Do you trust me?
Follow Hannah’s vocation story:
I was raised in a loving catholic family and received all of my sacraments while attending a Catholic school through 5th grade in Durango, Colorado. In May of 2012 my mother passed away from cancer (I was 14 years old). This was very hard on my family and eventually I stopped going to mass. I fell away from the faith for a period of time during high school and undergraduate school. I
encountered Jesus again in a non-denomination church in Texas in 2019. I began to invest in my faith again such as reading the Bible, and that eventually led me back to the Catholic church in 2021. Since encountering Jesus’s loving mercy in confession, I had a reconversion and I am so grateful to be back home in the Catholic faith.
I started to consider religious life in 2022 when I felt Jesus inviting me to surrender my whole life to him and be completely his. At that time, I started discussing my discernment with a spiritual director. I remember one day when I felt Jesus’ invitation to a radical life of consecration during adoration. I could feel a deep desire in my heart and when I turned to Jesus to ask him his opinion he simply asked me, “Do you trust me?” I knew the path ahead would require much trust in Jesus and my whole being wanted to express the answer yes to him.
In the spring of 2023, I met a priest named Father Anthony when I applied for the World Youth Day Pilgrimage in Lisbon through Beatitudes Missions. Beatitudes Missions is an apostolate of the Community of the Beatitudes. At this point in my life I was graduating from veterinary school and was discussing with Fr. Anthony my discernment between taking a job in Texas vs. staying in Colorado to discern religious life more intentionally. After lots of prayer, I ended up taking the job in Texas and did not attend the World Youth Day trip. Fr. Anthony, however, stayed in touch with me and I started an online Sources Discipleship program through Beatitudes Missions. This was a huge gift for me to have a good Catholic community after I moved to a new place in Texas. In November of 2024, I attended a Beatitudes weekend retreat in Michigan and got a taste of the beautiful and rich charisms of the Community of the Beatitudes. After the retreat I went to Seek with Beatitudes Missions and after Seek, I accepted a position as a summer intern for Beatitudes Missions in France and Italy.
I enjoyed my job in Texas very much and love working as an equine veterinarian, but my heart continued to be drawn towards something deeper. I still felt a desire deep down to belong only to Jesus and I held out hope that the Lord would provide a path for this. After 2 years of working, I felt drawn to take a step toward religious life, but I felt very stuck at my job in Texas. The Jubilee year brought an answer to so many of my prayers. I prayed, “Lord, if you desire me to do something else with my life, make a change for me. I feel like I can’t change my circumstances, but you can. Please open a path for me.” I felt the grace of Jubilee freedom when I was offered the opportunity to do the internship with Beatitudes Missions. The Lord opened up the path for me and gave me the next step to take. I decided to be completely open to whatever the Lord asked of me after the internship. I had no plans for after the internship, I just wanted to give the Lord the whole summer to speak to me and guide me wherever he desired.Over the course of the summer, a lot of my questions and hesitations got answered and I fell in love with the Community of the Beatitudes. I love being surrounded by people all striving for the same goal to be united with Christ and who all have their eyes set for heaven. I feel like I experience a freedom in the community that truly allows me to have a closer relationship with Jesus and be the person God created me to be. I am excited to continue to follow where God is calling me and live in unity with his love.
