“I realized God created me to be a Benedictine”

Sister Lucy Marie Fitzmorris, O.S.B., is asked often how she knew she wanted to be a religious sister. She spent years contemplating the answer.

“It’s still sort of a hard question to answer,” she recently said during a talk on her vocation story at the Serra Club of Oklahoma City, an official lay apostolate of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City focused on fostering vocations.

“A large part of my discernment is learning who I am and who God created me to be. Living as a Benedictine is what is going to bring my whole self into communion with Christ. I realized I wanted to be a Benedictine when I realized God created me to be a Benedictine from birth.”

Sister Lucy grew up in Yukon, attending Saint John Nepomuk Catholic Church with her family. She attended public school and didn’t meet a religious sister until she attended Mount Saint Mary Catholic High School in Oklahoma City. 

“There was still a sister teaching in the science department and just seeing her around opened new possibilities to me. Before that I didn’t realize sisters were still a thing!”

As a senior, her dad began the process of becoming a deacon and she attended classes with him. As she learned, her faith grew and by the end of high school she asked if she could visit the convent in Tulsa.

She continued to discern while earning a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering at the University of Oklahoma. While in Norman, she started attending Daily Mass and was among several women who started a discernment group at Saint Thomas More Catholic Church.

She attended a discernment retreat at the convent and visited the sisters every six months for the next three years. When she graduated with a master’s degree in 2018, she formally entered the community at Saint Joseph Monastery. 

Since 2021, Sister Lucy has served at Catholic Charities in Tulsa, helping Afghan refugees and working to help track the 10 million pounds of food distributed each year by Catholic Charities.

“When I started to discern it felt very isolating. I felt very alone as a woman considering contemplative life. When I heard people talk about communities of women, they were always romanticized, and I never thought I was called to that life, and I wasn’t,” she said.

“Conversion by the monastic way of life is ordinary. Come and live an ordinary life and be a human fully dedicated to Christ. As we become closer to our humanity, we become closer to becoming that image of God. Benedictine life is all about growing in our humility. I am living as God created me to live.”

Sister Lucy said women from all backgrounds and education may be discerning a call to religious life, but many may not know where to start. She said young women need support and encouragement from their families, friends and parish communities as well as prayers for vocations. 

“Nothing makes me happier than to receive a note reminding me they are praying for me,” she said. “Thank you for all of the prayers for us.”

Diane Clay is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.