By Sr. Jaya
With a heart full of gratitude I stand before the Lord as I celebrate my 75th birthday in my golden jubilee year of my 1st profession. When I look back into the past years of my life I am extremely happy and delighted the way God has led me till today.
God blessed me with God fearing, loving and caring parents who gave me lot of happiness and freedom in my childhood and taught me to love and trust in God.
My Vocation to Assumption: After my graduate studies God had chosen me and led me to Assumption. God again blessed me with good and life giving formators, especially Srs.Lizzie Thalanany and Myriam Selz, who have given me a solid formation for life.
Discovery of Jesus and the Option for the poor: Coming to Pune for Juniorate opened up a new horizon in my life. The Study of theology, scripture, Church documents, Spirituality of the Assumption and the teachings of St.Marie Eugenie, situation in the country, and the plight of the poor together with an experience of living with them in the slums and in the villages were exciting experiences for me. I discovered Yahweh as the liberator God, and Jesus who has given his life for others, who walked with the ordinary and the marginalized, proclaiming the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of love, freedom and justice. For me it was a thrill to follow this Jesus fully and totally. In the same way to follow St.Marie Eugenie who has given her life fully to the Lord and foreseen the transformation of society through the education of women and children. Thus on 6th January 1981 I made my final commitment with great hope and determination. I have taken the Word, “Father, I thank you” Lk: 10: 21. With Jesus I want to thank God for all the wonders he has done and is doing in my life.
The option I made for the poor together with the province and the opportunities I got to live with them and work for them all through my life in Assumption was another challenging and enriching experience which God has given in my life.
My congregation has trusted me and gave me different responsibilities at different stages of my life. Though reluctant I took up those responsibilities trusting in the promises of God. I got chances to be in different places with different people, languages, cultures and religions. All these experiences enriched my life. Adjusting from one place to another, one responsibility to another like social worker to formator, to Provincial, to pastoral ministry, to school manager and now administrator of a boarding of broken family children was not easy for me but the great God walked with me very closely in each of my steps and guided me to live through all these and I received his abundant blessings. Like Mother Mary I too experienced the mighty power of God who raises the simple and the lowly.
Looking back to my life I am wonder struck at God’s interventions in my life. I thank the Lord for these beautiful experiences in my life. I believed fully in the promises of God that he will give hundredfold when I leave my own. This is what I experienced in my life. He is a faithful God; he walks with me always and every day of my life. With heart full of gratitude to God and to my Sisters in Assumption I take my steps forward with St.Marie Eugenie who fixed her gaze on Jesus Christ and the extension of His kingdom.