Sister Normande Carrier
Aspiration to Happiness… and a Meaning to Life
To find happiness, to love and be loved is something everyone wants. And so it was for me. While I was in elementary school, I learned and remembered the doctrine of the Catechism: "Why did God create us? God created us to know, love and serve Him, and to be happy with Him for all eternity. "
At every stage of my life, this teaching always remained within me. Later, at Normal School, during the retreat at the end of the year before our graduation, the preacher presented the states of life at "their best" ; in brief, he presented all the vocations. Religious life appeared to me as the most direct way to reach the goal of a human existence. But I was only 16. Following the advice of my spiritual director, I taught for a few years and enjoyed my profession. I was free; religious practice remained active in my life, yet nothing and nobody could quench my deepest thirst. Some inner emptiness remained.
At 25, it became pressing for me to make decisions. So after some information taken in secret, my choice fell upon at a missionary community where I would be accepted in the following months. Meanwhile, the meeting with "a fine young man," do not leave me indifferent ... After this evening together, upon entering my house, a voice echoed in the depths of my heart, "Choose". Oh, what a dilemma! - "I will teach one more year." - "ONE YEAR WILL BE TOO LATE."
Before the summer holidays, I came and met Mother Julienne of the Rosary, the foundress of the Dominican Missionary Adorers. Learning about my choice for a missionary community, she said: "We too are missionaries, we go out to give to others the fruit of our contemplation". At that moment, the eucharistic and missionary aspect impressed me strongly. Returning home, only this "moto" came back to my mind: ". Give others the fruit of contemplation" Without delay, I asked the community for papers in order to ask to be admitted into it.
In early August 1961, I made my entrance into the Congregation. From the very first days, I found a community where the sisters were joyful, simple and fraternal, and so I felt "at home". Adoration, study of God's Word, work, Marian prayer, community life, apostolate, all these aspects met the deepest longings of my heart. In the following weeks and months, I felt freer and freer. A word of St. Augustine expressed what I felt: "You have made us for your, Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You."
And so it is! I searched ... I found Jesus who gives himself out of love in the Eucharist, I found the EUCHARISTIC HEART of Jesus, I found the TREASURE that does not wither. And I like to repeat: Lord, you are the only Goodness, infinite BEAUTY, the resplendent Truth for which my soul is always hungry and thirsty.
Sr. Normande Carrier, o.p., September 22, 2016