Responding to God's Call: 'God fills me,' says sister celebrating 25 years of religious life
OGDEN — “God leads me in the best way of happiness and integrity and love,” says Daughter of Charity Lucia Lam Nguyen, who for 25 years has used her musical and artistic gifts to serve the poor and the marginalized people in various countries around the world.
Born in Vietnam, Sr. Lucia was active in her parish as a teenager. By the time she was in high school she was taking care of the organizational details for the 30-member choir, visiting the sick and elderly, and helping the priest. About this time “I found the love of God for me and I wanted to respond to that love,” she said.
Even before she told people she was discerning a call to religious life, two priests and a layperson, completely unsolicited, suggested that she join the Daughters of Charity.
“After the third person, I wondered in my mind, ‘Why did they say such a thing like that?’” she said.
She and a friend visited the Daughters of Charity motherhouse that was near her home, but with its day care for young children and sewing and embroidery classes for young women, she found it too chaotic. Instead, she investigated the cloistered life because “I wanted to be just closer to God and talk to God,” she said.
She visited a Carmelite monastery, but Vietnamese government at the time prohibited new members from joining unless one of the current members died, and Sr. Lucia did not want to wait. She also made a retreat with the Poor Clares (Order of St. Clare) and found their contemplative life attractive, but her pastor, who was one of those who suggested she join the Daughters of Charity, refused to write a letter of recommendation.
“I was so upset,” she said. “I just left. I didn’t talk to him for three months.”
On New Year’s Eve, Sr. Lucia returned to the Daughters of Charity motherhouse and asked the superior for permission to enter the community. She fully expected to be turned away because young women typically spend two to three years becoming acquainted with the community prior to joining.
However, “To my surprise, she said yes, and really, really meant yes,” said Sr. Lucia, who immediately came up with excuses as to why she could not join. The mother superior told her she was welcome to join after she had taken care of all her other commitments.
So Sr. Lucia entered her year of aspirancy, and found her calling. Studying about the charism of the Daughters of Charity community, she learned that the work she had been doing in her parish fit that description, and as she got closer to God, she heard Him asking her to help others who are less fortunate.
In the Bible and in the lyrics of the songs she sang in the choir she heard over and over God’s call “to help the poor people, to reach out to others, to be nice, to be kind, to be generous, to forgive,” she said. Now she feels embarrassed and cannot sing whole-heartedly if she doesn’t practice what He asks, she said.
As Sr. Lucia prepared to enter her postulancy, her family was accepted as refugees to the United States. She moved with them to Los Angeles and served her postulancy in the San Francisco area, then began seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Afterward she served in various places in the U.S. before she was asked to minister in the Cook Islands for three years, followed by a year in Fiji. In each place she taught music and art – she holds a college degree in music education with a minor in art. She also helped teach catechism.
In 2016 she came to Utah, where she ministers at Give Me a Chance in Ogden. She teaches music and art to everyone who wants to learn, regardless of their talent, she said, to give them ways to express themselves.
“Sr. Lucia helps to develop their spiritual life,” said Daughter of Charity Sr. Germaine Sarrazin, the sister servant for the local Daughter of Charity house.
At Give Me a Chance, the music and painting that Sr. Lucia teaches helps her students “become aware of their inner spiritual life and to be able to express themselves,” Sr. Germaine said. “Daughters of Charity seek to serve Christ in those who in need; we search out the poorest and the most needy, and we try to bring them to be the people God wants them to be. Our ministry is to serve those who live in poverty, whatever their need is, and at Give Me a Chance the need is to empower these women and to assist the children so they can become productive citizens.”
When Sr. Lucia first responded to God’s call for a vocation, her father supported her, but her mother asked why she was choosing such a hard life, she said. And it is hard, she said, “but the cross turns into a blessing.”
Her mother saw that as well; about 10 years ago she told her daughter that she sees how happy she is, Sr. Lucia said.
“God fills me,” and “that makes me happy,” Sr. Lucia said. “The more I get closer to God, the more God gives me, up to the point [where] it’s overflow, I cannot hold it any more. The happiness and the joy and whatever it is, it’s too much to hold.”
Donations of supplies are being sought for Sr. Lucia’s programs. Needed are guitars, keyboards and music stands, watercolor, acrylic and fabric paint, canvas, frames and art paper. To donate, call 801-627-2235.
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