I was
simply going to wish you Happy Feast, but the Holy Spirit's been convicting me
much this morning to share a bit more with you...
You see 8 years , on Sep 2, 2006, before the Blessed
Sacrament at St Anthony Adoration Chapel in Calgary, I was asked to step up my vows of Chastity. Say what? I
thought to myself. See when you're single (not legal status), but I mean perfectly single and our
Lord bestows such call on you; you all cool with that. BUT! When you in a relationship, that just doesn't fly. So
what you going to do? Act deaf and do you?
or Surrender and do Him? Long story short, I went from '
my
imagination is playing tricks on me' mindset to how on earth will I tell my beau about this? Yep,
today it is clear that the path I was on was an illusion, a carbon copy of the path that He, my
Lord, has set for me that I am yet to discover. So to make a long story short, our Lady convicted me
first that night through a series of events.
I did not sleep much. Then the heavenly court prepared the way for the
conversation, which eventually occured.
It seemed alright at first, then the spiritual
battle started; I was hearing biblical verses being used the wrong. What was hidden; the Lord began to shine. Mama
Mia! God's been good to me. It was clear we were not on the same page. I still remember praying for courage to
trust in the Lord and my Beloved sister he gave me, Cheryl S., kneeling in that battlefield with me...That
spiritual battle lasted a week. On Sept 7, 2006, while visiting with one another after the vigil, he asked:
'What if one day you realize that it was never
GOD who asked such thing of you? what will you do?' Yeah, that is
a really good question I thought, but what have I got to lose? So after a moment of silence, I said: 'Well,
I would be glad that just like Abraham who was asked to sacrifice His Son, and then was
mercifully spared, I obeyed...' Whatever was left of resistance at that moment was broken. My response
surprised not just him, but me too...
The next day, my beloved
sister in Christ, who stood by me that week in prayer, in support, as an encourager, came for our weekly morning sisters date mass, and ... on Sept 8, 2006 ... Eight (8) years ago, my beloved sister in Christ Cheryl and I, sitted side by side, she confident that I had done the right thing no matter what the consequences were to be...women of God, we can be nuts in the
Word! Me emotionally tired and apologetic to our Lady for not bringing her flowers or a gift.
Instead of guilt, I was in peace. When mass started. We got to the homily and the priest to speak these words
gently but firmly:
'When someone
celebrates their birthday, we give them a gift.
Today, the best gift we can give
our Lady is - our purity. Let us ask
our lady to grant
us the grace to give her the gift of purity...'
and he goes on about how we all need that gift. Tears were rolling
down my cheeks. Cheryl was just looking at me with this smile of victory that spelled 'You see!
you see! ...' I am sure people wondered that morning how a simple mass can get someone crying so bad.
It was bad. Yes, I saw... I
saw that it was our Lady's way of saying: Well
Done, Child! You already gave me a gift! Now, I was truly ready
to say:'My body is a temple of God, because my head is also included in my
body...'
Today, 8 years later, I am overjoyed... "My cup brims
over"-Ps.23:5 . Today, eight years later, I reminisce over my life, and It
is incredible to see how though I grew up with that constant desire of being a
virtuous Lady like our Heavenly mother. As much as I attempted to focus, it was
through people that I trusted that I began to drift to the immoral life that
the world shines. But our Lady never left me, but slowly brought me back
because she knew and still knows that she had to keep rescuing me from myself
so that I walk the WAY. As soon I began to walk comfortably the path of
chastity, she skyrocketed the goals... So much happened over these eight years
which will be for another day's testimonies, but again...It is the only way for
God's Will to be done...
Today! Eight years later, it is great to say that
my body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit. Today, eight years later, as I am still led in my journey; those vows of
Extreme Chastity have rescued me from myself again and again until I learned next to be patient with myself
(another testimony for another day). Eight years later, I am not done
coming across, hearing, connecting with single women in my city and across the
nation including celebrities such as
Mandisa,
who no matter where they've been in life are daily striving to be virtuous
women. For me, I can only praise the Lord for the gift of His mother in my
life. To further hear testimonies of couples in my own city, on twitter and of
Christian celebrities such as
Janette...ikz and her soon
To-Be-husband, I am grateful to have answered in obedience like
Abraham to put on
Extreme
Chastity:-)... Eight later, I reminisce on testimonies heard in my community, on EWTN, read on sites such as
The Catholic Gentleman of males who are not just walking the path of purity, but who are even striving in patience to be complete in the Lord, are serving him such as
Eduardo Verastegui, and have clothed themselves with
the attire '
No Kissing Till Marriage ...'
rule. For all this today, I say ... Praise be to
God!!!
The journey is not done; it's been a rocky but beautiful road of striving toward holiness and faithfulness, but I look back and I can only be thankful of how far she led me in the Lord. Every day, I put
on my dress of Extreme Chastity :-), so that our Lady may continue to teach to come worthily before the
presence of my Lord. Every day, I put on my Royal Attire of Purity so that not just my body but my thoughts, words, and actions spell ---Purity. I know there is only one side of sexuality that is talked about in our society, and it is all 'Feed me now or never', but some of us are still on the other striving on the path of 'Wait for now. Be blessed later'.
I wish you and I a Blessed Feast of the Nativity of our Lady, and wherever you at in your life, what gift is our lady asking of you today: "what
gift will you give your Heavenly mother today?"
Lectio Divina
