In a ceremony reverberating with her Cameroonian roots and surrounded by her fellow Sisters in the Peace Community, Sr. Marie-Thérèse Gnamazo, SP, made her final profession of vows at Our Lady of Guadalupe in West Seattle in August.
The joyous ceremony was attended by her sister, family and friends from Africa, Europe and the United States and others who were instrumental in her vocation. The Peace Community and many others wore garments created and tailored by Sr. Marie-Thérèse’s brother, who runs a tailoring business in their hometown of Abong Mbang, Cameroon.
Her journey to become a fully professed Sister of Providence began in a small Cameroonian village called Mission Catholic which was part of Holy Family Parish in her west African nation.
Sr. Marie-Thérèse credits her mother, who passed away in 2019, as one of the biggest influences in her vocation.
“She made me the person I am today,” explains Sr. Marie-Thérèse, “because she enriched my life with her passion for helping others in the village where she served as a midwife.
“From a very young age, I knew I wanted to be a nun – from primary school all the way through university,” she said.
Sr. Marie-Thérèse attended boarding school in Yaoundé, the capitol of Cameroon, and received a degree in Social Communication from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
After her formal education, she worked with non-governmental organizations (NGO) serving poor families in eastern Cameroon where, as a woman, she faced many challenges. The challenges merely strengthened her vocation and it showed in all her endeavors.
When she served the Baka Pygmies who live in the Dja Faunal Reserve in southeast Cameroon, she learned some important lessons.
“My work with the pygmies helped me gain more experience and a sense of compassion for the poorest of the poor. They receive virtually no respect in Cameroon and are given no consideration,” she explained.
The love and respect was returned. The people she worked with told her mother that Marie-Thérèse was “now their daughter, too.”
After her work there, she set up her own NGO, African Solidarity in Action. She began work on a medical clinic in Abong Mbang which her brother continues today as she raises funds for the project.
“I have learned over the years that there is nothing more valuable in a discernment than a healthy prayer life built on a real and personal relationship with Jesus,” Sr. Marie-Thérèse says. “If you love him, trust him and talk with him regularly, you will find that following where he leads comes naturally.”
In addition to her mother, Sr. Marie-Thérèse reflects on the importance of Fr. Emmanuel Marie Mbock Mbock, Sr. Kitsy Rutan, SP, and Sr. Clare Lentz, SP, in her vocation journey.
“In the course of my discernment, I was quite happy to discover the life of Mother Gamelin and her dedication to the poor. Fr. Emmanuel guided me to the Sisters of Providence, where I found that the spirit and charism of the Congregation inspired me. It gave me the courage and desire to undertake my own mission to serve the poor,” says Sr. Marie-Thérèse.