"I have
called you by name, you are
Mine…”
“I am with you always to the end of time.”
These two scripture passages are
significant in my vocational story and journey of discipleship since
I would say that God, the Author of every life and vocation, had
spoken and still speaks to me through His sacred Word . In my
search for a real meaning in life after I graduated from college,
God’s call to follow Him through the religious life did not come in
an instant, nor did it come in an extraordinary way.
I first came to know of the
Pauline Family, & the PDDM in particular, through a Pauline Family
gathering of the Founder’s death anniversary at the Society of St.
Paul, Makati where my youngest brother then studied as a seminarian.
When he left the seminary, I joined the Disciples of the Divine
Master, one of the ten institutes founded by Blessed James
Alberione.
What first and foremost
attracted me to the PDDM was their adoration before the Blessed
Sacrament. Also, the Sisters simplicity, their joyful, serene and
smiling countenance, for me, reflected their oneness with the One
whom they daily adore and contemplate in their vowed life and, their
Eucharistic-Priestly-Liturgical apostolate/ministry in the Church.
In discerning whether this
was the life I was to live, for two years, I went through a series
of vocation recollections, search-in retreats, and most of all,
soul-searching: what is really God’s will and design in my life.
That’s where the above-mentioned passages had its special meaning
and call. When time came to ‘give up’ family, friends, etc. so as to
respond to His invitation to be with Him in doing His work, it was
not an easy time especially when close relations were very much
against my decision. Yet, He has never ceased to manifest of His
constant and faithful love up to this very day. Every day is a daily
call to renew the ‘Yes’ I have uttered ‘for all my life’ 15 years
ago… and, His eternal promise ‘I am with you always…’ is a
daily source of strength, inner peace, inspiration and joy in my
every day life of discipleship. With and in the spirit of Mary, I
continue to humbly say: ‘Fiat voluntas tua! ( let it be done
according to your will)’
May everything be only
and always for God’s greater honour and glory!
