By Sister Anita Mary, O.C.D.
One question that we sisters receive occasionally is, “So, do you like being a sister?” I recall one instance when I was a novice, meeting one of our co-workers for the first time, when I was surprised by the answer that came out of my mouth, “You know, I’ve never felt more alive.”
I think that answer was more for me at that time than for the lady who asked the question, and it has continued to bear deeper and fuller meaning through the years. I did not even realize it then, how much, living in today’s world, I had become accustomed to trying to be someone I was not, someone who, in my eyes, was somehow better, more pleasing to others, less likely to be rejected… I felt alive as a novice because I was beginning to live as myself, slowly (very slowly) shedding the pressure I placed on myself to be someone else. Slowly, I was realizing that Jesus wanted me for His Spouse, not the imaginary ideal I would daily fail miserably at becoming.
This is a lesson He may need to review for me, maybe for many of us, for the rest of our life: He wants me and He wants you, broken and weak, gifted and blessed, right here, right now, in progress. He loves me and He loves you, right where we are, and the more we can love ourselves as He loves us, the more we can see as He reveals, step by little step, the saints He has created us to be.
