Vocations

"Everything begins with yearning." (Nelly Sachs)

At the beginning of my vocation (at approximately 12 years of age) I felt a deep longing for security and peace. Intuitively I felt that God alone could satisfy this longing and I for the first time I thought of becoming a nun, because one must actually always be close to God there.

Years passed. In puberty another deep longing came alive in my soul: the longing for deep meaning . . . . "Dear God! Why? Sorrow? Pain? Disappointment? Loss? Fear? What's the point of this life at all?"

In October 2010 I can look back on 40 years in the community of the Sisters of Mary of Mount Carmel. I do so with deep gratitude.

I am grateful for my professional training, for the many opportunities for spiritual training and development of every type.

I am grateful for the many interactions with the sisters, priests, coworkers, and the students. I thank God for the lives of our order's saints and other holy people. I have drawn much courage from their lives. At the same time my relationship with the mother of Jesus, who we revere as the mother of Carmel, and with St. Joseph has become something very special.

I thank God for my parents, who have already died, and for my two sisters (both married, with children), who died of breast cancer. We were allowed to strengthen each other through faith in God, and this faith connects us beyond death.

The longing for security, peace, and meaning may remain. It may remain „ engine “ for the glance to God, Who is THERE, Who goes THERE with us all the days of our lives. One of my favorite prayers is therefore:

"Always I receive myself from your hand.
So it is, and so it should be.
That is my truth and my joy.
our eye is seeing me always,
and I live upon your gaze,
my creator and my salvation.
Teach me, in the stillness of your presence,
to understand the mystery that I am.
And that I am through you
and before you
and for you. . . ."

(from Romano Guardini)

Sr. M. Rosa Wieser, Certified Teacher, Fachschulen Erla