A New South Wales woman has professed her vows as a member of the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, Tennessee, reports The Catholic Weekly.
Sr Zelie Marie Groves OP hails from Camden and made her first profession on 11 August.
She said she felt “incredible joy, peace, and freedom” after the special event in which she responded to God’s vocational call.
Sr Zelie Marie Groves OP. PHOTO: Supplied (via Catholic Weekly)
“It is both a privilege and a gift to be able to live this consecrated life, and I continue to marvel at the countless ways in which God’s grace has worked in my life to bring me here,” she told The Catholic Weekly.
Sr Zelie Marie previously attended the University of Wollongong, earning a Bachelor of Science degree, before achieving a Master of Arts in theology from the University of Notre Dame Australia in Sydney.
She is currently working towards a master’s degree in teaching, at Aquinas College in Nashville, which is owned and operated by the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia.
Sr Zelie Marie first encountered the Dominicans in Colorado while completing a study abroad program, as one of her friends was discerning religious life at the time.
“Over the next few years, I began to experience a growing attraction to religious life myself, but was not sure where, how, or even whether to begin any kind of concrete discernment process,” she said.
“I eventually attended a women’s discernment evening called For Love Alone at the University of Sydney’s Catholic Chaplaincy Centre, where I was able to hear about and meet a number of different communities in the Archdiocese of Sydney, including the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia.”
Sr Zelie Marie said her interest in devoting her life completely to God had grown in the years between meeting a sister and the discernment event in Sydney, and that a priest recognised this in her.
She said the priest encouraged her to reach out to some of the various religious communities and discern further.
“It became clear very quickly that my heart was being drawn toward the Nashville Dominicans in a very particular way,” she said.
“As I attended retreats, learned more about the community, and got to know the sisters in Sydney better, I was able to experience how this way of life was one in which I would be able to flourish, both as a person and in particular in my relationship with the Lord.”
Sr Zelie Marie said her readiness and devotion grew in the weeks leading up to her first profession, right up to when she pronounced her vows beside the community’s Prioress General, Mother Anna Grace Neenan OP.
“The Lord’s plans are truly better than anything we could imagine for ourselves,” she said.
“I am so grateful for the gift of my vocation and the opportunity to be united to Jesus more and more each day.”
Communications director Sr Anne Catherine Burleigh OP said she was thankful to God for the dozen women, including Sr Zelie-Marie, who made their first profession in her community.
“They have come to us from across the United States as well as, in Sr Zelie Marie’s case, from as far away as Australia, a reminder that the Lord is still calling young women to follow him in religious life,” she said.
“The generosity and courage of these newly professed sisters is a cause of joy not only for our community but for the whole church.”
Three other Australian women have also joined the congregation as postulants.
This article by Tara Kennedy was published in The Catholic Weekly.