One of my earliest memories is that of my much loved grandmother sitting in the living room absorbed in prayer. With Italian prayer book in hand, her body would rock to the rhythm of her praise and pleading.

 

Our Italian Church had no school and Catholic education was not the norm for our family. So it was that when I came home from 7th grade in public school and told my mother that I wanted to transfer to a Catholic school, my announcement was met with great surprise. My mom tried to convince me to stay where I was and go on to the public high school where both she and my sister had gone. I was firm in my resolve and so my mother phoned our pastor who in turn began making calls which led to my enrollment in Syracuse’s Cathedral School.

 

Having no thoughts of religious life at that time, my dreams were of being a mother – of six children - 4 boys and 2 girls! I believe my desire and move to Catholic school prepared the way for the stirrings and decision for religious life that came two years later in my sophomore year of high school. Gradually there grew in me an overwhelming conviction of being loved by Our Lord and wanting to respond and return that love. Jesus had reached out to me, grasped me, and I desired to respond with my whole being to His love. Having read the Autobiography of St Thérèse, I was attracted to Carmelite spirituality but did not know there were Carmelite monasteries in the United States. The priest I confided in had no knowledge of Carmel and directed me to Maryknoll. I seriously considered becoming a missionary and dreamed of one day going to China, although my desire for Carmel remained. Carmel was to provide the way of total giving for which I longed. Through prayer I would embrace all peoples. I would embrace the world. 

 

I have been a Carmelite nun for more than 50 years; years that have brought wondrous blessings, unexpected twists and turns, challenges and changes, while all along the way there has been “grace upon grace.”

 

I am deeply grateful to be a daughter of Saint Teresa, living with women for whom Jesus is the center of life, who seek and desire God as I do, who long as I do, for personal transformation and the healing and transformation of our world. I am inspired by my sisters and upheld by God’s mercy. Community life provides me with endless opportunities for growth; endless opportunities for self giving love.