"You were the first One/ You were the last One/ You were the only One I wanted to find./ I waited for You/ I looked everywhere/ You were the only One I wanted to find."Nicolette and I just finished spending a week with the beautiful Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, TN. As our plane took off from Nashville, this song began to play on my iPod. A rush of memories from pilgrimages I took during my semester abroad came flooding back into my mind. All of the ways that I sought our Lord and the ways that He pursued me during that semester began to overwhelm my heart in a humbling way, so much so that I began to cry tears of gratitude. At a point in my life where I so desperately needed to experience our Lord in a more intimate way, He revealed Himself to me. Who am I that the Creator of the Universe would choose me to be His bride?? (I still cannot answer that question.) It's safe to say that I would not even be where I am today if I had not had that semester in Austria.
Our time with the Sisters was similar to my experience in Austria. I came looking for our Lord in a specific way, but being the gentle Bridegroom that He is, He gave me much more than I was expecting! He was the "first One, the last One, the only One I wanted to find." I owe a great deal to these beautiful brides of our Lord. Their fidelity, graciousness, gentleness, hospitality and love was a witness my heart needed to experience! My heart is changed - there's no other way to describe it. I am, without a shadow of a doubt, a better person, and will be a better religious, because of their example.
Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. CAP. says, "Our evangelization should....cause heartstrings to vibrate." Mine have definitely been effected in the most beautiful way!
Let us pray that, like these Sisters, the way we daily live out our lives with the greatest devotion to our Lord, will be the witness that others around us need to continue to fall in love with the Divine Bridegroom. And let us pray for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
Written by Alycia
