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By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer
ATLANTA—Virginia Milner’s calling may have been a
whisper, but it resounded loudly in the depths of her heart.
On Nov. 15, Milner, 44, will travel to Bensalem, Pa., to answer
that call, entering into the candidacy process, taking the first step in
becoming a professed member of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
Milner grew up in a strong Catholic family, one of six children,
in Columbus, Ohio. She said that her vocation to become a Religious was always
a “nagging” in the back of her mind.
“It’s just something that kept coming up through the
years and I finally checked it out,” she said. “There were no flashes
of light, no big voice that said ‘this is what you must do.’”
A resident of Atlanta for the past 14 years, Milner had worked in
banking for 15 years and in the health care industry for the past eight.
She had flirted with the idea of becoming a Religious for many
years, even joining the Peace Corps for a brief stint. But it was on a silent
retreat two years ago at Ignatius House, a retreat facility in Atlanta, that
she found the answer to her prayers.
Milner, a parishioner of St. Thomas More Church in Decatur, said
she spoke to Father Jack Vessels, SJ, director of Ignatius House, who suggested
she contact some of the Religious sisters serving in Atlanta, including the
Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who run the Maisha House of Prayer in
Atlanta.
“I had a sense that she might have a Religious
vocation,” Father Vessels said. “She was very open and very sincere
in looking for God.”
After contacting several different orders, Milner finally got in
touch with Sister Loretta McCarthy, SBS, and Sister Nancy Auster, SBS, who live
and work at Maisha House.
“Meeting them—that made it clear,” Milner said.
“The fact that they were so ordinary—just ordinary people doing
extraordinary things. My first impression was that these were not at all like
the nuns that I remember growing up.”
In August 2000, after knowing Sister McCarthy and Sister Auster
for only about a month, Milner had to have a surgical procedure. The sisters
invited her to stay at the house, which touched the woman who had just met
them.
“They didn’t know if I was Jack the Ripper,” she
said. “But they welcomed me into their home.”
Milner said that was when she became sure of her desire to become
a Sister of the Blessed Sacrament.
In April, Milner visited the order’s motherhouse in Bensalem
for the first time and visited again in July, to help with a reunion that they
were organizing.
“That was amazing,” she said. “Just talking to the
sisters one on one was amazing. I could relate to so many of them and to so
many of their stories.”
On Nov. 15, Milner will move to the motherhouse and begin her
candidacy. The process of discernment can take from six months to a year and
when Milner is ready, she will become a novice.
Sister McCarthy said that she is “delighted” that Milner
has chosen her order.
“She is very mature but very enthusiastic,” Sister
McCarthy said. “A lot of my words go with ‘very’ because
I’m just really impressed with her. She is a very prayerful person. She
has many interests and she is very dedicated to her work.”
Milner said she is ready for the work God has planned for her. The
order has sisters serving all over the country, with a few in Haiti and
Guatemala. She had a taste of what it will be like to be a Religious when, last
July, she was able to work with the sisters in New Mexico, serving at a
vacation Bible school for underprivileged children.
“That was great,” she said. “It was a lot of work,
but a lot of fun. It was one of the best times I had had in a long time.”
Father Vessels said that Milner’s enthusiasm for her vocation
is no surprise.
“In all the times I have met her, I have always been
impressed with her,” he said. “She is very wholesome and very
outgoing and very pious, in the good sense of the word—she’s not
overwhelming, just a real, solid, simple woman.”
Sister McCarthy, who has been a Sister of the Blessed Sacrament
for 43 years, said that it is an honor that Milner has seen a beauty in her
order’s charism.
The order was founded in 1891 by St. Katharine Drexel, a
Philadelphia-born heiress who devoted her wealth to founding schools and
missions for Native and African-Americans. St. Katharine was canonized on Oct.
1, 2000.
“This year we have had a strong thrust for invitations,
saying, ‘Katharine is canonized. Our charism is a blessing. Do you share
it?’” Sister McCarthy said, jokingly adding that now that Milner has
chosen the order, she and Sister Auster have met their “quota.”
“We have to give all the glory to God and to Father Jack
Vessels,” Sister McCarthy said.
But Milner gives a lot of credit to the two sisters.
“I just wanted something that felt right,” said Milner,
who visited various orders. “I can’t even say why this did, but I
guess it’s a combination of things. Everything they do and the people they
are is everything I strive to be.”
Now, as she enters into her final days before becoming a
candidate, she feels grateful to the sisters who have guided her path.
“Thank God for Sister Loretta and Sister Nancy. I would
probably still be out there questioning if not for them,” she said.
“I’m glad they were so receptive to me. They gave me a lot of
guidance—they got me on the road and kept me on it.” |
