I found this quote by Sister Natalia to be a very powerful and spot on understanding of religious life.

“We all have a natural call to marriage, but some of us have a calling to celibacy. That calling doesn’t come instead of a desire for marriage – it transcends it. My desire for a spouse helps me lean into Christ as my bridegroom.”

Today’s society is full of confusing and contradictory stances on sexuality that seem to be constantly and often radically changing directions every few years. One has to stop and ask themselves what is the truth of our sexuality if there is no agreement that lasts more than a few years? This isn’t just academic, it has far-reaching impacts on how we form families, pair bond, and how we define the happiness of the most meaningful long-term relationships of our lives.

That’s why I love Sister Natalia’s quote. She understand rightly that we all have a natural desire and calling to find a deep, fulfilling relationship in which we can express ourselves fully (including our sexual energy). That expression, however, is above all else relationship. Deep, fulfilling, open, vulnerable, wild, crazy, and sometimes frightening relationship that fully expresses our being in all dimensions.

As a person that explored religious life for 4 years at a monastery, I can firmly say that kind of fulfilling relationships is what all of us really seek. To reduce religious life, or ourselves, to our sexuality is to really miss the mark. As sister Natalia says, it is all about relationship – the relationship you have with God and bringing our COMPLETE selves to that relationship.

Have you found your complete fulfillment in your relationship with God above all others? Does it appear you have the gift of finding that expression of your love with God and being with him every day through what you are called to do and be for Him? Do you find that every day, you ‘lean into’ Christ as the most important person in your life more and more? Hopefully all Christians can say that, but for a person with a religious vocation, they find that ‘leaning in’ day by day with Christ to be the most important relationship. To the point that to do otherwise would be to deny who they are. And isn’t that the kind of self-fulfillment and self-expression we all seek?

• Sister Natalia’s article: https://www.kofc.org/en/news-room/columbia/archives/042022.html