Sister Mary Scholastica
of the Cross (Lee), O.C.D.
“When one feels deeply loved,
one cannot participate
in the mystery of Love,
Who give Himself,
by holding back
and watching from afar.
You must allow the flames
that burn the sacrifice
to catch fire in you.
And to become love.”
Pope St. John Paul II
With joy the Carmelite Sisters
of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles invite you to
A Jubilee Mass of Thanksgiving
Sunday, June 25, 2023
3:30 p.m.
Mass of Thanksgiving
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
555 West Temple St.
Los Angeles, California 90012
Archbishop José H. Gómez
(Celebrant)
Reception and Jubilarian Greeting
following the Mass
Carmelite Sisters Motherhouse
920 East Alhambra Road
Alhambra, California 91801
Get to know Sister:
Where did you grow up?
Los Angeles, California
As you look back through the years of your religious life, what rises to the surface?
It’s been a journey. An unexpected one. “By paths unknown I will guide them” says the psalmist. I’m amazed at how He has led me, the doors He’s opened and closed, the gifts He has poured out upon me, the change and growth He has brought forth, the parts of me that He brought to the light (the good and the bad) and through it all, showing me in small ways that it’s all a part of my path to holiness. If God had not called me to Carmel, I would not be the person I am today. My sisters in Carmel have been a big part of my journey and the gratitude I feel for this beautiful vocation as well as for my family of origin and my religious family is immense. God has always been, He is, and I know, He will always be faithful.
When you hear the word Authentic, what comes to mind when you think of your vocation to this religious family?
This too is and will continue to be a journey. As we become “older” we would hope that we become more and more our true selves, as God made us to be. There’s a lot of fine-tuning and hard work that needs to happen as you go deeper. When you enter a religious community, there is an element of starting with the externals because you even look different and there are a lot of externals that have changed around you. It’s hard to put it into one paragraph as we’re speaking of the journey of life through all its stages, and the journey of the soul, each in its own unique way. But as you move through the natural interior growth that takes place from experiencing the blessings and hard knocks of life and as you learn to shed the parts of you that are not being true to the person God made you to be…you learn to accept more and more who you are, as you are. There is a fullness of this that happens, I think, in religious life as we are called to seek perfection in charity, which essentially means living life FULLY as you were meant to, in likeness to Jesus. And in our community and in my sisters, I see each of us, in our own way on the journey, seeking whole-heartedly to become more and more who we are called to be, with our own unique gifts, stregnths, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies. Saints in the making…which basically means sinners who fall yet still get up over and over again!