Discerning a vocation doesn’t come with a how-to manual. It is not merely a matter of ‘doing what I’ve always dreamed’ or ‘doing what God wants’ as some may think. Discerning a vocation is discovering how God is calling you to belong to Him and following that path out of love because “He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19). For Consecrated Woman Rachel Peach, this discovery began at a young age.
Rachel grew up in a Christian family in Akron, Ohio. As the oldest, Rachel would always take charge in any game with her siblings, whether it was playing school or house. She loved nature and adventure; it’s no surprise that her favorite books were the Boxcar Children and Nancy Drew. When she was five years old, her family converted to Catholicism, the unofficial beginning of her discernment.
“Since a young age, I sensed God had a special love for me. I would say, ‘Maybe I’ll be a nun,’ but I never seriously thought I would be a nun. It was just a natural conclusion: I feel this, so this means that.” When she was in middle school, her experience took shape in the form of a question: what am I made for?
“I didn’t feel like I was living for anything in particular,” Rachel recalls, “I felt like I was floating without a direction in life and I didn’t like to float.” At the same time, however, Rachel was afraid God would ask her to do something others would not understand or appreciate and so she started closing her heart to God.
When Rachel first met the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, their vocation made sense. She realized that being a nun was not the only way to respond to God’s love. The message hit closer to home when two of her friends entered Immaculate Conception Academy (ICA), a high school for girls who were open to discerning a vocation to the Consecrated Life in Regnum Christi. When she was in 9th grade, Rachel visited the school. The testimony of her friends’ relationship with God opened the door to Rachel’s heart; she decided to give God a chance.
“I was tired of not being happy and I told God He could ask me whatever He wanted as long as He made me happy,” Rachel shares about her decision to attend ICA in 10th grade. “I wasn’t satisfied until I could find my purpose.”
At ICA, Rachel was happy to find so many girls who loved their Catholic faith and serving others.
“They were people I felt like I could click with on a deeper level,” She said. “In the moment I wasn’t thinking about being consecrated, I just wanted to live my faith and live for God in a special way during high school.”
Throughout her sophomore year, Rachel felt God inviting her to be His.
“I left the Cleveland Indians, my jeans, my family, my pocket knife… I have left everything, I am really yours!” Rachel responded. But she still felt God was asking for more. It was a cold January morning and the words, “This is my body, given up for you,” echoed through the chapel during Mass. Suddenly everything made sense! God wanted her life.
“I said yes,” Rachel said, “But give me the grace!”
In her senior year, Rachel attended a school pilgrimage to France and Rome. As she knelt in the chapel where the Sacred Heart appeared to St. Margaret Mary, she told Jesus, “I’m afraid because I see my weakness and the greatness of what you are asking me.” But she felt Jesus answer, “That’s why I’m giving you my heart.” Strengthened, eight months later on August 14, 2010, Rachel Peach made her first promises in the Regnum Christi Movement.
On August 18, 2013, Rachel renewed her temporal promises for three years. Now, as she continues this period of discernment, Rachel looks forward to “falling more in love with Jesus, centering my whole life on him, because I can’t give what I don’t have. I need to be filled with God; I’m not just giving the leftovers. I’m going for holiness.”