What did you want to be, growing up? What were your childhood dreams?
When you get a chance, ask our CMR sisters. Some will say they dreamed of being an astronaut, a doctor, an architect, or a pilot. Others dreamed of having a family with 3,5,6 kids!
For Bình An, the newest novice of our congregation, she had dreamed of honorably serving in the military. She served in JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps) during high school and thought of enlisting after college. However, after much discernment, she felt God may be calling her to become a soldier for Christ instead. During the 19 months of her postulancy, Bình An listened, wondered, and prayed to discover God's dream for her life.
Our CMR spiritual guide and patroness of the CMR postulancy, St. Therese of Lisieux also had many dreams. "I feel the vocation of the warrior, the priest, the apostle, the doctor, the martyr." Through prayer, she realizes that despite her many dreams, the key to all these dreams was love. Through love, she could do all things.
“O Jesus, my Love, at last I have found my vocation, my vocation is Love!... Yes, I have found my place in the Church, and it is you, O my God, who have given me this place... in the heart of the Church, my Mother, I will be Love!.... Thus I shall be all things: thus my dream shall be realized!!!” (Story of a Soul)
On Saturday, August 14, 2021, Bình An entered into the novitiate, the School of the Holy Spirit, and the beginning of dreams realized in God. Bishop Emeritus John Leibrecht presided over the rite. Her family and all the sisters were in attendance. We thanked God for Sr. Bình An's generosity and prayed for her perseverance at Eucharistic Adoration. We celebrated her courage and faith with a wonderful meal of roast beef, passion fruit juice and cake. And the Rite of Entrance into the Novitiate is also exciting on another level – we all get to see her in the CMR habit for the first time (a habit is what we call the clothes religious sisters/brothers/priests wear).
In the CMR Novitiate, Sr. Bình An collaborates with the Holy Spirit and her Novice Director to dive deeper into the joy of living consecrated life as well as the charism, spirit, and rule of the Congregation. May love be the key that unlocks all her dreams. Please pray for Sr. Bình An, her loved ones and for more vocations!
Check out the pictures in the link!
A sampling below -
