Sister Rose Maura Okongwu said she bases her life on Jesus as she celebrates 25 years of ministry in the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Christ.
“One thing in religious life I want to point out is that we are called to follow our Lord Jesus Christ,” she said. “To do that, we have to be open to the Holy Spirit through prayer.”
With Christ, her life has joy and purpose, she said. Her congregation also honors Mary. “That is Our Lady,” Sister Rose Maura said. “I was drawn to her heart.”
“It’s been a flurry. It seems just like yesterday,” she said of the quarter century since she took her first vows in the religious institute of pontifical right, a missionary group founded in Nigeria in 1937 by Irish-born missionary Archbishop Charles Heerey.
Sister Rose Maura, 50, a native of Umueze Village, Amawbia, Anambra state in Nigeria, attended a high school that included the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart, whose charism is compassion. Now, she works in Minneapolis as a licensed alcohol and drug abuse counselor, and she is seeking a license as a mental health counselor.
“We work with humanity,” she said. “We see people’s suffering. We see the struggle people go through; individuals who are addicted struggle with quitting the use of illicit substances, and they struggle equally with mental health disorders.”
“All I can do is walk with them and lift them up in prayer,” she said. “Some ask questions about God, and sometimes I pray with them. You talk about God when they request it. It is evangelization.”
Even if clients don’t ask about faith or God, or openly seek prayers, they see Sister Rose Maura in her bold, blue religious habit, which she said is a symbol of evangelization.
“My habit is enough Gospel,” she said. “They respect my choice of vocation and the love and care I bring to my work.”
Sister Rose Maura said she grew up in a Catholic household and first felt a call to religious life in eighth grade. She dismissed the idea, but another prompting came when she was a junior in high school. After graduating from high school, she responded by applying to the congregation she is with now.
More men and women and their milestone anniversaries
“It is by the grace of God,” Sister Rose Maura said of being part of the community. “I cherish my vocation.”
As she was discerning whether to enter the congregation, Sister Rose Maura said she needed to take an exam for English proficiency. Knowing her own struggles with English, she prayed and pledged that if she passed the test, she would know that God was calling her to embrace the religious life. She misspelled some words, but she passed and felt reassured. She kept her part of the deal by applying to a religious institute.
Asked what advice she might offer to people discerning a call to religious life, Sister Rose Maura suggested they pray, be open-minded to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as they discern their vocation and then explore various congregations.
“I believe the Lord will speak to their heart and guide their spiritual journey,” she said.
