Every vocation has its own story. Each Sister could tell you how she happened to enter the convent. There are some similarities but some differences. When did Sister realize that God was calling her? How did she decide on the community? Were there difficulties to overcome? How did her family react?
Our website has a number of vocation stories, and now, in this 100th anniversary year of our foundation as a community, I’d like to tell you about our foundress’ vocation journey.
Mother Mary Teresa Tallon (who was then Julia) lived on a farm in upstate New York. Julia had one brother and three sisters; several other siblings had died in infancy and her father died when she was young.
She went to the local public school, where she and her younger sister Jane were the only Catholic students. This is the schoolhouse she and Jane walked to each day.
In her childhood Julia had never met a Sister, yet “at the age of 12, I knew just what I wanted. I wanted to be a religious. I wanted to give myself to God and work for souls for Him.”
Perhaps she had heard of Sisters from her grandmother, who lived with the family? When she told her mother of her desire, she was laughed at. “It’s only a childish idea.”
She took advantage of the opportunities available to her to spread the faith to others. When families from the city came at harvest time to help with the harvest, Julia gathered the children and informally instructed them in the faith. In addition, she helped arrange for her home to be a mission station for occasional Masses for those who could not get to the parish church three miles away.
Her desire to be a Sister didn’t go away, and when she was in her teens her mother realized that her daughter was serious about this. Despite being a churchgoing Catholic, her mother did not want her daughter to enter a convent. As with many mothers, “It’s fine for someone else’s daughter, but not for my daughter.”
Her mother decided to squelch the idea. After sending Julia for a dressmaking course, she sent her off with a new wardrobe to distant relatives in the city for a winter vacation, so that Julia would be exposed to young people, parties and dances. In addition, a daughter in that family had been in the convent a short while and left, thinking convent life was too hard, and Julia’s mother thought this would be the final blow to Julia’s dream.
God had other plans, however. When Julia arrived at the home she was visiting, the local parish was hosting a parish mission. Julia spent all her free time in church instead of at social events. She spoke with the mission priest, who encouraged her in her vocation.
She later wrote, “After two weeks I returned to my home, a failure in the eyes of my family. They never thought I would amount to much. I was too shy, they said.”
Julia, however, was more determined than ever to be a Sister. Her mother then let her know she was on her own for any travel expenses or other things she would need if she entered a convent. Of course Julia had no money.
After a little time passed, she gained permission from her mother to go to another city, with her younger sister Jane, boarding there and getting a job. The two girls found employment in a dressmaking factory, saving their scant earnings so Julia could become a Sister. Fortunately her sister Jane was “on her side.”
While in the city, Julia was able to attend daily Mass, which had not been possible at home, and she met the Sisters who worked in the area and did some volunteer work with them.
She turned to the parish priest for spiritual direction, and he encouraged her vocation. She also joined the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin. This is the only photo we have of Julia before her entrance to the convent, taken when she was received into the Sodality.
After the local parish priest visited her mother and explained her duty to allow her daughter to enter religious life, her mother reluctantly gave permission.
Julia still had to decide on an order. After considering the Sisters she had volunteered with, she applied to the Holy Cross Sisters, through the encouragement of her spiritual director, and was accepted. Her family was upset and in tears at her leaving, but she did not back down. She entered just before her 20th birthday, and she was a Holy Cross Sister for many years before God gave her the call to begin the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate.
We are so grateful for her YES to Him to enter religious life, and for her further YES to Him to found the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate 100 years ago!
God still calls! On October 1 we received a new postulant, Debbie Comins, from upstate New York, and on the same day postulant Sally Yu, from California, began her novitiate. Sally is now Sister Sylvia Marie. (Sylvia is her baptism name.) Here is a photo of Sister Sylvia Marie and one of her with Debbie, Sr. Mary Beata, the novice director, and Mother Maria Catherine.
May God bless you as you continue to discern His will for your life. Keep praying and trusting in Him and He will never fail you!
In Jesus,
Sister Dolores Marie