Sister drawn to Eucharist
TECite, Rose Jakupcak, becomes Domincian Sister in 2001 and takes name of Sister Maria Frassati.
During the ceremony of Perpetual Profession of vows, it is customary for the Sisters making vows to lie prostrate on the floor while the choir sings the litany of the Saints. In 2009 when it was my turn to be in this humble position I thought of many things, including something I heard Pope Benedict XVI say at World youth Day 2008: “To be truly alive is to be transformed from within, open to the energy of God’s Love.”
As I lay there, praying, it struck me that I knew the Pope was right. True life, real happiness, only happens when we are open to God’s will in our lives.
I grew up in St. Joseph’s Parish, in Marseilles, IL, and though I went to the local public grade school, I attended Marquette High School afterwards. During my freshman year I began to develop a spiritual life, and soon thereafter the idea of religious life presented itself to my mind as a good way to “Get into Heaven Free.” I quickly dismissed this, however, because normal people didn’t become Sisters, after all.
In 1999, I attended a Peoria 2000 weekend at St. Philomena’s in Peoria. I had never seen anything quite like 700 young people adoring the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. It was awesome! The priest hearing my confession the first night of the weekend asked me, “Have you ever thought about religious life?” Not seeing a way out of telling the truth, I answered in the affirmative. My penance was to go back out into adoration and pray about my vocation. It was about the last thing I wanted to do. I had what I thought was a great plan for my future happiness: marriage, family, a degree from the University of Illinois. How could God possibly want anything better than that?
When I finally stopped talking to the Lord about what my plan was, I began to reflect a little more reasonably. It occurred to me that God made me, and then He had made me for happiness. Whatever He had made me for was what would make me the happiest. This all made so much sense that I was willing to say, “All right, God. You know, even if it was religious life that you made me for, if that is what is going to make me happy, I’ll do it.”
I wish I could explain what happened then, but all I can say is I realized that religious life was, indeed, what God made me for. Everything in my life seemed to fit together and make sense – I truly did feel more alive, as Pope Benedict said.
I didn’t know what to do or where to go next, but I knew that I needed to be wherever the Lord was. That was how I ended up at TEC 115 in Peterstown. I wanted to spend the weekend with other young people who were willing to take the Lord seriously. Over the remainder of my high school career, I would return to Peterstown whenever possible – I was on team for one weekend, Wheat team for another. I always found the people involved in TEC very supportive of me, and very interested in how I was doing, how my discernment was going. With TEC, I found people who were trulyalive, truly living the faith.
When at last I encountered the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, I saw that they, too, were truly alive. Their daily Eucharistic Holy Hour and their total consecration to Mary really seemed to make them radiated the energy of God’s love. In short, I was hooked!
I entered the summer of 2001, at just 18 years old. Eight years later, after making my final vows, I still feel so blessed to be here. It isn’t just the teaching, or the traveling and speaking, or my wonderful Sisters, but it is the fact that I remain convinced that I am doing what God created me to do, and it just doesn’t get any better than that.
As I lay there, praying, it struck me that I knew the Pope was right. True life, real happiness, only happens when we are open to God’s will in our lives.
I grew up in St. Joseph’s Parish, in Marseilles, IL, and though I went to the local public grade school, I attended Marquette High School afterwards. During my freshman year I began to develop a spiritual life, and soon thereafter the idea of religious life presented itself to my mind as a good way to “Get into Heaven Free.” I quickly dismissed this, however, because normal people didn’t become Sisters, after all.
In 1999, I attended a Peoria 2000 weekend at St. Philomena’s in Peoria. I had never seen anything quite like 700 young people adoring the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. It was awesome! The priest hearing my confession the first night of the weekend asked me, “Have you ever thought about religious life?” Not seeing a way out of telling the truth, I answered in the affirmative. My penance was to go back out into adoration and pray about my vocation. It was about the last thing I wanted to do. I had what I thought was a great plan for my future happiness: marriage, family, a degree from the University of Illinois. How could God possibly want anything better than that?
When I finally stopped talking to the Lord about what my plan was, I began to reflect a little more reasonably. It occurred to me that God made me, and then He had made me for happiness. Whatever He had made me for was what would make me the happiest. This all made so much sense that I was willing to say, “All right, God. You know, even if it was religious life that you made me for, if that is what is going to make me happy, I’ll do it.”
I wish I could explain what happened then, but all I can say is I realized that religious life was, indeed, what God made me for. Everything in my life seemed to fit together and make sense – I truly did feel more alive, as Pope Benedict said.
I didn’t know what to do or where to go next, but I knew that I needed to be wherever the Lord was. That was how I ended up at TEC 115 in Peterstown. I wanted to spend the weekend with other young people who were willing to take the Lord seriously. Over the remainder of my high school career, I would return to Peterstown whenever possible – I was on team for one weekend, Wheat team for another. I always found the people involved in TEC very supportive of me, and very interested in how I was doing, how my discernment was going. With TEC, I found people who were trulyalive, truly living the faith.
When at last I encountered the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, I saw that they, too, were truly alive. Their daily Eucharistic Holy Hour and their total consecration to Mary really seemed to make them radiated the energy of God’s love. In short, I was hooked!
I entered the summer of 2001, at just 18 years old. Eight years later, after making my final vows, I still feel so blessed to be here. It isn’t just the teaching, or the traveling and speaking, or my wonderful Sisters, but it is the fact that I remain convinced that I am doing what God created me to do, and it just doesn’t get any better than that.
