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Vocation Stories - the journey to contemplative life

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In the midst of discerning your vocation, it can be helpful to hear how others discerned their call. Below are stories from sisters in our Congregation about how God called them to become a Benedictine Sister of Perpetual Adoration. As you’ll see, we have as many stories as we have sisters. God calls each of us uniquely. We post different stories from time to time, so come back to read more.

 

Sr. Sean, OSB- entered 1979WILD ADVENTURESr. Sean, OSB (entered 1979)

 
In 1973, I graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelor's Degree in microbiology. Then I did a one-year internship at a large San Diego hospital as a medical technologist, after which I took state and national exams and was licensed in the state of California and registered nationally with A.S.C.P. My work as a medical technologist was very interesting as well as challenging. I've always been interested in science, and that aspect of the work was fascinating. 

 
I was an outdoors person and loved being out on the beach or up in the mountains or in the desert. I lived near the beach so would get up early and jog a couple miles each morning on the sand. Backpacking was a favorite activity. A couple times I hiked up to the summit of Half Dome in Yosemite, the summit of Mt. Whitney, backpacked several days through the rain forest on Mt. Rainier, and have also backpacked in the desert of Baja California.
 
I also enjoyed flying airplanes. In 1976, I got my private pilot's license and spent some time each week flying around the San Diego area. At one point, I decided to try parachuting, so I went to a class for it and did a couple jumps. On the second jump, my static line tangled around my boots as I did a back loop on exit. Having survived a very rough landing, I decided that it might be best to pursue other interests.  
 
It was during the spring of 1977 that I found out about a vocation retreat that was being held at the Benedictine Sisters' monastery near where I lived in San Diego. I lived just about 4 miles north of the monastery and decided to check it out. There was nothing logical about it. It didn't make any sense. I had a good thing going with a job that had a future. Some of the people who knew me thought I was throwing my life away or perhaps had taken leave of my senses. They could try to figure it out, but I didn't have to. I just knew I had to follow a way that was unfolding before me. I began spending weekends with the Sisters, and after about a year and a half, entered the congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Clyde, Missouri, in September 1979.
 
Since my first profession, my work assignment has been building maintenance. So I still rely somewhat on having a science background and being able to troubleshoot equipment in need of repairs, especially our computer network.
 
What I appreciate most about being a member of this congregation is the tremendous quality of community life. There is a genuine concern for the welfare of others, for those in need, for social justice, for the earth we live on. And there is constant striving to authentically live the monastic life, daily responding to the Gospel call to "sell what you have; give the money to the poor, and come follow me."