Hello family, friends, and anyone near and far who has found my campaign story! I pray that the peace of Jesus is with you. I write this campaign to ask your generous support to help me enter religious life with the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara (the Servidoras!) in January 2024. I must be completely debt free by my entrance date, and I am currently fundraising for $14,000 of student loan debt. Student loan debt is the #1 deterrent of young men and women from pursuing a vocation, and I am no different. My story in simple form is this: Jesus has invited me to a life of radical trust in Him, to become a religious sister! To be a religious sister means that Jesus will my One and my only, and that my whole life will be centered on praise, love, and service of Him...to bring Him, the Incarnate Word, to everyone. But I cannot begin this journey without the help of generous people in my life. This campaign is just one avenue of my fundraising. Although my debt to cover is $14,000, I am putting this fundraiser at $6000 for now and will adjust if needed! I am raising funds in other avenues as well, but hope to use LFEBridge as one of my bases for the MANY friends I have out there who can and want to give, but are far and wide. I do hope that you will pray and consider to give generously. The Lord has been so generous to me over the last few years, and I know that generosity will not end, nor will He be outdone. Thank you so, so, so kindly from the bottom of my heart. I'm praying for you, and I pray all of your patron saints and guardian angels wrap you in their prayers as well. Please pray for me and my spiritual protection. I need it! My discernment story is below. -- St. Joseph, pray for us! AMDG+ Rachel ----------------------------------- My journey here has been one of discernment and of a lot of adventure! I preface all of this with the reality that without the free gift of the grace of God, I could never say yes to such a life. It is through is grace, love, and mercy alone that I have ended up where I am and am pursuing the path that I am. But I remember daily that it is the Lord who has pursued me first and placed this seed of vocation in my heart, protecting and nurturing it over time. For the last two years, Jesus has been slowly but surely winning me over and revealing deep desires of my heart. While leading a vocations pilgrimage in Colorado in July 2024 (I was not discerning religious life at all at the time, I was just in charge of the trip for high school/college aged girls!), Jesus posed the question to me: What if this could be you? At first I told Jesus 'ummmm yeah this is not me." I had never imagined myself as a religious sister -- I've always wanted to get married and have many children, with at least a handful of THEM being priests and religious, not me! But, the things with the Lord is that if you are truly open to His whispers and words, and His gentle movements, He will reveal desires and wants within your heart and inmost being that you did not know existed. And so after a few months of that question popping in and out of my head, I opened my heart to be a little more docile to what the Lord wanted; from there I began to learn more about religious life, visit communities, and grow in love of Jesus and in desire to be devoted to Him. In the summer of 2024, I was invited on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. During my 12 days in Israel, the Lord spoke very kindly to me through the intercession of St. Joseph. St. Joseph lived poverty so well, possessing nothing but having everything that he needed the love of Jesus and Mary. I knew I wanted to live that way as well. Not long after my pilgrimage and I returned home, the Lord made it clear in prayer that He did want me to possess nothing and have everything in Him alone. And so, I accepted the call to follow Jesus as a religious sister! But the remained of the summer brought obstacles; I was unsure what communities I should be looking into, if I was called to active or contemplative life. And in August of 2024 when my mom passed away unexpectedly, I felt that my discernment journey had to be put on hold so I could grieve and heal. Jesus would bring me back to this place when and if He wanted. Fast forward again to January 2024, at FOCUS's SEEK23 conference in St. Louis, MO, I encountered a sister of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara, the Servidoras -- Mother Star of the Evangelization. We spoke little of discernment or religious life, but rather just about life in general. But this meeting would be a catalyst of moving forward in my discernment again. From there I continued to receive spiritual promptings and consolations toward the Servidoras, and came across the opportunity to spend 8 days with them through Holy Week of this year. While on my visit, I experienced that feeling I didn't think was real -- I 'just knew' that this community, these sisters, this spirituality this mission, was going to be my home. The charism of the Servidoras is to 'bring the Incarnation of the Word to all men work with families, through education, in the media, and anywhere that humanity is most in need'. This speaks so deeply to me, as I have a devotion to Jesus specifically in the imagery of the Incarnation as spoken in the Gospel of John, chapter 1. I applied for entrance and was accepted into postulancy with the Servidoras on May 30th, and have been given approval for entrance on January 9, 2024! While it is still 5 months away, even these first few months of acceptance (I write this in late July 2024), have gone by quickly. I am grateful for this preparation period to do the things I must before the convent! This includes letting go of the majority of my possessions, moving out of Oklahoma, saying good-bye to friends and family, and preparing for a life that just looks drastically different than the one I am currently living. I ask for your prayers for perseverance and spiritual protection. While this journey is exciting and full of joy, there are real challenges every day to following Jesus and giving this 'yes'! And so now, for the next 5 months I continue to prepare through prayer and just being present to my every day! I am so grateful for the love and support I have from family and friends. Thank you thank you. The Father will not be outdone in generosity!
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