Photo provided by Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia
Editor’s note: Sr. Albertine is a Dominican Sister of Saint Cecilia. She is a native of Charleston and was a member of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral. She is currently teaching chemistry and physics at Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville, MD.
“I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament… There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth…” – J. R. R. Tolkein
It was a Saturday afternoon, I was 23, and a friend had invited me to go with her to church for something called Adoration.
It had been several months since a grand conversion of faith in which I encountered the merciful love of Jesus at an evangelical church. My former way of living, a dull and monochrome life that chased distractions and success with no real satisfaction, had given way to a bright technicolor adventure—the amazing, unconditional love of God that alone can satisfy my restless heart. I wanted nothing else but to know this great Lover. I was bouncing from Bible study to Bible study, relishing each copy of the Bible offered from Christians eager to encourage a new believer. After weeks of pouring these pages, hungry for Jesus, I had come to a full stop at the 6th chapter of John. This contains the scene where Jesus invites his many listeners to eat the bread of life: his own body. The echoes of the Masses I had attended as a bored, distracted child suddenly reverberated in my heart. The same Jesus that I had just fallen in love with, and was pursuing in the pages of Scripture—was he really, literally, what had been offered on the altar every Sunday? If this was true, this would change everything, again. I prayed one of the best prayers I know—Lord, I believe, help my unbelief—and waited for God to show me that he was really present in the Eucharist.
Photo provided: Sister Albertine Cevallos, O.P., speaking to the students of Mount de Sales Academy about her vocation story. Sister Albertine teaches in the science department at the Catonsville, MD school.
That afternoon, my friend led me to a pew toward the front. A priest placed the host in a beautiful, golden holder, which I now know is called the monstrance. In a moment, I experienced the answer to my prayer. I sensed the heart of Jesus, beating for me. I could hear his words of love deep in my heart. I could hear him invite me to belong to him, to lay down my life for him as he had for me. What do you say when the King of the Universe proposes to you? I knew that he had a plan for me to belong entirely to him, and I said yes. It was only afterward that I discovered this monthly hour of Adoration is sponsored by the Serra Club with one intention: to pray for vocations.
As I began to discern a religious vocation and entered the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, my greatest moments of clarity and assurance of God’s love have been before our Eucharistic Lord. As Tolkein puts it, the Blessed Sacrament is the one great thing to love on Earth. To sit at his feet in adoration is the one thing necessary. If he has gone through so great a trouble as to endure the Passion, to resurrect, and to ascend to Heaven, leaving behind his true Body and Blood as a pledge of future glory, who are we not to avail ourselves of such a priceless treasure? When our feeble senses fail to grasp the mystery, when we struggle to stay awake in adoration, we will remain no less united to him than in the greatest consolation. Faith suffices, and he is eager to grant this gift to anyone who asks. Glory and romance await those who seek him, or rather are sought by him, in the Blessed Sacrament. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and him with me.”
Open wide the door, in the words of Pope St. John Paul II, open wide the door of your heart to Jesus! He is waiting for you in the Blessed Sacrament so he can love you. Do not be afraid!