As I ponder over the past, I can see the grace of our Beloved God slowly forming my religious vocation. My first remembrance was when I was quite young receiving the Little Flower prayer book from my Auntie Celeste which I loved to read. I am sure the book described St. Therese's life in the cloister and her early death besides her prayers. This perhaps was my first insight into religious life.
Raised on a small farm near Chico, California, I had a happy and very busy childhood. I remember attending Mass in Chico's Catholic Church, Orlands' Catholic Church and Hamilton City's small Church. However, it was in Hamilton city Church that I received a spark of the future when the Priest was talking to my father after Mass but I'm unable to recall what it was.
After a post graduate course from Hamilton High in Hamilton City, I attended and graduated from Heald's Business College in Sacramento and worked as a Steno-Clerk at MacClellan Airforce Base. All this time, I was very faithful in attending Mass at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento with my sister Neomi who joined me. I can see how our Beloved Lord provided me Catholic people as friends, etc. even a Catholic roommate. I worked for Catholic family when I attended college and Mr. and Mrs. Haggerty would take me to Mass every Sunday with them. It was a Catholic roommate who would eventually take me to the Carmelite Monastery and introduced me to them.
One day the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament invited people to attend a retreat to be held there. The sign read "You might be pleasing to yourself but are you pleasing to God?" I thought "I better find out". So I asked a Catholic friend to go with me to attend the retreat. But that wasn't all to it, we were to attend an early Mass in the morning in order to reap the benefits from the retreat and my friend didn't feel she could rise that early. Even in those early days, Sacramento was a crime city but I was determined that I would be attending Mass even if I had to go alone. So I walked to the Cathedral in the early hours by myself, praying the Rosary all the way.
It was both the retreat and the grace of the Mass that changed my life -- I was flying on high and the grace of God took over my life. I knew then I wanted to give myself to God. What I read in St. Therese's prayer book came back to me and I visited the Camelite Monastery on Stockton Blvd in Sacramento. They were still living in the home that was converted into a Monastery, with a high fence around their grounds. I became acquainted with the nuns in the local Carmelite monastery. The Carmelite way of spirituality which I learned as a young Third Order member made me long for the contemplative life. But the Carmelite monasteries which I knew did not attract me.
Once my Catholic friends Beatice Relvas and Marie Mitchell and I mentioned to a priest that "there aren't much Catholic doings in Sacramento," and after Father told us there would be a 3-day retreat for Holy Week in San Rafael and asked if we would like to attend. Marie and I jumped at the invitation and that was where we found out about the Dominican Cloistered Nuns in Menlo Park. We both loved it. I was never comfortable with the Carmelite life and here at Menlo Park, the nuns were so happy and their Divine Office was just beautiful to listen to (Gregorian Chant). The Monastery was huge, spacious with 11 acres with the 48 nuns who led a very cloistered life. The inside cloistered Chapel had beautiful stalls on both sides just like the cloisters in Europe, with the Blessed Sacrament exposed in a Monstrance in the wall which separated the two Chapels. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament was held 24 hours a day with nuns in adoration. Who could ask for more? It was just like living Heaven on earth. There was early Mass for the nuns with the public on the other side, Divine Office was chanted and the Little Hours recited. The public were invited to listen to the Divine Office sung or recited and to visit the Blessed Sacrament. We had the privilege of perpetual adoration day and night. After we chanted Vespers, we had Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
I had no idea of joining the religious life until that retreat in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. It was the instrument of spiritual renewal for me. I can see how God was drawing me all the time to the blessed life by also providing Catholic people all the time for my friends.
I remained active in Church activities and helped with the Cathedral library and religious goods store until I left for the Monastery in Menlo Park. When I visited this monastery I was delighted to find that I was born on the very day that the founding Sisters had left the New York monastery to bring Dominican contemplative life to California. I was impressed with the joy that the life brought to its members who formed one big happy family. The daily adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the singing of the Divine Office were aspects of the life that attracted me. Since I had found what I was looking for I asked to be accepted as a postulant. Intercessory prayer is my special charism and my heart encloses the needs of the entire world and Purgatory as I adore Our Eucharistic Lord each day.