Sister Joseph Louise

Words of gratitude or anything you’d like to share:

My heart is overflowing with gratitude especially during this jubilee year. But why? Let us start from the very beginning.

As a cute little baby girl, a year after Mother Luisita crossed the threshold of eternal life, I received the Sacrament of Baptism, and my Heavenly Father adopted me as His very own child. As a gift on this incomparable occasion, He bestowed upon my soul three gifts: the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity.

A year after, in the city where Mother Luisita died, I received the Sacrament of Confirmation from Most Reverend Jose Garibi Rivera, the Archbishop who visited Mother Luisita just before she left this earth.  As he told her, “Mother Luisita, the will of God,” she tried to get up as a sign of respect.  On this day, our Heavenly Father branded my soul with the Seal of the Holy Spirit by the merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as saying, “This little girl is mine.”

Years passed and again, as a sign of His love for me, my mother providentially enrolled me in a Catholic school.  I was the only one in the family to enjoy this privilege.  It was not just any school, but the one staffed by the Franciscans of Our Lady of Refuge, from which community Archbishop Francisco Orozco y Jimenez selected the sister who was to form the first novices of Mother Luisita’s new community, the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart.  I made my First Communion in their public chapel.  On this immemorable date, the sisters advised me, “When Jesus comes into your soul, tell Him to make you all His!”  And so, I did, not knowing fully the meaning of this request.  By third grade, when we had visitors at home, my mother would ask me to tell them what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I assuredly responded, “I want to be a sister like Sister Imelda,” who was my favorite teacher then.

Many years later, I found myself knocking outside the door of the Sacred Heart Retreat House chapel wearing a black pleated skirt, black blouse with a white collar and a white veil (which was the postulant uniform back then), asking for admittance as a postulant to the Community, to become “all His.”  Father William Fenton, O.C.D. presided at the ceremony.  It was the same year the sisters celebrated the centennial of Mother Luisita’s birthday.

Six months later, I was on the altar of the same chapel—dressed in a wedding outfit including white high-heeled shoes—for the investiture of the holy habit as part of the entrance into the novitiate, at which time we received a new name.  Guess what name I received!  None other than Mother Luisita’s name.  Oh, what a glorious day that was!

What joy, love, and enthusiasm I encountered during this time of my novitiate just as if it were the waiting room for Heaven!

I will never forget the moment on the day of my First Profession, when my mother (the mother God gave me to nurture the three gifts I received at my Baptism) told me, as we were waiting to line up for the entrance procession, “My daughter, kneel down; I want to give you my blessing!” And she happily gave me away to Him Whom I asked on the day of my First Communion to “make me all His.”  And from this day on, He has bestowed on me a torrential shower of blessings through my beloved Carmelite Community.

There is much cause for rejoicing.  Often, when I wake up in the morning I sing, “Thank you, Lord for so many things, at least a billion or two.”  This is the reason why my sense of filial love for my Heavenly Father has increased.  This is why my intercessory prayer has developed to include everyone in my global family.  Consequently, wherever you are, whatever you do, as my brother or my sister, I pray for you and I love you!

The “Our Father” has become my most favorite prayer and I pray it on your behalf as well.

What have you learned during your years in Carmel?

I have been assigned to serve in several houses of our Congregation. Everywhere I have been, I learned that every one of my Carmelite Sisters is “God’s new creation” and in each one His beauty is reflected in different ways. I understand better the meaning of the phrase we pray at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: “Heaven and earth are filled with Your glory.”

As St. John of the Cross stated in his Spiritual Canticle poem,

A thousand graces diffusing
He passed through the groves in haste,
And merely regarding them
As He passed
Clothed them with His beauty.

And in Scripture, we read that “whoever is in Christ is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). I also understand better the importance of living in the present moment, and that every year, every day, every moment of my life is a step closer to the time when, as the psalmist says, “I shall see the Lord no more in the land of the living; no longer shall I behold my fellow men among those who dwell in this world” (Isaiah 38:11). Intentionality in what I do is of utmost importance. Finally, I have learned to do everything in union with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to receive daily all the gifts He gives me, “whether it is a rose or a cross,” as one of the sisters stated.