Sister Mary Alban Bouchard's Story

It was a good choice I made

I was born near Kerrobert, Saskatchewan, near the Alberta border where my father homesteaded.

Stages

But how did this little gopher get to Toronto to become a Sister of St. Joseph, you may ask. It happened in stages. I think my first conscious experience of God, at a very young age, was as I stood in a rock pile at the corner of the field on the silent prairie. As the wind passed brushing my face lightly, I was aware of the Presence all about me.

At age six, I had decided to become a Sister after asking my mother about the Sisters I saw. I attended a one-room country school, and was sent to Rosetown, Sask., to a Catholic boarding school for the last two years of high school. I liked the Sisters.

The call of Matthew

I was also touched by the account of the call of Matthew the Apostle. He was a moneychanger, but when Jesus walked by and said, "Come," he left it all and followed him. I wanted to do the same. I was attracted to being a woman who lived in community with other women, women who loved God very much, prayed and helped others as God asks us to do. I wanted permanence too: having something that would last and never have to be left behind even after death.

So, at age sixteen, having burned my published poetry, I set out on the journey of two days and three nights by train to Toronto. On my first morning in the convent, I fainted during mass - not a very auspicious beginning!

Looking back

My life in the CSJ has been one of growth. It has been a life of challenge and adventure both within and outside, an odyssey through dangerous places but always with accompaniment. I have grown steadily - in mind, heat, spirit and in health - toward the wholeness that is union.

A vocation to the CSJ is a call and a grace given. But it is also a choice. It was a good choice I made.

Read more about Sr. Mary Alban and her work in Haiti

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To read more Sisters' Stories, please see Meet A Sister