"In a word this Sacrament is, as it were, the very soul of the Church" -Mirae Caritatis, 15

Today, your host Lee McMahon is joined by three Sisters from the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary! Together they discuss their conversion stories, how they heard the call to religious life, and their major takeaways from paragraphs (11-16) of Mirae Caritatis by Pope Leo XIII.

About The Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary

The Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary are a Religious Institute of Sisters of Diocesan Right founded on August 15, 1990, by Mother Adela Galindo in the Archdiocese of Miami, FL USA, and erected as a Diocesan Religious Institute on March 25, 2000. The Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary are members of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR).

"We are called to manifest the reign of love of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary as the building force for the construction of a new civilization of love, life, truth, and solidarity." -Mother Adela, Foundress SCTJM

References

• The Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary Website
• The Encounter School of Ministry
• The Encounter KC Summer Intensive July 17-20, 2023

rAdditional Resources

• Want to read this week's episode transcription? You can do so here.
• Want to know more about the Eucharistic Revival in ArchKCK?
• Access our free New Manna promotional materials
• Want to know more about the National Eucharistic Revival?

The New Manna Podcast is produced by the Office of Evangelization of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.

Podcast intro voiceover provided by Ethan Irons.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Welcome back to New Manna and your newest favorite Catholic podcast on the Holy Eucharist. My name is Lee McMahon, your host, and I serve as consultant for evangelization at the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. But don't be fooled if you've got a pulse. This podcast is for you.

Lee McMahon (Host)

If you are hungry for more, if you are fed up with the empty promises of the world, Jesus has more for you. We've been called to communion in Christ. We have been given the mission of bringing people to Jesus and bringing revival to the church. Our title, New Man comes from John 6:58 “This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died.

Lee McMahon (Host)

He who eats this bread will live forever. Jesus is the new manna. He is the bread of life. And he gives himself totally to us every single day in the Holy Eucharist. So if you are tuning in for the first time today, welcome to the club. I just want to give a special shout out to all those who have left review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, because you're helping us get the word out there to the world that Jesus is alive, that he's about a good work and he is truly present body, blood, soul and divinity in the Holy Eucharist.

Lee McMahon (Host)

So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Today I have the distinct privilege of being joined by some awesome, fantastic ladies, the sisters servants of the pierced hearts of Jesus and Mary, specifically Sister Monica, sister Kellie and Sister Lucia. Welcome.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Thank you so much for having us.

Lee McMahon (Host)

So, sisters, I want to know who are you and what's your state of life?

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Yes. So we are religious sisters. We are ordinary people. But to a radical calling of holiness. And we lay down our life completely to our Lord Jesus Christ. What's very beautiful is that each one of us has a different story. But it's that love of Jesus Christ that gets us out of the ordinary activity to lay down our life completely to him.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And so what makes us religious sisters is we take vows that evangelical councils, so we have chastity, poverty, obedience, and in our case, our religious community has a distinct vow of marrying identification and availability. So to give you an example, yeah, the Missionaries of Charity, I know they've been previously on this as well. They have a charism to be.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

They have another vow that they take to be with the poorest of the poor. So not all religious communities have that and that is what makes our religious community very distinct. So we lay our life, our spousal love to Jesus Christ through the specific charism that we are called, a gift that is given in the church for the uplifting of the church and then serving through a specific mission that we have been entrusted.

Lee McMahon (Host)

A sister of the she was telling me earlier just how an extension of your charism lived out is being all things to all people and whatever it is that you need to proclaim the gospel to that time and place. So you were telling me you have there are religious sisters. You, Sister Lizzie, are incredibly fluent in Adobe Illustrator in Photoshop, and there are some who are, you know, blessed to be able to to know how to run cameras in like webcasts and stuff all you know.

Lee McMahon (Host)

What are some other examples of what the sisters servants of the pierced hearts of Jesus.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Lee McMahon (Host)

Mm hmm.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

So we are pretty new. It's a new charism in the life of the church and in the life of the world. So we are Marian charism for excellence. So like I was telling you before we started the program. It's the all embracing motherhood of our lady. Whatever is needed in the church, whatever our lady would do for her children.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Yeah, that's what we do. Whether that's working in schools, teaching campus ministry, working in social media, working with the youth, working in military, ordinary Italy. I mean, we have an extensive mission and ministry right in the life of the church and in the life of the world. And it's bringing the love, the pierced hearts of Jesus and Mary and the triumph of love, building a civilization of love, love, truth, solidarity.

Lee McMahon (Host)

That's wonderful.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And that's something very important is the veil ability. Yeah. We are completely open to the Holy Spirit where our mother, the church, needs us and service. It doesn't matter. Something big, small. We are available to give ourselves completely.

Lee McMahon (Host)

It's awesome. Okay. Tell me about who you are. Sister Kelly, go.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

So one of the beautiful things about our community that I think is very fitting this particular podcast as New Manna is that we have four pillars of our spirituality, and the very first one is Eucharistic and so the Eucharist is not only the center of our own lives, it's where we receive all of our life from. Yeah, but then it's also the center of all of our apostolic missions.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

So in many of our dioceses we have Eucharistic Senecas, where we come together to praise and adore the Lord. We have everything, all our youth ministry, everything leads up to this source and summit of our faith, right? Our other pillars of our spirituality are that we are Marian, as we've already spoken about, that our fourth vow, we are living in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the heart of the church.

Lee McMahon (Host)

So those are the four pillars.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Those are four pillars in the.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Heart of the church. Marian Eucharistic What was.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Living in the power of the Holy Spirit?

Lee McMahon (Host)

Let's go. Come on. We could all use a little bit more Holy Spirit. This is we're recording this just days before Pentecost. So come Holy Spirit. Hey, man, I would love to know your story of falling in love with Jesus. So take me back to the beginning of you. That happening for you?

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

All right. All right.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Go ahead. And this is a story this year.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

My first encounter and the one that I will never forget and it will always remain in my heart is the encounter of where I heard my religious vocation, my calling. So I was a junior in high school.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Okay.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

17 years old. And I was invited to attend to a Eucharistic Senechal, which Sister Kelly Grace mentioned, my friend.

Lee McMahon (Host)

You said cynical. Can you tell me what a cynical is? Well, I don't know what hurts.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

The upper room.

Lee McMahon (Host)

The upper room.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Where the apostles are receiving the Holy Spirit. So we call the Eucharistic. And that goes because it really it's like an outpouring of the spirit hard core in such a powerful way. And that's what I experienced.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

So that's how I came to love the Eucharist. So to go deeper, I was coming from a Catholic family, not a devout Catholic, not, not, not practicing. So I didn't grow up with a prayer life. Okay? I didn't know how to pray. Anyway, coming out from a soccer game in the evening, I was invited to go to a Eucharistic clinic.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

I had no idea what it meant.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Mm hmm.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

And I just went for other reasons to say hello to one of the sisters who is my aunt. That was my only reason why I went. So how you critics and I goes work in Miami every Friday where the founders and our sisters gather, and it's time we pray the Holy Rosary at 730, then 8:00 mass, followed by basically praise and worship.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Let's go. And listening to the Holy Spirit and the Lord in Eucharistic adoration. So we we got there when the Lord was being exposed. So I have like, I have no idea what to do. Hundreds of people kneeling and I'm like, I'm here standing. This is very awkward. I might as well just kneel too. And, you know, we'll see what happens.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

So the moment that I knelt and our mother founders and our sisters started singing like angels. And I just immediately felt this rush and my inner being I don't know how to describe it as one of those experiences that are, um, supernatural. I would say. So, um, contemplating our Eucharistic lord and then the priest walking with or Eucharistic.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Lord Yeah, and stopping in front of people. Um, he stopped right before me and I was just bawling. I cried so much. And for me, crying was a sense of weakness. I would never cry on a soccer field or we never have people to cry. So yeah, but here I am and be experiencing the fire of his love in a way that I've never felt before and experience before.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

It was so palpable and concrete. And so in that moment our Lord told me, and I heard his voice, just like I'm hearing you. Yeah, He said, I want you to be mine. I want something special from you. Yeah. And from that moment on, I started wanting to unpack those words well, and wanted to see what it meant and how it looked and what was that for my life.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

So I started discerning. Praying, obviously. Yeah. Turning to God, praying, purifying, responding to confession, going to Eucharistic adoration, going to mass. I mean, all the sacraments, sacramental life.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Mm hmm.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Until religious life clicked for me. Yeah. And that's what it meant to be all his and something special to leave everything behind. Starting family, sports, material things, detachment from so many things that I was attached to. To give myself totally, completely to his life.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

It's something that it's so hard for me to explain, especially because it's something that I got to experience just in a unique way. Yeah, but I mean, it's it's if I think about it, it's like if it happened yesterday.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Right?

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

But that was the moment where I encountered the power of his life, his mercy, his healing power, his transformative power. Because after that day, my old self changed completely. And I've been able to become the woman that he has created me to be. And this will that transformative power will continuously happen until the day I die.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Right. I was just thinking about how children in the womb don't know that they're about to be born and just how this John three experience that you're describing of being born anew. It's not something that you were expecting. Right. You were. You were just there. You're like, Well, I might as well kneel. And then this evil he said, this rush, this rushing sensation, this rush of wind within you.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Wow, how beautiful and powerful.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

It was just the beginning. So good of this journey.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Could you tell me more about you had this awesome encounter you graduated, maybe. What was this call in your life of religious life? What does that even mean? And what happened?

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Well, after that experience, like I said, if there's so much details in the story, sure. But obviously, knowing that whenever we open our hearts to the power of his love and his mercy, there is so much he can do. And he has a freedom to transform as therefore I wasn't what you see right now. Okay? I wasn't born with a habit or a halo or anything like that.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

So I was.

Lee McMahon (Host)

You're human. I am.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

I'm an ordinary human being, maybe with an extraordinary or extraordinary vocation, but I'm just a Sure, sure. But the beauty of me seeing others, witnessing his transformative power by allowing myself to. To be transformed. Yeah. So after that day, like I said, I became my whole life change. I become to be virtuous. This is with time, obviously, and it's a lifelong journey, more virtuous, more much more loving, more caring and generous.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

I used to be very prideful, very prideful in the sport. I used to be very selfish. So all this different vices and lack of virtue were being transformed into a Christlike human being. Right? You know, so religious life, I mean, when the Lord said, I want something special from you and I want you to be mine, I since that moment, I wanted to impact this world.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

So obviously, I got to say I got to say hello to my own sister. And at the end of the Eucharistic Senate, which is like, What's wrong with you? And I'm like, you know this and this happened and she so prudently asked a sister to come forward and introduce me to a sister who guided me all through my discernment process.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

And so I would go every Friday from there on. I didn't miss any Eucharistic. SENECHAL And then there was something in me. Every time I saw the sisters, I'm like, I want to experience or I want that same joy that they express with their actions, with how they carry themselves, with the way they love. They're so free. And I want that.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

For me. I don't know. I don't know how to achieve that, but I want that. That was the first thought of like.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Wow, I really I.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Really want that for my.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Life. Yeah.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

And then religious life just kind of automatically into it.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah. It's, it's not something that you calculated. No, you didn't make a spreadsheet and be like, well, I should be a I should be a nun. No, you know, it's it was something that was revealed to you.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Absolutely. I mean, my dream was to become a professional soccer player and get married with the soccer star and have lots of kids. So we could have a whole soccer team and family and soccer.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah, it was fun.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Little did I know that by becoming a religious and Christ being my bridegroom, I mean to have thousands of spiritual children more than I could ever imagine.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yes. When I just go off and like a whole Holy Spirit tangent, just talk about Encounter school of Ministry, which you guys should totally join. You know what encounters? No, no. Okay. All right. We'll cut this out later. It's fine. Encounter is a two year training program. Then I'm on the leadership team for a year in Kansas City to equip disciples to walk in the full supernatural lifestyle of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Luke nine, Luke ten, Matthew ten. Matthew 28. How do we actually do that? How do we do acts? Wow, it's really cool. Yeah, we're having a summer intensive this July, which you guys should totally come to and just, Yeah, get a little taste of what encounter is. Sister Kelly, your turn.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Yes. God is so.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Good. Yeah.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

So I grew up in the Chicago area, in the suburbs there, and I grew up in a very praise God, wonderful practicing Catholic family. And so the great gift of that was that I grew up knowing my faith, knowing what the church taught. Yeah. And really being a part of just the Sacramento life and yeah, and that was a huge gift.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

But for some, however it turned out how wide and why this happened, I don't know, but I just didn't make the connection all the way from my head to my heart. I'm always I went to church on Sunday and I knew a lot about the faith, but it wasn't something that was really flowing into every part of my life.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And because of that, I mean, the world is so strong, so you get kind of swept away and still with those kind of roots in that identity, I said, Oh, yeah, I'm Catholic, but right. Was I authentically was Christ the center of my life and was I looking at him and listening to him? No, You know, I didn't have that real encounter in relationship with him.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And so it wasn't until I went to college that I knew I had to go to church on Sunday. And so when I went to college, I had I found where the Catholic Newman Center was. Yeah. And so it was there that I saw for really one of the first times so many young people that were my age that were, you know, normal, that I was like, Oh, you're kind of cool.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

I was like, People do this, you know, it's not just my dad. It's not just, you know, like my I the priest, you know. Right. And so that was the first thing that kind of opened my my heart and mind. But at the same time, I still had many other things that I was, you know, involved in everything at college and trying to have the college experience.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And and so it didn't just it didn't really fit into my agenda to really give my life to the Lord. Right. And so it wasn't until the time was going on, time was going on. And I found if I was busy with all those things, I could be happy enough, you know, like I distracted enough. But when it was just me alone in my dorm room, I was so lonely and I felt like I knew everyone.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

I was kind of like a part of all the clubs, so I would do like, walk the walk to the campus and be like, Hey, hey, hey, you know, all these people I knew. And yet nobody really knew me, you know? And I felt so alone. And I. I said, I don't understand. I have everything you're supposed to have.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And and I'm not. I'm not happy. I'm not fulfilled. And I. I had this sense like, okay, life has to mean something. And I don't know if my life really means anything. You know, like, okay, what do you do? You get good grades, get a good job too. And everything had a and then what? Okay, you buy the house and then what?

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And then you have. Yeah. And then what? Then what? I knew it had to end in something, have a clear direction, and I knew I didn't have that. And so I had this wrestling with the Lord. And because I had seen the witness of those other students at the Newman Center, I had somewhere to look to to kind of say, like all of my all these different groups of people I know look around and say, who actually is living and who has that, that then what that I'm searching for.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Yeah. And I, I knew it was with those those who were at the Newman Center really living with the Lord at the center. And so that was what really opened my my heart to say, okay, let me go find out what what is there. And so at the first Bible study that I went to, it was always I would always miss it on Thursday nights because I had other things going on.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

The first one that I went to, one of the sisters there asked me or invited me to ask the most important question of my life, which is How do you do God's will? Because, yeah, I can't even, you know, I know God wants me to do this and I don't even do it, she said. Ask God to show you how much she loves you.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Mm hmm. And that winter break of first winter break of college, I went home and I started asking the Lord, Show me how much you love me. And at the same time, I received this kind of, I think, spiritual game plan. That was the Five Stones, which is something that our lady gives us in an apparition. And in these five stones, it's the Eucharist, the Scriptures, fasting, confession and prayer with the heart, especially the Rosary.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Let's go and so with those five stones, it felt like, okay, I know I can. I started to encounter the Lord because I was asking him, Show me how much you love me, show me how much you love me. But at the same time, I had this concrete path to walk that was to start to pick up the stone.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Okay, I'll go to that perpetual adoration chapel I keep hearing about. I'll go to a daily mass. I'll start praying with the Scripture and letting the Lord speak to my heart, even if it's just for a little bit of time. And so because I started to do that, the Lord started I started to encounter him for the first time, not just in my head, but in my heart.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And when I when that happened, little by little, he started to pull so many extra other things out of my life, out of my life and fill it with him, fill it with him, fill it with him. And it was it changed the whole trajectory of my life. And then he started to be really at the center. And I was more that loneliness that I had.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Yeah. Was not only filled but overflowing to the point where I became determined to go bring any other college student on that campus to encounter the love that I had encountered. Because there was I couldn't imagine that I could have someone could be walking off like I was with that emptiness that I was experiencing and wanted everyone to come and experience that love.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Sister, as you were talking, I just saw like Mark four and five, two of the busiest days of Jesus's ministry, and he's just back and forth, back and forth across the Sea of Galilee. Right. And like you asking the Lord like, Lord, show me how much you love me. And then him just be like, Hey, come on, let's go.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Let me show you.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Let's go. You know, we maybe like you weren't in the same boat as him, but you were following and, you know, back and forth, back and forth. But yeah, how often the Lord asks us, He comes to us, He always comes and he always accepts the invitation. He's a great guest. But when he's there, sometimes he says, okay, but it's not going to be right here.

Lee McMahon (Host)

It's come with us, let's go for a walk. Yeah, let's go across the lake. And how beautiful that it sounds like kind of that happened for you that he he made himself known to you more fully and more fully and more fully as time went on. That's wonderful. And then you became his sister.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Yes. So this new path, this new trajectory of my life was really opening up. And it was to just go more and more to the Lord, follow this path of the five stones. And then how can I bring others to encounter this love? And all the while, well, an important detail that I didn't mention was that the ones who were running this Newman Center that had these faith filled college students that had attracted me so much were our sisters, so the servants of the pure sides of Jesus and Mary.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And so it was really because of their formation and their guidance of this ministry that it was so alive and that I was able to encounter the Lord through both the witness of others and then face to face with Him in the Eucharist, in the Scriptures. And so the sisters always I mean, we began as I began to grow closer to the Lord, I was always going to the times of formation and being closer with the sisters and and that that immediately they would tell us one of the most important things in college was ask God about his perfect plan for your life.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

You know, He created you for something. Don't, right? Don't waste time not asking him what that was and that this is going to be the plan that fulfills you the most that you were specifically created for. And so that began my time of asking the Lord, okay, I have I have learned that I can trust you, because the more that I empty myself of other things and bring you into my life, the more happy I am, the more fulfilled I am, the more alive I am.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And that made me realize, okay, this perfect plan that you have, I want it. Because if it's so far putting you more in my life, in your will, in my life, has filled me like this. Then I know that any thing outside of your will, walking away from your plan for my life is going to leave me that in that same emptiness.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And so I the first key factor was I really desired. Okay, God, I want to live your plan. Yeah, my plan. I know where my plan leads, and I don't want that anymore. Right? And so as I was going through college, I feel like I was always in this kind of back and forth because I did want God's plan.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

But then the things that held me back from fully embracing it had me on this kind of back and forth. Okay, well, maybe I'm called to marriage, maybe I'm called to religious life. I don't know. They're both so beautiful. And that was important to that. The Lord said, yes, they are both so beautiful, and I created you for one of them.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And so as I was going through, this journey is kind of back and forth, trying to listen to the Lord, but also wrestling, I think, a lot with the question of like, God, would you be enough if I gave up everything else? Would you really be enough to fill my heart? And that always, I think, kind of held me back from really making that jump to say, okay, I hear you, Lord, and to start walking.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And so it was the summer after I graduated from college, we went on a mission trip to Miami where the sisters were, and we ran a summer camp for kids in the inner city. And it was beautiful. Giving yourself. And then we would have spiritual things in the night to receive. We would have talks with our mother, founders of our order and times of praise and worship.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And we would, you know, Phil, fill ourselves up and then give ourselves totally. And while we were there, we had the gift to go to the perpetual profession of two of our sisters, one of them being the one that had been there when I was a freshman at the Newman Center. And so in their perpetual profession, they're laying their lives down totally to the Lord, literally lying prostrate, like you said, a priestly ordination.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And I just had this this realization. And I said, Lord, if you need me to give myself total thee, because I knew if they hadn't give themselves totally, if it was half way, then I would not have encountered the Lord and I would still be off in that empty path I had been walking. I said, Lord, if you need me to give myself totally so that one other heart can encounter the love I have encountered, I would do it.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And it was like it was like I gave him permission, you know, finally. And that he was like, okay, I hear you. You're giving me you've opened the door and now I'll come in. He's truly that guest. He waited for me to open the door to say, Yes, Lord, if. If this is what you need me for. That one heart, Yeah, I would do it.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And so it was in that mass that I right after receiving communion. And I was in that moment when we're the closest to the Lord we could ever be.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And the song that even the sisters were singing, the words were only to you. I belong. And I knew Lord, you're asking me to give everything to belong totally to you. So that that one heart, even if it's just that one heart, can encounter the love I had encountered. Yeah. And so the next day I opened the scriptures and I opened to John four and it was like the Lord answering that question of, Are you enough?

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And in the passage of the Samaritan woman, when she's so skeptical, like, Could you really get this water?

Lee McMahon (Host)

You know, are you who are you.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Are greater than our father Abraham, you know, and and Jesus says, if you if you drink this water, this water of the well, you will thirst again.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

But if you drink the water I give you, you will never thirst and it will overflow. And you are a fountain unto eternal life. And I just heard the Lord saying so clearly. You know, if you want to go searching after all those other things to fill, you can do it. You can. But it will never fill you.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Not only am I enough to fill you, but I'm the only thing that ever will fill you. Yeah. And so in in that moment, I knew he was just confirming the sense of the night before that he would had created me to be filled by him. And then in that feeling to be overflow into others, to bring them to his love.

Lee McMahon (Host)

You think about the word satisfy like satisfaction comes from the Latin societies, which means enough, right? And it's like, wow, these are the waters that satisfy truly. Wow. You saw the profession? Yeah. It prompted you to open even more fully, even though you were already like, open, right? Just the invitation again, making the invitation. And he came further in.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah. Wow, That's wonderful, Sister Monica.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

So it's so beautiful to hear all these different pasts that the Lord calls. And I think how the Lord has worked the most powerful way in my life has been helping me understand my true identity. Yeah. Now I am his beloved bride, but it's always been deeply ingrained within my heart since I was very young.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And I had that inclination even since second grade. A special grace that the Lord gave me to ask the fundamental questions. We have to ask ourselves. Fundamental questions. I think that's the one of the crisis of our times, that we just don't want to go deep within the heart and discover all these beautiful truths. The scary plans. Yes.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

That the Lord wants to do in our lives. We want to stay on the breach of superficiality. Right. And we are made for more. And since I was younger, I was very drawn to that. And concretely, you can see that that I had that inclination that I really enjoyed going to mass. I went to a Catholic school from K to eighth.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

I went to a public high school from 9 to 12. My parents, I had the blessing that they had an open heart to God, but they were very private in their faith. So you're not going to see my family involved in a parish setting in the different ministries. That's their, uh. They do believe God is important, but very private in a sense.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Sure. So when I was young, I was, in a sense, the same. I was kind of, um, I would say even to a sense ashamed to really open up and to tell everyone how much I loved the Lord, but I kept it secretly to myself. And I knew that he was calling me to something great. But also at the same time, I was very good at tennis.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

So since I was around that age nine or ten, I played my first tournament. I won my first tournament. I saw great success. And as I saw that success, as you saw in the different stories, I thought back then that that was what was going to fill my heart to help me understand who I was. And so back then I would receive the identity as a tennis star.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And I'm again, I'm not going to say anything bad about sports. I would be the first one to get a tennis racket right now and play or any basketball. Soccer. I'm I'm out there, but I know the Lord is calling us more to life and from that experience than on. So I got a full ride. I went to a D1 school.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Let's go. Yes. Tennis. Where do you play? Furman University. Furman. Okay. Small liberal arts school. But after that, there was just after all that again as Sister Kelly and see a saying there was something that satisfaction as well as you're saying there's something missing and nothing could really fill. We all have that longing for happiness. And I think that happiness is only in Jesus Christ himself.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And that's where I finally had the conviction to say, okay, I finished my tennis career. Lord, how can I completely give myself to you to to give my soul fully to you? And so I got my undergraduate degree in education. And so this is a small city that the Lord planted within my heart the service to help the vulnerable, those in need, and especially children and I intended originally to become a child life specialist, even though back then when I was younger, I really admired religious, but I just didn't have the courage to step up and say, Hey, I want to go and give myself completely.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

So I during that time I studied, I was going to be a child life specialist. I entered grad school at the University of Pittsburgh and applied developmental Psychology, and I said, I'm going to give time to the Newman Center there and how fitting on this day, actually, this brings me such great joy to speak about it. It was at a oratory that I had that deepest encounter that I really got to understand my vocation.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

The oratorio in there was an oratorio who was my spiritual director, so he helped me discern my vocation to understand that fundamental question. Because in the world there's a limit. Yeah. To to love and love in its essence, really doesn't have any limits. It's beyond. Yeah. And I truly believe in the Blessed Sacrament. Yeah. In all our sisters and different people have expressed that encounter that you experience that it's so surreal.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

It's very even difficult to put in words right now, to really express to you the reality of love that I am experiencing, my true dignity, that I'm not measured, that I'm not put on a balance, that I'm not told these expectations that are realistic, that I'm living a reality that is in front of me. And I want to bring that reality not only to myself but to all those around me.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And that is our purpose in this life and that's love itself. And so that sparked me within my vocation and how way and what pathway could I bring forth this love to each person I encounter? It doesn't matter which person either of the most, a person who's in the medical field, a person who's serving in different areas that all embracing love, universal, a love of Christ.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And so I talked with my spiritual director regarding that fundamental question of vocation, because I went to a Catholic school, but I was never expanded upon about the essence of what a vocation is, and that is the sincere gift of self, where out of that love, that out pouring forth, love that you receive from Jesus, you want to give yourself completely, whether it be directly through him, through religious life or to a person, through the sacrament of marriage.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Some could be, like I said, to a man to give myself. And so that's I was posing. And I really discern between the two because yeah I really understood to more the beauty and dignity of each vocation too. When my spiritual director helped me understand the true meaning of marriage, because we in our culture stay at the superficial level of what marriage is.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And so I had that mentality being brought up that was going and it wasn't as bad, but could go very deeper. That's going to find a good man, have a well-balanced life. Yeah, have a good job. I'm going to have children. He's going to be a good man, have good morals and respect me, which is not bad in a sense.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

But there's something deeper and it's that what's in the heart that you want to have that deep love, that you just want to give yourself to the other at all costs. Get out of yourself, die to yourself. Yeah. And so I really prayed about it. I really learned about both vocations. Yeah. And it was this was set within my heart to discern religious life.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And that's the way that I felt that the self-realization, the greatest potentialities of who I am first as a woman, as a bride, to to give myself completely. And the Lord has a sense of humor, because now I'm in marriage and family life. And so with that great zeal, I can proclaim and help others really discern the dignity and beauty of the sacrament of marriage.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And I do want to make just that emphasis that there is a misunderstanding in our time that, oh, religious life is the closest to Jesus Christ. Yes, we have a radical calling. We are with him. Right. But in the end, it's the vocation that you are called to holiness. Yeah. If you are a good husband, if you are a good wife, you are living in holiness, you're laying down your life, you are extremely close to Jesus Christ.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

You have his fullness. If you are good, humble, simple, religious, obedient, all the vows, living them fully, you are very close to Jesus Christ, right?

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah, we will. We love to play the comparison game, and that's like a seed of the enemy is there to pit us against each other and to always know what's best. As as you were speaking, I was just thinking how, like, what is it? What is God's plan? Right? It's not like it's in a filing cabinet in heaven that we'll get to actually see, you know, get the, you know, the wax seal taken off.

Lee McMahon (Host)

When we get there. It's like, well, let's see how you did, Sister. The Lord's plan for you is holiness and happiness. Yeah, it is union with him. That's his plan. That's his plan. And the question of vocation is like, how am I going to glorify the Lord most powerfully and totally? It's not this or that kind of deal.

Lee McMahon (Host)

It's a it's a how. In that vein, I was thinking about Pope Saint John Paul. The second quote man cannot fully know himself through a sincere gift of himself. And it's like, well, that makes sense. So you discerned religious life and why the Sisters of the Poor start of Jesus.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Mary So this is where I differ a little bit. The story from both our sisters, that they had a direct encounter. So I have a funny story that everyone thinks since I'm from Florida, I was probably directly with the sisters, but I wasn't. I first discovered about our community was when I was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And so imagine I'm from Central Florida.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

I went to Miami several times, mostly because of tennis. That's where the tennis tournaments were. Yeah but it was in Pittsburgh And how in Pittsburgh? So it was in a pamphlet in the basement of the oratory that I read Crazy. Yes. So that's how funny my spiritual director, too.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Can I can I do a quick sidebar just to make this thing full circle for people? So today we're recording this on the Feast of Saint Philip Neri, the founder of the Oratory is. And so Sister, Sister Monica referenced the oratorio and her spiritual after being an oratory and at the oratory. Could you tell us a little bit about what that is?

Lee McMahon (Host)

And yeah, is that you found this pamphlet in the basement of the oratory, is that right?

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Yes. So it's very similar. They have their specific way characteristic of life of how they bring Jesus to others. And one of that way actually, it's a Newman center. Yeah. But through their way of life, through oratory. And so there are different priests that are living together, living the values of Saint Philip Neri and bringing others closer to him.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

So one of the important things on the first floor would be a perpetual adoration. So anyone that entering and I remember my first time seeing the perpetual adoration there, but also as we know with Philip Neri, he was a great missionary and especially with all the youth. And so they're in Pittsburgh. It was a blessing that the oratory actually was next to.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

So that oratory is the place where the oratorio is live. The priest next to the cathedral and next to two important university there. So they would have a lot of formation, a lot of events with the youth. So University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon were both universities there. And so the youth were involved in a lot of activities, whether it be a Bible study, whether it be a time with outdoor games or a fellowship service, etc. there's different opportunities that I was offered there.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And in the basement. It was a time where we were just hanging out. We be we encounter and I happened to be there and I remember reading the brochure of my religious institute and I will never forget my first impression of just seeing Mother are there. Like I leaned on my mother dress and her picture and I just is this love at first sight with the community.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

I just saw her first such a tender gaze that she had and I felt a connection. Yeah. And after that at her and gazing at her, I then began reading about her, our religious community, and one of the biggest things too, was that they were Hispanic. And that is something important. Again, going back with identity, being culturally universal with the Catholic Church.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Yeah, having that, that zeal. And I saw they were a bilingual community. She was from Nicaragua. My parents are from Central America. They're from El Salvador, just having an immediate connection. But beyond that, that first level, just seeing as what Sister Kelly Grace mentioned, those pillars is above all, first of all, Eucharistic adoration. I truly wanted to discern a community that had each day, one hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament, where the Lord, we believe the actual body, blood, soul and divinity of the Lord is present with us.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And to have an hour in front of him and and pray. But above all, it just went back to what I was mentioning to you, expressing that sense of love and identity to build a civilization of love, life, truth and solidarity and having no limits and being in different places within the church. And so that's where the Lord just really brought me of those pillars and just that heart of that simplicity, the promotion of the dignity of the human person to partake in that message.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And it's just a great responsibility and task. And I give thanks to the Lord how naturally he placed that call in my life. And our blessed mother, too, trying to be her image and presence are one an important model.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah. I mean, it's so beautiful that the Lord not only gave us himself, but he gave us a mom. He gave us a mother. Why? Because he knew that we did that. We did one, you know, like, yes, we have Mother church, but like, Mary, come on. Yeah, she she guided me as well. She took my hand in the B on the way.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Um, when I first came to the Lord as well. So praise the Lord. Yeah. So I feel like you guys pray every day. I have this feeling. I get this feeling. Yes. Pray every day. You spend time in the presence of our Lord in the Eucharist. Every day is it is a written rule. Unless you have a holy hour in front of the bus, a sacrament every day and.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Every day a person, a holy.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Hour or several, they are grace. So you can't be with any other people.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Or we just, you know, it's us in the Lord.

Lee McMahon (Host)

When I'm one. Yeah, one one.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Other people can be there. But our prayer is personal with the Lord.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Explain to me more about this. I'm intrigued. Tell me more.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

So yeah, part of actually, when we profess our vows is the part that we vows. Our promise is right? Yes. We make our first professional vows. We say no. And I vow and I promise I will have a Eucharistic centered life.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Oh, wow. It's a it's a vow that you make.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Yeah, it's part it's within the rights of our vows. Right? So of daily Eucharistic adoration and daily Eucharistic adoration. And this is a time where we come to the fountain of love and life. This is where we're nourished and filled that we can live to the fullest. What he has called us to live in the apostates and missions that he has entrusted to our care.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Like I mentioned in the beginning, they're so extensive. Yeah. And if it's not because we're filled with his love, with his light, with his life, with his love in his mercy, yet we wouldn't be able to give ourselves totally, completely like his asking us. And that's the beauty of religious life and of all vocations, to be honest. Sure.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Is that giving up of ourselves in love for him and allowing him to fill us all the more right so that we may become truly a gift to others And that's the gift that we give is his presence. Yeah, this is truth is his light.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

So it is in that in that holy hour that we allow him in a more deeper way to to enlighten us, to elevators, to even healers, to give us, you know, his strength, his grace. Yeah. So that we could become that authentic instrument. And all of our vocations really, just like for marriage. I mean.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah, there's that phrase, like, you can only give what you get.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Exactly.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Exactly. And I feel like the I mean, maybe this is just the American mindset of leave, but like, okay, so if you only get what you get, you give that means you have less. It's like, you know, now with the Lord, it doesn't work that way.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Exactly.

Lee McMahon (Host)

He feels and he feels and he feels. If you're connected to the font of living water, your apostolate is the extension. It's the overflow of that which you already have welling up within you. Yes, it's not Oh, I get a bottle of water every day from Jesus. You know, it's not like that. It's not like that.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And even.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah, go ahead.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Even more so, it's it is necessary to give in order to keep receiving because we think about like, what's the difference between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee? Like why is one dead? Because it only receives it doesn't give, it doesn't go out. And so the same thing happens is like this giving is actually what is the it's the life of the Blessed Trinity.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

You know, there's this gift, total gift, and it's total receiving. And that is a necessary part of even be able to receive the Lord more is that we give ourselves, give everything we go to receive and we give ourselves go everything and we we go to receive.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Lee McMahon (Host)

What is one of the closest cities to the Dead Sea? Bethlehem. So Jesus comes to the lowest place. Well, in that. Amazing, amazing.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Amazing.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Well, literally.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Anyway, and another point that I think is important to make that goes along with this with prayer. Yeah. Is there's a misconception with religious life that is not a marriage, but it is. And we are. I'm the wife and he's my husband. And the deepest level of intimacy with our husband is at the moment of prayer.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

If there is no intimacy, no deep love, then there's not going to be life. And so even those in marriage can understand this concrete illustration within their vocation. And so that's why to it's not a rather a burden for us, but it's a need. It's the reality of our vocation, of our patrol to Jesus Christ.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah, it's Anita and a gift at the same time. It's crazy.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Yeah. If we really knew what we were, what was happening, and realize fully, consciously of what happened when we walked into a place where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed, like we think like, Oh, I'm going to give a holy hour to the Lord, Like, I'm going to pray this holy hour for you, Jesus, because I'm so dedicated to you.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And if we knew the gift of God, which Jesus says to us in the Gospel, if you only knew the gift of God, and how is there pouring himself out, I mean, we would be. That's a blessing. Carlo Acutis that he was like, Why aren't we lining up so that we can be before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament?

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Yeah, And, and that's what if we truly come to understand it, that's what it would be like. Get me into that chapel. This is the greatest moment of my day, right?

Lee McMahon (Host)

Absolutely. Yeah. If we really knew what was going on, we would have parking problems at all of our churches. Yeah.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Oh, wow. This is Holy Spirit moment. Right? If I could just.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Please come on over.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Here. Quotes of I don't know if you've heard about Blessed Day. No. Belanger.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Nope.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Right? The churches would overflow with adore is consumed with love for the Divine prisoner, no less by night than by day. If we only understood the gift that we have.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Before us, we need armed guards. Yeah, sure.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Absolutely.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

100%.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Mm hmm. A lot of our listeners out there might not have had that head to heart relationship moment yet with the Lord, particularly with the Eucharist. Anybody who was out there who might be on the fence. Sisters, what advice would you give to them with respect to the Eucharist?

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Well, that's a that's a powerful question. And I would say from a personal level, I would first say that coming before the Eucharist and embracing the gift that we have in the Eucharist is not based upon feelings. It's not that every time we kneel before the Lord, we are going to feel something.

Lee McMahon (Host)

So you're telling me love is not equivalent with a feeling?

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

No, it's a conviction.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah. Come on.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

It is a conviction from the heart that we believe fully the gift that we have before us. And because we believe, then we, we, we can surrender and trust that even though we're not feeling that the Lord is working 24 seven. And each one of our souls. Yeah. And each one of our beings because he wants to equip us and he wants to continuously.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Yes, healers, elevators, bring peace, bring joy, bring love in a world that it's lacking love, lacking peace filled, a fear filled with anxiety. The Lord wants to come in. And we were I think you were mentioning the fact that he's a gentleman. Yeah. The Lord is always ready. 24 seven with his arms right open to receive every single human being, no matter how great the sin is, no matter how deep the wounds are, no matter the the burdens that the soul carries, the Lord is ready to forgive.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

The Lord is ready to elevate. The Lord is ready to pour forth His merciful love upon each and every human being through the gift of the Eucharist, which is not just he's not he's not just in the munchies or in the tabernacle, but he allows himself to be consumed by us so that we may become one with him.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

So I would literally just encourage people to to come to know him. Yeah. I mean, we cannot love when we don't know, come to love him, understand him, and and just build little by little. It's not from one day to another, but it it's a lifelong journey, right? Sure. We fall, we get out. But he is yearning for each one of us in the tabernacle.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Go on a date. Yes. I mean, absolutely it is. It is kind of almost like one day not to another, but like it's one one day at a time. Yes, go on a date. I mean, we think about falling in love. Falling in love. It's like, sure, you have the love at first sight. Supernatural gifts from, you know, we go to the basement of your church.

Lee McMahon (Host)

But like you, I mean, I saw my my wife for the first time and is like, she's pretty. I didn't it didn't click through my mind like she's going to be the mother of my children, you know? But yeah, just starts with the date. Yeah. And you know, man or woman, it doesn't matter. But just go. Yes. Right.

Lee McMahon (Host)

And give me. Yeah. It's like I.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Just want to go with saying it's is coming before the Lord to ask those fundamental questions. Yeah. Why am I here. Why would. What's your purpose for me? Why was I created? There is a purpose. There is a mission that the Lord has in store for each and every single human being. So it doesn't become what I want when I want, how I want it to be.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

But how you how you want it. Lord, Why? What do you want of me? Yeah, because we all have specific gifts and talented the Lord has given us that He wants to put to use. And how we come to recognize those is precisely by allowing him to reveal them to us. And that's only when we start building that constant relationship with our Lord.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

And thank goodness for the sacramental life. We had the gift of confession that if we are just filled and overwhelmed by sin, that we could go in that confessional and receive his unfathomable mercy and be cleansed, impure because the Beatitudes, blessed are the pure of heart, where you see God to the more pure we become, the more immaculate, the more He will be able to shine forth his mercy upon our hearts.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

And we will be able to shine that light and that love and that mercy to others. And we will be authentic. Instruments of his love.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Impurity is is not and is not the fruit of like the act of the will like. Purity is the result of Christ in you.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Amen.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah. Like it's he. It is he who purifies us. Amen. Yeah. Just to clarify, it's not like something that we can muscle our way. Like, I'm going to be pure. Yes.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And you disgrace.

Lee McMahon (Host)

In something you were saying. It really made me think about how faith itself is not just a theological assent, like me signing some waiver saying. Okay, I won't sue you or whatever, but it's. It's trust. It's trust like I trust you. You know, like I trust you. Trust that you have my my good at heart that you you truly want good things for me.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Absolutely.

Lee McMahon (Host)

And not just at times as if you know, but like at all times in every place and every season. So yes, it's, it's um. Yeah, love is. Love is work. Love is real. It's not easy. Find glamorous Love is. Love is real. It's it takes labor. Absolutely.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And one more thing. Yeah, please to add to with words of advice. It's just a simple phrase. Yeah. No expectations, because we really place a lot of expectations, and that kind of creates boundaries. Just open your heart. Let the Lord take control. Yeah. We are not in control. We live in a culture of control that we are the one that produces, that results.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Everything comes for from me. This is of course, it's going to require a step of faith. And we know that the Lord is divine and it's supernatural.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

But it's that surrender. And having those eyes of faith that he will bring forth, right? That life that is within us. So that's an important advice to not place any expectations. Just just simply give him a chance and open your heart and let him act right.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Can I throw a weird I'm a throw a weird angle on it. I would say have a big expectation in that expectation being that he is faithful. Absolutely he's faithful. So if anything, just expect him to continue to be faithful because he is always faithful and yeah, that's all we.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Can be unfaithful. But he will.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Always he's always.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Faithful.

Lee McMahon (Host)

That's right.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

He is unchangeable, right?

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah. Yeah.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Always faithful.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Constant. Love it. Yes. Yeah.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

One thing that I think helped me to grow in Eucharistic love and just fall in love with Jesus in the Eucharist was to. I mean, you can't. We've been talking a lot about falling in love, right? And you can't fall in love with someone that you don't spend time with. And so it was when I started to make, even if I didn't fully understand the yet, even if I was still trying to see how this all fit together, I made a commitment to that spending time with him.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

I made I started to go to Mass. I started to go to Eucharistic adoration and simply just in in beginning to make that choice, it's like, I don't need to have it all figured out necessarily. I don't need to.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Have that from the beginning. I just need to. Okay. Let me just, you know, you're never going to get in the water if you don't put your foot in. And so it's just just in allowing that to become part of that rhythm of life to allowing to invite in the Lord. And as Eucharistic presence just into my life in those little ways and those choices, that's when he started to really reveal himself to me.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And then when I started to experience what I was maybe not sure if he would fulfill at first, you know, And so we we step back and think, okay, is like in my mind, you know, first of all, can God do this? And he's okay. He's he's God. Can he come in any form that he wants to? Yeah, well, I guess so.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

He's God, right? I mean, I can't, I, I can't place that limit on it. Right. But why is it so unbelievable? Because he becomes so small and so vulnerable. But is that any more unbelievable than that? God? God became men became when when when Jesus became literally not only a baby like an embryo, you know, And it's the first moment that God became this.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

What? What's totally vulnerable. Yeah, totally the smallest, the most intimate amidst of a whole world. Totally unknown, you know. And so in the same way, this unbelievable reality of the Eucharist is the same unbelievable reality of the incarnation, which we know he did, you know. So if he chose to do that, could we take that next step and say, wow, could he also choose to at least come in the appearance of bread and wine?

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah, I think this might be a good point to transition into the second part of our conversation about our paper document for today called Mirror Keratitis. If that's how you say it, because I don't speak Latin folks. If you do, call us up. Yeah, no, I know people. But anyway, but this is a document written by Pope Leo the 13th, just as a reminder.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Lee McMahon (Host)

He said to stir up and foster in the hearts of all men the dispositions of mindful gratitude and due devotion toward this wondrous sacrament, the Holy Eucharist. He says that in paragraph two. So particularly today, we're going to be taking a look at paragraphs 11 through 16, I think. Yeah. Sisters, what are your greatest hits?

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

The point that struck me the most was and then charity as he's really talking about that bonds of charity creating unity Yeah what we see a lot today in our time there's no coherency there's fragmentations Yeah. And that's why there's this confusion. There are disorientation and really we have a sense of the truth. We understand the truth when we are one.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And that is the only way that we can find truth through concrete actions of love, and that is charity. And I love how he connects that with the Eucharist as well. Even talking about the substance, like the way that is even made, how the grapes and how all the particles with in the bread that's going inside. And of course in the time of the mass and consecrated where the priest does the consecration, the actual body blood, soul and divinity of Christ.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

But in the end, it's really what is love and truth is charity. And we live in a culture right now that is so egocentric. It's about I yeah, I, I and that is putting a stumbling block and we are a universal church that's one of our greatest identity. And within the document they mention within class structure differences. So as a Catholic, as a beloved son of God and believing in and Jesus Christ really will help us obtain this true goal, this truth, Yeah.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Is the Eucharist, because that is the essence of charity. That's where Jesus Christ lay down his life. Yeah, for each one of us. And as going back to what Sister Kelly Grace was saying with the Incarnation, I can't even understand. It's so hard. Difficult to understand that our God who can do anything possible that He wants, He became a man and how much he was rejected since the very beginning.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

But how did he act? He act out of charity.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And and we see within the Eucharist a circle and circle is that oneness, that eternity, that unity. And we see that that it's essence. And so it's also going to a reflection of of love. Yeah. The true essence of love.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah. He says in 11 as charity towards God grows cold, charity towards one another is inevitably like it's going to happen. Uh, mutual charity of men among themselves is likewise going to grow cold. Yeah. Yeah.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

And I think something that you mentioned as you were introducing, um, this meeting, and that is by Pope Leo the 13th, um, the papal document actually bring so much light in our present day. It's like if he had written this for this moment in history, something that really have struck me here, and it is a reflection of, um, our world today.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

And Pope Leo says here men have forgotten that they are children of God and brethren in Jesus Christ. So what does that mean? That people have lost their identity as of children of God created in His image and likeness, and not just that, but created in love through love and for love, right? In other words, charity. So, I mean, we've been talking about the gift of the Eucharist and how much this gift is being taken for granted, obviously, because the enemy doesn't want the world draw himself up to him.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Who is love, Right. But also understanding that it is in the Eucharist, God himself, that we it's the school of holiness. The Eucharist is a school where many saints are forged. Yeah. Okay. So what's our end purpose? Our end goal is to get to heaven. What? Our end goal is to become Holy holiness. But it is not until we understand our dignity of children of God.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

And we turned to Him wholeheartedly. And we. And we become love in Him and through him and reveal and express his love with the gift of our own life that we will actually see a change in the culture. Mhm.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

So need it in our present moment. So we need to bring back the children of God. I mean everyone, it's our mission, you know, and, and as mothers, as spiritual mothers, that's our strongest mission here is to go after our spiritual children to go after humanity and bring the good news, the joy, the light and the truth of our Lord and his mercy so that we can start doing something about, um, this culture of death, that we see, this culture of darkness.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

And, I mean, we can name a whole list of things. No, but it is in the Eucharist that we find our greatest identity and mission.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Another word that struck me as well is totality. Yeah. How he gave completely. Yeah. Not holding anything back. How now in our times we can all fall, including myself, into what we call meritocracy. Maybe there are some things, whether it be fear, whether it be maybe laziness, maybe it be selfishness. But yeah, really just to give himself completely.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And so that's what's so beautiful here. In a word, the Lord's sacrifice symbolizes the one as a part guaranteed by a persevering and inviolable charity which should prevail among Christians. That sacrifice that he gave completely. Right.

Lee McMahon (Host)

So yeah.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

That's what we're created for. And that's why this one of these challenges of our culture is this lack of fulfillment, because, okay, yeah, we want that. But that's pretty risky, you know, like that. That's okay. Pick a direction and go that's I think, the desire of our hearts. But it also requires the most risk, you know, of that.

Lee McMahon (Host)

It does.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

It's not going to that that love has to be that vulnerable place of saying this could I could get hurt, you know, I could fall I could go wrong, you know, And it takes that willingness to risk it all, which is what Christ came to show us, you know, willing to risk it all, risk everything for the sake of love.

Lee McMahon (Host)

I really was struck by in 13 just that genuine charity. Like what is real charity? He says that genuine charity, therefore, which knows how to do and to suffer all things for the salvation and the benefit of all that leaps forth with all the heat and energy of a flame, uh, from that most holy Eucharist in which Christ himself is present in lives, in which he indulges to the utmost.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah, I think sometimes we forget that Jesus is alive. Mm. Not just like an idea, like he is truly. He has a body, he's a beating heart, and he is currently taking up some physical space in a way that we cannot receive because he's God and heaven is on the other side of the veil. Yeah. Just this idea of what is true love.

Lee McMahon (Host)

True love knows how to suffer all things.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Amen. And union with Christ in the cross.

Lee McMahon (Host)

So for the benefit of all men and that's what the cross is, is for the and the good and union with the cross. Right.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And when true love is tested.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Yeah. That brings to mind for me Saint Maximilian Kolbe. We think of him most kind of primarily for that moment when he made the sacrifice of his life for another, you know, he was in the concentration camps and, you know, men were being called forward and one was called forward that that said, I have a wife and and children please like and see Maximilian Kolbe was the one who stepped forward and said, take me instead.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Right. And but many years before that, as he was living as a brother in his religious community, he would always be they would be working hard to fulfill their apostolate would which would be to spread basically the word about Jesus and Mary to all corners of the earth.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Working hard, working hard. And he would always go to spend these little moments of time before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Yeah. And he would go and they would say, Brother, you're so busy, Father. You're so busy, you know, to why do you keep going to go before the Blessed Sacrament? And he would say, How can I not go before the sacrament of love?

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Yeah, how will I learn to love? How will I learn to give myself if I don't sit before the one who is constantly and hear it says renewing that Jesus renews ceaselessly?

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Renews his sacrifice there in the Blessed Sacrament. And so it was by the times that he's spent before the Blessed Sacrament of making that choice to be before love, that he was ready to make that sacrifice of himself in love when that appointed moment came.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah, the sacrament. He says this in 15. In a word, this sacrament, capitalist sacrament Eucharist is as it were, the very soul of the church. If this sacrament is truly the source in some of the church's life itself, it's not a far stretch at all to say that it is the very soul of the church. And if it's the soul of the church, then shouldn't it be ours as well?

Lee McMahon (Host)

All analogies fail if you take them to the limit. But just say Maximilian Kolbe. He understood this. So he would go, Yeah.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

The the Eucharist is the secret of the saints.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

That's, that's it. And so there and.

Lee McMahon (Host)

It's not flashy, it's not sexy. It's a cool. It's Jesus. Yes.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

And yes, his kingdom is out of this world, right? I mean, his logic is not our logic. Yeah. It transcends and it's and that's the beauty of it all, that it's very contrary to what the world has to offer.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah. Mm.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Wow. Yeah. Actually, I have here a beautiful quote of our mother founders, Mother Adela. And she beautifully says that in the midst of today's chaos in the world, the one who is Lord of history, who is at the center, not only of the history of the church, but also of the history of humanity, presents himself before our eyes.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

He raises up in front of our eyes, which are loaded with darkness, the sublime and luminous gift of Christ and the Eucharist to give us his light a light which shines in the darkness. And the darkness did not overcome it. Mm.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Come on. Come on, John.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

One darkness. Yes. Darkness is. Not the last word. Rather his light.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Gosh, it's so funny how the world loves to think that Satan and Jesus are, like, even on the same level. It's ridiculous. Do. We're talking about creator and creature. It's not even a game. Like it's not a battle. The the battle is over from the beginning.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

You kind of create all the wars.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Done, you know, like, yes, we still have a part to play and yes, we're still stuck in it.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

He is victorious, but.

Lee McMahon (Host)

It's like, come on, there's a limitless power in freedom in Christ Jesus, sister, you anything?

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Well, I was just going to go a little bit later in that paragraph 15 that we were looking at. Go ahead. And there's moment and I think this even kind of ties into what we were just saying of like, um, okay, why is okay Satan's not anywhere near close to the that God has. Yeah, but why is this still such a battle.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Right. And it's, it's like you said, our part to play. If Satan has no power over. Yeah. If we are rooted, if we're clinging to the Lord who is the all powerful one. And so it's amazing because here in these words, our Holy Mother church is like it's like the we're being begged to go to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

The Holy Synod admonishes, exhorts, asks, and implores by the tender mercy of God.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Can you hear the lies, please? If I could say another word so that I could beg you.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And then what is it going on to say, begging us as the faithful to be prepared to and receive Jesus in the Eucharist, begging that we would make His flesh, take his flesh for our food in and have and do so in a way that first we are and to be able to receive him, and then that we would go to receive him.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

It's like, you know, I can just see, you know, like a parent before the child that says, Please I know that this is the best thing for you. How can I convince you? What can I do? And inside that the Lord is, is I'm sure, the same way. He's like, what else if I haven't, what else can I do to prove my love for you?

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

You know, what else can I give? If only you would receive? And so I think that that's something for us to say, okay, it's not that I have to do all these things for God and I have to make all my I mean, we got to make our efforts, you know, fight the battle. But it's that's not the thing.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Yeah. It's that God is pouring himself out. He's giving himself to me, and he's just begging. Just receive.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah, just receive me.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And that the in the most, most intimate way in the reception of the Blessed Sacrament. Right.

Lee McMahon (Host)

I was watching the video the other day of this one woman just giving some marriage advice and she was saying about how when relationships get difficult or tough, the American way is to say something's gone wrong. It's like, no, your hasn't gone wrong, your relationship hasn't gone wrong. It's gone real. Hmm. So what do you do about it?

Lee McMahon (Host)

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

MM Wow. From the beginning, begging us. Thomas Long receive the Lord. I think we have to return to that in a sense of I mean again, this kind of like white knuckling American idea that we've been talking about.

Lee McMahon (Host)

We were talking about America loving and just kind of coming up.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And it's this whole idea of like, if I just could do it, if I could just. Oh, right. And this is the struggle that we have with growing in virtue and then also with the vices that keep coming in. And so recognizing like also the kind of like, let's turn how we see it. Like I'm a sick person and I need medicine.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Am I taking my medicine every day? You know, And if you go to the doctor and you're like, I just can't get over this. He's like, Did you take your medicine every day like I told you? And you're like, Well, you know, but I really tried to, you know, feel better. And he's like, Go to the medicine. This is really what the when we as we're struggling and strive to say, I want to grow in virtue or even with vices that are really even like strong habitual sins that we're maybe struggling with, go to the Eucharist, you know, and even even as we're struggling and maybe moments that we can't receive.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

You guys, I always encourage people go to mass, like every day, then, yeah, if you're in that struggle, if you're in that battle, go to mass every day and long for the Eucharist and receive still the what what the Lord is pointing out and just the power of the sacrifice of the mass, this is the pathway to living constantly in grace that we're maybe in that in that battle towards go to Jesus in the Eucharist, all the ways that we can.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

This is going to be the the fuel that we need in order to fight this battle, but not with ourselves, with the Lord. You know, he invites us to be only be still and I will fight for you, you know. And so that's the what he asks of us is to come to him in the Eucharist. That's our spiritual power.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Yeah. As we strive for virtue and as we try to eliminate and fight out that the vice that we're struggling with.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah. What are those things called?

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Barnacles.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Barnacles, Yes. They attach themselves to the bottom of a boat. Yes. It's kind of like that. Right. And especially when it comes to advice like these habitual dispositions to not do the good but to do evil, as hard as that is to say. And here you like sitting in the presence of our Lord, His light acts as that medicine itself.

Lee McMahon (Host)

That just breaks them away, breaks them off. I just read a story by Michael O'Brien called By the Rivers of Babylon. If you don't know who Michael O'Brien is, read everything that he's ever written because he's amazing. He's an iconography. The author who lives in Canada. That's all I got. But anyway, he in this story, the story, it's it's about the Prophet Ezekiel and it's kind of just a play on auto play.

Lee McMahon (Host)

It's a yeah, it's historical fiction, but he's working in the canals. BABYLON Basically, because they're in the Babylonian exile, he's got leeches on him. And these leeches, right. The only way that they can you can't pull the leech off doesn't really work that way. You have to. You just, like, take a hot the little twig out of the fire and just, like, stick it on the leech and it falls off.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Hmm. It's like we have to do the same thing if we go to the Lord. You know, he's going to do that for us. His life like axes, that his presence is that little smoldering stick, if you will.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And we see that concretely in the lives of the saints. Yeah, but going back to the Saints, one clarification is sometimes we think of them as super heroes, that they're just up here.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah, they're so.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Behind us and I'm here. But really, they were just like us. Yeah, they were so simple. They were ordinary people living an ordinary life. But they said the key to them was that name, nature and that grace and the Eucharist, as you all were mentioning. Yeah, but also their cooperation. And I think a misconception as well is we think big, but it really starts with the small.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Yes, that's what builds into the the bigger and even going along of muscles and athletics, you know, even training the body, we're not going to start very big because what what are we going to do? We're going to have an injury within our body. And I think with a strong striving for virtue is in the same way. We have to start small and that is what's going to build.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And when I say small, first within our own homes, in our case, it's common within our fraternal life or our sisters being faithful in the marriage, life within the family, and then from flowing from there outside.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yeah, I love superheroes and I think it's like our culture around the world loves to like we're all romantics. We are. We are so romantics. It's like, Oh it's going to be great. It's going to be awesome. It's the best thing ever. It's going to be beautiful, perfect. You know? And the same thing applies when we think of the Saints is like all these people who are revered, respected and honored.

Lee McMahon (Host)

And they're just yeah, I mean, it makes total sense as to why we think them so big and beyond is because we're romantics and but yeah, just do the next right thing. Yeah. Be faithful in the little way and you will be able to say yes. If we say yes in the small ways, day in and day out, virtue will happen.

Lee McMahon (Host)

And if we do that, then it'll be that much easier to say yes in those big moments when the Lord asks more of a sincere and total gift of ourself.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

And going along to a more thing with hope, with a saint that I like to give an example of is Saint Augustine. Yeah. How before his conversion, think of everything that can go wrong. I think he probably is in that in that range. Yeah, but how? Well, even his mom, Monica, not that sister Monica is going to talk.

Lee McMahon (Host)

A lot of that.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

So but, but it is the power of prayer you see there as well. But how really there is hope. Someone who completely went a different path, someone who completely was closed his heart on God. Do you see how God opens his heart and gives him that chance? And now a great doctor in the church, right?

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yes. I really see how you said in the beginning of how you you were doing a really you just expressed like how I can't describe it because it's experiential. Yes. And when we meet the Lord, when we those when we have those moments of encounter like we can't there's no way you can't you can't fully put that into words because you have to just experience it.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yes. And it's yeah, it's like how do you how do you describe coming into contact with the one who has been is now and ever shall be the infinite. Yes, Lord of Lords, King of Kings Like how do you do that? You don't. It's impossible. We can only just like give. We can hint at shades and just like point out like this one frequency of light or this one frequency of sound or whatever, and you should be like, But that happened.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Isn't that cool? Yes, it is so good. But we have to like the calls to find those moments to dispose ourselves to moments of encounter that like put us put ourselves in those places where encounters likely, right. You know, like, okay, you're all these stories, almost every single person we've had on this show so far and every single person that we're probably going to have on has had some type of encounter with the Lord in the Eucharist in adoration, you know, just like, check it out.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

If every single human being listening to this podcast would turn to the Lord and open their hearts, the power of His grace and his love, we will be forming an army here for the Lord.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yes.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

We will be changing culture. Little by little.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Sign me up.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

And then we're.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

In.

Lee McMahon (Host)

The same.

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

Army of saints.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Yes, that's a good little militia. What was Maximilian Kolbe?

Sister Kelly Grace, SCTJM

His militia and Macrolide and.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Just fantastic sisters. Thanks for being here.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Thank you. Thank you. Yes.

Lee McMahon (Host)

I wish we could just keep talking all afternoon. And so far have dinner, drinks, whatever. Just you know what I mean? But, like, thank you for being here. Thank you for your witness. Thank you for your vocation. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your joy. Thank you for your just being you.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Thank you, Lee. Yes. Thank you for your vocation.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Oh, you're welcome. Everything you.

Sister Lucia Maria, SCTJM

Do and.

Sister Monica Bernadette, SCTJM

Yourself and your.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Skill and enthusiasm, hopefully it's not too overwhelming to list your out there as powerful. Thank you. Thank you, Jesus. I hope this I hope this conversation's blessed you, dear listener. If it has, please share it with your friends and family because we've got to get the word out that Jesus is alive and he's got a good work and he's really present in the Holy Eucharist.

Lee McMahon (Host)

Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen from. And that's also going to help us get the word out about this. When people are searching for things with respect to faith, this has been New Manna. Thank you for listening. We'll see next week. Bless you.