No coincidences in religious vocation
By NADIA MARIA SMITH
CS&T Staff Writer
Emily Rebalsky doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that the I.H.M. formation house is now at her parish convent. Or that it was there that she discovered the stained-glass window she had searched for — the one that her great-grandparents had donated in memory of her deceased uncle.
She sees it as an affirmation that she is on the right track toward fulfilling her vocational calling.
Rebalsky, 36, the administrative coordinator for the archdiocesan Office for Clergy, will be entering the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in September as a postulant. She will spend the next three years as a full-time student at Immaculata University, studying theology and education.
The daughter of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, Rebalsky was raised Catholic, attended CCD classes and went to Sunday Mass. She stopped when she entered her teenage years, but never stopped believing in God.
“I wasn’t against organized religion, but I didn’t think it was for me,” she said.
Then, when she was 19 years old, she drove past her childhood parish, Our Lady of the Assumption in Strafford, and felt compelled to start going to church again, Rebalsky said.
“Once I joined, I started to pay attention to my Catholic faith and I really fell in love with it,” she said.
She became increasingly involved in young adult groups, and other parish groups, and the idea of a religious vocation would resurface every so often.
Finally, two summers ago, she decided that she would do something about it.
“I went to a Theology of the Body conference and there were four I.H.M. sisters about to make their final profession. I went up to Sister Kim Miller, who is now my sponsor, and I told her I was interested in the religious vocation,” Rebalsky said.
She visited or spoke with 12 different communities, but her thoughts always returned to the night she had dinner with Sister Kim and the I.H.M. sisters.
“I just felt like it was the right place for me,” she said.
She entered into a deeper discernment process with the I.H.M. sisters, meeting monthly with the vocation director, Sister Carmen Teresa Fernandez, and attending pre-candidate retreats every four to six months. She also continued to meet with her spiritual director, Msgr. Joseph Marino, the pastor of Our Lady of the Assumption, who was instrumental in deepening her prayer life, she said.
“The more I did this, the more I felt that this is where I was meant to be and what I was meant to do,” she said. “I like that [the sisters] are traditional and wear their habits. That was important to me. I like that they are very supportive of priests. I also like that they are a teaching community. Every I.H.M. I have met is so joyful and peaceful.”
As she prepares to enter this new chapter in her life, she sees how even her work with the Office for Clergy was another step toward her vocation.
“From day one I experienced what a joy it is to work in a religious environment,” she said. “Each of my bosses is a very caring, patient and humble priest and the staff is one of a kind. They are … people who are true to their faith. Their example has really inspired me.”
CS&T staff writer Nadia Maria Smith may be reached at npozo@adphila.org or (215) 965-4614.