Campus priest’s example led her to healing and a life with Christ

A priest’s authentic Christian example changed the course of Sister Miriam James Heidland’s life.

“I am a religious sister today largely because of the witness of somebody who loved Christ,” said Sister Miriam, who was a Division I volleyball player at the University of Nevada, Reno when she met the priest on campus.

His witness led her to discern her vocation and join the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) in 1998 after graduating from college. Her own encounter with Christ also led to profound inner healing from childhood trauma and addiction that she often talks about in conferences around the country and overseas.

Sister Miriam will speak about the power of Christian witness and her conversion story at the 2021 Legatus Summit East in January. She recently spoke with Legatus magazine.

What will you talk about at the Summit?

I speak a lot about having a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, conversion, and healing. People often ask, “What’s the best gift I can give to other people around me?” I really and truly believe that the best gift we can give to other people is to allow Jesus Christ to come and heal us every single day.

What was it about a priest’s witness that led to your conversion?

He was the first person I ever met who was totally in love with Jesus Christ. He was so one with Christ that you could tangibly experience Jesus Christ in his presence. There were many times when Father would look at me and I could literally see Jesus looking at me through his eyes. It was so tangible. His holiness, because of his intimacy with Jesus and Mary, could not be denied. You’d meet him and you’d think, “This is a man who loves Christ. This is a man who intimately walks with Jesus.”

It was so powerful and so captivating that I remember looking at him when I was 21 years old, a college senior, an addict, my life a hot mess, and thinking, “I don’t know what it is you’ve got, but I want that.” His witness was what allowed me to dream about something different. I didn’t know that was possible. That witness opens our hearts to see something different.

How did you come to enter religious life?

After college, I went to a SOLT mission in New Mexico. Within a few months, I had a distinct encounter of Jesus Christ calling me. I just knew it. I didn’t discern other communities. It was such a profound moment, a signal grace, where I knew Christ was calling me, and that if I didn’t say yes in that moment, I knew I would never do it again. It was a powerful moment of encounter.

You’ve spoken that encountering Christ led you to experience healing from childhood trauma. What happened there?

Opening our hearts to the deepest places of pain is the deepest means of transformation. We all have addictions in our lives, the places we run to when we don’t like how we’re feeling, or when there are things in our lives we don’t want to face. Through facing those uncomfortable things, those unpleasant memories, the pain in our lives, and gracing those things with Christ and being honest about them, His light comes in and transforms them.

Do you still enjoy sports?

I love sports. It’s one of my love languages. It’s such a great metaphor for so many things. I use sports analogies all the time. It’s one of the ways the Lord speaks to me, through the power and beauty of sports.