Meredith Brennan
Age 25
Hometown: Grand Rapids, MI

When you love someone, you just want to be with them. I believe this is why God is calling me to religious life. He loves me and wants me here with Him! I'm simply responding as best I can to that love by returning it to Him with my life.

By God's grace and the love of my family, I have stayed close to the sacraments since I was a little girl, knowing in my heart that our Catholic faith was true, and growing into a friendship with Jesus. In high school I was blessed to have youth ministers who loved Jesus profoundly and taught me the joy of having a servant's heart. As I prepared for Confirmation, I began to take more responsibility for my faith and daily prayer. Jesus' presence in the sacraments fortified me through high school and into college, where I learned to cling to Him, especially through daily Mass, Holy Hours of Adoration, spiritual direction, and Reconciliation. I attended Boston College, where I was part of a group of Catholic students who met weekly for a Holy Hour and a faith-related presentation led by a professor. It grew into a strong community of friends, many of whom were considering religious vocations. Three friends, (all young men who are now living in religious life themselves), visited the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal over spring break of our junior year in college. When they came back, they were on fire with God's love and they gave me the newsletter for the sisters' community. I had met the friars at World Youth Day in Cologne a few years before, but I was not aware that there was a women's community. Though my interest was peeked, I put the newsletter away for a few months, only to pick it up again that summer. One of those friends who had visited the friars that spring was serving with them for the summer. I spoke with him on the phone and he told me that he was falling more in love with Jesus through his life of daily prayer there, and also through the young people in the Bronx with whom he was working. Hearing the peace in his voice, my heart was ignited--I had spent the last few months truly praying about my vocation and feeling unsatisfied even though I loved college life. I called the sisters to ask if I could visit for a weekend. I drove to New York, and immediately upon arrival, I hopped in the van with one of the sisters and went to a rough part of the Bronx to drop off some food at the apartment of a family in need. Walking in with Sister, I felt more peace and joy than ever--we were there to love them, not just to drop off the food. I returned home dazed and exhilarated, wondering if this was indeed God's plan for me. It was the joy of the sisters and imagining myself praying in that little convent chapel that brought me back to visit several more times that year.

As I was about to graduate, I heard God asking me to get to know Him in His beloved poor as a missionary in Honduras, learning a daily schedule of prayer, recognizing my own poverty, and relying on Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. After an intense year there, I came home and worked for two years in Michigan, where I was blessed to have a wise and holy spiritual director who helped me recognize the voice of Christ in the depths of my heart. Prepared with those years of prayer, holy conversation, and continuing communication with the sisters, my heart was made ready to confidently abandon itself to God and to gratefully accept that He is calling me to love Him here among this community of sisters who truly love Jesus. Please pray for me, that I might enter more and more each day into the great mystery of His love.

Alexis Schuler
Age 23
Hometown: Hazel Green, WI

May peace and joy fill your heart!

I think I first felt called to religious life as a little girl. Some evenings in my childhood, our parents would take me and my siblings to vespers at a Cistercian Abbey near our home in rural WI. How happy those nights were for me! The monks chanted the psalms as dusk fell, and afterwards we would stop at the local Dairy Queen for dilly bars. I remember wondering as monks prayed if I could stay and live there forever. Only years later did I realize my sisters weren't sitting there dreaming of moving in too.

However, it wasn't until college that I began to seek God's will persistently, to desire religious life, and to respond to that call. A couple months into my freshman year at UW-Madison, I was attending Sunday Mass, and somehow signed up for "spiritual direction", even though I didn't know what that was. This joyful, lively Italian nun began meeting with me and showed me real love. She and a faithful, kind-hearted priest would be my spiritual directors throughout college. They guided me to receive the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion regularly. I was also blessed to make sincere spiritual friends and began to pray a Holy Hour every day before the Blessed Sacrament. God used all of these things, especially those hours of silence and conversation before the Eucharist to really teach me that He loved me and to draw my heart to love Him back. By the time sophomore year rolled around, I felt this nagging desire for religious life, but was confused by it as I was in a long term dating relationship with a young man who was also my best friend. My plans were to marry him, have a dozen kids, coach a softball team and teach, and settle down happily ever after in a small town. We pretty naturally discerned marriage together. As time went on, I felt less and less peace about marriage. The more I prayed, the more I felt I couldn't give my whole heart to a husband and children. My heart longed to be all God's, to be a mother to many, many children.

One Sunday after Mass, praying before the tabernacle, I was filled with great joy and the words of psalm 139-- "Fly with the wings of dawn, and alight beyond the sea." For me this was God's proposal. He was the dawn touching down on me with love, and I wanted only to 'alight' with Him forever as His spouse. It seemed He wanted that too. At least He gave me the grace to finally trust He was calling me and to act in faith. The young man I was dating and I went our separate ways, and in time God filled that sacrifice with sweetest peace. He overflowed in my emptiness with the fullness of Himself.

For a couple years I visited various communities, and thought maybe I was called to a cloistered order. Much to my surprise, on my first "Come and See" with the CFRs, I felt right at home with the sisters, already feeling like a Franciscan in their chapel. I couldn't stop smiling! I wanted to enter immediately, but God seemed to grin at my zeal and say, "Be patient. Be patient." and so did the sisters. They suggested I finish my English degree, and so I did. I visited the sisters twice more, prayed, studied, and worked as a cleaning lady to help pay off my student loans. I applied to enter with a heart full of hope at Christmas and graduated from UW-Madison in May. With the mercy of God, the loving acceptance of the CFRs, and a heart full of gratitude, I entered the community in September. Alleluia!

May our Lord bless you, and please pray for us!

Angelina Corso
Age 20
Hometown: Fort Worth, TX

From my childhood, Jesus was diligently working to prepare my heart for the day when I would give my whole heart, soul, and person to Him, here in the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal. Despite my own unworthiness, my own sinfulness, my own weakness, God still called me to live a life all for love of Him to have a foretaste of Heaven on Earth. May God be praised forever for bestowing upon me the gift of this incredible call.

I think back upon my little second grade self, eager to learn about the saints for the first time. Without a real concept of who God is or His love for me, I knew that the saints were amazing people that knew something, some secret that I didn't. St. Tarcisius instantly became my hero and it was in that moment, that I knew I wanted to be a saint when I grew up. However, I was met with opposition when I expressed this desire and even though I placed the desire in a dark corner of my mind, the Father placed my desire close to His heart.

Oh, how Jesus wanted my heart. At the tender age of 14, He bestowed upon me the wonderful grace of conversion at my first experience of adoration. Yes, before the Blessed Sacrament I knew that Jesus was humbly hiding within that little piece of bread and He loved me. Yes, He loved me in a way no other could. He loved me so much that if His Passion was to save only my soul, He would have still freely suffered for my sake. I spoke to my Savior in the silence and He spoke to me. Only simple words, but they contained great beauty; "Love me. Follow me." My vocation was set before me. Love Jesus completely. Follow Jesus to Calvary. Give my whole being, everything I have for love of Jesus. Fire consumed my heart. Yes, all for Jesus!

The "yes" became complicated when high school began. I allowed myself to become mediocre in my faith. Turning away fearfully and selfishly when Jesus reached out for me, I wanted a way to be both in the world and in the Faith. But, once I allowed my schooling and music to take over my life I soon found myself lost. I found myself as a Junior begging Jesus to take me back. By my own surprise, He did instantly. Once again, I found my heart on fire with His love and I knew I was to begin to maturely pursue the religious life- after college that is.

I assumed that college was to be a part of my future. I dreamed I would attend Franciscan University of Steubenville and I greatly wanted to double major in Theology and Philosophy with a minor in Franciscan Studies. But, the Lord knows the desires my heart truly has. After graduating early, I was intensely studying and preparing for the day when I was to attend Franciscan University, while in the midst of a deep discernment of religious life. I began looking at a Poor Clare Community and as beautiful as the cloistered life was, it just was not intended for me. Then God showed me that college was not either.

Jesus continued to remind me to not be afraid for He had been preparing a community for me; He had been preparing me a new home. Through the Youth 2000 in Fort Worth, Texas and knowing a few of the friars, I was aware of the CFR Sisters and always had been attracted to the order for numerous reasons. Not being able to resist the CFR Sisters, I contacted them and in January of 2011 I was able to visit them for the first time. How Jesus opened wide His arms to receive me! How walking within the walls of the convent brought peace, joy and excitement. College became a dream of the past. The Trinity, St. Francis, St. Clare, the CFRs, and so many others were to be my teachers. After returning home and much discernment, I visited one more time and then applied for the Community.

Now I live here in New York surrounded by my God, my sisters, and the poor. I can do nothing but sing out His praise! Jesus is giving me all that my heart desires. It is here that I can become the saint, the spouse of my Crucified King. Love pursued me. Love chose me. Love captivated me. I could not resist Him any longer. Now, I'm His little future spouse; His little candidate of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal.