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
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
