Sister
Maria

My religious vocation is a respond to God’s love for me.  I was born in Vietnam, the youngest of the seven children in my family. After the communist took over Vietnam, my parents and grandparents decided to pack up and leave the country. My family was separated into two groups, leaving my father with my five older siblings and my mother and grandparents with the two youngest children. I did not know it at the time, but it would be almost two years before I would be reunited with my father and my siblings. Our trip out of Vietnam was by boat and in secrecy. I was three years old at the time, so it was scary, as you can imagine. My mother and grandparents had thirteen failed attempts to escape Vietnam, but they refused to give up. Each time we were discovered by the communist government, we would be sent to a prison camp. With each failed attempt, our faith and prayer continued to grow stronger and deeper in God and in the intercessions of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Saints. Eventually with faith and perseverance, our freedom boat reached the Philippines, the place I would call home for the next two years. From the Philippines, I boarded an airplane for the first time not knowing where it would take me. My mother told me that I was going to be reunited with my father and siblings. When the airplane landed at the LAX airport in California, I was completely lost. I did not know where I was or who all these tall people were. I did not even recognize my own father and brothers and sisters. I was just lost in my own thoughts; however, my mother helped me to come to my senses and in no time I was truly reunited with my family, all nine of us. 

At home around this time, my older brother was preparing to enter the seminary and my older sister was also discerning a religious vocation.  Having older siblings discerning religious life got me thinking about becoming a Nun myself. After I received my Confirmation, I wanted to volunteer like my older sister who was teaching catechism at our parish.  With the increasing number of students attending Sunday school, the Lovers of the Holy Cross Sister was more than happy to have me start as an assistant to my cousin’s Pre-First Holy Communion class.  By my freshman year of college, I was assigned my own class. Even though I was nervous and didn’t know how to make class fun for the kids, my desire and passion to teach the children about God’s love gave me the courage I needed to persevere for the next ten years. Aside from teaching Religious Education, I was also a member of the Respect Life and the Human Trafficking Ministry at my parish.

After I graduated from college and started working for a few years, I knew I needed to make a decision to answer God’s invitation to enter religious life. Coincidentally, at that time my friend received an invitation to visit the Salesian Sisters and asked if I would like to accompany her. My friend told me that the sisters have fun and work with the youth. After a lovely visit with the Salesian Sisters, I came home, prayed and finally decided that I should apply with the Salesian Sisters. However, by the end of my first year at the Salesian school, I knew I did not have the calling to be a Salesian. Although I love the sisters and the students, I felt a stronger calling to be a contemplative. About two years later I happened to bump into my friend at church, the same one who introduced me to the Salesian; this time she told me about the Monastic weekend experience with the Carmelite Nuns in Terre Haute, Indiana. I knew God wanted me to go to this Monastic experience because I had longed for an opportunity to experience contemplative life, so I signed up for the weekend.