"A vocation is a call which the Lord, always faithful, renews for us until the end of our life." This sentence, from the Rule of Life of our Congregation, sums up the history of my own vocation. I first heard the Lord's call when I was about twelve years old, and now I still hear it many times a day, in all the little events of life.

When I was in sixth grade, the Visitation Sisters decided to close their monastery in a town near my hometown. That may seem an insignificant event in the life of a sixth grader, but my uncle, who I tagged around after all the time, was chosen to handle the sale of the property. I would go with him to the monastery, following around the Sister who took care of the gift shop, and getting my first close-up look at the life of nuns (before then I had only seen them in school). After a while, during seventh and eighth grade, I would even go down to spend weekends with them. The Sisters were so good to me, and I enjoyed what I shared of their life so much, that I decided I would like to be a Visitation nun when I grew up. The adults in my life told me, "You don't know what you're talking about. You're too young. You only think that because they are so nice to you." I figured they were right, and so I stopped thinking about it. But that relationship with the Visitation nuns would change my life.

In high school and college, I didn't think any more about becoming a nun. In fact, I thought about everything else but that: marine biologist, doctor, lawyer, nurse, museum curator, the list went on and on. I finally decided on a college major of Art History, but by my junior year I really desired to pursue graduate work in geriatric studies.

I have to back track a little bit here, to help you understand the rest of the story. Through our contact with the Visitation nuns when I was a kid, my mom bought some raffle tickets for a fund raiser at the Little Sisters of the Poor in Cincinnati. Of course, that purchase put us on their mailing list and for several years after we would regularly receive their mailings. We never went to the home; I only saw the pictures of the Little Sisters and Residents on the materials that came in the mail. The name and images remained in my mind, however, and when I was a sophomore in college I applied to volunteer at their home for the elderly in the town where I was going to school. (They never called me back, so I never went.) Later that year, I took a spring break trip to Virginia to see some of the Visitation nuns I had known in Kentucky. For me this was a social visit to old friends. But since they knew I had thought about being one of them when I was younger, they allowed me to stay in the cloister with them and to have an experience of their life. I will be forever grateful for that, because it allowed me to see that it wasn't what God was calling me to. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, I just knew it wasn't for me.

That brings us back to my junior year in college. As part of a writing course, we were asked to read a book by a nonfiction author and write about their style. Trying to save time and effort, I chose a book of quotations by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. You have to remember that at this point I already had a desire to work with the elderly, and I knew that the Little Sisters had a home near my school. As I read Mother Teresa's words, especially her reflection on Matthew ch. 25, "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me", I began to feel that my desire to work with the elderly had to be about more than just my desire to do good, that I was being called to something more radical than just public policy work, but to give my very self in their service. I called up the local home of the Little Sisters, went over to see the Mother and began to volunteer. I felt "at home" from the beginning. Time went on, and the call to serve Christ in the person of the elderly kept getting stronger and clearer. That's not to say that there were never doubts, obstacles to overcome or temptations to turn and go my own way. God is very patient, and he didn't give up on me. A year after graduating from college, I entered as a postulant. I have now made my perpetual vows, and the journey continues.

As I said at the beginning, the call I first heard as a student at Christ the King I now hear over and over again each day. If God can't get through one way, he tries another. And all of these calls are leading me to live what the religious life truly is, a following of Christ, a continuance of his way of life in the world of today. As a Little Sister of the Poor, this following of Christ comes in the form of the humble service of the elderly poor, the charism given by the Holy Spirit to our mother foundress, Blessed Jeanne Jugan. Rejoicing in this gift of love from the Father, I can only say with her, "What happiness for us, to be a Little Sister of the Poor!"

Sr. Julie Horseman was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. She graduated from Tufts University in Massachusetts in 1995 with a degree in Art History, and entered the Little Sisters of the Poor as a postulant the following year. Sr. Julie made her perpetual vows as a Little Sister in September 2004 and currently serves as the Congregation's publications coordinator for the United States.