Salesian Sisters GBR

May

Anne Frances McNamee, Postulant.

When I first met the Sisters in 2002 I had only been teaching for one year. I had been asked by a friend to join our Diocesan group travelling to Toronto, Canada for World Youth Day. Having had no previous experience of WYD I had no idea of what to expect; if I am honest, I was more attracted by the thought of 10 days in Canada than anything else! I certainly didn’t expect my whole life to change…

In the group that was travelling from Motherwell Diocese there were two Salesian Sisters (Srs. Bernadette & Isabel). I had never heard anything about the Salesians before and this was also my first dealing with “nuns”. The Sisters told me some things about their Congregation, their founders and about the type of work they did. I remember being fascinated by it all and asking LOTS of questions. I also remember being struck at how ‘normal’ and approachable they were - I felt like I’d known them for ages!

When we were in Canada we attended a Salesian Day. People connected with the Salesian Family from all around the world gathered together. This was definitely a highlight for me because although the atmosphere was electric and I had an amazingly enjoyable day I discovered something much more - I finally found a name that described how I felt about people and things and my outlook on life and that name was SALESIAN! You could say that it was here that I was “bitten with the Salesian bug!”

After we returned home the Sisters kept in touch with me and I was invited to other Salesian events in this province. I got to know more of the Sisters and the young people who were involved with them. I remember the first time I went to Kendal for the Prayer Weekend and being struck by how welcoming everyone was and how much I felt at home.

The more I got involved with the Salesians the more alive I felt. I remember speaking to my friends just after World Youth Day and telling them all about my experience and about these Salesians I had met. My friends were laughing and saying “Oh, don’t tell us your going to be one of them!” and although I laughed too, something inside made my stomach flip and I remember hearing myself think ‘Could that be for me?’. However, as quickly as that came into my head I pushed it out – NO WAY was that for me!!

I tried to suppress that feeling and thought for ages, for about 2 years I think. Each time it came I would push it further to the back of my mind and try my best to ignore it. However, it was stronger than me and each time it came back, it was much more forceful than before. Some of the Sisters asked me if I had ever considered Religious Life and I denied it so much – although I was desperate for someone to ask me about it I couldn’t talk about it when they did.

Then one day I received a letter inviting me to a Discernment Weekend in Newmains. I convinced myself that I was only going to help ‘make up numbers’ but deep down if I am honest I was hoping that if I went I’d discover that this wasn’t for me and then I could get on with my life! As you can guess, that never happened. It was during this weekend that I realised I had to do something about this and talk to someone – I had tried to ‘deal with it’ by myself and it wasn’t any better. So, after the weekend I emailed Sr. Kathleen and asked if I could meet her for a chat. From that I began the Accompaniment programme in which I met with her once every month and discussed lots of things from all different areas of my life.

During these months I continued to feel that God was calling me in someway and I decided that unless I tried the next step I would never know, so I asked to make a Community Experience. I spent a year as part of the Community in Newmains, whilst at the same time, continuing in my teaching post at the school I had always worked in. My experience of Community in Newmains was fantastic, I very quickly felt at home there. The Sisters were all really welcoming and embraced me into the Community. I never once felt like a visitor in their home, I always felt part of everything. In that Community I was the youngest member by almost 40 years but I never felt that it was an issue. Everyone reached out to one another – the sisters to me and me to them – and made the effort to highlight common interests and similarities as well as appreciating the differences.

As my Community experience drew to a close I continued to feel that God was calling me to the Salesian Religious Life which meant I asked to become a Postulant. For this year I left Scotland and came to Liverpool. Once again, I have been gifted with a wonderful experience of Community and completely different experiences within mission. This year I have also regularly attended Inter-Congregational Courses with people at the same stage as me from all different Orders. This was a fabulous experience as, apart from making lots of new friends, it showed that young people are still choosing Religious Life in 2008. I am now at the stage were I am discerning my future and the next step of my journey. At the moment I feel certain that God is calling me to apply for entry into the Noviciate and as they say……watch this space!