Hi, I'm Rebecca. Everyone calls me Beck. I'm from Wollongong in Australia, which is about an hour and a half south of Sydney, and I'm the eldest of six kids. From an early age I was really interested in learning how to cook. My parents are both Catholic. My mom was a convert, my dad grew up Catholic, and definitely it was a big part of our life growing up.
I had a lot of hobbies growing up: Navy Cadets, I learned how to sail, like as a teenager, I loved art and reading and music. I taught myself how to play guitar a little bit, as a teenager as well. I love painting and drawing. I think just being involved in those kinds of creative outlets for me was really good. Anything that was an encounter with beauty.
I discovered a hospitality college at this careers expo, which I was really interested in because I wanted to study hospitality as a tertiary subject, and also because they had a scholarship program that I was super interested in. When I applied for this scholarship program, I needed a place to stay while I was in Sydney, and they put me in contact with the centre of Opus Dei as a place of accommodation, so I was able to stay here and then do that program in the city. And that was my first kind of encounter with Opus Dei.
Each person has the same value and dignity, and the same need to be loved and cared for.
I was a little bit worried about getting into the hospitality industry because... I was worried, I had seen through doing work experience that some areas of the industry can have a bit of a toxic environment. I didn't want to place myself in a situation that would take me away from God.
I got to know the Work and I got to experience kind of really working in the hospitality industry for the first time, which I think opened my eyes, even though I was a little bit worried that the industry might take me away from God, actually working at the center of Opus Dei was slowly bringing me closer and closer to our Lord.
At the beginning I was seeing the other assistant numeraries, the way that they lived, the way that they were, their way with people struck me a lot. I could see that these people were really giving themselves and their whole life to God, and that was something that was super attractive to me, something that I was really looking for at the time.
I began to see that the spirit of service that was being lived by all the people around me was something not only that I appreciated, but something that I wanted to live. I wanted to be able to look after people in the same way.
A big part of my vocation is looking after the people that I live with and the people that I work for. God is somehow using me as his way of loving them as well. I receive God's love in the way that they love me, and I'm able to you know transmit God's love in my work and in the way that I am with my family.
I don't do the work that I do because there's a lot of, you know, glory or prestige. I do it because I want to show people that they're loved, and when people experience service, the service of someone to them, when they learn how to serve, it's like a tangible participation in the love of God for that person. And that love is unconditional. It doesn't matter what the person has done or not done, you know. Each person has the same value and dignity, and the same need to be loved and cared for. I think we need a bit more of that in the world. I think assistant numeraries really bring that.