NEW NUNS ACCEPT LIFETIME OF DEVOTION.

Byline: Krystn Shrieve Staff Writer

OXNARD - Alicia Rios was only a first-grader when she knew that she wanted to be a nun.

Maria del Refugio Lopez felt the call soon after high school graduation, while Sister Marycruz Garcia fought for years against the inner voice urging her to dedicate her life to God.

``I wanted to know more about life,'' said Garcia, a former licensed vocational nurse from Mexico. ``I had everything. I had my work, and I had my friends, and I didn't think I wanted to give that up. But something was lacking in my life.

``I felt the calling, and I knew I needed something more. So I began to pray, and I knew that God was the only one who could fulfill me.''

So Garcia joined the Sisters, Servants of Mary, a nursing order with a convent in a beautiful old neighborhood in Oxnard. And after four years of study, inner reflection and training, she and five other women last week took the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience - and dedicated the rest of their lives to God.

``God called, and I answered,'' said Rosanna Gonzalez, 26, another of the newly anointed nuns. ``There was no doubt in my mind that this was the life I was meant to live. It's like falling in love. In your heart you just know it's right.''

The 30 nuns at the Oxnard convent belong to a religious order whose members are also registered nurses - professionals who go at night to the homes of elderly, sick and dying patients, giving their families and caregivers some much-needed rest.

During their four years as novices, the women live at the convent, study the Bible and church doctrine and master English and Spanish languages. On Saturday, the convent's six new nuns left for another convent in Kansas City, Mo., for additional study.

After two years there, they will begin training as nurses. Eight other novices remain behind to continue their training in Oxnard.

``I just can't believe it's finally happened. I'm so happy,'' Gonzalez said after taking her vows. ``Before, I only went to Mass because I had to, but now my relationship with God is the reason behind everything I do. These have been the best years of my life.''

The women all told different stories of how they decided on a religious vocation.

After deciding in first grade that she wanted to be a nun, Rios, 22, wanted to enter the convent when she was 11, but was persuaded to wait until she was in her late teens.

``She's so patient and compassionate,'' said Rios' cousin, Deborah Garcia, who attended last week's graduation ceremony. ``She's always quick to help anyone as much as she can, and best of all we know that this life makes her happy. She always has a smile on her face.''

Lopez, 20, began thinking about life as a nun when she and her friends pondered their futures after high school graduation. Her family objected to her choice of a religious vocation, but she said no other occupation seemed right.

``My family didn't want me to be a sister,'' 20-year-old Lopez said through a Spanish-language interpreter. ``But I said I'm going, and now my family is very happy for me.''

Claudia Zamora, 21, tagged along with a friend who was attending a religious conference. Witnessing the joy of one of the convent's sisters, who was playing a guitar, she knew that the religious life was for her.

As for Gonzalez, her visit to a Servants of Mary convent in New York City, where she lived, was a last-ditch effort to find the right place to fulfill her religious vocation.

``I was looking at all kinds of convents, but I didn't feel any of those were where I wanted to be,'' Gonzalez said. ``I was going to give up, but I decided to visit the Sisters, Servants of Mary.

``When I knocked on the door, the sister who answered was so happy. It felt like a family, and I could sense a joy I had never known before. I knew it was the right place for me.''

At the Oxnard convent, the busy nuns' happiness shows in the way they sing softly while they're sewing, gardening or even sweeping the courtyard. And it can be seen in the daily afternoon volleyball games.

``We're like a family here,'' said Sister Bernadette Proctor, auxiliary to the mother mistress. ``We have our prayers, but we also have a good balance of work and rest and fun.''

Gonzalez said she loves the nursing aspect of her vocation. One of her most satisfying moments was when she was staying in the home of a 73-year-old woman who was bedridden with a broken knee.

``She loved to cook, but she couldn't, so I brought her into the kitchen and we made muffins - vanilla with chocolate chips,'' Gonzalez said. ``I didn't think it would make her so happy, but she was beaming.

``I just thought it was so beautiful that I was there and could do that small thing for her.''

According to officials for the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the six new Servants of Mary are among a declining number of nuns in the United States - a drop caused as older nuns die and fewer young women opt for a religious vocation.

There are an estimated 81,161 nuns nationwide, down 2,873 from last year, officials say. In the Los Angeles Archdiocese, which includes Ventura County, nuns number between 1,900 and 2,000, down from more than 2,000 last year.

``We're seeing a gradual decrease, but it's not huge,'' said Sister Faith Clarke, in charge of the women's religion for the archdiocese. ``And it's offset by the fact that international congregations are increasing as vocations flourish in other parts of the world, including India, Pakistan, Mexico, Central and South America and Korea.''

One reason for the decline, Clarke said, is the expansion of the roles that laywomen can play in the Catholic Church.

``Today women can do things they couldn't do 25 or 30 years ago,'' Clarke said. ``They can do readings, be Eucharistic ministers, teach religious education and even be altar servers.

``Today a woman can participate in the life of the church without becoming a nun. They don't have to take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.''

But it wasn't until Elke Gonzalez heard her sister Rosanna take vows that she understood the lifelong commitment the words represent for the nuns and their families.

``I told myself, This is it, and had to hold my tears back,'' said Elke Gonzalez, 21. ``We were really close. She was my best friend. It hit me then that this was real.

``But I know that I didn't lose a sister. Instead, the community gained a sister.''

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) New nuns Marycruz Garcia, left, and Norma Mendoza get congratulations from priests Paco Legarra and Joseph Gallardo, right.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News

(2 -- 4 -- color) Becoming a nun, Marycruz Garcia kisses a crucifix, her order's constitution and a veil held by a priest, Joseph Gallardo, at the Sisters, Servants of Mary, convent in Oxnard, above. At top right, new nuns, hold their veils before putting them on. At right, a relative kisses Sister Rosanna Gonzalez's crucifix.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News