The Monastery of Santa Ana in Murcia, run by Dominican nuns, celebrated last Sunday the entrance of a new sister: Mihaela María Rodríguez, 29 years old. The young woman, who had spent her adolescence far from faith, was inspired by Tamara Falcó’s retreat and was encouraged to try her experience. It was at that moment that she encountered the call of God.
Mihaela María was born in Romania, but was adopted by a Canarian couple at the age of 4 and grew up in Tenerife, in an environment that was not particularly religious. “She did First Communion and also the confirmation catechesis, but I did not get confirmed,” she recalls. The date coincided with her graduation from her institute and she preferred to let it go.
An adolescence separated from the faith
After receiving the baccalaureate degree, the young woman began her university stage with a degree in Tourism. «I distanced myself from God; I had a life like that of the girls of today, I went out to party and the Lord was, more and more, in the background ». She knew the ecclesial movement of communion and liberation, but she felt that, in her life, she was looking for something different. «The Lord was drawing me to him little by little; He did not know what he wanted from me, but he was working, “she explains.
By then, there was an influencer who loved it: Tamara Falcó. She followed her on all of her social networks and, one day, her mother told her that the ‘celebrity’ had gone to a retreat. Mihaela María was struck by it and she wanted to make one. She asked a friend that she was a Christian and she told her about a community of Dominican nuns. «As soon as I met the sisters, without knowing what religious life was like, I saw something different; a happiness that they had, and I wanted to know what it was », she confesses enthusiastically.
Together with these nuns, she had a 15-day experience that consisted of living with them, as one more. «I did not feel that God was calling me a nun; but he felt very comfortable with me », she says simply. She was attracted to community life and, especially, to the central place occupied by prayer: “She impressed me a lot, because I had never prayed for more than five minutes.” Her vocation, however, was developed later. «When I returned home, I saw that everything was different: nothing filled me, the things that used to attract my attention did not matter to me; my life was elsewhere.
At that time he was 21 years old. Her visit to the nuns was repeated every week and she began to go to Mass because, before, she “was not a religious girl”; She learned with the sisters to say the rosary and, four months after her retirement, she entered the convent. Half a year later, one day of San José, she took her habit as a Dominican novice and, in 2019, she moved to the community of Murcia, to the Monastery of Santa Ana, where she began to reflect on her own family history. her.
Reunion with its origins
«With the help of the sisters and a lot of discernment, I felt that I had to look for my origins, my roots; that something was missing in my story », she relates. She managed to locate her biological family in Romania and, by video call, meet her parents and six of her siblings. The following year, she was able to travel to her home country to see them in person. Her biological parents, in a difficult economic situation, had entrusted her to a center as a baby due to her delicate health. For this reason, the little girl was in a hospital. However, when they were able to take care of her again, they went to pick her up, but no matter how hard they searched for her, they could not find her. She was lost. Therefore, this reunion symbolized the return of that daughter they had given up as lost.
After the novitiate, Mihaela María made her solemn profession last Sunday, accompanied by numerous priests and seminarians, friends and family. The ceremony took place in the Monastery of Santa Ana, 24 years after the last profession held there. “It was impressive; I have no words to describe such happiness. She made the profession to God, to the Virgin Mary and Saint Dominic, and the promise of obedience to the prioress and her successors.
The rite consisted of three prostrations, in addition to the scrutiny, and the blessing of the veil and the ring, symbols of consecration. Then the welcoming rite was performed, with each sister hugging, through which she became part of the community. “The words I have are happiness and a lot of peace for giving myself completely to the Lord,” she smiles. He is clear that he enters the convent “leaving everything”, because he leaves behind family, land and projects, but in return, “he receives much more”.
«Young people today are very afraid of commitment, I was too; but I have found in him a very great freedom: that of doing the will of God, what he asks of me at all times”, confesses the young woman. “I have discovered that happiness is in giving an unconditional yes so that God is the one who does everything,” she concludes with a smile.
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