Quite a few times I have read and recited the prayer, “Soul of Christ” (Anima Christi) both in my bliss and torments, I could narrowly comprehend every other sentence from the prayer except “within your wounds hide me”. But in the long run, the same sentence turned out to be my favorite.
Four years ago, I joined the pre-novitiate of the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits). It was an ecstatic moment for me, but a startling one for my parents. I was physically fit and emotionally steady; but I had come in quest of the word “Happiness”. I had learnt that it is in God that I can find perpetual happiness. As I was in the pursuit of happiness, God granted me the gift of perpetual pain and misery through the dislocation of my left knee patella! Is it once? No, the Lord was not pleased… My left knee patella was dislocated three times and there was no other alternative than to go in for surgery. Did the agony of pain vanish with this surgery? Surely not! At the end of the 2nd year of the Pre-Novitiate, to be exact, just a day before the surgery of the left knee, God felt that it was sufficient! Once again, He blessed me to partake in the sufferings of his Son through the dislocation of my right knee patella.
Novice Vivek Clitus D’Souza
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