Speaking from World Youth Day in Lisbon, the “City of Joy,” a Iesu Communio (Communion in Jesus) sister shared her vocation story with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

“I met Jesus at a WYD in Cologne [in 2005], when I was 14 years old. It was through some words of Pope Benedict XVI, who, for me, is a father,” recounted the sister, who did not wish to give her name.

The sister, who is from the Emiliano-Romagnol area in northern Italy, related that during that World Youth Day, Benedict XVI spoke “of the Eucharist as a ‘kiss’ and of adoration as a prostration before Jesus, who is love.”

“I, who was looking for love, like any 14-year-old girl, recognized that the only one who could hug me and ‘kiss’ my whole being to the depths was Jesus, who had given himself up for me until the end.”

The young sister emphasized that she recognized “this desire that I had to surrender myself” and that it was as if Jesus were saying to her: “You can surrender yourself to me because I am love. And surrendering yourself will not take away your dignity, but quite the opposite: It will make you a woman, a spouse and a mother.”

“There, I felt the vocation, but I did not know about Iesu Communio, because I lived in Italy; and after a few years, I went to study for a master’s degree in Madrid. And when I met the sisters, it was like the evidence that Jesus wanted me here, that he has in mind a specific place for each person.”

Iesu Communio is a contemplative women’s religious institute that was founded in 2010 in the Archdiocese of Burgos in Spain. The institute is dedicated to the evangelization of young women and to the contemplative life.

It was established after the community of Claretian cloistered nuns of Lerma, Spain, surprised the world with their numerous young vocations.

The nuns received oral notification of the decision of Pope Benedict XVI to establish their community as a new women’s religious institute of pontifical right, called Iesu Communio.

The sisters say they feel “called to be an existence and prayerful presence that holds deep within the ‘I thirst’ of the Bridegroom.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.