A young woman religious shares her journey from rejection to love, from confusion to a vocation choice, and how she met God in a destitute man’s little hut.
“Having an intimate relationship with God means realizing that abundant life will never be found in another person.”
Each one called by the Lord has a different vocation story. The stories go on.
I would like to narrate my experience—not of why God called me, but rather the unique circumstances in my life that led to the discovery of my vocation, what helps me sense His powerful presence in my life. If I may, I would take the liberty to say “Divinely Provoked” with a ray so sacred, that I could not help but share it with all.
My call is not a one-time grandiose event. It resembles more the call of Jeremiah 1:5, where God reminds him that it is He who formed him in the womb and knew him even before he was born. As I look back, I feel God was gradually and continuously revealing Himself over the years even before my birth.
Like many Indian female infants, I too had become a victim of my parents’ rejection and suffered the social taboo of being the second girl child. I was not raised by my parents, but by my grandmother, uncle and aunty, away from my small family. Occasionally coming home to my parents, and having no great bonding with them, I was sent to a boarding school. This decision of my parents caused me a lot of hurt and feelings of being unwanted and unloved. However, the situation didn’t remain the same.
A Home Away from Home
The hostel became a home away from home where I felt I belonged. I also felt accepted by everyone. I really found an extended family. The hostel became my new home, a very special happy family. My father was astonished to see me happy and accepted and loved by everyone. He found it difficult to understand and accept the fact that he had made a big mistake by taking me for granted. Probably that was the moment of self-realization for him that brought a paradigm shift in his attitudes towards me.
Six years later, it was time for me to move on from school life to another phase of life. I had a great desire and ambition to have a romantic married family life, with sweet children of my own.
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Sr Arul Penci PBVM
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