Holy Cross novices ministering in Utah

Courtesy photo

Photo 1 of 2

Novice Sathi Costa

SALT LAKE CITY — Two novices with the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross are doing part of their international novitiate in Utah.

The novitiate is a period of formation where new members of religious congregations get to “know God, their community and themselves better. … The two-year novitiate program provides new members with a common novitiate formation experience and connects them with their peers from around the world,” states the Sisters of the Holy Cross web page.

The novitiate is part of an eight-year process for women preparing for a final commitment to a religious order. In the beginning stages, the women spend time with a vocations coordinator, discerning their calling. They then apply to a congregation to becomes a candidate or postulant. This is followed by the novitiate.

On Jan. 20, 2022, the feast of Blessed Basil Anthony Moreau, 12 women were received into the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross’ International Novitiate. Among them were Novice Sathi Costa and Novice Diangsbun Marwein, who now are living with other Holy Cross sisters in Draper and working with Holy Cross Ministries of Utah.

Novice Sathi, from Bangladesh, said that she felt a call to the religious life when some Holy Cross sisters visited her village when she was a teenager.

“I kind of said to myself, ‘I want to become a nun,’ but I had no idea what a nun did,” she said.

Her five years in junior school, which was run by the sisters, gave her some answers to the questions that she had about the consecrated life.

“In the evenings [the sisters] used to go to our village to visit the people and I started seeing how they worked directly with the people, and I loved that,” she said.

After observing them for a bit, she spent a week living with the community, and in 2017 she decided to joined the Sisters of the Holy Cross. However, she first had to attend college while continuing to discern her vocation. Now she is completely sure that “I wanted to go forward; this was really my call,” she said.

In Utah, Novice Sathi has been helping with Holy Cross Ministries’ School Readiness program in Park City.

“I am also helping with praying the rosary, helping the teachers and keeping up the facilities, like cleaning them,” she said.

In addition, she is working with the justice program in HCM’s Salt Lake City office, helping with paperwork, assisting with the domestic violence cases and distributing Communion to people who are homebound.

She is happy with her vocation, she said.

“In my life experience, I have seen that God’s call is true,” she said. “I feel it; it is important that we open our hearts to him. … What I have been experiencing is beautiful. When you do things for others, when you serve in the name of God, there is nothing more beautiful.”

Novice Diangsbun Marwein, who was born in India, discovered her vocation in a similar way to that of Novice Sathi.

“In the beginning I didn’t even know what a religious life was,” she said.

Her first exposure to consecrated life was when some women religious, not Holy Cross sisters, were teaching catechesis in her village.

“I loved the way they dressed,” she said with a smile.

When she decided to enter the Congregation of the Holy Cross, which was fairly new in her country, “At the beginning I was shocked that they didn’t have a special dress, but the congregation captivated me,” she said.

Living in the community and seeing how everyone was doing service and helping others made Novice Diangsbun decided that that was her call.

“It was a really good experience, and by the time I joined and became a candidate I learned more and more,” she said.

These past few weeks in Utah are the first time that Novice Diangsbun has been out of the congregation. The experience “has been really good for me. … Feeling it, doing it, I feel like it is really good,” she said.

Seeing firsthand how she can help people has filled her heart with joy, she said.

“For example in the immigration department [of HCM] to see how are we helping people – it has been great,” she said.

Novice Diangsbun said that her stay in Utah has been very enjoyable.

“I love to see mountains everywhere,” she said. “The place is very beautiful, and has helped me to see the call of God in our environment, in the nature that surrounds us. He is there helping us to become better people and teaching us to love everyone.”

In November the two novices will return to the Sisters of the Holy Cross’ home base in Indiana. There they will continue their studies and profess their first vows, then go back to their home countries.

“But if I get to get back here, I will be very happy to do so,” Novice Sathi said.

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross ministers in eight countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ghana, India, Mexico, Peru, Uganda and the United States, “serving peoples of many cultures in large hospitals and small clinics; in elementary and secondary schools and universities; in churches and parishes; and in the streets of the inner city and remote rural areas,” according to https://www.cscsisters.org/our-mission/.