WHO IS CANDIDA MARIA DE JESUS TO ME?

Chag
(Rosario F. Aceron)

1. Pre-canonization Reflection

Who is Candida Maria de Jesus to me is a perplexing and challenging question that has made me think, reflect and sense deeply the reality of the person that she is, especially now that I am so very desirous to be a witness of her canonization on October 17,2010 in Rome, Italy.

I have not met her in person, scarcely read her biography and sporadically some lines through the homework of my children during the month of August while they were schooling at CHJ. However, it is through my close contact and relationship with every Daughter of Jesus that I get to know, admire, and love Mother Candida; not through stories or conferences, but through their open and observed lives of simplicity, humility, charity and service of education; attitudes of dependence on the Father which they term filiation, acts of sacrifice and mortification, spirit of joy and gratitude in and at any circumstance of life, and most specially in their love and devotion to Mary Immaculate, the Patroness of the Congregation.

All these, I believe, are a legacy of charism lived and exemplified, and bequeathed by Mother Candida to her Daughters, the Hijas de Jesus. So then, for me, Mother Candida is every Hija de Jesus with such traits and with whom I experience love, concern, and welcome as one of them ... truly as my second family.

 

2. Post Canonization Reflection

As I have mentioned at the beginning of my personal testimony regarding the holy Foundress, Candida Maria de Jesus, - that of my great and utmost desire to witness her canonization in Rome come October 17,2010, the Good Lord most graciously granted my heart's desire! In the company of 8 FI Sisters and Dr. Muriel Danucop, we left for Rome on October 14 for the most-awaited event. Very profoundly etched in my heart is the morning of October 17,2010 when in the Vatican I personally witnessed and heard loud and clear His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI declared Candida Maria de Jesus a SAINT together with 5 other men and women from the different countries.

For me, this holy and most special event is a source of great joy and an outpouring of graces through the intercession of Sta. Candida Maria de Jesus. Indeed, we have a great and beloved intercessor in heaven! I thank the Lord everyday for this rare but significant opportunity which I will ever treasure all the days of my life. I honestly feel that as a response of gra.titude,

I owe St. Candida Maria de Jesus and her F.I. Sisters the duty and responsibility to promote and spread devotion to her through service to the sick, the needy and the poor who are most loved by her. And, in my own little way, my fervent response is "I do and will do",