CARMEN SANCHEZ

Lay delegate of our Peruvian province

I have always in mind the words of my mother when I once asked her what I should do to answer with my life choice, in which she invited me to follow what my heart dictates.  Her answer sounded unbelievable, she did not give me a series of advice, or a list of what not to do, as we mothers would normally do… No!  She trusted me, and in what she had sown in my heart so that I could choose the best. “What your heart dictates, my daughter.”

And despite the difficulties and mistakes in my life, I feel those words of my mum every day are a sign of trust, because she knew I would choose the best, and if I made a mistake, she knew that I would be looking for a new option, better than the previous one, and this is what she had sown in my life.

One day someone told me: “Give to others the wonders God did in your life, then, seeing you, they would see the wonders of God, and not you.”

I remember when we conducted retreats for young people, I would try to make sure that the young people felt Christ as much as I felt Him, that they spoke of Christ as I spoke of Him, that while in silence they felt the silence as I felt it and that when they sang, they felt as enthusiastic as I felt with the songs, the praying and meditating.

One day someone told me: “Give to others the wonders God did in your life, then, seeing you, they would see the wonders of God, and not you.”

I discovered then, that my mum’s trust was the consequence of the fact that she had put God in my heart, she had not sown her own self in me, but God and that was her utmost trust in me.