“Stay Cool and Keep Smiling” =D

This week was pretty eventful and the Lord never ceases to show us His great Love, always.
I cannot even thank the Lord enough for everything that He continues to show
and let me experience. There’s just so much to share. =D

A few things I learned this week 🙂

Certainty.
Last weekend, I spent yet another wonderful and blessed weekend with the Salesian sisters. It was my second time joining them in their “Come and See”. We were five participants who attended this weekend. So blessed to have witnessed other young women in their journey with the Lord. Speaking to the sisters, they speak with so much certainty and truly they have lived this all their lives and through their vocation. Hearing their stories, their journey on how they became sisters is just a true blessing in itself. I feel that in my everyday life, I am faced with many uncertainties or rather I choose to be in a state of uncertainty but I guess this is part of my human nature because I do not know it all and I am in no capacity in knowing it all. And that is fine. But after hearing the sisters, it became a wake up call for me that I should not be living with any uncertainty at all because our God is True. By speaking to the sisters, they approached their vocation with great certainty, assertiveness, aggressive even if you will. For the Lord, they are willing to jump out into the deep because they are certain in their faith that the Lord will always be with them wherever they will go. There was not a hint of doubt in their hearts but rather their hearts were full with what is the Truth. They were so sure because they know that our God is certain, He is without doubt in His children. He is our Truth.

Contentment.
Is it really hard to be content? In our day-to-day lives, I feel that our world has become a world of discontent individuals. And I myself am guilty of this also. Nothing is ever enough. When you have little, you want more, when you have enough, you still want more, when you have much, you still want so much more.
MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE.
It is so hard to satisfy us.
The simplicity of the sisters simply reminded yet again to be content.
To not linger on what we don’t have (not only materially but in all aspects of our lives) but simply to cherish the things that are overflowing in our lives. BLESSINGS. We are showered each day with many blessings in our lives and all we need to do is to be content. Our Lord God is certainly more than enough.

Trust.
Just Trust in the Lord.
If we truly believe in what we say that we are in the great hands of our Lord,
then why do we sometimes hold back with our full trust in Him.
One thing that I can say that I continue to witness in the sisters is that they simply whole-heartedly trust the Lord. They do not need to say it, in their being you witness it.

Joy.
Ohhh man, the Salesian sisters are ever oh-so-JOYFUL!!!
I mean they just are! On the last day of our weekend, a sister in Christ and I shared how much we love the movie “Sister Act” and what do you know, the sisters love it too! One of the Salesian sisters plugged in her iPod and we were blasting songs from “Sister Act” and singing with the sisters as we were doing the chores. I am in complete awe (always will be) in the sisters’ capacity to always be joyful. They choose to be joyful because they know that they can and because they know that our God only wants us to be full of joy. He is our joy. They are joyful because they find joy in the Lord, always.

Love.
I firmly believe that through the religious we can truly witness the great mystery of the most Holy Trinity. I see them so in love with Jesus and how proudly they claim that He is their Spouse. And every time they share this, I know that they share this with great love and great understanding of what the love that they are proclaiming. They are so in love =D And when they come before our Father in heaven, they do not forget to be His child in His presence. Their obedience and respect and much love for our Father is so inspiring in the way that they present themselves in His Most Holy Presence. Their works, the way they move, they breathe, they speak, they cook, they share, they play, they love, it is certainly through the movement of the Spirit.

Faithfulness.
The sisters’ faith is so strong that nothing, I firmly believe nothing can bring their faith down. Their authentic and real faith in our Lord will never waiver. Each word of prayer that they utter, the breaths in between, they say it with so much confidence in our Lord. In prayer, I witness their faith and I can say that their faith in the Lord is so real and true and even when it is shaken, they remain to be faithful. I am ever thankful to the Lord for allowing me to witness to something like this.

Fidelity.
A couple of the sisters are celebrating their anniversaries and one of them is celebrating 40 years as a professed sister and the other sister is celebrating her Golden Year of being married to the Lord. They speak about being Jesus’ Spouse with so much love and joy and you can truly hear it in their voices and see in the way that they say it that they are so much in love with Jesus. It seems like they grow so much more in love with Him even each day of their lives. The sister celebrating her Golden Anniversary excitingly shared about their anniversary, “I’ve been married for 50 years with my Spouse, Jesus” and she said this with a twinkle in her eye. LOVE.

Peace.
The sisters live with such great peace in their hearts, their minds, and their entire being. I guess that’s why they all look so young =D It’s like they’re glowing too. It is just like the great peace when someone has returned back home, a place where they feel safe and secure, a place where they are happy. The sisters’ have so much peace in their hearts and it’s like they will never be stressed. It is true, “My heart is restless until it rests in You” and I truly see that in the sisters each and every time.

This week has truly been an awakening week; awakened my senses, my faith, my mind, my heart. I pray that I will continue to yearn for God and nothing else. I pray that I will always remember that “I am His child and He is my Father”.

[The title of this reflection is “Stay cool and keep smiling”. Yesterday, I came over to one of the Salesian sisters house here in Montreal to have dinner with the sisters and one of the sisters told me just before I left, while hugging me “Stay cool and keep smiling” =D It was really simple but it truly brought joy in my heart and a reminder that it could be just that simple because really all we need is God. He’ll definitely keep us cool because He’s the coolest and He always aims to put a beautiful smile on our faces. He created smiles didn’t he? Now, let’s be cool and show ‘em pearly whites =D]

Stay cool and keep smiling everybody.

Mary Help of Christians, Pray for us.

God bless us all always.

Peace and Love,
Apple
=D