A parish priest’s passion to serve the poor and a sister’s gentle wisdom teaching children to live their faith were Mercy Sister Maria Campos’ inspiration to choose a consecrated life serving God.

Sister Campos, who began a new position Aug. 25 as associate vocations director for the diocese, hopes to pass on that inspiration as she works to promote vocations in parish communities in Northern California.

Co-directors Father Mark Richards and Father Humberto Gomez complete the vocations office team.

Just a month into her new job, Sister Campos sat in her office at the Diocesan Pastoral Center, her shelves filled with gifts from friends she has come to know during 31 years of religious life, friends she prays for every day.

“I love this work,” she said, just back from a visit to talk about vocations with students at at St. John’s Notre Dame School in Folsom. “It was a lot of fun to tell the children about vocations and to tell them my story.”

She said the idea of becoming a woman religious first crossed her mind at the age of seven while watching a sister praying her rosary as she walked outside a convent. The thought was a concept not enthusiastically welcomed by her mother, who envisioned her daughter being sent away and never seen again.

Time passed and Sister Campos, an outgoing teen-ager with a gift for music, became an active member of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Sacramento. It was here she met Father Daniel Madigan, then pastor, and Sister of the Blessed Sacrament Eucharista Marie, then the parish’s religious education coordinator.

“Their lifestyle really spoke to me, and the way they served the poor,” Sister Campos said, recalling the parish’s food locker and outreach to the poor in the Del Paso Heights area.

She would never forget the kindness of Sister Eucharista, who took her under her wing when Sister Campos temporarily filled in for the church’s housekeeper who had broken her wrists.

“It was her kindness and her joy,” she said. “Sister Eucharista advised me about what foods the priests liked to eat. She was very good with young people.”

A few years later she went to Father Madigan for advice concerning her desire to become a woman religious.

The priest told his young parishioner he knew about “these fine women up the hill,” and took her to meet the Sisters of Mercy in Auburn.

“My first impression of the door opening was my heart leaped for joy, and I knew that was the place,” Sister Campos said. “I knew that was where God was calling me and that was home.”

In 1972 at California State University, Sacramento, while completing work on a teaching credential and a bachelor’s degree in Spanish, Sister Campos entered the Sisters of Mercy formation program. After completing her studies, she took a position in 1976 teaching at the former Mercy High School in Carmichael. In 1979, while on staff at Mercy, Sister Campos pronounced her final vows.

From 1980 to 1990 she was a teacher at the former Bishop Manogue High School and then associate dean of students and a teacher at Christian Brothers High School, both in Sacramento.

Prior to accepting her position as associate vocations director, Sister Campos worked for four years in vocations recruitment in the Midwest states for the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Omaha.

As a member of the vocations team, high on Sister Campos’ “to do” list is more visits to schools and parish communities in the diocese, with the goal of reaching out to youth and opening up conversations about the priesthood and religious life.

One program the office of vocations co-sponsors that has already established a record of success is “busy persons retreats,” targeting college students and held on college and university campuses.

“The retreats are experiences that allow young people to experience God because many don’t know God is in their lives,” Sister Campos said. “Some find God is calling them.”

They are people like Matthew Spencer and Joseph Denzel, graduates of California State University, Chico — Spencer in 2000 and Denzel in 2002. As former student leaders at the St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Catholic Center in Chico, they reported in the Newman Center’s fall newsletter that such activities as retreats helped them make a decision to dedicate their lives to serving God.

Denzel is now in his first year of seminary studies with the Dominican order and Spencer entered the Oblates of St. Joseph Seminary in Loomis this past January.

The vocations office has scheduled three busy persons retreats in October at Newman Centers serving California State University, Chico, UC Davis and California State University, Sacramento.

Another program directed to college students is the ongoing vocation discernment series featuring presentations by priests and sisters and held at varied locations.

A new program series, “Theology on Tap,” will be held in the evening and located at Sacramento’s Pyramid Ale House, with topics appealing to young people in their 20s and 30s.

Also in the works are plans to implement a “7 to 7 Experience” on weekends featuring presentations on issues related to discernment and spirituality, as well as collaborative multicultural events involving youth leaders in the Hispanic community.

Sister Campos said in the midst of public concern about a decline in vocations to the priesthood, the diocese currently has 43 seminarians, four about to be ordained on Nov. 1. She sees it as a positive the trend for men and women to enter religious life at an older age than in the previous decades.

“Many have completed their education and have begun a career,” she said. “They’re experiencing life a little more, taking a little longer when God calls them to this vocation.”

Copyright © 2003 Diocese of Sacramento - All Rights Reserved