FOUR fresh faces have found their vocations with the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres, wedding Christ in their perpetual profession at St Stephen’s Cathedral on February 2.
Sr Marion Tran, Sr Maria Josephine Phan, Sr Anna Pham and Sr Marie Claude Vo are all originally from Vietnam, but have spent the past few years at Boronia Heights with their order.
About 400 people attended the perpetual profession to the Sisters of St Paul de Chartres, an international congregation founded in France 300 years ago.
Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge presided at the profession Mass, which included bilingual speeches as well as hymns in Vietnamese.
Sr Tran spoke at the end of the Mass and said God’s loving providence had blessed and chosen her and her sisters to be religious.
She thanked everyone on behalf of her fellow sisters for attending the most “remarkable day of our life”.
“We feel most happy because we are surrounded by your love,” she said.
Sr Tran said the presence of those around them brought the sisters strength, courage and joy.
She thanked all those who helped with the ceremony, those who made it special, and those who had supported them throughout their vocation.
“Thanks be to God that He did not create us to live in solitude, but to live together in community with one another,” she said.
“To our most loving parents, our deepest gratitude to you for the gift of life.
“You have supported us in our vocation, carrying us in every moment in your prayers and in your life.”
Sr Tran’s speech was followed by a speech in the sisters’ native tongue.
In his homily, Archbishop Coleridge said the “yes” professed by the sisters was like the Virgin Mary’s fiat.
“(Mary) signed a blank cheque, and she didn’t know just how blank it was – but still she signed,” he said.
Archbishop Coleridge said the sisters were signing a blank cheque too, and he had no idea where it would lead.
“I do know you’re signing a blank cheque, but sign it,” he said.
“The God who fills-in the cheque might surprise you, but he will not disappoint you or the Church, just as he did not disappoint the mother of his Son.”
