From Prescriptions to Prayer

Sister André Marie Vuong stepped away from a career as a pharmacist after a life-changing encounter with the Blessed Sacrament. She took her final vows as a cloistered nun in June.

By Christina Gray

Sister André Marie of Divine Mercy took her solemn vows as a Dominican nun at Corpus Christi Monastery on June 29. Like a bride, she was fitted for her ring and measured for the new habit she now wears after nearly 10 years of discernment.

The Gothic-style monastery in Menlo Park is where she and more than a dozen other contemplative Dominican nuns live a communal, cloistered life of prayer, praise and sacrifice. The 100-year-old structure, its peaceful grounds and its purpose stand as an enduring counterpoint to the worldly pursuits of the burgeoning tech world less than a mile away.

“I had never considered religious life,” said Sister André Marie. “And I was not someone who others could see joining a religious order, either.”

She had an established career as a pharmacist and enjoyed a all the good things life had to offer: marriage engagement,  designer clothing, nights out with friends and family, and world travel.

Stirred by the Eucharist

Sister André Marie was born Trihn Vuong in South Vietnam, the oldest of three children. Her family was one of the final wave of refugees who escaped Communist rule by boat after the fall of Saigon in 1975. They settled in San Jose where the children were educated and raised Catholic.

As far as her faith, in her young adulthood she practiced its “obligations,” she said, but did not go much beyond Sunday Mass or occasional Adoration.

One weekend, her parents asked her to come with them to a Catholic charismatic conference in Oakland and she agreed.

Sister André Marie said she was completely unprepared for her experience in Adoration at the conference.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about those moments before the Blessed Sacrament,” she said.  The peace and joy she had felt convinced her to attend Mass more often, then daily, after the example of her parents.

“It was my parents who urged and inspired me to go to daily Mass,” she said. Sometimes she even stayed for the second Mass. Her free time was now spent in prayer, pilgrimages and retreats.

“But at the same time, I was engaged,” she said.

Her fiance, who was not Catholic, could not understand her sudden religious turn, she said, and she admits to a period of “inner struggle.”

”I did question why the Lord would stir me in this way when I was about to be married,” she said.

Ultimately, Sister André Marie said, the engagement wasbroken, but not so she could join religious life.

It was providential, she said.“I didn’t have that sense of peace and joy when I was engaged because that was not my vocation.”

A deeper longing

Sister André Marie said for a period of a year or so, she continued to work and travel as she had before, while simultaneously doing research on religious vocations.

“I’d come back from trips and think, well, that was wonderful, but now what?,” she said. Material things did not satisfy her in the way they once had.

“There was a deeper longing within me that I could get a tiny glimpse of before the Lord,” she said.

Eventually, she learned about Dominican Nuns of Corpus Christi Monastery through the Institute of Religious Life and contacted the vocations director.

Her initial “aspirancy” included a one-month, live-in experience in for “mutual discernment” with the community.

“I came into the cloister for 30 days to live with the community and see the way they live and to discern whether this is the way of life God is calling me to,” she said.

The rhythm of each day for the enclosed community at Corpus Christi Monastery follows a prescribed schedule of prayer, worship, study, work, meals, silence, recreation and Adoration. The latter is what Sister André Marie found most compelling.

There is a sister at all times in prayer before the Eucharist, she said.

“I felt such a sense of joy and peace in the sacred silence of Adoration,” she said.

It’s in this silence, she said, that “God let’s us know we are so precious in his eyes, looks at us with so much love, each and every one of us. Sometimes we forget that we are very loved by God no matter the state of our life.”

Mixed reaction from family and friends

Following another year of at-home discernment, Sister André Marie entered Corpus Christi Monastery as a postulant. The reaction from family and friends was mixed.

“My mom had always said it would be so great if one of her children would join religious life,” she said. But when she first told her, she wondered why her daughter didn’t want to join an ‘active’ order. 

“But prayer is active,” said Sister André Marie, adding that her parents have always been very supportive.

Some of her friends, on the other hand, were shocked. Even three years later after her first vows, she recalled a friend’s visit, still in disbelief.

“I cannot believe this is you,” she told her. “But you do look so happy.”

“Cling to the rosary instead of your phone”

Sister André Marie requested and received with approval from the prioress, the name she will bear for the rest of her mortal life. It is the result of a trip to Montreal, Canada with her family and spiritual director.

Her spiritual director had a “great devotion to St. Joseph,” she said. In the choir stall of St. Joseph Oratory, they both prayed that her vocation would be “pleasing to God.”

Sister André Marie’s name reverences St. André Bessette, a lay brother of the Congregation of the Holy Cross credited with thousands of reported healings associated with his devotion to St. Joseph.

Until she took her solemn vows in June, Sister André Marie was still considered in initial formation among the 16 nuns of the community ranging in age from 24-89. She had her studies and took her turn in the kitchen as well as the altar bread department. To support their contemplative life, the sisters supply altar breads to priests and parishes, campus ministries and retreat centers throughout the West Coast. 

She continues to utilize her natural creativity in the development office. Using computer graphic design programs, she continues to help the monastery produce and send newsletters and mailers, and manage social media posts.

“Some people think about religious life and only what you are going to give up,” she said. “But no, the Lord will use everything that he’s given you,” she said.

“When I was working as a pharmacist, patients would come in with their prescriptions and I would fill their order,” said Sister André Marie. “Now as a nun, the orders I fill are prayer requests from the faithful, and God is the Divine Physician who heals not only physical ailments, but more importantly, spiritual ailments.”

Sister André Marie suggests the sacred silence of Adoration, and praying the rosary for everyone discerning their next steps in life.

“Cling to the rosary instead of your phone,” she said.

Visit opnunsmenlo.org/discerning-a-vocation to learn more about Corpus Christi Monastery.