The young Carmelite nuns of LA: “The Lord comes and says, ‘will you be mine?'”

The local NBC affiliate paid them a visit this week:

Bucking the trend, some millennials are seeking a nun’s life, and an Order in Duarte is attracting eager, college-educated women.

They wear the traditional habit they’ve worn since Mother Lucita first arrived in LA from Mexico in 1927. The gowns are brown — symbolizing the humility of the Earth; white — a symbol of purity; and black — a symbol of death to the world with life in Christ.

The Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Los Angeles have been actively serving their flock for 90 years. In Duarte, the campus includes their convent, a day care with pre-K curricula, an assisted living home, Saint Teresita Hospital and a church. And walking the hallways and gardens are 135 women living out their lives as brides of their God.

“I come from a Catholic family that getting married and having children would be the norm and beautiful and that was also very appealing to me as well,” says Sister Marie Estelle, a nun for 15 years.

She didn’t always think that’s what her life would be. She had studied international relations and nursing in South Dakota before she got “the call” from God.

“The Lord comes and says, ‘will you be mine?'” she says with a smile. “There was this infinite love that was calling to me, and nothing else could fill it.”

If memory serves, I bumped into some of the sisters’ sisters at the LA Religious Ed Congress last winter.

Meantime, read more and watch the video report here.