By the gift of God’s grace

Sister Mary Elisha Glady, RSM

I grew up on a farm in southeast Minnesota. The faith was always important to my family and integrated into our life with the land. 

At the end of elementary school, I overheard my dad asking my older brother  what he thought about doing after he graduated from high school. My dad remarked that priesthood was an option. Even though at this time in my life I had almost no exposure to religious life, when I heard this comment inside of myself I thought: "Dad, ask me if I want to be a nun. I want to be a nun!"

In the years that followed, other interests would catch my attention for a while but then the thought of a religious vocation would return. I received the sacrament of Confirmation the fall of my junior year of high school. My confirmation teacher gave each person in my class a packet of pamphlets on different aspects of the faith. I enjoyed reading these, as well as other literature on the faith that my parents had in our house. This reading nourished my faith and fanned into flame my desire for religious life. 

After high school I attended Loras College in Dubuque, IA. The availability of the sacraments and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament during my college years deepened my love for the Lord and the sense that He was calling me to religious life. So, I began actively looking at different religious communities. 

My journey to finding the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma lasted several years. When I finally met our Sisters, I had a strong sense that this was where the Lord was calling me and that my experiences looking at other communities helped direct me here. The first time I visited the Sisters we sat around the kitchen table and visited over cookies and tea. Much of my family life growing up revolved around the kitchen table, and this visit with the Sisters felt like home. The sense of feeling at home continued to grow in my visits to the community that occurred prior to entering postulancy in August 2012. Since entering, the Lord has blessed me abundantly in living the vows and our common life of prayer and service. By the gift of God's grace, I professed perpetual vows on August 16, 2020. 

For my ring motto, I chose "a sacrifice of praise" from Psalm 50:14-15:  "Offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High. Then call on me in the day of distress; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."

Before I entered the Sisters of Mercy I had a strong sense of wanting to offer my whole life to God, a desire that continues to shape my relationship with the Lord. This resonates with St. Thomas Aquinas's teaching that religious life is a total holocaust to God. This sacrifice is done joyfully with love and thanksgiving, choosing the Lord's will over my own and recognizing that He gives all things to us for our good. This leads to the continual praise of which our Constitutions say should mark the whole life of a Religious Sister of Mercy.