ONE MORE TIME...

The Yuppies , PLUS the Hippies as they put out into the deep their experience of Emmanuel…

God’s generosity is boundless and limitless. The very proof of this is when Jesus fully embraced the mystery of Incarnation. The Eternal Word assumed human nature, becoming “flesh,” in all its weakness, contradictions and mortality and became like us in all things except for sin. He took human life embracing it with all its responsibilities, problems, success, failures and perplexities. He is the Emmanuel, who is always with us, ever present in every season of our life, alive and palpable in our daily experiences be it extraordinary or simple. How then can we identify with the Lord and be one with Him in his solidarity with all humankind? Are we willing to forget ourselves, to put out into the deep and cast our nets for a bigger catch?

As we go deeper in our relationship with the Lord, we are challenged to make a difference and plant a seed of love and concern to our brothers and sisters especially to those who need it most. Such was the gesture of love and concern we showed to our dear sisters in Tahanan when we had our ultimate bonding experiences with them during our one day exposure last December 28, 2009.

 Prior to the immersion activity, Sr. Fe Linterna gave us an input on the topic “Pastoral Care for the Aging and Dying” to help us understand the reality of those people who are already in this stage especially our aging sisters. After the input, we had a very enriching encounter as we openly shared our views and experiences about the topic. This exchange allowed us also to reconnect and revisit our past issues which in turn have become an opportune venue in assessing and evaluating ourselves so as to see how far we have grown in relation to those issues. With the learning and wisdom that we have learned, we readied ourselves, convinced to give out ourselves and be of service to our dear sisters with the best that we can. We helped them dressed up for the mass and be with them during the celebration, assisted them during meal times, enjoyed with them during exercise and movie viewing sessions, played with them during the games and we graciously lend them our ears as we listen to their unstoppable stories of the past. The sharing of ourselves with them in these simple encounters was truly an experience of the immensity and unconditional love of God for each one of us. It was indeed an affirmation of how present he is in our lives may it be in moments where we are weak and defenseless, strong and happy, lonely and insecure, alive and hopeful. God is there and will always be there present in our lives as long as we provide Him a space for he is our Emmanuel. These beautiful touches of God’s love seen and experienced during our encounters with our sisters were etched in our hearts and perhaps have helped us ground to our own respective realities. They served as mirrors of our own selves and by this we were invited to reflect how we are as his daughters to one another and to others either we are God’s face of inspiration, life, hope, discouragement or death.

Indeed, our two- day bonding experience in Pansol last December 29 and 30 became a venue for us to deepen our self- knowledge and had become an opportunity where we have truly and openly expressed gestures of love, affirmation, support and concern to one another. With these, we give back to God our hearts full of joy and gratitude for the gift of our vocation as Hijas de Jesus and for the generous gift of His presence in our lives as women- religious of our Congregation.    

THE PHOTOS...