A story about an ordinary Irish Catholic young woman named Clare Crockett really caught my attention the other day. Clare was an aspiring actress who grew up at a time of division and violence in Ireland. Worldly and attention-seeking, she wanted to achieve success making movies one day. By her own account, she didn’t want to be just any average film actress but a “famous” one.
What made her story jump out at me? Because of how God chose ordinary people to carry out His most important work on earth. He drew people in wherever they were in their lives.
I could have looked for any story to read, but the Holy Spirit somehow led my eyes to hers.
Clare was caught up in seeking worldly pleasures and achieving material success, but God found a way to bring her back to Him in a way she least expected it: on a free trip to Spain that turned out to be a Holy Week pilgrimage. It was on that trip where she participated, with some reluctance, in the Good Friday Veneration of the Cross. She recounted that when it was her turn to kiss the cross, she sensed in her heart …“at that moment, I felt the mercy of God and realized that it was my sins that nailed our Lord to the cross … and I just started crying and crying.”
Clare’s path to the abundant life meant a total surrender to the Jesus who showered her with grace at the Veneration, to leave her party girl days and worldly desires behind, and to give her life in service. It was by becoming a nun with the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother that she was able to find her life purposeful and meaningful.
But it was her total giving of self to Jesus that moved me to learn more about her story beyond just a simple magazine article.
Out of the blue recently, a documentary on Sister Clare’s life popped up on my YouTube ‘Recommended’ list. God is amazing! Watching her life story unfold before my eyes brought me to tears, not tears of sadness but of sheer joy for someone who left the world behind for the sake of eternal happiness in God’s Kingdom.
Although Sister Clare never became a famous actress, but in the eyes of the world she became a famous nun. Her charitable and joy-filled spirit inspired many to change during her life and attracted the attention of the world following her tragic death in the 2016 Ecuador earthquake.
I especially admired her natural talent for teaching and drawing her students into the Catholic faith, not just to share the fundamentals but because she cared deeply about her students’ souls. Her uninhibited and confident style was guided by her complete trust in the Holy Spirit working through her. As a catechist myself, I was hugely inspired.
Today, I thank God for sending me Sister Clare’s story, for her gentle way of teaching me to always keep my heart and mind centered on God, and to do all the humble work that He asks of me no matter the circumstances. Her life is a shining example of what it means to evangelize from the heart and joyfully live the Gospel. I knew by having an open dialogue with this amazing nun that I would always have a new friend in Heaven I could look up to and to ask for her intercessions.
Confident that God is always pleased when we connect with the holy people that He puts before us, I awoke from a dream the other morning with Sister Clare in it! How great is our God!
Sister Clare was indeed very holy and I hope one day she would become a saint. If God could transform a self-obsessed young woman into a selfless, obedient servant for Christ, imagine what He can do for us if we allow Him into our hearts to mold and conform us to His ways. Sister Clare’s total devotion to the Jesus she was drawn to on that fateful Good Friday inspires us that being all in with Christ is the only true path to the abundant life.
May Sister Clare’s story inspire many more people to conversion, and to inspire people to abandon the false promises of the world for the promises of eternal happiness in His Kingdom!