Serra Club Vocations Essay

Student inspired by service, prayer of Missionaries of Charity member

By Camila Briceno (Special to The Criterion)

Throughout my life, I have gotten the remarkable privilege of meeting many priests and consecrated people. But one consecrated person that encouraged me to seek God was a member of the Missionaries of Charity, specifically Sister Kiron Jyoti.

Her order of nuns serves the poor, sick and elderly and who are typically women.

Sister Kiron Jyoti truly impacted my life as a devoted, giving, considerate and loving person. She encouraged me to seek God through prayer and adoration.

During the summer of 2023, I spent three weeks at a summer camp the Missionaries of Charity hosted. In the first two days, we each made a rosary.

Along with the rosary making, we learned how to pray the rosary. I had prayed the rosary before, but never before had it felt so special to me. Each Our Father and Hail Mary stuck with me as the words, “Whenever you feel scared pray,” came out of Sister Kiron’s mouth.

She spoke openly about how prayer had helped her and could help us. On some days, she would take us to the little chapel that they had at their Queen of Peace convent in Indianapolis where the Most Blessed Sacrament was present as we prayed the rosary.

The same rosary I made and first learned how to pray the rosary with, I still use today. It’s a small memory of how Sister Kiron encouraged me to seek God, even when she left to go to a different state to continue to serve others through her vocation.

Pursuing a vocation brings hope into my life because I know in my heart that God has a perfect plan for my life now and in the future. My heart is open to what God has planned for me. This always brings hope into my life, seeing how much happiness having a vocation brings to you spiritually.

When I see people who have a vocation, I see how pure in heart they are and how much joy it brings them to serve God through others. Seeing this brings hope into my life to pursue a vocation.

When I get older, I want to serve others just as I’ve seen people such as Sister Kiron serve me in my life. When I serve God through others, it makes me feel spiritually filled knowing I can impact others’ lives with small deeds.

I am preparing to know where God is calling me to build up his kingdom with my God-given talents by attending Sunday Mass weekly to hear the word of the Lord, going to adoration anytime it is available to spend time alone with God and serving others by helping at Mission 27, a thrift store of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

I am also preparing by being involved in activities such as church clean-up days, the parish knitting group and being a youth usher. By using my God-given talents, I am serving others while building up God’s kingdom.

(Camila and her mother, Selene Coronado, are members of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus [Little Flower] Parish in Indianapolis. She recently completed the 7th grade at Little Flower School in Indianapolis and is the 7th-grade division winner in the Indianapolis Serra Club’s 2025 John D. Kelley Vocations Essay Contest.) †