Sister Vimala Joseph, SABS celebrates 25 years

Sister Vimala Joseph, with the Congregation of the Sisters of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (SABS), is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her religious profession this year.

Sister Vimala was the fifth and last child born to parents Rosamma and PC Joseph. As a child in Kerala, India she recalls that her family had instilled within her a deep faith and love of God. She attended Mass daily with her parents and from elementary through high school attended Catholic school.

When she received first Communion the sisters from her Catholic school told her she could ask Jesus for anything, so she prayed to Jesus saying, “…from my heart, I want to become a sister, so that I can serve you.” She was eight-years-old.

In March 1989, after completing her high school studies, Sister Vimala informed her parents that she wanted to enter the convent. "They were very attached to me–I was the baby and they didn't want me to leave them," she said.

On the day she was to leave her family and enter the convent, her three brothers departed the house in the early morning hours because they did not want to see her go. She recalls feeling heartbroken, but her decision was firm. 

At one point in her novitiate, Sister Vimala experienced excruciating back pain. After the first treatment failed, her superiors told her that if the procedure was to fail again, she might not continue in her formation. Meanwhile, her father asked her to come home and let him take over her treatment. She was resolute and after a while, her back healed and she professed her first vows in 1993.

After her profession, Sister Vimala studied nursing in college.  “I enjoyed working as a nurse in India, wiping tears, praying, listening to complaints and being able to comfort my patients with the help of Jesus,” she said.  “Every morning, I place my patients in the merciful hands of Jesus and asked him to touch them and heal them and to wash them with his precious blood.”  

After working three years in India, the mother provincial sent her to the U.S. to help her sisters serving at the Indian Syro Malabar Church in Florida. During this time, she prepared and studied for the Registered Nursing exam and received her RN license.  

In 2009, Bishop Emeritus Edmond Carmody invited her to serve in Corpus Christ. Presently she works as an RN nurse at CHRISTUS Spohn–Shoreline. 

Sister Vimala believes she made the right choice in her profession and religious life because she sees Jesus in her patients' faces and she gets to take care of them. “I am very happy to be an instrument of Jesus’ healing ministry, and it is true, that if Jesus asks us to walk through the thorny bush, he will provide us with appropriate shoes to wear.”