Sister Gracinha, as she is known, is from São Benedito, a municipality near the Guaraciaba Parish. She began her formation process in community in January 2014. This day she took another step in her vocational path with a definitive “yes” as an Augustinian Recollect nun.

The solemn Eucharistic celebration was presided over by the Diocesan Bishop of Tianguá, Monsignor Francisco Edmilson Neves Ferreira, and concelebrated by the Bishop Emeritus Monsignor Francisco Javier Hernández Arnedo, Augustinian Recollect, the Recollects of the Guaraciaba community and the Fortaleza community, and the priests diocesan Justino do Nascimento, Clodoaldo Carvalho and Carlos Henrique Soares.

The liturgical ceremony, carefully prepared, was led by the Augustinian Recollect Jordan Tijerino, with whom the aspirants from the San Ambrosio house of formation, in Guaraciaba, the postulants in formation process in Franca (SP), some of the professed who they study theology in Spain and were here on vacation, and some altar boys. The “Ángeles de Dios” choir, from a community neighboring the monastery that has always supported them, joined the nuns in the liturgical songs.

The Eucharistic celebration and the proper ritual of the profession were prepared down to the smallest detail. In the homily, Bishop Edmilson expressed his joy at witnessing the act of the solemn religious profession of María das Graças, whom he invited to always fulfill the will of the Father as the Virgin Mary, invoked on this day as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. "Doing the will of God is the most important thing and this guarantees us union with Christ."

The bishop also recalled the apostolic constitution "Vultum Dei quaerere", in which Pope Francis deals with contemplative life. He stressed that the Pope's words express very well the identity and the challenges that the contemplative life is called to face in a world marked by relativism and the crisis of values. The nun, through her testimony of life, proclaims the primacy of the absolute, which consists in following the footsteps of Jesus to the Cross.

He highlighted the radical nature of the election symbolized in the black cloth that is placed on the nun, recalling her mystical death and the unveiling of a new state of life. She is a strong image that is contrasted with the rose petals that recalls thanksgiving for the election and divine delivery of the elect.

The Eucharist continued with the rite of profession, a very emotional moment, not only for the newly professed, but for all those who accompanied her in this important and significant moment. María das Graças made her definitive profession as an Augustinian Recollect nun in the hands of her mother, Maricruz Hernández Orozco, Augustinian Recollect superior of this community. At the end of the celebration, Sister María das Graças thanked all those present: her family, those who served in the liturgy, those who were present, and all those who in some way were and are part of her life and their vocational process.

The newly professed was accompanied by her family, godparents, friends, parishioners and other people through the facebook page. All happy and grateful to God, as Dom Edmilson said at the beginning of the sermon with a quote from the Magnificat: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior”; happy and grateful to God for the choice He made of María das Graças and for the response of love that she gave him for the good of the whole Church.