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She resigned herself to an ordinary childhood. Still, she clung to
the desire, however innocent and immaturely expressed, to do something
big for God. She took consolation
in pretending to be a nun: “When I
played with other girls I enjoyed it
when we pretended we were nuns
in a monastery, and it seemed to me
that I desired to be one, although not
as much as I desired [becoming a
martyr or a hermit].”
This episode in Teresa’s life
reflects the difficulty of feeling called
to something, but not knowing
exactly what. When I felt called I
thought maybe it meant joining the
Jesuit Volunteer Corps or dedicating
myself to marriage and raising a family. Not convinced that religious life
was for me, I tested many alternatives. But no matter how good they
were or how much I welcomed them,
they didn’t seem to fit.
Sisters of Notre Dame
Proclaiming God’s goodness and provident care
No substitute for real nuns
Contact: Sr. Kathleen Hine: sndvocation@ndec.org; www.snd1.org
Enter #064 at VocationMatch.com
Teresa, at the tender age of 7, was
inspired to do something big for God.
We’re not talking here about making
crosses out of clothes pins. Teresa decided that she and her brother ought
to become martyrs because that was
the quickest way to heaven.
So they set out in search of
unbelievers so that they could “beg
them, out of love of God, to cut off
our heads.” But no sooner had the
children started their journey than
an uncle caught sight of them and
promptly returned them to their
mother. Teresa surrendered her
dream of martyrdom, concluding
that “having parents seemed to us
the greatest obstacle.”
Just as Teresa had romantic notions
about what it meant to be a martyr
or a nun in the 16th century, so, too,
I had some skewed ideas about religious life in this century. My ideas
came from a number of sources;
actual experiences with nuns as an
adult wasn’t one of them. It occurred to me that I hadn’t considered
religious life before because I didn’t
know what it was about. My lack of
accurate information left me with a
superficial understanding of religious
life and the women and men who
lived it.
Teresa’s life shows the importance of firsthand experience with
people in religious life. When she
was 12, her mother died, and she
was raised by her father and older
sister. When her sister left the house
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