by Maria Minuț
Everything unfolded naturally, and what I received planted in my childish soul a longing for Heaven and a desire to fulfil the Will of God. Later, I became aware of the joy of the gift I received in that solid foundation, where faith, hope and love found a home and… along the way, with the Lord’s blessing, many other gifts and graces were granted!
During my high school years, I met the NDS sisters in my hometown. They were people with a special way of life, whose choice was the Lord, and this was reflected in the way they lived and worked. They were dear to me and became my role models, praying for me and giving me moral support.
The Lord knocked gently on the door of my heart several times, but found me busy
Later, I lived in the sisters’ house in Iași as a student, and there I met the sister who was Novice Mistress at that time. This became a special relationship that opened new paths, including one towards a better knowledge of the Congregation.
After graduating from college, as my soul was overwhelmed with gratitude for the way Providence had taken care of me during my student years, I decided to put the knowledge I had acquired to good use by working for various groups of people in need. I did this for fifteen years.
Throughout this period, the Lord knocked gently on the door of my heart several times, but found me busy with work, caring for a sick mother… and with one certainty: that my decision to serve the Lord in the life I was living and in the work I was doing was the best and was… enough!
After all resistance had subsided, it gave way to joy about the decision to enter religious life
But because it was not right, contradictory feelings had been building up in my life, doubts about my status, a kind of not finding myself in what I did and who I was; feeling good everywhere, but not feeling good anywhere… so much so that I had come to lose my peace. But, by God’s grace, I received the gift of meeting a spiritual director who helped me set out on the path of restoring peace, going deeper and deeper…!
And… that was not all! In reading my life, the spiritual director clearly understood the gift of the call I had received and to which I had not yet responded! It was plain to see! I knew it too! And others also saw it, in the life I was living…! My soul was filled with the joy of a beautiful life, with the Lord and for Him, in a context in which, being free, I would have had countless other alternatives, yet – through the gift of the Lord – I remained in friendship with Him, and this nourished me, inspired me to do good and guided my existence!
And so another journey began, that of discerning between two good things: to continue my life in the way it was going or to make a radical change by entering religious life, to answer the call!
Here I am, embarking on this adventure of a lifetime
Yes, in my heart I knew I had to take that step! It was a real challenge! After all resistance had subsided, it gave way to joy about the decision to enter religious life in deep peace and complete freedom!
And… there was one problem left: which religious family should I join? Simple, of course: the Congregation of Notre Dame de Sion! I have a feeling I might have been ready for this for more than 20 years. I loved the sisters and appreciated them; some of them spoke to me without words in the depths of my heart, where only the Lord has access, and sometimes a spiritual guide… And this was also the unwavering opinion of my spiritual director!
And, today, here I am, embarking on this adventure of a lifetime, giving God total space and freedom to steer my life as He pleases.
