Jesus is the best example of a feminist [Music] from four years old like nanhood was my dream nanhood was my passion I really depended a lot on God I would tell Jesus that I want the full score I got selected to six of the ten colleges that I applied to the best scholarship I received was from Trinity College in Connecticut they gave me sixty thousand dollars which was a really good opportunity for me the greatest model of feminism it's the Blessed Mother they've all women have that realization so many things would change as a nun
that's what I would like to focus on too the whole part I feel like God will help me in the future [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] my name is Sister Alisa I'm from Chicago so I was born in Kerala actually and I was raised there until I was five years old and when I was in first grade my parents and I we immigrated to the United States like Chicago and I studied in Chicago from 1st to 12th and after 12 I decided to enter the visitation congregation and now I'm here [Music] I feel like the
best were to describe me as a child is Naughty and I was also really arrogant too [Music] my family consists of my parents my grandparents and my five siblings my siblings are all younger than me I have two brothers and three sisters I was also kind of over dramatic too because I lived with my maternal grandparents at India they treated me very well they gave me everything I want they were just awfully very nice to me even as a child I was very attracted to Jesus because my grandparents they're very Pious and devote people it
was through them I learned to pray the rosary I it was through them that I first learned to fall in love with God my mom would buy me Saints books and bible stories books and I used to read it with so much thirst and so much craving it's truly I really didn't understand most of the parts of the stories but like reading them it would make me feel really good and I really liked Jesus a lot so I would say prayers and yeah and also aside from spiritual matters I I also love to read a
lot like read multiple types of books so my dad's side of the family they all decided to move to America for better opportunities and my dad also pursued his siblings and he followed our dad's decision by Dad's decision [Music] [Applause] Coming to America I initially didn't like it it was initially very hard to learn English at first and we didn't have a church at America like we did at Kerala so I didn't have a very spiritual life in America to begin with OR I didn't have like a spiritual point so I preferred Kerala at the
moment as a first grader better but then as I learned the language and I got used to the culture I began to like America more and America began became my identity during school time I was mostly involved in the drama team a memorable role that I played was actually the devil so in the creation scene I was the serpent right the one who tempted Eve and everyone said I did I played the role very nice and it was really memorable too I actually think negative characters match me more than the protagonist character not because I
I am very antagonistic but it just matches me I like acting the negative role more than the positive rule I was very spiritual or religious to the point that I would get jealous of people who were more spiritual or more religious appear to be more religious than me there was this one friend who would come to church because their parents were very religious and I never told her this but I've always felt the secret jealous towards her like I was scared that she would be a nun I always wanted to be a nun from four
years old like nanthood was my dream nun Hood was my passion when I was India my Nursery School was at Saint kiriaku's public school and it was run by Saint Joseph's sisters and the sister is there seeing their right habits it was a really big inspiration for me they were called the brides of Jesus and seeing them used to really inspire Jeremy and created me so much all that I wanted to be like them there are points in teenage times where you do feel a little attraction towards you know someone but when I would always
compare him with Jesus I would always arrive at the conclusion that Jesus is the best person you can marry so I just loved him before every exams I would tell Jesus that I want the full score and like I would write Bible verses on the top of my exam papers and in every assignments that I did I would draw like a cross sign because I really depended a lot on God so I leaded homework to after school to like after like around like six and after that my time was a church and praying so ninth
grade I got into the shoulder scholar program it's the Preparatory program for high school students who are entering college and this program gave me a lot of opportunities to visit very many colleges around the United States this also helped me get rid of my homesickness and it was a fantastic opportunity for me to travel all around the United States for free I at 12th grade through this program you're allowed to apply to liberal arts schools and selective schools and they pay for the application fee they cover everything so I applied to 10 colleges through this
program and I got selected to six of the 10 colleges that I applied to and they gave me really good scholarship too like the best scholarship I received was from Trinity College in Connecticut so they gave me sixty thousand dollars which was a really good opportunity for me I had a false belief that you can be a nun and at the same time go to college but I realized that that's something that's not possible Trinity it's an opportunity that's very rare and if I reject this opportunity now I'll probably never get an opportunity like this
in my life ever again this was a very shocking moment for me but at the same time I knew deep in my heart that it was really God who gave me this scholar Fellowship so I can prove to the world that God is better or God is more than any scholarships or anything the world has to offer me welcome Holy Spirit [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign she said let it be done to me according Thy word there were a lot of pressure in her like society would view her in a terrible way she might even
have to face still being stoned to death but she still said yes because she's trusted in God my greatest fear was if not Hood fails if I'm only able to stay for two years and if I have to drop back how would Society still view me like what would the options I have be like those things cost a lot of fear in me but when you leave those things up to God and when you sacrifice those anxieties and fears say that yes God will take care of you when I was originally planning to either enter
like a missionary congregation or a cloistered congregation which are two uh dimensions of religious life and at the moment visitation congregation really struck me because its charism is related to feminism like women empowerment and at that moment I was like a daring feminist I was like woman power girl power all that I had that ideology so I was like maybe this is the congregation for me but um I was very anxious inside and uneasy because like this required me to come to India we have three conference three visitation convents in the United States but the
formation of these three conference uh it's at India and India is a place I at the time dreaded a lot I didn't think I would be able to adjust to the food because I've been told that you had to eat Kani that's rice with water in it and with a lot of Curries at noon your third children which is rice with Curry's right and those are food that I don't like and there's something called Tapioca And like other type of potatoes and those uh those things the food it was really uncomfortable for me and also
um like the bathroom like the bathrooms were very something very hard to adjust to and also cultural difference um usually like the Indian Community sees and grass things differently than Americans do typically but by Community my congregation stood by me and they encouraged me as I took the steps to overcome like starting aspiracy I had a hard time reading Malayalam and um like reading the Bible in Malayalam so I had to stay apart from a lot of things that went on but um my congregation should supported me and they gave me the chance to learn
the language better and right now I'm very fluent in reading and writing Malayalam and in India there are chores that I had to do which typically at America I wouldn't have to do but even in those moments my batch meets would encourage me to learn these stuff when I make a mistake they were very supportive and they would rebuke me but in a very gentle Manner and make me recognize the mistakes that I have to correct for those of you say religious life is boring my response is I feel like if you're a boring person
then if you enter religious life priesthood or family life it'll be boring for you but if you're a person that bakes up each day and thinks how they can make their day interesting then religious life would be the most exciting and interesting state of life you can be in and that's true with any life it depends on what type of person you are for a life to be interesting or boring even if you are a close turn on your life will be very interesting if you wake up with the attitude oh God has something new
for me I gotta find it it'll be a righty each day I was in the Schuler scholar program I met this person who encouraged me and taught me about feminism and women empowerment and at that time there were so many violence going again against women and I I started to become aware of that right now women need to be empowered spiritually in my opinion um I feel like in the matter of equality yeah we need to be treated more equally and I feel like people are fighting more we've reached a long way like voting rights
equal pay we have achieved a lot but I feel like spiritual empowerment for women it's kind of lagging nowadays I feel like the greatest model of feminism it's the Blessed Mother no one acknowledges that like think about it at an age where single mothers are stoned she was willing to be a single mother for God at a time where widows were considered the most unfortunate she is the blast she lost her son she lost her husband and she was all alone in this world and she proved to the world that she can live that a
woman can live and she is the queen of Apostles the queen of Patriarchs the queen of the whole world she is the feminist and she is the model for all women to follow she is the fire that burns for the love of God and that's in my opinion is what women should imitate nowadays they should burn with the love of God because I feel like women is the meeting point of divinity it's fear God meets man if we realize that and if all women have that realization I feel like so many things would change and
this self-confidence and this love towards Womanhood I feel like that will change society more than going out and rallying like those things yeah do help but more than that if each women have the self-confidence that she's meant to show Divinity to the world then so many things would change foreign I feel like Jesus is the best example of a feminist when the woman with the bleeding disorder she had the courage to touch Jesus he asked her to step and reveal her identity is because he wanted her to be empowered by telling her to reveal her
identity Jesus is telling the world that people like her have a voice in society that they deserve to be known to and Jesus consoles her true healing happened then Jesus asked her to reveal herself to the world at that time if a woman touches a man especially a Woman Within Purity touches a man the man is also unclean but Jesus had no problem making himself unclean for her it was the women disciples that stood at the foot of the car's cross and stood in support of Jesus it was the women disciples that missed Jesus and
went to the tomb to look for him and it was to women that Jesus first appeared so that's probably why Barry Magdalene is called the Apostle the apostles and as a nun as a visitation none like our charism it's to empower women we used to do that through education at a time where women weren't educated needed but spiritual wise they need more work we need to work more on that like building up moral values building a family that's what we as a congregation focus on and as a nun perhaps that's what I would like to
focus on too and that can also be done living as a strong woman and show like being that model in my life like Blessed Virgin Mary and also by prayer and also by going out and helping others and the whole part I feel like God will help me in the future [Music] in my life something that helps me as a nun stay close to God it's personal prayer for sure the secret to success in not hood is your love towards Jesus which is developed through personal prayer when you undergo personal stuff that urging you to
find someone to open up and that someone is Jesus it does give you an assurance that Jesus is there and Jesus knows and Jesus is watching you a friendship for Jesus that no one can replace participating in Holy Mass right now I feel like I still don't understand its beauty to its completion and I don't think I will ever but there is a Bible verse that every morning God's love is new and I feel like one way he depicts this new love is through the Holy Mass the greatest message Holy Mass gives us is that
if Jesus can become bread for us we also have to be bred for others I feel like when a person is in love that person is literally blind they don't see anything and the best way to show that you truly love someone it's by sacrifices the more the sacrifice you make for Jesus it's your way of saying that you love him more and for me leaving America and leaving my family it's when I think about it it wasn't that hard because Jesus gave me that courage and I feel like it was more of a sacrifice
for Jesus to receive me as his bride then me making the sacrifice I feel like manhood is the greatest gift that God has offered me for those of you are Discerning or are confused about what path to take my greatest advice is that you stay close to the Holy Spirit and seek advice from him constantly and also it may sometimes seem very hard to say yes to God but if you have a attraction towards the particular state of life especially at a time where no one follows that state of life it's probably a sign that
you have to call and maybe you should take that courageous step to say yes you have nothing to lose saying yes it's time that you love Jesus and are willing to sacrifice for him and our God is so great and so loving that if you take that one little step towards him but you'll take 100 steps or maybe even a thousand towards you [Music] my life is a miracle foreign [Music] World tune into God's love story
