Sister Stories

Sister Bride Power

Vocation Director  |  St. John's, Newfoundland

I am Bride Power, a Presentation Sister from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

 I am a member of our Leadership Team and in that capacity, contact person for Voacation and Formation.  I am Community Life Coordinator at our Motherhouse in St. John's where 48 sisters live at the present time.

I am the youngest of a family fo 8 - 3 brothers and 4 sisters.  I did not have religious sisters teach me until I was a student in Junior High.  However, my contact with sisters began early since I had a cousin who was a member of the Presentation Congregation.  One day, when I was in the 8th or 9th grade, one of my own sisters asked, "Bride, what are you going to do when you finish school?"  I don't remember my response to her but inside myself I knew - I am going to do something different.  "I am entering the convent."  That answer came from somewhere deep inside and while I did not speak of it till some years later it stayed with me.  I knew I wanted to be a sister.

Now 45 years later as I reflect on my life as a vowed religious, I am extremely grateful for the opportunities afforded me for personal growth and spiritual development.  Over the years, leadership teams have invited and sometimes challenged me to use my gifts and I have tried to be open to this challenge, and for that and for them I am grateful.  I spent 30 years in the teaching profession with 24 of these in administration of Primary and Elementary schools throughout our province.  In my teaching/administration ministry, I have been both stretched and blessed through my interaction with wonderful teachers, paretns and students.  Religious life has also given me the opportunity to meet many of our Presentation Sisters throughout the world and because of that I have grown in my knowledge of our greater Presentation story and our great Presentation family.

For women considering religious life today, know it is a viable option.  If you feel called, give yourself the time to discern that call.  John O'Donohue, in his book To Bless the Space Between Us says, "Following one's vocation ensures that what you choose to do finds itself in harmony with your inner nature".  So discern well, choose what is right for you and harmony, peace and contentment will follow.  Religious Life is not unlike other walks of life.  It is not all sunshine.  It is real life.  There will be difficult days but there is light and darkness, pain and joy in all walks of life.  For me, my calling has been gift.  It has been and continues to be a way of life wherein I can live my Baptismal call to act justly, to love tenderly and walk humbly with my god. (Micah 6)

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