To celebrate World Day of Prayer for Vocations as Pauline Family-Filipino group in Rome, we had our Eucharist in the chapel of the Society of St. Paul in Via della Fanella yesterday afternoon. We anticipated in a special way Fr. Norman’s 11th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood (May 11).I really feel we owe it to each other as sisters and brothers “in the Lord” to support and sustain each other in this life of special consecration because at times, we couldn’t help but feel discouraged and be tempted to think that there really is nothing special here and we were just fooling ourselves all the while.
In the shared homily of Fr. Norman and Fr. Cipriano, they admitted that it wasn’t really easy to answer the question “how do you live your priestly life all these years?” “Taking it day by day,” says Fr. Cip. A truly humble but realistic answer! Fr. Norman is much younger and has the challenging job of managing the information service of his Congregation in the global scale. His answer is apt to his mission – he lives his priestly life seeking always to transcend the “local” and moving on to the “global” dimension, getting inspiration from the other Paulines who have come before us and have already reached the other shore. “Local” here could also mean the very technical aspects, including the pestering questions of the female members of the family like “how do you do this and that…!!!”
I didn’t get to tell the group that I too was celebrating something anticipatedly and wanted to celebrate it with them. Maybe I didn’t want to reveal my age!!! During the Eucharist, I silently thanked the Lord for my 29th anniversary of “elopement” with him (May 7). Truly it seems incredible that it has been 29 years when I left home without my parents’ permission to choose to follow this call which wouldn’t leave me in peace. The truth is I am really grateful for having stayed this long and for wanting to continue still in fidelity to the Lord despite all the difficulties. I imagine that like the experience of married couples, my relationship with the Lord has grown throughout these years not inspite of but because of these tests.
At this point, I want to honor a holy man, the spiritual director who guided me as a youth (God bless his soul!). I remember asking him once, “what if I wake up one morning and realize that I just wasted my life following the Lord?” He very wisely answered me, “Come on, you know it couldn’t happen that way if there is a real love relationship at work. Disillusionment happens in time…just as love also grows in time. What's important is that you remain always honest with yourself, with God, with others!”
