Natalie Wing SL makes final vows in joyouse Motherhouse ceremony By Natalie Wing SL
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fter working three years with displaced Southern Sudanese women during wartime in Khartoum, my life was turned around. I discovered my calling as a missionary and as a religious. Upon returning to my home in Portland, Ore., I began pursuing my vocation while both working and studying. Eight years later, I met Jeannine Gramick SL who had come to speak at a church workshop. She suggested that I look up Loretto on the web. I did, and shortly thereafter entered the novitiate. My passion is working for peace and justice, and I am motivated by love; that which I have generously received and that which I wish to share. I have spent the last three years in Guatemala working with rural indigenous people in areas of
education and community development. I have been living with the Holy Family Sisters, our Guatemalan sister community. My time abroad has opened my eyes to the military and political injustices that have impoverished the people and the land. Even so, everywhere I go, I can see God’s potential present and unfolding in people’s lives and in their communities. My ministry is as much about my own conversion as it is about the transformation of our world. I see the Church as a viable way of working for peace; representing hope and positive change for people. I see Loretto as a group of faithful people committed to sharing God’s love in this world. I have answered a calling, and I have been richly blessed in living the life I have chosen.
April 28, Loretto Motherhouse, Nerinx, Ky.: Natalie Wing SL, right, stands with friend Raquel Lopez, HFS regional superior of the Holy Family Sisters in Central America. The Holy Famly Sisters in Guatemala are a “sister community” to the Loretto Community.
Dear Loretto Community and all friends, Thank you for the gracious embracing of myself and my family. We were all very touched by the special warmth given through the hundreds of gestures extended. For me, my vow celebration was a transformational event, sealing my commitment to God and all of you in such a heartfelt way. My family, too, felt a great conversion, having been drawn forth by God, having received such goodness in abundance. They now clearly see why I wish to commit my life in service to God. I am a product of my parents and my culture, but ever moving towards new encounters and merging into the larger humanity. I pray that my life may bear good gifts. With your blessings and love, I am strengthened to believe that I will. In gratitude, Natalie Wing
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Above: Natalie’s parents, Calvin Chow and Emiko Wing, attend her vows ceremony. Below: Natalie’s aunts Fukiko Morita (left) and Yeshko Suda also join the event.