BERLIN – Seven years removed from her “year of suffering,” as she calls it, Sister Lily Anne, OP, returned to her home diocese and reflected on 2017 – a year that conversely brought “the most beautiful gift.”
It was “one of the roughest years of my life,” the Dominican Sister of Saint Cecilia said as she visited Mater Ecclesiae Mission on May 9 to share her vocation story with the dozens of mothers and children in attendance. “Three things happened where the Lord got my attention,” she said, detailing her journey from Williamstown, N.J., to Nashville, Tenn.
In the beginning of that year, the Our Lady of Peace parishioner broke off her wedding engagement. Mid-year, she left her role as Catholic Campus Minister in Glassboro, and moved away to take the same position at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania.
That fall, the Lord spoke to her on familiar ground: a volleyball court. As a Division 1 student-athlete at Loyola University Maryland, she was playing in volleyball tournament finals when she went up for a shot and came down hard on her right knee, tearing her ACL and meniscus. The injury led to a holiday season of surgery, a cast and crutches, and difficult and painful rehab.
Like Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Paul, however, the physical and mental turmoil were God’s tools for transformation. “All of that pain opened up a space for God to speak to me,” she said. “I felt my poverty and leaned on Him in a new way.”
Acknowledging that “my knee is not the same,” Sister Lily Anne said that she now understands that “the Lord took my knee but gave me my life.”
“The Lord is trying to get my attention here,” she recalled telling herself in the aftermath of injury, as a priest mentor and others began asking her to consider a religious vocation. After initial hesitation, she decided to investigate the possibility, “not because I was looking for it,” she was quick to say, “but because the Lord asked me to. So I searched in obedience and faith.”
“I know He wants my good and happiness, and maybe He knows more than I do what would make me truly happy,” Sister Lily Anne recalled thinking.
Further confirmation came one night during a Mass. “I heard the Lord speak to my heart, and ask, ‘Why are you holding back from me? You know that when you give me everything, you don’t lose anything.’”
This led her to Nashville, and a retreat experience at the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia, where a powerful first night of Compline (Night Prayer) solidified her calling.
“After the prayers in the chapel, with the 150 sisters in the pews, the lights went down and only the Blessed Mother was lit. The sisters got up, processed to the back and bowed to each other.” She then realized “that this is what I was looking for.”
Entering the order in 2019, she took her first vows last year, and recently completed a master’s degree in secondary education from the community’s own Aquinas College, as part of the Dominican sisters’ active apostolate in youth education.
Today, Sister Lily Anne said she is “happier than I’ve ever been. I realized that the Lord created my heart for something greater.”
“It’s not easy,” she noted, “but … life is beautiful.”
After her witness, Sister Lily Anne picked up her guitar and – surrounded by youth – played an original tune inspired by her vocation, “Lead Me Home.” As well, she answered questions on the saint medals attached to the 15-decade Rosary around her waist (Saint Padre Pio and Saint Joseph), and how she chose her religious name (from Song of Songs 6:3: “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he browses among the lilies”).
Jessica Fahy, organizer of Mater Ecclesiae’s mother’s group, was instrumental in getting Sister Lily Anne to Berlin. The religious sister is Fahy’s biological sister.
Every month, the group of mothers and their young children gather in fellowship for activities such as Rosary prayers and lessons on Catholic saints and virtues. Fahy said she knew her sister’s talk would be just as fruitful, evidenced by the children sitting at Sister Lily Anne’s feet. “Youth were inspired by her vocation story,” Fahy said.
Father Robert Pasley, rector of Mater Ecclesiae, expressed his appreciation for Sister Lily Anne’s visit to the young Church. “It was important for them to see a religious woman whose faith was real, was at the center of her life, and guided her life and decisions to this moment,” he said.
Sister Lily Anne said she hoped that all in attendance would recall the Lord’s goodness and faithfulness in their own lives.
“Whatever is going on in your life, whatever suffering, the Lord is using that, and He’s doing something beautiful. Believe that even in the darkest moments, you are seen, you are known and you are loved. He is tilling the soil, and he’s going to bless you above anything you’ve ever imagined.”
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