Sister Sarah-Marie Waterman, O.Carm is a religious sister with the Corpus Christi Carmelite Sisters and joined the Congregation in January 2007. Sr. Sarah has a deep love for the rich history of the Carmelite Order, especially since the Order is unique in not having a founder but was founded out of a group of pilgrim hermits in Mount Carmel, Palestine. Sr. Sarah (as she is best known) made her perpetual profession (lifelong commitment) as a Carmelite sister in November 2018.

She is originally from Piparo and considers herself a thorough country girl with a strong family connection with parang. She is the second of 3 children born to her parents Peter and Judy. She loves outdoor activities especially hiking and has a great love for food a trait inherited from her large family and their many many family cook out in Piparo. Her famous words “People who love to eat are the best people.”

Sr. Sarah loves being a Religious Sister and has a deep passion for vocation ministry, having ministered in Special Education specifically Computer Literacy. She has been involved in parish ministry from First Communion to Confirmation and ministering to youths via talks and retreats and currently working with formation for young adults interested in the religious life.

She has done Mission work in Guyana and presently ministers at the Christ Child Convalescent Home, Principal of Corpus Christi College, which involves Mt. Carmel Kindergarten and Montessori as well as Mt. Carmel Day Care and Nursery in Diego Martin. Sr. Sarah is energized by service, a hallmark of her Congregation. She has completed a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, a master’s degree in Educational Leadership with the University of Dayton and presently pursuing her Diploma in Educational Administration at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine.

My ultimate goal in life is doing whatever God asks of me.

Welcome to 12-Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, his creation.

Our prayer is that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Praise God for you, Sister Sarah, it's a great pleasure to connect with you.

What part of the world are you in today?

Trinidad, David Martin.

Super glad to have Trinidad in the house.

Yeah, we love speaking to people all over the world, but oh my gosh, who could beat a Trini accent, right?

So true.

So you are family in that my wife is related to you, and it really don't have any in-laws in our mind, so you're family.

No.

Yeah, so thank you for coming on to have this conversation.

Yeah, tell me, what brought you to making the decision to become a sister?

As a child growing up, I always felt a deep desire to connect with God, and I did not know what that meant, for want of a better way to put it.

And when I was about nine, thereabouts, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

So that was a real journey for us, because we were children.

And by the time the doctors found out, in those days, it was not like now.

You would know whether it's stage four, stage two, stage three.

They just told her basically that she had six months to live, and she was given a choice whether she would do chemotherapy or accept her fate.

Yes, basically.

But my mother was a very strong and praying woman.

So we journeyed with her, we journeyed in her illness, her sufferings, but as well as her joys.

So there were times when we literally saw God's hand at work.

I witnessed my mother putting down her walking cane, because she had a cane at one point, and walked without it, because of sheer faith and belief that God would heal her.

So I experienced in that journey, a lot of God's miracle firsthand, not said to me, but I would have witnessed it.

And I remembered one day looking up, because you know, as do all children, it is the notion that heaven exists up in the sky somewhere, that God is up there.

And I remember standing on our staircase at home, looking up and saying, you know, God, if you would spare her life, I would serve you intimately.

And those were my exact words.

I did not know what it meant.

But it came from a very, very deep place in my heart.

And in jail, six months turned into six or seven years.

That stayed with me.

When I reached on to my teenage years, there was this desire to do more in church to become active.

And that journey happened.

I remember a priest asking me once, Sarah, have you ever thought about religious life?

You know, just casually.

And I was like, no.

Because in Piparo, we did not see religious sisters.

We did not see nuns, as the world will call them.

And it's locally, we just, everybody's a nun.

And there is a definition for that as well.

But we did not have that experience.

So to say that I knew what that meant, I really didn't.

And then one day, he said it again, like about a year or two years after.

And I thought to myself, you know what?

I should look into that.

And there began my journey with God.

I have you done at 15 in my calculation, with nine, with your mom, six years.

So you're 15, 16.

Am I right?

Yes.

So I was in secondary school.

And when I actually finished a secondary school, I repeated for one year.

And when I was completely finished with my secondary school education, probably worked for about a year or two years.

And this journey became more intense.

Visiting the sisters in Tunapuna, Mount St. Benedict, spending weekends.

I was really intentional about finding out if this is what God was calling me to.

And on that journey, you know, the devil have a way of doing things, you see.

So I remember on that journey, I would have been about 19.

Thereabout, I got involved in a very serious relationship.

And it felt as though there was something more that was missing.

That I was not fulfilled in whatever that was.

I never stopped my religious life journey in terms of what I mean by that is trying to discern if God is calling me to this way of life.

And then one day, each church have a baptismal font.

So ours was in San Fernando.

It was literally like you stepped into a pool and I was cleaning the baptismal font, glorious Saturday evening.

And there was this jerk or this, I like to call it a kick, as if God said to me, you've been going in circles for too long.

It's time to make a decision.

And I came out of that pool and I made one phone call and I ended that relationship.

So for the people out there would see, and I've been hit with this before, boy, that was harsh.

And whoever that young man well is or was then probably really felt it, which is true in the reality.

And I like to be transparent and honest, but I did rectify it in having a conversation with him face to face.

I ended that part of my life in jail to enter religious life, to see if really and truly this is what he was calling me to.

So I started living with the sisters.

I made a pledge to God that I am giving him.

So this is Sarah now putting out her terms and conditions to God.

And I said to him, I'm giving you one year.

So if this is the life you've called me to, whatever you need to do, you need to do it within that one year.

And 19 years later, I am still here.

So clearly he did it.

At the beginning of this conversation, there's a place where you say, yes, it was so powerful, right?

Because the yes that you said was an affirmation, yet it was a question.

And with your story that you just expressed, it felt as though that yes fit right there when you got that calling, right?

With yes, I'm hearing you.

And yes, I will obey and move forward.

But isn't it interesting that the no that we have to face is always one that could be almost debilitating?

For example, saying no to the relationship to say yes.

And of course, everything that goes with it, what people will say, how they will look at you, how did you navigate that?

That was probably the hardest part of my journey.

One of my aunties looked at me when I told her the news and she said, you're going to waste your life.

This is what you're going to do to your life or give your life to, you're going to waste it.

And you know, I remember my father at first instance, he walked out of the house that day and our relationship was on a strain for quite some time.

But in all of that, there was some conviction that I made up my mind that I was going to see if this is for me, if this is really for me.

So it mattered not what people thought.

I wanted to try it.

And I did.

My auntie's thoughts, because by this time my mother had passed.

So my auntie's thought, well, it's a phase she's going through and she would leave eventually.

She will not stay.

But I was so convinced that God was really calling me angel.

I think deep down in my heart, even though I was discerning something deep down spoke to this is, this is it.

This is where I want you.

My first weekend with the sisters, I remember feeling so at home, you know, but the conviction that I am doing this for God was the one thing I held on to when the waters got rough.

And indeed it did get rough.

I created a bit of a turmoil in my immediate family.

Being the eldest girl, my sister, Sadie, did not deal well with it.

She saw it as abandonment.

My father saw it as, I will not have any grandchildren.

And, you know, my eldest daughter is going off to something that I don't understand.

My aunt felt the same way.

People fear what they do not understand.

And sometimes explaining God's call for you at the first instance, they may not understand it.

And seeing is believing.

Do you think your mother was the ultimate sacrifice for your journey?

Till this day.

And I gave a talk on contemplative prayer last week, Wednesday.

Until this day, it is a question that I always ask myself.

If my mother was alive, would I have entered religious life?

Would the opportunity have presented itself in the way it did?

I have not found the answer to that.

Or maybe I know it and don't want to answer it.

I'm not sure.

But clearly I have not found the answer for that.

But it is indeed a question that sits with me very often.

On this path of your destiny, have you seen signs of her?

The only thing I've seen and experienced on more than one occasions, at high points of stress, from whatever, I would have dreamt my mother more than once.

And she's always giving me a bouquet of flowers.

Flowers that I have never seen in reality.

For me, that meant two things.

I believe that she is with God.

And I also experience her when I feel inclined to give in to my anger.

There is that sense of peace and calm.

And I believe that.

And now that I'm much older, I could identify those things.

But being younger, it was a struggle to identify who on this journey.

And I guess I often wondered if it's because I lost her so young in my life, because I would have been about 15 years old when she died, that I was so wrapped up in losing her, that I did not look for her.

I don't know if you understand.

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah.

Because there's so many other things going on at the same time.

Yeah.

Right.

But now that I am older, life is different.

I'm an adult.

I can now see certain things in my own life, certain characteristics of hers that reside in me.

She was very quiet, a quiet person.

But yet in that quietness or silence, she was very outspoken.

Powerful.

Yes.

So in that, and I think her silence gave life to that part of her.

Straightforward.

And I have now developed that.

Five years from today, you're listening to this conversation, because I told you, I want you to come back onto the podcast.

And you've realized, wait a minute, what did we talk about again?

So you're listening to the conversation, and what's a message you'd leave for future you listening to this?

Stay strong, do not give up, and keep focused on God.

Sister Sarah, this has been a great pleasure, one I treasure.

Thank you for being what has inspired my 12 minute converse.