The joyous day has finally arrived, and former-postulant Theresa has been transformed into a Passionist Novice, receiving the holy habit and her precious new name, a gift and call from the Lord. You’ll have to wait until next week to see pictures of the beautiful ceremony of Vestition and the positively radiant new novice, but I won’t make you wait to find out her name. Our newest sister will be know as:

Sr. Miriam Esther of the Sacred Heart

Here are her reflections on the gift of her new name and the significance of her holy patroness:

Like many postulants before me, I spent much (perhaps too much!) time thinking about what my religious name might be. In our community, the Superior often asks for the suggestions of the postulant, and I had all sorts of ideas – all our Sisters have a form of Our Lady’s name in addition to a saint, so maybe I could be “Mary Gabriel” for our Passionist St. Gabriel? Or could I take “Peter Marie” for Peter the Apostle, one of my favorite saints? At the same time, I had a desire for my new name to be a total surprise, so that I could have that extra assurance that it came from God and not just from my own imagination. As it turned out, the Lord had already put a name for me on Mother John Mary’s heart. That name was “Esther,” and besides its own significance, it happened to pair beautifully with my favorite form of our Blessed Mother’s name, “Miriam!” Miriam Esther – a precious name, a gift from God, a name that hearkens back to the beautiful Jewish roots of the Catholic faith.

Miriam is special to me because it is the way that the “virgin of Nazareth” would have pronounced her own name. Every time I hear it, read it, write it, I can feel that especially close connection with Our Lady. She has been a powerful yet hidden guiding force in my life and vocation, and so I chose to place her name first in my religious name.

Esther is the great Old Testament queen whose name has become almost synonymous with intercession. Throughout my aspirancy and postulancy, I have felt drawn in a special way to this form of prayer, and have come to see that God has been preparing me throughout my whole life for the role of intercessor. But I am so small, so weak – how could I take on such a daunting task as praying for the whole world? Esther certainly felt the same way as she risked her life to intercede for the Jewish people, but she found her strength by relying totally on God. He enabled her to go before King Ahasuerus with “countenance . . . joyous as it was lovely, though her heart was pounding with fear.” (Esther D:5, NAB, emphasis added) In the end, her trust in God paid off enormously as the threat to her people was turned into a day of victory, now commemorated in the Jewish feast of Purim. Reading through the book of Esther, I am struck over and over again by the connections between my vocation and that of the Biblical queen. Truly, only God could have given me such a name!

Another somewhat humorous confirmation came when I was telling my family about my acceptance for Vestition. After I told them what my new name would be, my sister piped up, “Yeah, I remember you used to say that you wanted to have two daughters and name them Miriam and Esther!” I had completely forgotten! Perhaps it was God Himself who had attracted me to those very names when I was younger!

All in all, I am deeply grateful for the gift of my new religious name, “Miriam Esther,” and I pray that my holy patronesses will serve as inspiration and guide as I seek to fulfill the mission God has entrusted to me.