Another time the cycle repeats: we say bye to a year that
ends and receive a new year with new hopes
and renewed desires. We all experience the passing of time; it is, in
fact, humanly unstoppable. The
challenge is to live in the present. We
are frequently reliving the past
or planning the future. It is
ever so difficult to remain in the present.
When I was a 16 year old, I truly
enjoyed attending "quinceañeras."
Ah! Those days in which we all were coming of age: the music, the friendship, the dancing, the chatting, discovering
who is going out with whom... One day everything changed. I was in the school chapel, and I heard a sister reading a biblical passage: John 15:16. "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you."
This is all it took for Jesus to conquer my heart. I had been chosen! The impact of this invitation was not to be
palpable until after I attended the next party.
The joy of preparing for it and the
joy of dancing and socializing were there, but what a void it all left in my
heart afterwards. My heart
now longed for something else. It was a
longing that was almost painful. Like
the bride in the canticle by St. John of the Cross, I had been wounded by love.
Where have You hidden Yourself
and abandoned me in my groaning, O my Beloved?You have fled like the hart,Having wounded me.I ran after You, crying; but You were gone.
From then on, nothing satisfied
me. The sweetness of intimate talks with
friends, the joy of parties, and
the love of my family could not satiate this longing for oneness and intimacy with Jesus.
Little by little I realized that it was only through Him that I could become
really one with the whole universe; in Him I could embrace everybody; with Him
I could learn to live and die in Love. My young heart was longing for Love, an
infinite Love.
How
many people I encounter in the Eucharist, in my daily time of adoration,
through my very poor prayers! It is in
Him that we all become real brothers and sisters. In Him and with Him we become one! We are
never alone!
As Jean Corbon says in The
Wellspring of Worship, God has one impatient desire, one passion, and
that is "to be with the children of men." Wow! In other words, our
longing for love, for oneness, is not a crazy desire. It has been implanted in
our hearts by God, who Himself longs to become one with us!
Through this blog, we, the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament, want to invite you to share in our Eucharistic-Marian spirituality. We seek to become like our Eucharistic Lord,
souls that are willing to give it all; willing to be broken and given to
others. May we pour out our hearts each day to the Blessed Sacrament, and, in
silence, listen to the palpitations of His Heart. May we pour out our hearts to
the Blessed Sacrament each day, and, through the intercession of Our Lady of Mercy,
bring Christ to the rest of the world.
Men have been called into
existence, but will they accept and respond? Will they gaze back into the
adorable Face of God? (Corbon).
