Laboure Society
“A gentle phrase returned to me again and again: ‘I Thirst.’ It felt like an invitation to let Jesus into my heart.”
Meet the rest of my class
My name is Fatima Partida. I am called to serve the poorest of the poor as a sister with the Missionaries of Charity. This is my story.
I grew up in a Mexican Catholic family. Our faith was very cultural; it was woven into our traditions, family life, and community identity – yet it was not deeply personal to me. For much of my life, my faith was something I “grew up with,” rather than something I chose for myself. I believed in God and went to Mass, but my relationship with Him was distant.
Just prior to college, I attended a retreat which drew me closer to the Lord. Throughout college, my faith waxed and waned. I studied architecture, and for my thesis, designed a facility for people experiencing homelessness. Through that project, I began volunteering at a local shelter. I became more involved in church and began to encounter the Lord in a more mature way, though I still did not understand where He was leading.
I had first felt drawn to religious life on the retreat prior to entering college – but I had pushed such thoughts away. Everything changed on a Sunday during Lent as I was about to graduate university. After receiving Holy Communion, I felt a deep stirring in my heart. Tears came as I realized I had never let God speak to the direction of my life. Though I feared giving up all to follow Christ, in the months that followed, in quiet moments before the Eucharist, a gentle phrase returned to me again and again: “I Thirst.” It felt like an invitation to let Jesus into my heart. He was thirsting for me to trust Him and for a childlike dependency on Him.
As I slowly opened my heart to discerning a religious vocation, I attended a silent retreat. During Eucharistic adoration, as religious sisters sat in front of me, I looked at them and something deep in my heart recognized the call. I thought, “I’m not crazy. All these women said yes, and by the grace of God, they are here.”
When I turned toward the altar, a gentle and unmistakable invitation rose in the silence: Jesus asking for my whole life. I whispered my “yes,” and in that instant, a weight I had carried for years finally lifted. The peace that followed was overwhelming.
Eventually, I learned that “I Thirst” was at the heart of St. Mother Teresa’s and the Missionaries of Charity vocation. At first, I feared that I did not have what it takes to follow the Lord in such a radical way. The Missionaries of Charity serve Jesus through simple and concrete works of mercy. Their apostolates include caring for the sick and dying, feeding the hungry, visiting the lonely, teaching children, sheltering the abandoned, and being present to those who have no one.
Last year, I finally had the courage to go experience the life of the Missionaries of Charity during a two-week visit. I felt at home in a way I cannot explain. There was a peace and familiarity, a sense of belonging, that settled in my heart. Their life of radical simplicity, deep prayer, and joyful service to Jesus in the poor resonates with what I had been hearing in prayer for so long. The phrase “I Thirst” now makes sense. The Lord’s thirst is not only for my heart, but also for souls, especially those who feel forgotten and unloved. I hope to live a simple life rooted in prayer and poured out in love, God willing as a Missionary of Charity. I want to go wherever God sends me, and to offer my life for the poorest of the poor.
Please pray for me and for my fellow Labouré classmates on our vocation journeys. Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have at: fatimapartida@rescuevocations.org
Download a PDF of my story
(The progress bar will be updated as donations are processed.)
Your gift gets our aspirants one step closer to their ordination or profession of vows.