The Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George on campus are also fellow Benedictine College students. The Sisters set a wonderful example of how to attend school and juggle all the battles school has to offer while still incorporating Catholicism into it all. College is not an easy experience but when living life in communion with Christ and knowing how to be involved with your relationship with Christ, life is beautiful.
Sister Peter Marie Tran, a sophomore studying journalism and mass communications, said, “By saying a prayer on my way to classes or before an exam, I have found that reminders of Christ being present with me throughout the day really help to reiterate the entire meaning of my life. As a consecrated religious, everything is given and offered to Christ through the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience- and so in this, I find the meaning and connection between all things in my life. Through the Incarnation, everything- including my schoolwork- has the quality to be made beautiful and redemptive through the eyes of faith.”
Sr. Peter Marie explains how her school day is made beautiful through a relationship with Christ. Even through the stresses and ugliness, Sr. Peter Marie approaches her days by incorporating virtue into her life.
“When things are stressful, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed, but I think that the virtue of hope really helps to put everything into perspective. Even in all the thoughts and expectations, I can be reminded of His unconditional love for me. And over the years, I have experienced that when we offer things and situations to the Lord, He really cannot be outdone in generosity.” Said Sr. Peter Marie.
This enthusiastic and hopeful response to stress is encouraging because stress plays a big part within a student’s life. This example Sr. Peter Marie sets is encouraging and helpful for students who desire what she lives out. Here at Benedictine the topic of faith is easily related upon which Sr. Peter Marie has recognized as she says, “I really value the way that Benedictine College not only seeks to equip the success of the students, but actually desires that each student becomes a vessel of the Lord’s goodness, beauty, and truth to our world which so desires the Good News. I find that this natural desire for the truth often leads to honest conversations and an openness to how each person is called to be in relationship with the God who loves them.”
Relating with classmates about faith, stress and just being a student can be a wonderful way to start conversations and relate with one another. Faith is a big part of Benedictine College, for many students here faith is very important. Sr. Peter Marie is a great example for a Catholic student to follow. She successfully incorporates faith into her everyday challenges as a student.
“Although schoolwork is indeed very important, the greatest way in which I am able to give a gift of myself to others, is through my presence and witness to a life fully alive in and with Christ. My relationship with Christ is the first priority in my life, and it is through this that all else finds its order- He is what gives sense and meaning to everything else,” said, Sr. Peter Marie.
[This story was updated March 27]
