Watch: My Sisterhood Story | Sister Mary Bethany OP | July 27

Congratulations to Sister Mary Bethany OP who this month made her final vows with Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor. Ad multos annos!

Sister Mary Bethany hails from northern California and grew up in “a really solid Catholic family” with five siblings and a mother and father who were “just beautiful examples of loving the Catholic faith”.

Sister Mary Bethany say she never considered religious life until one day she visited San Francisco where she attended the profession of vows of the Missionaries of Charity.

She was “captivated by the expression in the sisters' eyes” where she glimpsed a deep peace and joy that was “radiant”.

“Just to see these women giving their lives to Christ, being his spouses, and that totality, that unreserved giving, that was something that I deeply, deeply wanted to do, like just something that was so complete,” says Sister Mary Bethany.

“And in that moment, I just knew from the depths of my being that I could not say no to that, I didn't want to say no to that, so, at that moment, I really just surrendered my will to Him and just said, ‘You know Lord, yes, I whatever you want, that's what I want!’”

• Video courtesy of Openlight Media, an apostolate of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. To subscribe, click here

• Do you feel that God may be calling you to Consecrated Life? Contact Dawn Hausmann, Director of Consecrated Vocations for the Diocese of Lansing, at dhausmann@dioceseoflansing.org or 517-342-2506.