“I’m starting to lose strength but the Lord gives me his grace”

Sister Maria Isabel Perez Calderon is a contemplative nun in the Monastery of St. Toribio of Liebana of Vitigudino, Salamanca, Spain, founded in 1615 by the Augustinian Recollect nuns, just 28 years after the Augustinian Recollection was founded.

Maria Isabel was born on February 12^th, 1930 in Encinasola de los Comendadores, a village in Salamanca which had a population of 673 and now it only has around 150 residents.

At 93 she remembers how her family was profoundly Christian. She had eight siblings of which three entered the religious life. The two older brothers were ordained Dominican priests, and her older sister is a Salesian Sister who is 95 and lives in Salamanca.

She arrived at the monastery at the age of 14, on October 15, 1944. She had to wait seven years until she reached the age to do her solemn profession on February 13, 1951.

The community saw how quickly she was able to learn to sing, read and interpret liturgical music. She practiced daily and played the organ for more than 60 years while also being the solo voice of the community. With so many years in the monastery, she has also had the opportunity to develop multiple offices at the service of her sisters, such as prioress, vice-prioress, and secretary, director of work and mistress of novices.

Since 2020, her legs started to get weaker and has needed a wheelchair since. This has made her depend on the help of her community sisters who care for her and take her to all the community activities: Eucharist, prayer, study, recreation…

Maria Isabel knows that her physical strength is in decline, but she’s very much aware of her surroundings and is always willing to participate in everything. She has such a great memory, when none of the sisters remember a name or a date, they ask sister Maria and she will tell them immediately. This is why they affectionately nicknamed her the “community archive”.

The younger community sisters who care for her, do it with great love. Several of the sisters had her as a novice mistress and remember how much they learned from her in reference to knowledge about the Order’s history, customs and traditions but most especially about the human and Christian attitude a Recollect Nun must have towards Christ, the Church and her community.

Mary Elizabeth manages her limitations with patience and humility. She doesn’t complain about no one and anything, all she does is thank everyone for their favors and praying God will reward them. Another recurring conversation is this:

Her words shed light on how a person must be profoundly joyful when she dedicates her life to God and her community.

“It is difficult to express what I am currently living, but I have to live it as God wishes.

I realize that I feel more and more limited and I lack physical strength. But I am also aware that the Lord compensates me by giving me his grace to patiently bear my ailments.

“I also have a community that I love very much and without which I would not be who I am. I believe that I have lived my vocation to the fullest and I do not regret having chosen this path saying “yes” to the Lord, who called me to follow him. Despite my human weakness, God put his eyes on me to let others see that it all depends on the work of his grace.

Every day, Jesus fills the 24 hours of each day. Everything is His. I carry on my life for my love for God, and in everything I see His will. I need nothing else than to do His will? Even before I became weak, I was already accepting God’s will.

I want my life to be a continuous thanksgiving for all that God has given me and continues to give me without deserving it. I live very happy and grateful to my community, I think that without my sisters I could not live.

I could not complain about anything, much less about my illness, since Jesus has suffered much more for me. I unite my little sufferings to his Passion for the good of humanity. And I have already told the Lord that whenever He wants, I am ready like I have always been”.

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