When she was in second grade, Julia Eden MacLean was a nun for career day. That day became a foreshadowing of her calling to the religious life as a Religious Sister of Mercy of Alma, Mich. MacLean, now Sister Miriam, the daughter of Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception parishioners Joseph and Kathleen MacLean, is preparing to make her perpetual vows Aug. 16 in Saginaw, Mich. After her profession, she will serve in Lake Charles, La., in the diocese’s department of religious education.
Sister Miriam was born and raised in Manchester, N.H., the same place where Mother Mary Frances Ward brought the Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Mich., order to serve in the United States. Sister Miriam graduated from Ave Maria University in Florida at age 19 and entered the order at 20.
She said she always wanted to say “yes” to Jesus the first time she heard the Gospel passage about how he told the rich man to sell all his possessions and follow him.
During her formation, she earned a master’s degree in social work and is now enrolled in a doctoral program at Michigan State University for social work. She is employed as a counselor at Catholic Charities of Lansing, Mich.
“People need to know they are loved,” Sister Miriam has said.
Her mother is the organist at the Cathedral Basilica and her father works at St. Joseph Home for Veterans in Denver.
“We have been richly blessed through our daughter’s vocation,” Kathleen MacLean said.
