Canadian Salesians celebrate first vocation in 25 years

Sister Hae-Jin Lim is quick to say her vocation story is about God’s faithfulness, not her own.

“I began my formation by getting ready to tell God: ‘I tried, but it didn’t work.’”

Lim entered the community of Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (also known as the Salesians) as a candidate 10 years ago due to her curious nature and the encouragement of a close friend who had been discerning priesthood at the time. She didn’t think she’d stay longer than a year.

But this August Sister Lim made her perpetual profession, making solemn vows for a lifetime and becoming the first new fully professed Salesian sister in Canada in 25 years.

“It’s a celebration of God’s faithfulness to me. He waited for me for 10 years to come to a point where I could say, ‘yes, Lord, I am yours.’ It’s not about me making the perpetual profession, it’s about God’s faithfulness.”

Sister Lim first encountered Salesians while living in Korea, her country of origin, during a youth retreat in Grade 9. She remembers being moved by their love for young people, though joining them had not crossed her mind.

Now, her favourite part of her ministry as a Salesian sister at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish and Holy Cross Secondary in Surrey is seeing young people being transformed.

“My motto for them, my attitude when I encounter young people, is: ‘it’s not enough to love them. It’s that they know that they are loved by me and by God,’” she said.

“Young people, they will do anything for anybody who loves them. Once they realize they are loved, they can do anything.”

She said her perpetual profession won’t change how she looks on the outside but has made a profound effect on her on the inside.

“I’m the same person, but I feel like something amazing happened to me. I feel more internal change, more commitment, more responsibility for my ministry and my identity. It’s not about what I do, it’s about who I am.”

The way Sister Lim understands her ministry has also gone through a transformation in the last 10 years.

“I changed. My internal intention from the beginning was more like: ‘I have to save these kids, I have to help the young.’ But whatever I do, it’s not me. God is in there. He is doing it through me,” she said.

Now, “I’m less focused on me. My only thought is: ‘how can I express God’s love to the young people entrusted to me? What would Don Bosco do? What would Mary Mazzarello (founder of the Salesian Sisters) do?’”

Sister Lim made her perpetual profession Aug. 5 in Hawthorne, N.J., with three companions: Sisters Christina Ye-Mook Chong, Lillian Marie Foxx, and Myriam Meus. The others all serve in Salesian communities in the U.S.

“I’ll admit that as the day neared, I had moments in which I was overwhelmed by the gravity of the commitment I was about to make,” Sister Chong wrote in a reflection after that day.

“Could I do it? And no less than forever? Was I crazy to think I could really make this commitment? At a time when the world defines freedom as doing what you want, when you want, however you want – could I ‘lock myself’ into this vocation?”

Sister Chong said she later realized that her perpetual profession was not a one-way commitment.

“Over the past 10 years, God had been showing me that although I did not initially understand the plan for my life, he did, and he had lovingly prepared it for me since the beginning of time. He had been gently forming me and gradually revealing the person he always planned for me to be. This day was a testament to God’s faithfulness in leading me even when I fought him or had difficulty believing in myself ... I can make this commitment because he has first made a commitment to me.”

Sister Lim serves at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish (the only Salesian parish in B.C.) with Philippine Sister Cora Beboso and Sister Beatrice Valot from California. Salesian priests have been active in the parish since 1974; Salesian sisters began serving there in 2018.

There are also Canadian Salesian communities communities in Cornwall, Montreal, and Toronto.

Sister Lim said, God-willing, another woman from the Vancouver area will make a perpetual profession with the Salesians in 2022.

St. John Bosco founded the priestly Society of St. Francis de Sales (Salesian priests) in 1859 and less than a decade later established the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians (Salesian sisters), for women with St. Mary Mazzarello.

There are an estimated 11,000 Salesian sisters around the world. Salesian priests, brothers, and seminarians number over 14,000 worldwide, including in parishes in Edmonton, Hamilton, Montreal, and Toronto.

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