My name is Lindsay and I am 23 years old. I am currently a Postulant here in New Ross Carmel. I grew up in Northern Ireland. During the days of my early childhood I remember vividly the afternoon I saw nuns for the first time, who lived just a few minutes from my home.

It was from here that the seed of my religious vocation came forth; coming each weekend and wondering, at seven years old, what the white thing with a gold rim around it was. One nun exclaimed, “That, my dear little one is Jesus, who loves you very much.” At this time I did not understand its significance, but this conversation was prophetic. I simply said these words after the sister “Jesus, one day I will be like one of them for you.”

Growing up, my life brought me many days of happiness and sorrows too. Even though my family didn’t attend church, I still went. There, I could pour out my heart and find peace. The turning point of my vocation occurred during my Secondary school years when I attended a retreat. By the end of this Youth2000 retreat the longing to be a religious was very strong in my heart. Being only 15, I was too young and had to finish school. Yet this didn’t stop God from working with me.

Already, at 16, traveling was a part of me already. I visited convents in my homeland and in Europe. My visit to a community in Europe, led me to America for 4 years where I spent time working with the children and aged. while also studying the program of formation. I loved every day there, especially serving God’s most needy. Yet in the depths of the most trying moments, I found myself returning to an experience in my homeland.

The joy and simplicity that I saw in the Cloistered life of Carmel and the freedom to live it with people like minded all called by God. The very life of prayer spoke to the inner core of my heart. That in every moment we are with the Beloved and He with us! I always longed to be helping in every area and felt the stress of not being able too give more. Yet here in Carmel by my life of prayer and sacrifice to God, all those longings become one and united!

Religious life is not always easy or as we would like it to be. I found out soon that nobody is perfect. Only God is perfect. I can say it is joyful and rewarding, but not without a love for the cross. It is my hope that one day I can espouse myself to Christ more fully in Carmel and be at the Service of God’s people and the Church.





Sharing from a live-in experience

I look to the Cross and I see love, I look at my life, dreams, desires and nothing else matters but the deepest desire, to be with the Beloved, to walk along the way of the Cross with Him, Jesus, He is love in its full sweetness. For without Jesus I am nothing, with Him I can do little things, but with great love.



Words of wisdom
"Jesus does not ask Peter what his talents, gifts and skills are. Nor does he ask the one who had just denied him whether from now on he will be faithful to him, whether he will stand firm. He asks him the only thing that matters, the one thing that can give a vocation its foundation: do you love me?" Bl JPII August 17, 2000


“Set her, Father, in the full radiance
of the face of your Son,
that she may catch his beauty
and, by what she becomes,
show all the world that Jesus
is living in his Church."


 

(Quotation from the rite of religious consecration)


Vocation Stories coming soon........