For some of the religious, their calling came at past World Youth Days.
Posted: 07.10.08
CNS | DAN MACALOON
Sister Mary Margaret, 29, (left) of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, from Ann Arbor, Mich. first discerned here vocation at World Youth Day in Denver in 1993, and Christine Marie, 27, (right) a novice of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, a Franciscan charismatic community in Amarillo, Texas, said her commitment to religious life began at World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002.
SYDNEY | The gathering of American sisters in Sydney’s Hyde Park was a harbinger of things to come as Australia’s largest city began to transform under the influx of hundreds of thousands of World Youth Day pilgrims.
The 35 women religious representing a dozen U.S. congregations are World Youth Day pilgrims and volunteers, acting in various evangelical and liturgical roles. Many will serve as extraordinary ministers of Communion at Pope Benedict XVI’s closing Mass, where more than 500,000 worshippers are expected to attend.
Although Hyde Park was quiet in the run–up to World Youth Day July 15–20, the nuns’ arrival July 8 became a media event. The next morning a photo of their approach down the tree–lined avenue appeared on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald with the caption “A life with God –– it’s a walk in the park.”
Sister Mary Margaret, 29, of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, from Ann Arbor, Mich., who normally teaches second grade, arrived in Sydney July 8.
She said she first discerned her vocation for religious life at World Youth Day in Denver in 1993.
“I remember how apparent Pope John Paul II’s love for us all was there,” she recalled. The pope said that when he looked out into the crowd he saw “‘a multitude of individuals,’ and you felt then that he was really speaking directly to you. There are many blessings for vocations that come from World Youth Day,” she said.
Beside her, Christine Marie, 27, a novice of the Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, a Franciscan charismatic community in Amarillo, Texas, said her commitment to religious life began at World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002.
“I found myself about 15 feet away from the pope,” she told Catholic News Service. “The example of his life, living with his illness, and his message of courage, to not be afraid, to stand up and witness, was something I heard very clearly.”
For Rita Marie, 45, a first–year novice with the Sisters of the Holy Spirit in Cleveland, it was a 3 a.m. wake–up call of the soul that brought her to a vocation.
“I’d spent years of searching for meaning in my spiritual life and coming away feeling unfulfilled, but this one morning at 3 a.m. I woke up knowing that Jesus was calling me. In that moment I knew he had been preparing me all my life for service,” she said.
Elsewhere in Sydney, Salesian Sister MaryAnn Schaefer was thinking about how there was no better place than World Youth Day to celebrate her 25th anniversary as a nun.
The festivities will be especially unique for her celebration as she will be cruising Sydney Harbor in one of the 13 boats escorting Pope Benedict July 17 when he arrives for World Youth Day events. She was chosen at random as a member of www.Xt3.com, World Youth Day’s social networking Web site.
“I received the e–mail on July 1 and I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I had to have one of the sisters reread it to make sure it was real.”
The trip Down Under marks her seventh World Youth Day experience in which she has led young people. Although she is a World Youth Day pro, Sister MaryAnn still gets excited about the international encounters, seeing the pope and bringing young people closer to Christ.
“The young people just completely change (when) seeing the Holy Father, if you saw the look on their faces,” she explained. “They get a sense that the church they belong to is something more than just their parish and they see the global Salesian community from all over the world and see how many young people like them are taught by Salesian religious.”
Contributing to this story was Cecile San Agustin in Paterson, N.J.
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