Sr. Justina's Vocation Story

I began to seriously discern my vocation during my third year as a graduate student of philosophy. At the time I was studying at St. Louis University. By the end of Lent in 2005, I was fairly certain that I had a call to the religious life, but I had no idea where I was called or how to find out. Through my spiritual director, I learned of a new order for women religious, the Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus Christ Sovereign Priest, based in Florence, Italy. This order is connected to the Institute of Christ the King, an institute which had assumed care for my own parish in St. Louis. So with the encouragement of my director, I made plans to enter in October of 2006 after the completion of my master's degree. At the end of six difficult months as a postulant in Italy, I returned to the U.S. for further discernment. In late April 2007, I was sent straight from Florence to Wausau, Wisconsin, a small town which I had never heard of before.

In Wausau, the Institute of Christ the King cares for beautiful St. Mary's Oratory, and they placed me to live with a family from that church as I continued to discern my future. In this small town, I have had both the quiet and the time to hear better what it is that God wants for me. I learned of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles through my spiritual director who had one of their brochures sitting on his desk during a meeting. After some written correspondence, I visited them last fall and to my surprise loved it. Mother Therese, the superior of the Benedictines, as well as my spiritual director in Wausau were and are very positive about my entering this community -- on condition that my debt be resolved. Since my visit, I have begun what was at first a part-time, and now full-time job to help eliminate my debt and cover the costs of entering.