ATLANTIC CITY – Making her way here from her Atlanta home last fall, 25-year-old Katie Rose Borrello didn’t know much about how the following eight months would turn out.
As an incoming Saint Michael Missionary, she did, at least, have an idea where she would use some of her gifts in service to God.
“I was a music minister for the Catholic center at my college [Georgia College & State University], and I led praise and worship. So I brought my ukulele with me,” she said, reflecting on arriving at the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewals’ Father Benedict House to work and pray with the religious community and fellow missionaries.
In her first week, however, as she and the missionaries prepared to help the CFR sisters lead a retreat at a local high school, Borrello realized that an instrument left behind by one of the sisters might be better suited for her work.
Never mind the fact that Borrello had never picked up a guitar before; she quickly became self-taught.
“Out of the frying pan, into the fire,” she joked, adding that she knew she wanted to discern a religious vocation by praying and “surrendering to God the things that are hard and the things that I’m fearful of.”
Since that time, she has become familiar with the guitar and has used it to teach Atlantic City’s youth how to sing praise to God. She is also a music leader for the CFR sisters’ First Saturday Mass celebrated at Saint Nicholas of Tolentine Church (the Parish of Saint Monica), which is adjacent to the Father Benedict House.
“I’ve found this all to be such a gift,” Borrello said.
Time with God
Recognizing God’s gifts and discerning their path in life is the goal for Borrello and her fellow housemates serving from September 2023 to May 2024 in Atlantic City: Kate Gallagher, 30, from Ireland; Elizabeth Martinez, 31, from College Station, Texas; and Sharyl Stommes, 22, from Spokane, Wash.
They are the sixth group to take part in the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal’s Saint Michael Missionary program, which is “a space for young women to carve out the time – removed from the pressures of our very active social media-driven culture – to discern [a vocation] and grow in their relationship with Jesus through deeper prayer, community life and service to the poor,” said Sister Ann Kateri, CFR, Local Servant (Superior) of the order’s Saint Michael Convent in the city.
During their time, the missionaries learn the ins and outs of the sisters’ prayer life and communal living, and assist with their various ministries, including the Winter Shelter for the homeless; the twice-weekly soup kitchen; the First Saturday liturgies; the Heart to Heart youth group; and their presence at monthly school Masses and Eucharistic Adoration at nearby Our Lady Star of the Sea Regional School.
Together, the four women also engage in communal meals and take part in daily morning, midday and night prayer in the house’s Eucharistic Adoration chapel.
“I was seeking some clarity to discern what my next step in life is,” Stommes said of her decision to join the missionary program. “The Holy Spirit landed me on the CFR’s website, and I saw this program as an opportunity for me to ask the Lord how I can make a gift of myself, and give myself some time and space to discern a religious vocation [in] simplicity, prayer and service.”
Martinez acknowledged the same need for peace before she found the missionary program. “I needed to give the Lord some space [to work in me], or I’m looking down an unhappy life.”
Martinez took part in the CFR’s “Come and See” program, a five-day retreat at the Saint Michael Convent to witness the life of a religious, but “in the Lord’s providence,” she found this more immersive, eight-month experience “exactly what I needed.”
“The main intention here is to discern in everything that we do, and everything the sisters have us do is in support of that,” she said.
Gallagher spent time discerning at the sisters’ convent in Ireland, and is now grateful to continue that path in Atlantic City. “I’ve found a depth in my relationship with the Lord here and drawn closer to Him.”
Similar to Borrello, there was an initial uneasiness for Gallagher in sharing her musical gifts with others. Gallagher plays the piano in Atlantic City’s churches and when visiting classrooms.
“Playing in public still makes me uncomfortable,” she admitted. “But … I want to abandon myself to this year. To make myself uncomfortable. It’s only when I feel uncomfortable that I can stretch myself and grow. It’s something that I know the Lord wants of me.”
Community ties
In addition to furthering their bond with the Lord, the four women have built connections with the people they serve, the sisters and volunteers they work with and each other.
Twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, they invite the homeless into their home for a hot meal, warmth and friendship.
“Hosting the city’s poor and welcoming them into our home, having them eat at the same table the four of us eat at together, has been such a lesson to me to open my heart,” Borrello said. “Encountering the poor, knowing their names, I see Christ in them.”
Said Stommes, “I feel honored to get a glimpse of [my housemates’] hearts and journeys with the Lord every day. To be a part of their lives during this special time is very encouraging in my own discernment. There’s so much laughter and joy here.”
In getting to know the Franciscan sisters in Atlantic City, she also has seen “so much patience, tenderness and joy as they walk with us.”
For Sister Ann Kateri, seeing the four “bond so well, so quickly and watching that dynamic of friendship being lived out well is a beautiful reflection of what communal life is supposed to be. They’re inspiring each other to greater holiness.”
At the same time, “their community life enriches the sisters’ community life,” she said. “I hope that they are in a place of greater healing and freedom, greater readiness to what God is asking of them.”
Looking to the future, three of the women have expressed interest in taking further steps into religious life or further discernment. One is unsure about her next steps, saying, “I don’t know what comes next, but I know that He knows. I’m excited to receive whatever that is.”
In each other, the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, the poor and volunteers, these Saint Michael Missionaries have felt loved, supported and encouraged, they agreed.
“I won’t forget these people; they’ll all have a special place in my heart,” Martinez said.
For more information on the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal and the Saint Michael Missionaries, visit franciscansisterscfr.com.
at the bottom and then tap “Add to Home Screen”
