Dear Diary

Hi,
I am new at this blogging.  When I was a kid, we had diaries, which we had a key to, locked up, and hid so our brothers and sisters could not read it.  Now we blog.  I have discovered an amazing thing.  Nobody reads it unless you have what they call SEOs which I know nothing about.  I don't even need a key or even try to hide it.  It is my own personal diary which someone may or may not discover.

Well, first I would like to introduce myself.  I am a Sister of St. Francis of Philadelphia.  Many young people ask me what led me to that decision.  The simple answer is I fell in love with God and felt God was calling me to a Sister.  I remember my aunt who was a Christian Charity Sister saying to me "You will know" when I asked her how do you know if God is calling you to be a Sister.  I have to tell you that was a very unsatisfying answer when I was a young teenager.  But she was right.  I did know.  Oh sure, it was a process and I had my doubts on and off, but in the end I was pretty sure God was calling me to be a Sister.  I have had no regrets.  It has been a marvelous opportunity for me to pray a lot and explore ways to get closer to God, and God is so willing to help.  That is the really neat part about it.  In some ways, I can identify with Imaculée in Left to Tell.  Unlike her, I was never terrorized by death threats, but there were interior struggles where I would rather do my own thing rather than listen to God.  Also, reading her story makes me realize my biggest struggles are the interior ones.  For those of you, who do not know who Imaculée is, she was a young woman in Ruanda who had escaped the death mobs who were trying to kill everybody in her tribe.  They came very close to succeeding on a number of occasions, but Imaculée fought within herself her own feelings of hatred and a desire for revenge by praying, and maintaining her faith in God's love for her to be able to survive.  It is a magnificent story.  I could not put it down.  My heart was racing as I read it.  Once she believed God was calling her to do something, she kept the vision before her, no matter what the discouraging and frustrating circumstances were.

Well, dear diary, it has been a long day and I am ready to retire.  I know my secrets are safe with you.