Three consecrated sisters in the Children of Mary religious order professed perpetual vows on Sunday, May 3 at the order’s motherhouse, Emmanuel Convent, located in Newark.
Sisters Cecilia Grace, Imelda Joy and MaryAnne Regina each made life-long vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
The consecrated religious promised to pray for the bishop, for an abundance of holy priests and to give their lives – as a sister of the Children of Mary – to quench Jesus’ thirst to be loved in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
The sisters professed perpetual vows during a Mass celebrated by Bishop Earl K. Fernandes. The three were called forward by the bishop, who asked them a series of questions.
They then lied prostrate in the shape of a cross. A black funeral pall, symbolizing death to the world, was placed over them. The pall represents the fullness of baptism and hope of the Resurrection.
Approximately 15 clergy attended, including the bishop, several priests and two transitional deacons: Zack Goodchild, from the Columbus diocese, and Benjamin Klare, of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. The deacons are set to be ordained priests in their respective dioceses later this month.
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Many seminarians were also present, including several from the Fathers of Mercy religious order, and six altar servers assisted at Mass.
The Litany of Saints was chanted by Father Esteban Mallar, a priest of the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia, while the sisters lied prostrate on the ground.
The sisters, adorned with a white veil, professed vows at the feet of Mother Philomena Maria, CM (Children of Mary) the order’s superior. She asked if the sisters promise to persevere until death. They responded affirmatively.
“This day marks a beautiful flowering in the vocations of three of our sisters, who have come to this community to lay down their lives out of profound love for Jesus, truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament,” Mother Philomena Maria said.
“We pray that their self-offering will bear much fruit for Christ’s Holy Catholic Church, and our hearts are filled with gratitude.”
As part of the profession of vows, the sisters received a crown of flowers. Each signed a vow book and received a ring as a sign that they are wedded to Christ.
The three perpetually-professed sisters were then presented to the community for a monastic embrace. They presented their parents with a boutonniere and corsage.
Afterward, the religious community congregated before a statue of Our Lady of Fatima and sang the Ave Maria.
Sister Cecilia Grace, from Russellville, Ohio, located on the eastside of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in southern Ohio, entered the Children of Mary in 2019. She first met the sisters at about 14 years old and discerned a religious vocation for four years before entering the community at age 18.
“My vocation journey, both before and after entrance, has been an incredible gift,” she said.
“We have the custom in our community to choose a ‘title’ or ‘extension’ for our religious name. I chose the title ‘of the Holy Cross and Immaculata’ as a lifelong reminder of the tremendous gift of my own vocation – but also that of every Christian – to daily embrace the Cross of our Lord Jesus.”
Sister Imelda Joy, from Sidney, Ohio, in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, entered the community in 2020. She met the Children of Mary during a Christmas Mass at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral.
She was drawn to the order’s charism to quench the Lord’s thirst to be loved in the Most Blessed Sacrament and prayer for priests.
“In frequent reception of the sacraments and spending time with Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, my heart became overcome with the riches of the faith and the beautiful love of the Savior, particularly in the Holy Eucharist,” she said.
“The Divine Bridegroom was drawing me ever closer Himself, and there were stirrings deep in my heart whether, perhaps, He was calling me to be entirely His.”
Sister Imelda Joy attended medical school prior to entering the religious order.
While in Maryland for training, she was acquainted with a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore who battled leukemia. Sister Imelda Joy recalled his joy, faith and peace in suffering.
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“This struck my heart profoundly, particularly being in the medical field,” she said. “I later learned one of his intentions offered with his intense final suffering was for religious vocations.”
Her childhood pastor, Father Gerald Bensman, 88, was present for the profession of vows. The priest remembered now-Sister Imelda Joy well from her childhood school days.
“She went off to college and I was not surprised that she was first interested in a medical profession,” Father Bensman said. “When she decided to become a nun instead, I wasn’t surprised at that either.”
The priest, who served at Holy Angels Church in Sidney from 1999 to 2008, recalled the religious sister living a “good, holy life” before entering her vocation.
“The very fact that her name in religion is Sister Imelda Joy,” he said, “as soon as I became aware of what name she had chosen, I thought, ‘Well, that fits her personality.’ She was full of joy.”
Sister MaryAnne Regina, originally from northern California, entered the religious community in July 2020. She hails from a family of eight children raised Catholic.
She began living the faith as a teenager, she said, going beyond knowledge of Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist.
“I began to know Him by heart,” she said of the Lord. “This was an ongoing encounter with His Sacred Heart burning in the Eucharist, an encounter brought about by His Mother.
“Consecrating my life to her brought me swiftly to this beautiful religious family and the greatest peace and joy I have ever known.”
Deacon Klare, 29, who traveled from Cincinnati to serve at the Mass, was invited by Sister Cecilia Grace. The two became acquainted through a parish in the archdiocese, where the Children of Mary have a daughterhouse.
It was Klare’s first time witnessing a final profession of vows.
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“It’s hard to describe the joy and excitement I felt even for these sisters,” he said. “So many people assume that being religious is full of self-denial and the suffering of not having a family.
“There was not even a trace of sadness, though, in this chapel, and the presence of so many families, religious, and priests chased away any idea that these sisters weren’t also saying yes to a deep, if different, family life.”
The Children of Mary religious order was officially established in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in 2016. In 2022, the order transferred to the Columbus diocese at the invitation of Bishop Fernandes, where the community’s motherhouse remains.
The order’s charism is to satiate the thirst of Jesus to be loved in the Most Blessed Sacrament. The sisters exercise their charism through daily loving and Adoring Jesus in the Eucharist, praying for grace for all people to love and adore Him, and evangelization.