I Chose you

An invitation to share my story with all people of our time – the story of God’s great love – this is inline with the theme of the 14th General Chapter of the Canossian Institute to which I belong. Indeed, it is through my own little stories from time to time that I have made known Jesus more and more to persons in my case – giving ministry since my baptism at 20. God grows to be much, much more than … through His faithfulness and boundless loving kindness.

CALL
As I re-read my life… The God of my childhood… though I was an unbaptised Methodist, the songs that I like “I will make you fishers of men if you follow me” (Sunday school). Jesus lives me, this I know (my mother’s favourite lullaby) are significant to me. Five of my elder siblings were baptised as infants while my younger brother and I were left unbaptised. The migration into the Catholic Church took place when I was 10. My favourite hymn was “I will go up to the altar of my God – the joy of my youth”. After my Form 5 results were out, I was led to India for study in Providence College. 10 years of a growing desire for baptism and Communion saw the dawn of the day 19th March 1976, when I became a daughter of God in Coonoor, India – away from family but in the midst of hostel friends and a brand new godmother. Amid a busy life of questions, study and weekend leisure in the hill resort, the call became loud and clear, “Will you give me your life forever and for others?” The call to seek His kingdom and enter His “university” attracted me when I encountered the different forms of poverty of others, shared my blessings and experienced the meaning of giftedness of self and others.

RESPONSE
I encountered Abba’s love for me as greater than my own father’s and mother’s. The redeeming Love of Jesus and comforting presence of the spirit became active experience in my life. In my vulnerability and joy I responded to His proposal – He called me, singled me out and Himself offered the honour of His love – my first Love. Other human (attractive proposals!) followed but His captivated me enough to withstand the strong objection of my father who was utterly disappointed as he had great plans for my future.

Human encounters / experiences of joy, sorrow on my road of life, left me in wonder…how much, much more the Father must be!

3 years later, my “YES” to Religious life led me to the Canossian Convent in 1981. I received my father’s fullest blessings and my family was convinced of my calling during the 3 years home / family formation and presence to mum & pa very specially. To day, my family is an ecumenical witness!

MISSION
These 25 years have unfolded Abba’s will for me an ever present Father – watching, leading, providing, comforting, correcting, disciplining, delivering, sheltering, refuting, nourishing – so tender and compassionate. My father had initiated me into the Catholic Church but at one to me I had to share it with his as he went through a faith crisis. What an experience of family sorrow! But only 4 months later, he proudly proclaimed the experience as a miracle – “I have come to know and love the one above!”

Then came a time of accompanying him through his struggle with renal failure and kidney dialysis. He yearned for physical healing but surrendered to spiritual healing – he had a beatific vision 7 weeks before death and I had a privileged conversation with him as I witnessed his total surrender, gratitude and joy at the end of the journey i.e. 2 days before death and his countenance of radiance 3 hours after death! Such affirmation of Abba being so close to us!

Then a few years ago, during my personal trial and suffering I felt sheltered and carried in His very heart and a new ministry unfolded.

My present apostolate together with another 2 Canossian Sisters – is our joint collaboration with the Gabrielite Brothers of Montfort Boys Town. In August 2002, we began the Montfort Girls Centre in Montfort Boys Town for 11 girls – providing residential care for teenagers (age 16 – 19). At present we have 20 girls from underprivileged family background who pursue a 2 year course on graphic design & multimedia. We Sisters provided administrative, pastoral and nursing care. There were 60 girls when I left Montfort. Now my present ministry is at ASAYO (Archdiocesan Single Adults and Youth Office), Parish visits and CHOICE, Communion minister to the homebound and parish.

To abide in you forever
To make you known and loved!

By
Sr. Yvonne Francis, FdCC

Conversations of Jesus to
Sr Josefa Menendez (1890 – 1923)

Prayer: O my Beloved Jesus, who is also my God, make my heart a flame of pure love for you

Jesus Speaks:
I want souls to know me thoroughly, and that they may make me known to those I place in their care. I want all to know how eagerly I seek them out; how I long for them that I may fill them with happiness. Tell them not to be afraid of me and tell sinners not to flee from me. Let them come and take refuge in my Heart! I will receive them with the most tender and paternal affection. If you resolved to be faithful, I will pour into your heart the flood of my mercy and you will know what my love for you is.

As soon as you wake, unite yourselves to me, and offer your whole day with a burning desire that my Heart may use it for the profit of souls. When with love you perform your duties, hour by hour and moment by moment, how great is the treasure you amass in one day!

I desire and want my entry into your heart to be daily more of an event, and that your desire be so keen, your hunger for me so great that your very soul faints – if you only knew how much I love you. Souls are too little conscious of how much I want to help them and how much I am glorified by their trust. I am your Father, Mother, God, Creator, Saviour and Bridegroom and none equals my Heart in loving. The less there is of you, the more I shall be your life, and you will be my heaven of rest. On earth my heaven is in souls. Beg for souls this burning love of Jesus.

Tell me that you love me; that is what I like best to hear. My Heart longs to burn and consume hearts in the glow of its fervent love. The coldness of souls who make no return for my love wound my Heart. If you could but understand my sadness that my love meets with no return. One single act of love, in the loneliness in which I leave you, repairs for many of the acts of ingratitude of which I am the object. My Heart counts and collects these acts of your love as a precious balm. It pleases me to see you famished for my love and burnt up with longing to see me loved. That by itself is consolation to my Heart.

I come to rest in you, for I am so little loved. I am in search of love and meet only with thankless neglect. Rare are the souls that truly love me. Say you love me often, to make up for the forgetfulness of so many.

All I ask of souls is their love, but they give me only ingratitude. I should like to fill their souls with grace, but they pierce my heart through and through. I call them and they turn away from me. If you accept, I will give you charge of souls, and by your sacrifices and love, you will win them for me.

Many souls think that love consists in saying: My God, I love you. No, love is sweat, and also acts because it loves, and all that is does is done out of love. I want you to love me in that way, in work, in rest, in prayer and consolation as in distress and humiliations, constantly giving me proofs of your love by acts - that is true love. If souls really understood this they would advance in perfection rapidly and how greatly they would console my heart.

Watch and pray, fight your evil inclinations and suffer them not to grow into confirmed habits. So must work be carried on in souls and evil tendencies carefully corrected. Do not imagine that it is always a serious fault that leads to the worst sins. The greatest faults are often the result of neglect of little things; a small satisfaction indulged in, a moment of weakness yielded to, a consent to do a thing in itself lawful but immortified, a pleasure not sinful, but ill-advised here and now. All these things recur unheeded and little by little the soul is blinded, grace loses its power, passion increases and finally triumphs. How infinitely sorrowful for the Heart of God, whose love is boundless, to see so many insensibly approaching nearer and nearer the abyss.

I know the depths of souls, their passions, their attraction for the world and its pleasures. I have known from all eternity. How many of them fill my Heart with bitterness, and that for a great number, both my suffering and my blood will be in vain. But having loved them, I love them still. My Heart is not so much wounded by sin, as torn with grief that they will not take refuge with me after it.

1st fall of Jesus: obtain for sinners rooted in evil, the grace of conversion. 2nd fall: encouragement for these weak souls blinded by sadness and anxiety, so that rising they might make a fresh start in the way of virtue. 3rd fall: to help souls repent in the supreme hour of death

Many believe in me, but few believe in my love, and among those who do, too few rely on my mercy. Many know me as their God, but how few trust in me as their Father. I ask nothing of them that they do not possess. But I do ask that all they have, they should give to me, for all is mine – if they possess nothing but miseries and weaknesses, these I desire – give them to me, but trust my Heart, I forgive you, I love you, I will sanctify you myself. I long for love in response to my own. I want them all to have confidence in my mercy, to expect all from my clemency and never to doubt my readiness to forgive. I want to forgive. I want to reign over souls and pardon all nations. I want all people to know my love. Do they know what I have done for them?

The thirst for contentment and love can never be appeased by earth and fleeting gains which will always leave you hungry and unsatisfied. Perpetual conflict, sadness, anxiety, and affliction will still be your portion. Here below you will never obtain all that your heart desires. I have come to show you where true peace and happiness are to be found. Humankind was not created to live forever here below. He was made for eternity. If then he is immortal, he should live, not for the passing things of time, but for that which will never die. Youth, wealth, wisdom, human glory, all that is nothing, it will all end with this life. God only will endure forever. Live by faith and you will escape eternal death

.

The Holy Eucharist:
If it was bliss for me to think of all those in whom I should be both companion and heavenly food; of all who would surround me to the end of time with adoration, reparation and love, this in no wise diminished my grief at the many who would leave me deserted in my tabernacle and who would not even believe in my real presence. Sacrileges and outrages, and all the nameless abomination to be committed against me, passed before my eyes – the long lonely hours of the day and of the night in which I would remain alone on the altars and the multitudes who would not heed the appeals of my Heart. It is love for souls that keeps me a prisoner in the Blessed Sacrament. For nearly twenty centuries I have dwelt there night and day, veiled under the species of bread and concealed in the small white host, bearing through love, neglect, solitude, contempt, blasphemies, outrages, sacrileges….I stay there that all may come and find the comfort they need in the most tender of Hearts, the best of fathers, the most faithful of friends, who will never abandon them. The holy Eucharist is the invention of love, which spends and consumes itself for them!

PRAYER to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
(composed by our Mother Mary)

O Sweet and dearly loved Jesus, you are my Saviour and my Bridegroom and your Heart loves me with the most tender and burning love, as no other heart can love. Would that I could correspond with this love of yours for me. Would that I had for you, who are my only love, all the ardour of the seraphim, the purity of angels and virgins, the holiness of the blessed who pass you and glorify you in heaven. Were I able to offer all this, it would still be too little to honour your goodness and mercy. That is why I offer you my poor heart such as it is, with all its miseries, its weakness and good desires. Deign to purify it in the Blood of your Heart, to transform and inflame it yourself with an ardent and pure love. I ask of you, O gentle Jesus, to give my heart the very sanctity of your Heart, plunge it in your Divine Heart, that in it I may love and serve and glorify you and love myself in you for all eternity. I beg this same grace for all those whom I love. Amen

.

My Vocation Story

“You did not choose me, but I chose you.” Jn 15:16

I come from a Catholic family of two brothers and two sisters, I being the second youngest in the family. As was the practice among Catholics in Melaka, all of us children, except my older sister, were sent to Catholic Mission schools. And so, from aged seven, I was enrolled in Sacred Heart Canossian Convent School, Malacca. I grew up as a normal teenager, with the energy and interests of young people. So in school, I took part in the many activities, from being a member of the Crusaders, the Legion of Mary, and I enjoyed sports like badminton, netball and athletics

I was at that age very interested in Bible Knowledge which was taught in school as a Cambridge paper, and also in faith formation or Catechism, in preparation for my first Holy Communion and Confirmation. I remember listening with a keen mind and heart to the stories of the New Testament and to the stories of my Catholic faith, drinking in every word. This keen interest was to continue as I grew up, and it helped me come to know about Jesus and his love for us. I have always found reading and listening to the ‘Word of God’ a fascinating experience, and the Word would continue to touch and form me through the ups and downs of life.

A further grace of God paved the way that God would continue to show me, through the preached missions in my parish, and most of all through the retreat for school leavers in my school. It was at this particular retreat that Jesus called me to follow him – one evening when I was at prayer alone in the Convent chapel I felt the attraction of Jesus, inviting me to the religious consecration. The Sisters of my school encouraged me especially Rev. Mother Franguelli, to think seriously of this call. It would mean leaving behind family and everything else. But Jesus’ words “I have called you by name, you are mine” Jer. 29:3, continued to attract me.

After I had completed my Form five studies, and spending one year in the ‘aspirandato’ in Singapore, for those searching and discerning their call, I was given the invitation to join the Postulancy, the first stage of the two years religious training for Canossian novices. I was just barely eighteen, but in those days, in the 60s, girls were encouraged to enter young to safeguard their call to follow Jesus. Although I was still very inexperienced especially in the things of the world, I felt ready, spiritually and emotionally, to leave all and just say ‘yes’.

When I asked my parents for their blessing, they did not object, although my Mum was very sad to let me go. Somehow the Lord at this point, would ask me to have faith in him, that he would give a hundredfold, not only to the one who left all to follow him, but also to the family we leave behind, for their sacrifice in letting go.

Looking back now, after more than forty years in religious life, I see the marvels of the Lord, how he planned the journey and mission of each of his spouses, with so much love and care. “I know the plans I have for you – plans to give you a future with hope” Jer. 29:11. It is only in having trust in God, answering the personal call of my Lord Jesus, and placing the love of God above all, that I feel fulfilled in my purpose-driven life.

God uses us “to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere like a sweet perfume.” 2 Cor 2:14.

Blessed be the Lord now and always!

By Sr Esther Thomazios, fdcc

XV General Chapter:
For the sake of Christ with Magdalene of Canossa
Our Consecration: the Vows

Facilitated by Sr. Margaret Peter, FdCC (The Congregational Leader, Rome)
Kluang, Malaysia
220809

Ephesians 4: 30
Sisters, do not grieve
The Holy Spirit of God
With which you have been marked
With a seal
For the day of your redemption.

For the sake of Christ
Following Christ / discipleship
Leaving all /selling all
Gospel women, being good news
Marian spirituality of availability / magnificat
Having the same mind / same attitudes of Christ
Same style of life and mission (look and do likewise)
Being a giving person (John 10: 10)

We want to live a life that clearly proclaims that we have been attracted and challenged by the gratuitous love of the Lord Jesus who on the Cross reveals the face of the Father and a “love without measure”. (General Chapter Resolutions. Pg. 1)

With Magdalene: It demands more; inspice et fac
Spiritually alive and charismatically vibrant
Live the MORE - enhancing the quality of life, love, service

Passion of Christ evokes passion for humanity
Living the double precepts of Charity

How does a Canossian express or live this?
What changes does it require? What are the demands?
What sort of preparation and formation do we need?
As individuals
As community

What will help me to be more focused?
Paying attention to the essentials
First things first (in relation to my consecration and commitment)
To be creative and proactive
To be alert and flexible (not to grieve the Holy Spirit)
To develop and live a mentality of change; an attitude of conversion
Ongoing process of transformation and growth

What do we understand by MENTALITY?
Way of looking at reality
Personal point of view (reflected, studied)
Personal opinions coloured by interest, responsibility etc.
Mindset that is inherited, cultural

A MENTALITY of CHANGE implies (ref. XV General Chapter)
Openness to understand one’s reality
An attitude of searching for what is true, good and lasting
A discerning attitude (clarifying and living the common VISION)
Developing an attitude of embracing and integrating values that enable one to be true to her true self (strengthening one’s identity)
Living and on-going process of radical conversion, formation, transformation
Process of being and becoming
Continuous conversion to the Gospel

We intensify our availability to be renewed v/ converted / transformed, to be in conformity with Jesus Crucified and Risen, so that the charism received remains vital an integral in its essence.

What style of life will ensure this MENTALITY of CHANGE at the various dimensions of our Canossian of life?

An attentiveness that facilitates a flow of grace
Awareness of a heightened sense of connectedness
Openness of the grace of living reconciled / in harmony
Alertness that favours communion of hearts through listening, dialogue, mutual empowerment
Enabling and radiating positive energy (quality of energies)
Spirit of enthusiasm that inspires, motivates and strengthens
Live in a state of MISSION (contemplation and action)

“Therefore,
Let us lay aside every encumbrance of sin
Which clings to us
And persevere in running the race
Which lies ahead;
Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus,
Who inspires and perfects out faith”. (Hebrews 12: 1 - 2)

Vocation Drive to Taiping
Date: 20 - 21 June 2009
Srs. Lucia Choo, Yvonne Francis, Santha Rajoo and Theresa Chew


Report of Awareness sessions held in Taiping on 20th June 2009

The Team members comprises of Srs. Theresa Chew, Yvonne Francis, Santharajoo and Lucia Choo.

We left on the 19th June for Taiping and arrived at 7.45pm. We visited Sr. Santha’s parents before we went to the Parish. Fr. David Lourdes, the Parish Priest of Taiping welcomed us and housed us in his Parish house.

On the 20th June at 9am, we meant 15 youths from the Parish, ages 13 - 21 years.

Sr. Theresa Chew welcomed the youths and the purpose of our visit was to share our stories.

We began with a prayer by Sr. Yvonne from the Gospel passage of Matt5: 13-16... “You are the salt and the light of the world”. Some time was given for the sharing on the word.

Sisters (YF and SR) shared their Vocation Stories and Theresa Chew touched on the different aspects of life... Married life, Single, Religious, Priesthood. Sister also touched on the aspect of Prayer, Community and Mission.

Sr. Lucia thanked the youths for coming and invited them to share their views about the day sessions.

+++ Stephanie age 17...... “I learned to make choices. There are many choices I’ve to make.”

+++Adeline Anne 17 ... I’m grateful for these sessions. Many things to learn.”

+++ Clement Das age 19 ... I’m happy to be here and thankful.

+++Justin age 17 .. Happy and shared the same sentiments with the rest.

The whole group would like to have a follow-up

The closing prayer was a prayer dance by JUSTIN. Song “God is God and I’m a man. So I’ll never understand God for only God is God.”

The team returned on Sunday 21st June 2009. Left Taiping at 8am.


Minuted by Sr. Lucia

The Parish Priest (Rev. Fr. David Lourdes) of the Church of St. Louis, Taiping

Our efficient Secretary cum spokes woman, Sr. Lucia Choo

Names of Participants

1 Adeline Andrina Robeiro (17)
2 Clara A Gomez (17)

3 Vanessa Megan Robeiro (14)
4 Daryl Daries (15)
5 Augustin (15)

6 Eystein A/L Danial (15)
7 Clement Das (19)
8 Alvin Anand (14)

9 Juliana d/o Selvanayagam (16)
10 Michele Helena d/o Edward Jayabalan (16)

11 Monica Jane d/o Edward Jayabalan (13)
12 Adeline Anne (17)

13 Stephanie Wong (17)

14 Justin (17)

15 Abraham Mivel (21)

Canossian Spirituality

CANOSSIAN SPIRITUALITY
My experience

Let me begin by sharing with you my experience.
As I look back, I can see more clearly now how God came into my life. It began as a simple desire to know him. I come from a Buddhist family. My mum was a devout Buddhist. On big feast days, she would bring me along to the temple to pray.
It was on one of those occasions that I found myself asking the question:
Who is God?
Is there one God to whom I could pray to instead of going through so many deities?

These questions crossed my mind and this was the beginning of my search for the One True God. There was a desire to get to know God and to focus on Him alone. I had a vague feeling that there was something more – something greater and higher and better.
The opportunity came when I accidentally came across a notice on the board which stated that Catechism classes would begin after school that day. I made the necessary inquiry and asked permission to attend the class out of curiosity.

This very small and seemingly insignificant incident led me to Jesus Christ. It was the 1st step of my faith journey. I felt the need to continue to attend some more private catechism lessons until after its completion. After some months, when the lessons were over – the Sister asked me whether I wanted to be baptized or no.
My first reaction was No. But after I returned home, something began to slowly dawn within me. I became aware that God is here in Jesus Christ. He is the one true God that I am searching for. Now that I know, I cannot deny Him.

The tug of war began, my parents on one side and the call to acknowledge God as God on the other. It was a painful struggle but ultimately the Lord gave me the strength to take the risk and commit myself. After my baptism, I sensed that if God is truly God – then it is only right that I give myself to Him, to love Him and to serve Him alone.
This strong desire to give my service to God led me to want to surrender my life to him and what better way then to join the Carmelite order, an enclosed order totally devoted to prayer and worship. The only knowledge and desire that I had then was to give my whole self to this God who is my Creator and Lord.

I needed some time away from my family to prepare myself for the separation. It was also a time for my family to accept the idea. That was how I landed in a Canossian Convent School, in Singapore. I made sure that the Sister in charge knew that my stay there was only temporary for I still held on to the idea of being a Carmelite. I was with some of the girls who were staying there. They were the Canossian Aspirants.

One day, while I was seated with them in a group sharing, as a Sister was talking about St. Magdalene of Canossa and her Charism. Then suddenly it clicked! This is the way I want to live my life. A life that is focused on the Christ Crucified. I didn’t know at that time what it was all about. All I knew was that I was attracted to Christ who gave himself so totally to the Father. And I wanted to follow his example. This was what made me change my direction from the Carmelite order to the Canossian order.

St. Magdalene of Canossa, Our Mother Foundress, was inspired by the Holy Spirit to take Christ Crucified as her model. It was Lent, during the Holy Week, when she was at prayers reading a text from her meditation book where she came across a text “inspice et fac secumdrum exemplar” (which means Look and do according to the Divine Model).
She was deeply moved by this text for several days. She was greatly drawn by the love of God for us. Jesus on the Cross is the greatest expression of love, the unconditional love of Jesus for the Father and for us all.

She was inspired to take as her principal aim the fulfillment of the two great commandments of love in Mk 12: 28 - 34 :

To love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves. And we are to imitate Christ Crucified in our way of loving….. “Look and Do according to your Divine Model.” This is what she wanted for each one of her daughters who join the institute.
Jesus Christ Crucified is her main point of reference for our Foundress and for all the Sisters.

How does she want this love to be expressed?

She was a woman with a very big heart, vision and insight. She envisioned five main areas of ministry where the Sisters can show this love in action/in reality. Her love for God is so great that she wanted to reach out to everyone, everywhere. She places the poor as her main beneficiaries while serving the needs of the very young to the very old.
The youth too has a very special place in her heart.

Our Ministries of Charity are:

The integral formation of the person
Faith formation (Evangelization)
Pastoral Care of the sick and elderly
Formation of the laity
Spiritual Exercises

The objective of all these ministries of Charity is to make God better known and loved and to seek only the Glory of God and the salvation of souls.

The essence of our identity, as Canossian Daughters of Charity and Servants of the Poor, lies not so much in what we do as in the love that continues to inspire in us the joy of living. What we are called to hand on to those after us and to preserve as an important heritage in the face of so many changes, LOVE.

What is the Canossian Spirituality?

Our way of life is to love like Jesus Crucified, our Divine Model. All our actions must be animated with the Spirit of Christ, a spirit of charity, humility, kindness, goodness, patience and so on.

It is a very tall order – none of us have reached it yet –we are all in the process. But this is our aim, our desire and our constant struggle. It is a struggle because we have to go against our human nature, our own ego. But with each fall, we rise again stronger and more convinced of our goal and a little nearer to it. It is a life time struggle but it is not in vain. The Lord gives us a lot of consolations too. We experience of His presence in our lives, his goodness and faithfulness and unending love make this journey truly worthwhile and meaningful.

I am very grateful to God for the gift of vocation, for calling me to be his child, and to be able to serve Him in all my brothers and sisters in this particular institute.

The Charismatic intuition expressed in synthesis is:

A particular aspect of an attraction to the Gospel

A particular aspect of the life of Jesus perceived in a profound and meaningful way.

The attraction of Magdalene was towards this Jesus who was actively loving others when he was on the Cross.

- He forgives “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
- The thief who was assured paradise
- The gift of Mother Mary to us to be our Mother.

“the Greatest love” refers to the act of actively loving in the face of suffering and pain, while nailed to the cross.

By Sr. Christie Ho