Blessed Father Kłopotowski leads me to God the Father. Christ has called me, invited me into a special intimacy with Himself. He is my greatest happiness and joy.
I was born on 14 February 1956 into a deeply religious family. Although we were very far from church, we systematically attended Sunday Mass. We also cherished daily prayer. The topics of faith, morality and the importance of fasting were often discussed in our home. I know that my dad thought about religious life in his youth but lacked the courage to do so and started a family. Mum prayed that one of her daughters would remain a nun but she also put certain conditions on God.
HOW DID IT BEGIN?
The grace of baptism bore fruit in my heart and from childhood I loved prayer. I even had an ease for it. The beautiful liturgy in church aroused in me a longing for heaven. I began to wonder what path would help me achieve eternal happiness. Everything pointed to the fact that the surest path to reach heaven was the religious life. I didn’t know any nun, but the talks in my family showed me this vocation as a difficult, beautiful and effective way to achieve holiness.
When I was 14 years old, I decided to join a convent and started looking for opportunities to get the address of a religious congregation. Nowadays, this would not be the slightest problem but in the communist times it was very difficult. At the beginning of the eighth year of primary school, I shared my intention with my parents. They strongly expressed their opposition to it and then suggested that I was still too young for it. However, my mother, in her kindness, admitted that there was a nun in our extended family. She gave me her address. That was enough for me to make contact with the Loretto sisters. Already in the Christmas holidays of 1970 I went to Warsaw for the first time in my life. I met with the Superior General of the Loretto sisters and ask for admission to the congregation. I was accepted but I had to finish primary school and provide the proper documentation. Neither the parish priest nor my parents consented to my going to the convent so early. The Superior General of the Loretto sisters chose the golden mean: she accepted me into the congregation and sent me to a 5-year medical high school.
BEGINNINGS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE
From 8 August 1971 I joined the Warsaw community of the Sisters of Loretto. Within five years I did my baccalaureate and obtained a diploma in nursing. I also had two stages of religious formation behind me: candidature and postulancy. In August 1976 I began my novitiate. Two years later I made my first profession and in 1983 I made my perpetual vows. During my first years in the congregation I had crises and doubts about the rightness of the path I had chosen. On several occasions I reflected on the matter and discussed it. I asked for a sign from heaven as to whether God was really calling me to the religious life or whether it was just a childish pursuit of a dream. Such dilemmas subsided with perpetual profession. From the moment I entered the Congregation of the Loretto Sisters, Jesus Christ became my Master and Friend. It was to Him that I entrusted all my secrets and doubts and from Him I also expected help. I obtained a secondary medical education and besides that I obtained a higher theological education – I graduated from ATK in Warsaw (1989) and PIŻW (1997).
WHERE THE POWER COMES FROM?
I was also entrusted with various duties and functions in the congregation. I had a special love for catechising children and I was even more involved in working towards the beatification process of Fr. Kłopotowski. I needed a lot of time to become enthralled with our Father Founder. Delving into his writings and, above all, the weekly “Posiew” while writing my Master’s thesis, showed me the richness of his spirituality. Since then, I have seen the Founder as a Father leading me to the God the Father. In religious life, it is important for me to cultivate a spousal love for Christ. It is He who has called me and invited me into a special intimacy with Himself. Jesus is my true happiness and joy.
Sister M. Klara Teresa Bielecka
