Marianne & Margaret

After finishing the Liturgy of the Hours with the sister in the morning and sharing our Gospel reflection, the sister suddenly began to weep in the middle of discussing today's Gospel passage — "They left everything and followed Jesus."

She said that I had left my homeland, given up my parents, siblings, and friends, and was living here — and whether out of pity for me, her voice broke and she could not continue.

In truth, I had thought that I myself was giving up a great deal to follow Jesus.

But I honestly confessed to the sister that it had been my own illusion.

When you give up one thing, something else appears to be given up.

And when you give that up, something even greater comes along.

I told her that perhaps until the day I die, the Lord will endlessly prepare new things for me to let go of.

At that, the sister finally stopped crying and said that she had already been through the same thing herself — and that it was still the same even now.

And this from someone with such a long life of consecrated living...

The path of following Jesus seems always to be one that walks hand in hand with letting go.

Today, I finally finished distributing all the school supplies.

Exhausted, I collapsed for a nap, and when I woke up, a double rainbow was hanging right in front of the house.

I wonder what a double rainbow means.

Is it a sign to say, "Well done for working so hard to deliver the school supplies"?

Or is it a message to live letting go of even more?

From now on, every single day, the Lord will surely keep giving me a list of things I must let go of.

My sinful nature will resist in the face of each item on that list.

I ask for the intercession of the true disciples of Jesus who left everything to follow Him — the saints and holy ones.

Especially Saint Gregory!

Knowing all too well how weak and feeble I am, I ask for the help of the saints.

Yesterday, after Mass as usual, I was walking the elderly sister back to the convent, and on the way up a hill, she suddenly said:

"Todos cristianos tienen que pasar el misterio de la Cruz."

A literal translation would be: "All Christians must pass through the mystery of the Cross."

I believe what she meant is that true Christians must, like Christ, experience the mystery of the Cross through the sublimation of suffering.