I grew up in Christ the King parish in Ann Arbor with a charismatic spirituality that helped me understand the Holy Spirit’s desire to participate more fully in our lives, especially in the Mass. It is a parish that focuses on the family and on relationships that draw you closer to the Lord through support of one another.
I started thinking about my vocation when I was 14 and in the youth group. I knew the sisters in the Servants of God’s Love community because they were closely tied with our parish. Some of them were my teachers, and I worked with them through volunteering. They were real-life examples of what religious life looked like. But I come from a family of seven kids, so the idea of choosing something different from the great life that I knew at home was pretty scary.
Our society is so enthralled with the idea that romantic love is what fulfills you that to hear the Lord calling me to something else was difficult. I knew that a vocation is something that is supposed to give you a lot of peace and joy, but, during my teenage years, I couldn’t receive it with either.
I went to Michigan State University and earned a degree in chemistry. When I entered college, my parents told me that my vocation at the time was to be a student. They believed the Lord was asking me to really put my energy into that. I also focused on building some strong Christian relationships. The Lord has blessed me with wonderful friends.
At the beginning of my senior year, I was trying to decide whether to go to graduate school. But I had to take some really tough courses that semester, and I didn’t have time to think about what the next step was going to be. It really brought me to a place of just saying, ‘Lord, I don’t have time to try to control the situation. I need you to tell me what it is you have for me.’
He started by calling my attention to the virtue of hope, which is about trusting and believing in God’s promises. He drew my gaze especially to psalms and many passages that say, ‘Do not be afraid, I am with you.’ I had a better and better understanding of how steadfast his love for us is, and that he has lovingly constructed a plan for each one of us that will best get us to heaven.
I started going to adoration a lot more, and I started meeting with the vocations director for the Catholic Diocese of Lansing, Sister Mary Ann, who is part of our order. She became a real spiritual mentor for me. At that point, I thought the Lord might be calling me to some sort of service to others, but I still really wanted to be married someday. Then Lent started, and I experienced the Lord’s pursuit of me in the Scriptures and in prayer. I knew that he desired me to come away with him and to grow in my relationship with him.
I felt a specific calling to the Servants of God’s Love. My entire life had been in charismatic communal settings, and I took such reassurance that the Lord had guided me to a religious community that had the same focus. He wasn’t working in hairpin turns. He was very gentle and set the relationships around me so that when he called me, I was able to respond.
As I was preparing to enter the community, I struggled with a lot of things. I wondered, if I join now, does that mean the next 60 years are already figured out for me? What will happen to my relationships with my family and friends? What about my things? And the Lord gave me so much peace. He had fostered all of these things just to bring me here. How could I doubt that he would continue to take care of everything?
I am a postulant, and that is one of the great things about religious life. You can take the first year and say, “I think the Lord might be calling me here, and I want to know for sure.” There’s no commitment beyond the first year, which gives you a wonderful freedom to experience this life from the inside rather than from afar. There’s freedom, too, in knowing that the sisters want what the Lord has for me – whether it be this life or marriage.
It has been an incredible adventure. We have 17 sisters, including me, and our works are dynamic and varied. We have teachers, nurses, caregivers, speakers and more. I work four days a week at Emmanuel House, which is a home for the elderly and is one of our ministries. The sisters are committed to communal life, which means that their whole focus is to become a family and to know the Lord’s love through one another. Prayer is the center of our lives, and everything is prioritized around that. When I walk into our chapel, I experience Christ there and I know I am in the right place. As with any vocation, our call is to understand his love and to live a life out of that.
To learn more about religious life, contact Sister Mary Ann Foggin at mfoggin@dioceseoflansing.org, 517.342.2506
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