People would always thought that my life being so active in the Church and devoted my life in the youth ministry would lead me to becoming a Religious Nun. I tried to enter. I prayed over about it. I discerned for it. But the only thing i didn’t do before, was to desire for it. I didnt have the Desire to be a Religious Nun.
Desire! This is the grace that i received from God when i started my journey to be part of the discerning group of women to start the MSSP Lay Missionaries in the Philippines. It is the same grace that i felt when i totally committed myself to be Lay Missionary.
It was 2016, when Fr Hector Attard, the Local Superior of MSSP Philippines invited me together with my 3 other friends (Maji, Mary Anne and Maricon) in college to a monthly Eucharistic celebration, formation meeting and study session on the life of the MSSP Founder – Jose De Piro, his vision and spirituality. At the beginning we were only four, then later, more sisters came, we journeyed together, we prayed together, we laughed and cried together but time passed and some left to do other mission, and at the moment 7 of us stayed and desired again to renew our commitment.
It was never an easy journey for us. We experienced a lot of personal challenges which affected us and the community – we almost gave up and quit from the group. Our humanity would test our being unprepared, unworthy, and unprepared – yet God didn’t give up on us, He didn’t let go of us, rather He pursued us and called us to be His missionaries.
As missionaries, our goal is first and foremost, to make “every person’s heart a holy ground”. we have not think of bigger things to do, but we are just taking a small step to form ourselves to be the “holy ground” of God so we can be effective missionaries to our own family, friends, colleagues, and to every person we meet and encounter along the way.
Our monthly formation, at first opened the window for our individual spiritual nourishment, little by little it grew and widen our perspective until it opened the door of our hearts to see clearly the mission He has bestowed upon us.
Last January 19, we felt again that the desire of God’s heart was replanted in our hearts. Our YES is our language of love to Jesus and our desire to be formed all the more in His love. As MSSP Lay, we pray that as we move forward to another year of commitment to our spirituality, our mission, the love of Christ will impel us – in order for us to grow better and be worthy in our calling as Lay MSSP. May the the life and examples of our Founder, Jose De Piro and our Patron, St Paul continue to lead us in the path to our consecration to Jesus through Mary.
May our encounter with Jesus in the Word and in the Eucharist with the whole MSSP Community help us ever more to desire to build a personal relationship with the people around us where compassion and mercy of God is continuously being revealed.
Ate Beng Corcolla is a lay MSSP in our Philippines Province and works in the field of New Evangelization with the Manila’s Archdiocese.