Sister Mary Augustine, Temporary Professed

St. John, New Brunswick

It all started in August 2002 when I went on an 8-day silent retreat. Truly it was amazing because it allowed me to converse with God alone for a whole eight days! At the end of this retreat I experienced a call from God to be His spouse forever! It is difficult to express my joy, my excitement, my absolute amazement that God would want me for His spouse, and I was barely able to contain my emotions!! From that moment on, I truly felt the immense love of God for me. After this I was fortunate enough to do some missionary work with youth and young children in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and through these six months, I felt myself growing closer to Our Lord and I continued to really try to live for Him.

In February of 2003, I felt called to leave Minneapolis and to return home and really start discerning which order God was calling me to. So I spent the next five months in intense prayer, letter writing and searching for the right Community.

During that time I visited two Carmelite convents because I thought God was calling me to the Cloistered life, but God had other plans.So, by the end of my second visit, I realized I was called to the active life.

From then on, I started to search for an Apostolic order. Finally, after many months of questioning and prayers, I found the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate. I really knew this was the order for me when I came for a "come and see" week and it was the daily Holy Hour of Adoration, so to speak, that was the main attraction!

So here I am, striving to live my life completely for Him, and not a moment goes by that I do not thank the Lord for calling me to be His bride forever!

It is an honour and a privilege to be one of many chosen daughters of God, called to religious life. So, for all of you who have even the slightest inkling of pursuing the religious life, check it out! Or else you might miss the experience of joy - the fullness of joy - which Christ speaks about in the Gospels.