Sr. Amy Mejia, SSCM
St. Patrick and Sacred Heart pastoral staff member Sr. Amy Mejia, SSCM, found her vocational home with the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary, first as a consecrated layperson and then, as life circumstances later allowed, as a religious sister. She shared about this on Episode 117 of Viatorian Voices.
“A lot of congregations have different things they offer where people can live out the spirituality of the congregation,” Sr. Amy said. Her community offers lay consecration, servant companionship, and affiliation, not unlike Viatorian association. “In 2014, I went through formation for consecration, made my private vows, and renewed those a couple of times. So, I actually lived that way for eight years. Then, I came to a point where I was able to transition to religious life and really felt that was where God was calling me to be.”
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Left to right: Sr. Amy, Sr. Kathleen Mulcahy, SSCM, Sr. Evelyn Varboncoeur, SSCM, Servant Companion Monica Phan, Sr. Mary Kay Moran, SSCM, and Novice Annemarie Davies.
Sr. Amy is a mother and grandmother. Once her adult children were stably independent, she sought out religious life and loved the fit with the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary. Their charism is faith, family, and self-giving, including a culture of sisters’ remaining close to their biological families who then become part of the SSCM community in a way. She is one of several sisters who are mothers of adult children.
Sr. Amy applied for religious formation, completed her novitiate earlier this year, and professed first vows in April. Based at the provincial house and retreat center in Kankakee, IL, Sr. Amy’s first ministry as a sister has been with Viatorian parishes, St. Patrick Parish in Kankakee and Sacred Heart Church in Pembroke Township, IL. She affirms the responsiveness of St. Patrick to its growing Hispanic community as well as the profound hospitality at Sacred Heart.
“I don’t know that you’ll find in other parishes the sort of welcome and acceptance between the cultures as you do at Sacred Heart,” Sr. Amy said, of the Black and Hispanic communities that come together at our parish. “I think it’s rare that you’d go into a culturally mixed parish and find that the parish really works together and accepts each other’s customs. Their different ways of singing, their different ways of celebrating the Mass – it’s just kind of all combined into one, and people enjoy that there.”
Sr. Amy professed first vows as a religious sister in April.
As she begins her religious life, Sr. Amy has some keen insights for all of us in our vocational discernment – perhaps most importantly that it is lifelong. “Even though you might say, ‘Okay, I feel like I’m being called to religious life or the priesthood; I’m going to make a call to a vocations director; and now I’m applying and moving in’ – you’re not done discerning. You’re still discerning even after that,” Sr. Amy said. “So, just remembering: that discernment is a continuous thing.”
Sr. Amy shares more about finding her home as both a religious sister and a mother and grandmother, about working with Viatorians and our parish communities, and about careful and prayerful vocational discernment. Catch all of Episode 117 with Sr. Amy on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.