Loving and Growing in Spiritual Motherhood — with Sr. Joyce Bermejo, FMA
Season 2, Episode 5 | Originally aired on May 24, 2020
About the episode
"Grace builds on nature, so you have to know yourself first as a human being and then you can work on the spiritual stuff."
This was advice that Sr. Joyce Bermejo, FMA, received as she journeyed through her faith life and heard the call to become a religious sister. Sr. Joyce spent a lot of her adolescent life in the service of others, and while she was in post-secondary she had plans to become a teacher. But the Lord took her desires and stretched them even more. On August 5, 2018, she made professions as a Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, also known as a Salesian Sister. in this episode, we follow Sr. Joyce on her faith and discernment journey, what drew her to the Salesian community, and how this vocation allowed for her to grow in the virtue of spiritual motherhood.
Listen to the episode
Meet Sr. Joyce Bermejo
Sr. Joyce Bermejo, FMA, is a Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, also known as a Salesian sister. She made her religious profession on August 5th, 2018 in Newton, NJ, USA and moved to Cornwall, Ontario afterward.
Sr. Joyce immigrated to Canada with her mom, dad, younger brother and sister, who also happens to be a religious sister. (She is a Dominican Sister of St. Cecilia based in Nashville, TN.)
Thanks to her involvement with the youth ministry called Couples for Christ-Youth in her hometown Surrey, B.C., as well as her personal relationship with Christ and living out her Catholic sacramental life, she discovered her calling to religious life. She found deep joy in serving young people, as well as in nurturing a personal relationship with Jesus and Mary. She entered the Salesian Sisters right after graduating from university in 2014.
As a Salesian Sister, she serves the youth in Cornwall, ON, through a weekly Salesian Youth Centre at the convent, where she and her fellow Salesian Sisters encounter children and youth from local elementary and high schools. She serves at a local high school where she teaches religion and faith lessons. She is currently studying Early Childhood Education, a two-year full-time program, at St. Lawrence College in Cornwall.
Sr. Joyce follows the footsteps St. John Bosco, founder of Salesian Sisters, and co-foundress, St. Mary Mazzarello, who both gave their lives for the good of young people. "Give me souls, take away the rest!" - St. John Bosco.
There are over 11,000+ Salesian Sisters around the world. Sr. Joyce belongs to the Province of St. Joseph which consists of the Eastern U.S. and Canada.