I always have felt a call to serve the Lord, so much that I went in to religious life for several years. After a time of discernment with the Lord and the community, I came to a decision to leave the community and change my life style from religious life to a secular life. Some years later, I met my husband and we started a family. I got in track with the worries of the world, busy with family and work. Although I always felt called to work for the Lord in a ministry, I never really gave myself time to do it; I think my biggest issue was feeling insecure or unwanted. I had placed myself in the back of a room, where I could keep being a catholic but not having to commit, or feeling not needed in the Church. I always have loved the Church, I always have known that Jesus loves me dearly, but I was not certain of feeling loved or wanted by the Church, although I know this came from my own insecurities. Anyway, in my mind and in my heart I knew that God has chosen me and called me to serve Him, and I was not doing it for whatever reason.
I kept praying to God to guide me, to place me where He wanted me and to show me how He wanted me to serve Him. I gave my life to Him and told Him to please use me as He wanted to do it.
When we came to the Renewed in Christ prayer group my life changed for good. I came to a place where loved is manifested through worship and prayer, where people are sincerely seeking for God in Spirit and truth, and I felt so happy and blessed. I felt that all of my family was being blessed by the Graces that God spread in our spirit every time we worship Him in this amazing community of Christians who made me feel welcome. Then Jesus’s call was heard again in a louder voice, the call to come and work with Him for His people. So I knew it wasn’t just me wanting to serve, but it was Jesus wanting me to serve. One day during worship I told Jesus, if You want me to serve, You show me how. That day, one of our prayer group brothers was telling us that he was organizing a Life in the Spirit Seminar and that he was looking for volunteers. I felt in my heart that this was an invitation from Christ, and I needed to volunteer. So with God’s grace I offered my self and the doors to ministry in simple ways opened up.
God has given me so much during my life. He has formed my mind and heart in the Christian faith, in the Catholic Church and this has been given to me not just for myself, but to be shared and to pass it to others. I know that His grace is abundant and I know that He has forgiven all of my sins and it’s not me who is worthy of Him, but rather, it’s Him who makes me worthy of His love because He loves me. And as I know how loved I am, I feel really called to share this good news with others that might have never known that they have a loving Father that will never give up on them, that this Father sent His only Son to die for us and gives life in the Spirit and life everlasting. I pray that this love and power that God has placed in my heart never fades but grows by sharing it with all His people to give Him glory with my life and with the lives of those that come to believe in Him. I will say with all my heart as Saint Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:20 “Glory belongs to God whose power is at work in us. By this power He can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine”.
Diana