Vocations Focus: Sr Catherine-Maria

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As the Diocese of East Anglia continues to celebrate its 50th Jubilee Year, we are shining a spotlight on the people who live out their vocations in service to our diocesan family. Each month, we meet a member of our clergy or someone in formation, reflecting on their call, their ministry and their hopes for the future.

This month, we hear from Sr Catherine-Maria from the Community of Our Lady of Walsingham, who shares how her vocation first took shape, what inspires her today, and why fostering vocations remains vital to the life of our diocese.

I never discerned a religious vocation during my childhood or teenage years. I can now see hints of it from about the age of 11, but I was focused on having a career and entering the world of work. When I was young, I wanted to be a vet, a jockey or a pilot, and then, in my late teenage years, I wanted to be an investment or corporate banker. The thought of being a nun was not something that ever crossed my mind. I firmly believed in God but couldn’t see how I could be my energetic and adventurous self in the Church and local parish, which, at that time, felt a bit rigid and stale. I stopped attending Mass in my late teenage years but hoped to return after university.

University went well, but as time progressed, I felt an ever-growing hole within me and could feel the absence of God in my life. After university, I returned to the sacraments and sought out good Catholic friends my own age. I attended young adult retreats and, on the weekend of the canonisation of St John Henry Newman, I first heard about consecrated virginity and felt the first stirring in my heart to ‘leave all and follow Christ’. Some of my closest friends were the first to hear about this little flame in my heart.

This small flame slowly grew, and I researched different orders online and compared their schedules and ways of life, but didn’t contact any of them until one day my dad asked me, ‘Are you going to get off the fence, start visiting and make a decision?’ I then visited five different orders and met the Community of Our Lady of Walsingham. Within a day of staying in its convent, I knew that this was the place where God was calling me to discern. I was ready to enter straight away and follow God’s call, but was wisely advised to discern externally for a year.

I’ve been in the Community for three years now and am a temporarily professed sister. What I have enjoyed most is working with young people and accompanying them in their search for and journey towards God. We do this by visiting schools and organising and attending young adult retreats, and I am also an assistant university chaplain. In the Community, I’ve learnt a lot about myself and my strengths and weaknesses. I’ve also learnt new skills and visited new countries. I’ve grown and changed since first discerning a call and entering my Community. We are real with each other and think differently, but there is genuine friendship and love between us. God has truly been my strength and rock throughout my journey.

For those who may be beginning to question whether they have a vocation to religious life or the priesthood, I would say: don’t wait! God truly brings us our greatest joy and happiness, and seriously considering this option will either help you to enter now or realise that God is calling you to another vocation, such as marriage. By asking this question now, God will bless you abundantly in whatever vocation you are truly being called to, as God is never outdone in generosity!

Parishes can help with discernment by promoting holiness among young people through catechesis, prayer and fun. Having a youth group or young adult group allows people to find peers with whom they can journey on their way to holiness. I feel optimistic about an increase in younger vocations to all states of life, as God always calls; we need only listen and have the courage to say yes.