It’s No Wonder

By Sister Diane Toth

When you have parents and grandparents who believe in serving and helping others, you have an opportunity to follow in their footsteps. Add to that a family history of centering around the church community, and the vocation has a fertile field.

I am amazed at how I learned of God’s call. It happened while I was standing on a corner waiting for my mother to pick me up following an after-school meeting. It happens in ordinary moments and is quiet as a gentle breeze. The thought of being a sister popped in my head from nowhere. The call is a mystery. It is there for you if you pause and listen. Talk to God about it. God is there all the time. Listen and ask for God’s input. God will let you know how to serve.

In the last 50 years, I was blessed to meet people of all ages. Working with children as a teacher, I was taught the meaning of the scripture, “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

As a social worker I encounter young adults and people in the final time of life’s journey. God is there in the pain and the joys. God has taken many of my ordinary experiences with people and transformed them into “Awesome encounters.”

One afternoon, an older woman in a nursing home repeatedly called for help even though she did not need help. A chaplain talked to her and read scripture. When the chaplain left, the older woman again took up calling out — but in a calmer voice saying, “God loves me, God loves me.”

Look for God in the eyes of others and in your own.

Sister Diane is one of three Sisters celebrating their 50th anniversaries, or Golden Jubilees, as Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown in 2016.