Placing her hands within those of Mother Mary Concepta, SV, Allison Guerrette of Hampden committed her life to Christ as a member of the Sisters of Life.  “It’s such a day of joy. It’s a very beautiful day,” she says.
 

Guerrette, who received the religious name Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy, joined four other novices in professing their first vows at a Mass celebrated at Sacred Heart Church in Suffern, New York, on July 5. They included the traditional religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as well as a fourth vow reflecting the order’s charism: to protect the sacredness of human life.

The vows were joyfully received by Mother Mary Concepta, SV, the superior general of the congregation, who is also a Maine native. The five newly professed then received medals blessed by Bishop William Muhm, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, as signs of their spiritual marriage to Christ.

“It’s the yes of my heart that I gave at first vows. You’re still growing, and there is always going to be more to give, but we’re living it right now. We’re spouses right now,” says Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy. “I remember hearing what one sister said last year before my vows, and I was so struck by it. She said, ‘As a junior professed, what we vow to God is the same thing that we vow at final vows. We’re living fully what we vowed.’”

The Sisters of Life were founded by Cardinal John O’Connor, a Navy chaplain who later became archbishop of New York. Profoundly moved by a 1975 visit to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where thousands had been killed during WWII, then-Father O’Connor made a promise to do everything in his power to protect human life. After years of preaching, advocating, and prayer, the cardinal put out a help wanted ad of sorts in a Catholic newspaper seeking Sisters of Life. The article was reprinted. Letters poured in. And in 1991, a new community was formed.

 Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy says what attracted her to the Sisters of Life can be summed up in one word: love.

“I remember seeing them, and I was, like, ‘I don’t really know what they do, but I see the way that they love, and that is the way that I want to love.’ I was just so drawn to their Marian spirit and just felt closer to Mary just being with them,” she says. “I remember knowing that their charism, the charism of life, was for me because I felt so reverenced by them and so loved by them. I was, like, wow, they’re not just for pregnant women or people in crisis, people who are suffering; they’re for every heart that needs to know that they are good.”

Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy’s introduction to the Sisters of Life came when she was a junior in high school. A member of St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Bangor, she went on a youth ministry trip to New York City to attend a Steubenville Conference offered by the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. The trip also included sightseeing, a trip to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and a visit to a Sisters of Life convent.

“We went to the convent, and they gave us lemonade and cookies, and they showed us their chapel, and they gave us little Litanies of Trust. I wasn’t discerning religious life then, but it was, like, ‘Oh, this exists,’” says Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy. “Then, when I started to discern later, they were always in the back of my mind: ‘Oh, I’ve met those sisters before. I know what they’re like.’”

Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy says she was blessed to have been raised in a Catholic family. Sunday Mass, religious education, and grace before meals were all part of her upbringing.

“Our mom would teach us little prayers before bed. On car trips, we prayed the Rosary together,” she says.

When she was a junior in high school, her mother expressed a desire to go to daily Mass during Lent, so she and her sister decided to attend as well.

“Then, it was Easter Monday, and it was getting time for daily Mass, and we were, like, ‘Should we go again? Do we keep going?’ And we were, like, ‘Yeah.’ So ever since then, we kept going,” she says.

She says her family grew in faith together. In fact, her father, Douglas Guerrette, is now discerning for the permanent diaconate.

While she had fleeting thoughts about religious life from time to time, she says it was in college that her vocation became clear. She attended Duquesne University, a Catholic university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she had the opportunity to meet some young priests who she says became like spiritual fathers to her.

“I was, like, ‘Oh, religious people are cool. They love well,’” she says.

She also joined a charismatic prayer group started by one of her friends.

“That totally changed my life, just learning how to pray and meeting the Lord in a new, personal way. I went to church. I went to youth group and received the sacraments, but I think in college, this deeper personal relationship with Jesus started. I say that Jesus stole my heart, and He never gave it back,” she says.

Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy credits a friend who encouraged her to regularly participate in a Holy Hour.

“I was, like, ‘I don’t know if I can pray for an hour every day. That’s a lot.’ And he said, ‘OK, start with the Holy 15. Just go to the chapel for 15 minutes,” she recalls. “At first, I was looking at the clock every few minutes. But after some time, the 15 minutes would go by, and I wouldn’t want to leave. So, after doing that for a while, it became 30 minutes and then, eventually, an hour. There was just this desire to be with the Lord.”

She says in her sophomore year, she remembers sitting in front of the tabernacle and asking Jesus, “What do you want from my life?”

“I remember feeling so strongly, thinking that if He appeared to me right now and told me I was actually called to marriage, I would feel pretty led on. I feel like you’re making it so clear to my heart that you’re calling me to yourself. This is what you desire for my life and my love,” she says. 

She continued her college education, but instead of majoring in early childhood education, as she had originally planned, she graduated with a double major in theology and Catholic studies.

Just as she was about to begin exploring religious congregations, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, putting her plans on hold. Still, the call to religious life remained strong.

She says she originally felt that she was called to be a Franciscan because their commitment to serving the poor resonated with her. Still remembering the Sisters of Life, she Googled them but discovered they follow the rule of St. Augustine.

“I was, like, ‘All right. They’re not Franciscan, so they’re not the ones for me,’” she says.

She explored Franciscan orders but says one day the Sisters of Life came back into her heart, so she decided to learn more about them.

“I watched every video that I could find online. I watched a 30-minute video about our founder. I spent a whole day doing this really intense research on them, and I said, ‘Something is resonating here,’” she says.

A short time later, her father mentioned to her that the Sisters of Life were planning a visit to Maine.

“I was, like, ‘Were you looking at my search history? Why did you tell me that?” she says.

She attended a women’s day of recollection that the sisters were holding in western Maine, where Mother Mary Concepta and her younger sister, Sister Mariae Agnus Dei, SV, are from.

“I felt them protecting and enhancing my life just by them looking at me and loving me, and I thought, that’s how I want to love. So, I went home that night and I filled out the little form on the website, and I had a call a couple days later,” she says.

She visited the sisters’ Villa Maria Guadalupe Retreat House in Stamford, Connecticut, returning there a few more times during her senior year in college. She entered the order in September 2022.

While she says it was difficult at first to tell her parents about the choice she was making, she says as time went on, they could see her joy.

“Every time I came home from being with the sisters, I was just so excited, so much more myself. I think it gave them consolation that, OK, she’s not going to be here, but she is going to be in a good place. She’s going to be loved,” she says.

“It's truly been a blessing for her to be able to set an example for others and for such a young person to serve the Church in such an unselfish way,” says her father. “It's been wonderful to be on this journey with her as she has grown. She is truly happy.”

“I am extremely proud of her. She has such a gift, and people are in awe that such a young, beautiful girl would give her entire life over to God,” says her mother, Louise. “She is amazing and we’re grateful.”

“My vocation is not just for me. That’s become very clear to me,” says Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy. “The graces I receive are for the whole world but particularly for my family. I just see their growth in faith and the little ways we’re all growing in conversion.”

Those seeking to join the Sisters of Life spend three years in initial formation, first as postulants, living at the sisters’ postulant house in the Bronx, New York.

“It’s a very gentle introduction, learning about religious life and starting to get a little taste of our missions as Sisters of Life. Postulare in Latin means to question, so you’re asking, ‘Is this what God wants of me?’ During those 10 months, I just had a lot of joy in my life. I loved the sisters, loved the community, just the privilege of getting to live what I felt the Lord was calling me into,” she says.

Postulancy includes taking classes on subjects such as Scripture and spiritual theology, as well as learning the way of life of a religious. There are also chores and duties. While she says she used to have her whole year planned out in advance, as a postulant, she says she often didn’t know what she would be doing in the weeks ahead.

“It’s a real gift because you don’t really know what’s coming,” she says. “It really frees your mind to be more aware of the Lord and be more attentive to other people. It’s great freedom.”

After postulancy, she asked to enter the novitiate, a two-year period of preparation that includes a canonical year dedicated to studying and an apostolic year spent experiencing some of the sisters’ different missions. She served at the Villa Maria Guadalupe Retreat House, at the sisters’ Visitation Mission on Manhattan’s East Side, which assists women with crisis pregnancies, and at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Convent on Manhattan’s West Side, where women with crisis pregnancies can live with the sisters.

“We help them look towards getting a job or towards school, help them get to their appointments on time, and help them at the early stages of being a mother,” she says. “There were four moms and four babies when I was there last spring, so that was a great gift. And again, you’re also continuing to discern but now in a new way because you’re actually seeing what the missions are.”

As a novice, she also received her religious name. She says novices can submit three choices for consideration, but only one came into her heart: Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy. She says Advent is her favorite season, and her name reflects that. She chose Lucy because St. Lucy became a friend and intercessor for her when she was in college.

“She’s a patron of light, and light is just a beautiful theme. The Lord always draws me to light overcoming darkness, and Christ is the light of the world,” she explains.

She says “maranatha” is a word she first heard in college, likely on a podcast, and she became captivated by it.

“It’s an Aramaic expression, and depending on how the word is split, it can mean, ‘Come, Lord Jesus,’ or ‘Our Lord has come.’ So it’s kind of a both/and thing: the Lord has come, but He’s coming again,” she says. “There is this coming again in glory that we’re all waiting for. I just love that. My heart is there all the time.”

And finally, she chose joy.

“You see at the visitation, John the Baptist leaping for joy in his mother’s womb. That was his response to Jesus coming. And I just felt so strongly that the Lord wanted joy to be the mark of His presence in me,” she says.

At the end of the novitiate, she petitioned to make her first vows in what she describes as mutual discernment by her and by the congregation. She remembers getting the call learning of her acceptance while taking out the garbage.

“I was thinking of the Annunciation. This is the way that God wanted to tell me. I wasn’t perfect and feeling put together, ready to receive the news. I was kind of feeling like a mess, but here is God coming to tell me that I was admitted to first vows,” she says. “You trust that it’s God’s will and that God is leading you to your vocation wherever and whatever it may be, but just to hear Mother say yes, that the community, that God, through this community, has chosen me, and the Church is choosing me for this, and they’re confirming what I feel in my heart, that it’s not just me. God is confirming this. He said yes to me. So that was a great joy to receive that call and to get that news.”

She says her vocational journey hasn’t been one with flashy signs or prophets coming down from heaven but, rather, a slow pursuit of the Lord.

 “All I know is what the Lord is like today. You’re calling me today. I’m going to be faithful to what you’re asking of me today. Then today turns into this week and this month and this year,” she says. 

She says just like Mary, she tries to put her trust in the Lord.

“She didn’t have the whole picture and that is our life, too. We can’t be certain of anything, but it’s just simple faith in God, that He’s going to take care of me. You’re here and you’re calling me. I can’t see the full picture. I don’t know what your full plan is, but here we are,” she says.

Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy says she has found a loving home with the sisters.

“I think that was something I was drawn to. I had seen the sisters even on my visits, and I was, like, they just love each other. They really love each other. And I think something I’ve discovered is just how deeply that is connected to our charism. I think people on the outside can see us and be, like, ‘Oh, those are the pro-life sisters. They love babies. Everything they do is related to babies,’ which is a lot of what we do, but what our founder, the cardinal, would talk about all the time is that the first place that reverence for human life has to be lived is with each other,” she says. “I think that’s been a great joy to discover and to experience and to live with my sisters. Our call is to love, just really to love.”

Her advice to young women who believe they may be called to religious life is to make time for prayer and to not be afraid to talk with someone about it, whether it is a parish priest or a Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) missionary.

“I think just being honest with someone and open about your discernment can help lead you in the right direction,” she says.

Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy says it’s important to remember that religious life is a response to an invitation. It is something God chooses for you, not that you choose for yourself.

“With any vocation that He leads us to, the point is love and growing in love with Him and being loved by Him,” she says. “It’s letting love lead and not fear.” 

Possible pullout quotes:

“You trust that it’s God’s will and that God is leading to your vocation wherever and whatever it may be.” —Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy, SV

“Our call is to love, just really to love.” —Sister Lucy Maranatha Joy, SV

“With any vocation that He leads us to, the point is love and growing in love with Him and being loved by Him.” —Sister Lucy Marantha Joy, SV