Sr. Helen
Sister Helen
"You are precious and honoured in my sight because I love you"
Isaiah 43:4 ‘
Tell us a little about you:
Before entering the Monastery I was living in North Manchester, having spent may childhood in Kent, England.I knocked on the Monastery door and asked to enter on the 28th December 2018.Both my parents have died and my closest relatives are distant cousins but I am only in contact with a couple of them.I was baptised into the Church of England, whilst during my formative years my parents took me to various Christian denominational places of worship, after leaving school I did not attend Church at all. When my parents died I took over the family business (a boarding cattery). One of my friends (who was Catholic) whilst on holiday (January 2015) mentioned that her local Church broadcast Mass online. So I begun watching occasionally to start with and decided to investigate the Catholic faith. One day, when I missed my usual Mass, I found the ‘Red Nuns’ Mass with evening prayer and adoration before hand. This was the start of me praying with the sisters online. In September 2015, I joined the Rite of Christian Initiation at my local Catholic Church and was received and confirmed on 24th April 2016. I made as a couple of retreats at St. Beuno’s Retreat House in Wales, and also found a spiritual director. The following December I noticed that the Red Nuns were advertising a monastic ‘Come and See’ weekend. I felt at home as soon as I walked though the door, however it was only after another two visits of a week and three weeks (nearly a year apart) and an eight day retreat in between as well as much thought and listening to the Lord that I asked to enter. Though it took another four months for me to sort out my life before I actually knocked on the door and entered.
What attracted you to the Redemptoristines?:
What attracted me to the Redemptoristines, was the example of their life, the peace, and silence as well as community /family, the love / care they demonstrated in the smallest of things - like straightening a sisters veil when coming for prayer. But asking what attracted me to the Redemptoristines may be the wrong question for it was not so much an attraction - but rather me listening to a drawing by God towards them, as being lead by Him to a place of love to give and receive love, to be a ‘Viva Memoria’. On my first visit, the feeling on entering the enclosure of coming home still amazes me and holds me, that for me this is home, where I can find rest in God. That is not to say that I did not fight the call, that I tried to ignore it but God is persistent in leading you to the place where you can grow into being what you were created to be if you listen. Thus it was not much me being attracted to the Redemptoristines and what attracted me to them but rather me being lead and being willing to listen and hear and follow His plan for me. For it is in love that God draws us to Himself and unites us to Himself (Pope St Clement).
What is your favourite Scripture passage?:
Whilst I have a number of favourite passages from Scripture the one I keep coming back to is Isaiah 43:4 ‘You are precious and honoured in my sight because I love you’ for this was the starting point of me deepening my relationship with God. For on my first long retreat at St Beuno’s I sat for hours infront of the statue ‘Your are precious in my sight’ and it was there that I really begun to listen to God and started the journey of accepting that God is wonderfully unconditionally and crazy in love with me.