For years when I was a child I dreamed of being a missionary. My parents got Maryknoll Magazine every month and I poured over the pages imagining myself going to foreign countries to serve the gospel as a Maryknoll nun. When I was in elementary school I was convinced I had a vocation to religious life. But when I reached the age where it could actually become a reality, I had completely forgotten and never thought about it again.
Today, as I reflect on our five children and growing number of great grandchildren, I think my true vocation to marriage is obvious. Not only that, but the Maryknolls went off the rails and I think I might have actually lost my soul had I entered the order. Yes, I acknowledge the good that they do, just as a social service organization that distributes food does. But I think they have lost sight of the spiritual side of mission work. They are socialists who wear the veneer of missionaries.
I thank God for preserving me from entering the Maryknolls. I graduated from college in 1968; a very bad decade for Holy Mother Church. I see clearly today how much God protected me and what a gift he gave me when I met my future husband who, like me, came from a large Catholic family committed to the faith. Thank you, Lord for my husband, my children, their spouses, my grandchildren and my great grandchildren. And thank you for all the priests, nuns, and laity who helped build my faith. They were missionaries to me and may I, in turn, be a missionary to others.
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