s an incredible honor to discern a religious vocation, and I am so excited to see how the Lord continues to pull my heart closer to His. I’m also grateful for Our Lady’s intercession in my life. So much of the grace I have received began after consecrating myself to her in February of 2024. May her fiat continue to inspire me to live completely surrendered to His will. Praise be to Jesus Christ now and forever! All glory belongs to Him!
