It takes a strong conviction to become a sister and an even stronger one for originally non-Catholic Sister Lucia Marie, who converted to the faith after she fell in love with the idea of being the 'bride of Christ.'
SISTER LUCIA MARIE
Nashville Dominicans
'I hadn't heard that before and the thought really captured me. I thought what does that mean to be a bride of Christ? I don't know, it really touched my heart. I thought, I want to love Jesus like that. I want his pain to be my pain. And then that was confirmed that that's what I want for my life.'
Along the way, she experienced that pain and discomfort, including moments of loneliness and waiting as she discerned whether her vocation was to marriage or religious life.
In these moments, she filled her time with prayer, and said she remembered that if Jesus calls a person to religious life, He won't show up with flowers and chocolates, but appeals to the heart instead.
SISTER LUCIA MARIE
Nashville Dominicans
'God is always with us, especially in times of suffering, He's very, very present. I think sometimes those moments of suffering are moments when we can come to know Him more and so they're really a gift, even if they don't always feel that way.'
She discovered this in a waiting period, a time when she could not yet enter the religious order, but was working as a second grade teacher, without any formal training, a job in which she hated.
Now as a sister, she has the exact same job teaching second grade, but loves it. She says she reminds herself that God sends those specific children to her and she is sent to them.
SISTER LUCIA MARIE
Nashville Dominicans
'There's a great freedom in giving yourself to God, because you have to forget about yourself, so much. And when you forget about the selfish things about you, you can be who you really are and let God transform you to be the person you're meant to be.'
This transformation came when she joined the Nashville Dominicans in Tennessee in 2003 to become the 'bride of Christ' she had dreamt about for years before entering. Now she cannot imagine her life any other way.
