Vocation Testimony

I am eighty years old. I am in the Cloistered Carmel for forty years and am enjoying every moment of my life. I have undergone several operations and suffer from asthma but nothing prevents me from doing the little that I can. I thank God that he brought me to Carmel.

When I was studying in fifth Standard I happened to hear about St. Therese of Child Jesus and Cloistered Carmel. From that time onward I had the desire to join that kind of a convent. But I didn’t say it to anyone. I passed T.T.C at the age of eighteen and started teaching in CTC Convent school. When the proposals for marriage started coming I told my parents that I am going to join Convent. They were unwilling to send. In the meantime, I met the chaplain of the Rosarian Congregation and told about my desire. He told me that since I am a teacher that I should join an active Congregation. I wrote to Trichi Cloistered Carmel and they also rejected saying that I should join an active Congregation with the teaching ministry. Finally at the age of 23, without telling my parents I went for a “come and see’ to the convent where I was teaching and wrote from there to my parents and they kept silence. After three months my parents themselves took me to the CTC Sisters.

There I was professed as a CTC Sister and was teaching for 15 years. But the desire to join a Cloistered Carmel was always coming to my mind. After much struggle, the Lord brought me to the Cloistered Carmel of Tiruvalla.

Many are afraid to hear the word “Contemplative Order”. But I say it is an ill-placed fear. Once we are inside we never feel to want to go out. We are the heart of the Church. The heart is kept so safely in the body. So come and see “how good God is.’

- Sr. Mary Gemma of Jesus