A wise friend once told me that, for whatever reason, God chooses to give some people an unflappable gift of faith, and for those people that faith is meant as a gift for the world. From the youngest age, faith – believing in God’s existence and perfect Goodness – has always been a given. It took me a long time to realise that this was just the beginning.
As an 18-year-old, I found myself on a week-long retreat with other young Catholics. I encountered there something I never knew was possible – tangible, interactive, personal, loving, joyful relationship with Jesus. This reality changed my life. I started to understand my need for Christian community, to hunger for God in prayer, scripture, and the sacraments in whole new ways. By the end of the year, I had joined the parish youth adults group, and before long, was heavily involved in a multitude of parish youth initiatives.
Concurrently, I was studying a double degree of Mechatronic Engineering and Exercise Science at the University of Wollongong. I was a capable student with wide interests, which proved unhelpful in narrowing a direction for my life. As my degree drew near its end, I became increasingly aware that before deciding what I was going to do with my life, I wanted to know what kind of person I wanted to be. I took some intentional time exploring this in prayer with God, learning so much about the heart of who I was created to be.
Kathryn Kingsley MGL (centre) with the Missionaries of God’s Love community after making her profession of perpetual vows within the Missionaries of God’s Love Sisters at St Benedict’s Catholic Church, Narrabundah ACT, in February 2023. Image: Supplied
My time working with the youth of the parish helped me understand that God had broken open my heart in love for the world, and that He was calling me to make my life available to love all people, especially those who didn’t yet know themselves as loved. I knew in myself I was saying ‘yes’ to this big adventure of being totally given to God as a vessel of love, as a consecrated woman.
I joined the Missionaries of God’s Love (MGL) Sisters in 2014. I spent the next three years in formation in Canberra, dedicated to learning about a host of things such as our charism, scripture, the catechism, personal development, and mission. My biggest learning in this time was that whatever zeal I had to take God’s love into the world, His zeal for me to know myself as loved was bigger.
As MGLs, our major work is evangelisation – making sure that people know that God loves them. Sometimes this means travelling thousands of kilometres to speak to them about it, and sometimes it means just being available for a cup of tea and a chat.
In February this year, I made my Perpetual Vows within the MGL Sisters in Canberra. It was a time for me of marvelling at how incredible God is, that He could take the offering of my life and do something so miraculous with it.
Kathryn Kingsley MGL (right) making her profession of perpetual vows within the Missionaries of God’s Love Sisters at St Benedict’s Catholic Church, Narrabundah ACT, in February 2023. Image: Supplied
In joy for the gift of vocation, I recorded an album of songs I had written in prayer over my journey to this point. Heartbeats is a treasure trove of some of the things I’ve come to learn about what it means to love, and be loved, by God.
You can listen here: kk-mgl.bandcamp.com/album/heartbeats
Kathryn Kingsley grew up in the Sutherland Shire in the Southern suburbs of Sydney. In February 2023 she took her perpetual vows with the Missionaries of God’s Love Sisters.
