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| News - Convention We Are Called To Know God - Convention Presentation 1 Jorge & Monica Aguilera and Fr. José Bautista WWME CONVENTION 2003 Talk 1
We Are Called To Know God(Begin With Video Prelude) JORGE: When I listened to today’s homily, I sat in awe and admiration of the message God had for us, the married couples, that we have to believe in our Sacrament of Matrimony, believe that our relationship is sacred in order for us to become Jesus alive in the world today. Jesus is asking me today to follow Him, to trace His footsteps, to believe in Him, to trust Him. Our Lord is calling us to sanctity. This awe I felt is realizing that, in order for us to become saints indeed requires every wrong influence within us, as individuals, to be subdued, until every evil desire is eradicated, and every feeling of our hearts is brought into subjection to the will of Christ our Lord. This challenges me to give to the Lord a deeper dedication, with decision, to move forward without looking back, even if I consider myself unworthy to do God’s work. However this awe, this admiration, and the fear of being unprepared will not stop me from accepting the call God has given to me. To the contrary, I’m ready to say yes to this calling of being Jesus alive in the world today. God has done wonders in my life, and I’m sure He will continue to do more. He saved our marriage in times of great tribulation; He showed me the light to overcome the bitterness and loneliness that I was living with before living my ME weekend. And because of that testimony I have said yes to the Lord. Listening to the words in today’s homily reminds me of the Catechism classes in my childhood when they asked us “Why we were created?” Then we learned that we were created to know, to love and to serve God. Today God has called us to be Jesus alive in the world today. For us to become like our Lord Jesus Christ was, it is necessary to know Him, to look for His closeness through our personal prayer, praying as families, as couples. Our prayer is our intimate way to get close to God, to become his/her friend, to follow His footsteps. In this way we can become Jesus alive today. I felt an immense awe also to know that this is not an invitation to follow and to serve Christ, but this is a calling. God has commissioned us to be today’s apostles, so we could also experience the same blessings and privileges that the twelve apostles experienced when they found the Church. Our people need us, we are Christ’s hands, feet and voice for our people, and we are Jesus for today’s world. We have to believe! MONICA: Listening to God’s word in today’s homily leaves me feeling excited and touched by God’s love, because I know he has a plan for us as a Sacrament. Father Emile shared that the vision statement for this convention is; “By believing in the power of our loving relationships, we are Jesus alive in the world today.” These words leave me feeling joy and happiness, and challenge me to continue Jesus path here in the world. I can compare my feelings of joy and happiness to when I received the news that I was selected for a scholarship to study in the United States. Father Emile’s homily tells us about the greatness and wonders of God’s love for us and gives Jorge and I the opportunity to know God better, and at the same time let others know him through us. Also, hearing the homily makes me think about how important our Sacrament is. Jorge and I are a Sacrament. We made an alliance with God. Now, I ask myself: Am I where I need to be? And, am I where I need to be in order to respond to the call that God has given us? I consider that I am where I need to be because I am a part of a community of Faith. I struggle day by day to recognize my weakness and defects and try to overcome them. I have a tendency to be very demanding. My lack of patience sometimes keeps me very distant from Jorge and our children. God calls me to give up my weakness in order to be a loving and caring wife and mother. When I am nurtured by God’s love I feel protected. I know that with His help I have already overcome many of my weaknesses. I realize that I still need to work in myself and that I need to have God constantly present in me to respond to His call and be worthy of being His Apostle. I hope by doing this I can fulfill Jorge’s needs to be loved, understood and valued. If I can transmit peace, serenity and happiness to Jorge, our children and those who surround us, and if Jorge and I work together to reach this happiness in our marriage, we are opening the possibility to share our eternal life with our Celestial Father with the same or greater happiness than we have today. As a couple, we began our journey when we lived our Original Weekend. There we learned to live our Sacrament with unity and responsibility. Today our journey continues. We are here today to know more about the plan that God has for us as couples. My wish is that some day the names of Jorge and Monica will be acknowledged in Gods eyes. Such as the names of Joachim and St. Anne, the parents of the Virgin Mary, who responded to God’s call to be an example to God’s people. FATHER JOSE: As I heard the message from the homily during our Mass a fear comes down upon me as the rain drops from a heavy rain that leaves me soaked. The fear I feel can compare to the fear most of us feel when we are going to take a test. We are so afraid of not passing that we study and study and study to make sure that we are prepared. I recall the story of a preschool child who was painting a picture and when her teacher asked her what it was that she was drawing, she said “God”. The teacher asked the child “How can you draw God? Nobody knows what God looks like”. The child looked at her teacher and said “They will once I am finished with this drawing!” In today’s homily, I hear that we are called to do the same - to make Jesus known to others through our sacrament. That is what I am called to do - draw God so that others may see Him and come to know Him. However, I will not be able to draw Him if I do not know Him. The fear that I feel pushes me to get to know Jesus. I must get to know Jesus more and more and more so that I will be able to draw Him. My dialogue with God, my prayer, is the key to my success. Since my weekend experience, I have learned to pray in a more intimate way and this has brought me closer to my Lord. It is only when I am not in good relationship with my God that I feel hopeless in not being able to draw my God. With my good relationship comes the promise that He is with me and works through me. I trust in His promise and with His help accept the challenge. JORGE: I must believe in God and His love for us, I must believe that Christ came to this world to save all men and women that believe in Him, that He came to redeem Humankind. I must believe in all this, in order for me to answer the calling God is giving me today. But, in order for me to answer this call, I as an individual, as a person of flesh and bones, need to believe in God’s love, I need to have a testimony of what God has done in my own life. To each of us God is giving proofs of His existence. Now that we are gathered here together, we can experience God’s divine love through our brother and sister that is sitting next to us. Take a look at him or her. It is God who created him or her, it is God who brought him or her. It is God who prepared him/her and put him/her next to you. You can experience God’s love, you can even touch it, God is here! God prepared the person that is next to you even before you met. God prepared that person when he/she lived the experience of a ME weekends, it was there when the miracle of God’s love occurred. Dear brothers and sisters, it was there where God did to us, Jorge and Monica, the miracle of saving our marriage. And for the person sitting next to you, God also touched his/her heart, to make their marriage a true Sacrament and if that person is a priest, God made his Sacrament truly holy. Yes, God did it, God brought him/her here. We have to believe! In order to know God, I also need to be decisive. God needs men and women of courage. To know God is not for lazy people! I cannot know God sitting down on my couch watching television, living in my comfort zone. Most of the time God manifests Himself through other people that are not around us. I need to leave my comfort zone and give my free time to God, offering to serve the people that are in need of God’s word and love. We, Jorge and Monica, left our comfort zone after we lived our ME Weekend. We received our gift of love in our own relationship. God let me open my spiritual eyes to see all the blessings I had received from Him, blessings I had been blind to because of my selfishness. Those blessings among others were the sincere love that Monica and our son and daughter have for me, and their goodness towards me. I was able to see the wonders that God has created for us, for me, the birds singing, the perfume of the flowers, the power of thunder, the miracle of the rain, blessings that one can only recognize with the spiritual eyes. The gift that God had given to us, couldn’t stay secluded between the walls of our house, the good news of God’s love needed to be proclaimed. Today we give information about the ME Weekend, door to door to couples that are interested in living this wonderful experience. We are ME Weekend presenters, we serve as Eucharistic ministers and lectors in our Parish, and I’m an advisor in one High School in Fresno. To know God, I had to get out of our house and search for Him, I found Him in the grateful look of a couple that just finished their ME Weekend, I found Him in the love of the couples in our ME Community of Fresno, when they share their lives in the talks that they present to us in our weekly meetings. To know God intimately, we can do it the same way that we do getting to know a very dear friend, with sincere and open communication, trusting Him with our heart. My personal communication with God is through prayer, personal, as a couple, as a family and as a community. A life of prayer takes me to a deeper and more intimate knowledge of God. But like everything else that God ask from us, everything starts with our own decision to know, to love, to be loved and to serve God. God will take care of the rest. MONICA: Prayer is relational, just as communication with our spouse is relational. It can be momentary or quite extended. There are many levels of prayer, just as there are many levels of communication, from the most casual and rudimentary to the most sublime and intense. The focus of our prayers can range from strictly petition to repentance to gratitude to intense prayer. We may be surprised to discover that the same barriers that present themselves in our spousal communication often present themselves in our communication with God as well. It has been said that good communication involves two parts: talk to tell, and listen to learn, both of which require an attitude of discovery. I discover something about myself and share that discovery with Jorge (talk to tell), and I discover more about Jorge as I listen to him share about himself (listen to learn). These same two parts (talk to tell and listen to learn), as well as the same attitude of discovery are needed in our relationship with God. God’s desire for us as a sacramental couple is unity. God’s desire for us in relationship with Him is union with him. We strive for union with him when we live intimately and responsibly with God by making decisions to love Him and keeping our communication with him (our prayer life) a priority. FATHER JOSE: My relationship with God the Father right now is exactly that of a father/son relationship. I sit down with Him and talk about anything and everything. I ask Him for advice and protection. I call Him Dad. Jesus and I are like brothers. To Him I nag more than anything. I talk to Him when I do not like something or someone. He understands and just listens when He knows I just want to vent. Sometimes I imagine Him just nodding as I talk and sometimes when I am finished talking He starts talking by saying “you think you have it difficult, you should have been around when I walked on earth”, and I end up thinking I do not have it so bad. The Holy Spirit is my juice, my energy. I could even say He’s like my Mother to whom I come and cry when I am hurt, or to rest when I am exhausted. I always find consolation, healing and rest. In order for me to have such a relationship with God, I had to be able to talk to Him about anything, even when I know I’ve done wrong. JORGE: If I could grade my relationship with God today, I could score 8 out of 10, because I haven’t reached the level of spirituality that I would like to reach. My type of personality is organizer and I take prayer as a very important part of my daily life. I pray in the morning, and in the afternoon we pray as a family. I try really hard to live my life the same way as Jesus would live it, but most of the times I don’t behave properly, and at those times I ask myself if Jesus would do what I have done. His answer comes immediately telling me to do the right thing. I try to live my life according to my prayers, because I think that the best prayer that one can give to God, is living a life following God’s precepts, being humble and charitable with others. I prefer to live my life being good and humble toward others instead of pridefully hitting my chest with my fist all the time, being a miserable person with others at the same time. When I am in good relationship with God, I’m capable of doing things that amaze myself, and I am surprised that I’m able to do them, for example: I remember on Sunday, June 22nd, 2003, we went to mass at 8:00 am at our Parish in Clovis, while I was receiving communion, I’d opened myself to God in a very sincere and humble attitude, I’d asked our Lord to send the Holy Spirit upon me and Monica, because we were very busy - helping prepare our Area Convention in Fresno, workshopping one talk for the Convention, we had our choir rehearsal and we had to write this talk that we are presenting right now. God helped us in all what we had planned, I even played the guitar with the choir for the first time in my life. I’m amazed at the things that I can do when I am in good relationship with God. On the contrary, when my relationship with God is not on good terms because I’m acting selfish, then things get really messy. I remember one Sunday when I woke up, dreaming about something not pleasant, unconsciously I was feeling angry and I didn’t pray in the morning, I dressed up wearing jeans and a polo shirt, and we left for Church. When we got there, Monica was dressed up nicely and I wasn’t. The lady in charge of the Eucharistic ministers asked us to serve, and I didn’t accept because I thought I wasn’t ready for it, physically and spiritually speaking. The rest of the week was really miserable, and I felt disappointed with myself. I also felt sad for not having a good relationship with God. MONICA: If I could measure my relationship with God at this moment, on the scale of 1 to 10, I would give it an 8. I constantly try to have prayer and communication with God. I have him as a priority in my life. With God the ordinary things throughout the day become extraordinary and I experience happiness and optimism. When I maintain God’s presence alive in me at work, I do the best that I can. I am honest with my time, and I think that if I am lazy I am fooling my boss, but not God. With God’s help my performance is better and I work with a better attitude towards others. In my relationship with others, I remember how Jesus loved and treated the people with kindness. By remembering this I try to imitate him by being gentle, loving and generous with others. I feel very satisfied when I overcome my selfishness and I die to give life to others. I can feel the Holy Spirit in my heart as a fire that grows inside me. This assures me that I am in the correct path and that my attitudes are the correct ones. However, there are times that I communicate with God briefly because I am too busy with other things and I do not give myself the time to meditate on Him. In those moments I neglect the opportunity to have an open and honest communication with God. As a result of my distance with God, it is very easy for me to commit mistakes and fall into sin. For example, one night I was at my mother’s house. I was giving our daughter Gabby a bath, when my nephew, who was one and a half years old, entered the bathroom to watch us. I remember I was not in a very good mood. I took my nephew by his arm and pushed him out and slammed the door behind him. Immediately, I heard a scream. My nephew’s finger was smashed badly with the door. I quickly looked for my sister and took him to the hospital. Luckily he had no broken bones. I knew it was my fault. Today I still feel embarrassed and disappointed in myself because I was unable to tell my sister the truth. I think that if I had, I would have lost her affection for me. Fortunately, God is very patient and forgiving. He receives me with open arms. When I make the decision to pray and communicate with him, it is then that the Holy Spirit gives me the power to discern if I have done right or wrong. JORGE: Now I’m going to share with you, how my relationship with God, has grown since my childhood. Since I was a little kid, my family didn’t follow closely the Catholic Church. My parents didn’t attend church regularly, and we went to church only on special occasions like baptisms, weddings or funerals. My dad had a deep resentment and conflict regarding the attitudes that some Priests had, back in Quito-Ecuador, the city in which I was brought up. Due to this resentment, my dad didn’t go to church and my mom followed him in much of what he did. I think my dad felt the emptiness in his heart, and he would look for God in other denominations. As a result of this situation, I was brought up in my childhood and teenage years without knowing much about the Catholic principles. When I was 17, our family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, in which I started to know God in a more intimate way. I started to feel the love of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life, this I can’t deny because it comes from the Highest. During the four years that I stayed there, I grew up precept by precept, and my prayer life was extraordinary. I prayed every day, with a sincere and open heart. I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit giving me peace in my heart and whispering in my ear: “Everything is fine”. At the age of 21 my path started to turn in the wrong direction. I started to hang out with the wrong “friends”. They liked to party a lot and they liked to drink, at first I wasn’t doing what they did, but soon enough I started to imitate their behavior and their influence was more strong and attractive to me than God’s Word. My life changed for the worse and I departed from God into a disorderly life without God’s principles. My studies in the University were affected by my irresponsibility and it took me several years to finish my career. On the outside I looked very happy, but inside I was sad and lonely. The worst part of it was that I didn’t even ask God for help. He could have been the only one who could have helped me, and I turned my back on Him. My communication with God was broken and as consequence of that my life was a mess. I felt the need for God in my life, but I didn’t look for Him. When Monica and I got married, I tried to get close to God, but my selfishness again didn’t allow me to do it. Twelve long years full of problems had to pass in order for me to be intimate with God again; this happened when Monica and I lived our ME Weekend in June 1998. We were on the brink of breaking our marriage, because I thought that Monica was insensitive and impulsive, I was so emptied of God that at the beginning of the weekend I focused in looking more in the defects that I thought the presenting couples had than in my own reality. God touched my heart on Saturday night, and then I made the decision to become a better husband, a better father to our kids. I was able to experience an immense joy when we received a letter from our prayer couple, and at the closing of the weekend, when the couples of the community joined us to sing. I made a promise to God that I would pray and that I would be a better father and person. God heard me. And ever since I have felt the presence of the Holy Spirit next to us. I’ve been able to do extraordinary things with my decision and willingness to be open to the calling God has given to me. I certainly know that God has more for me and for each of us if we keep being faithful and if we remain in the true vine that is Jesus, because brothers and sisters our journey has not ended yet. MONICA: To know God has been a Journey for me that began when I was a little girl, through my teenager years and continues still today. I knew God when I was a young girl through the teachings of my grandmothers and aunts. We used to go to Mass every Sunday. I enjoyed very much the Christmas Posadas and the Virgin Mary celebrations, which are very traditional in my Country Ecuador. I always admired how the adults prayed to the Virgin Mary. When I was a teenager I invited God to be a part of my life. In my prayers I asked God to help me in my success of my studies. My dream was to study at the university. This was important for me because my father only finished sixth grade and my mother was unable to finish high school. I felt loved and listened to, because God was giving me the intelligence and perseverance that I needed. Later, I learned more about God in times of need. Jorge and I were already married. We had good jobs and we had just bought a new house, when I was forced by the immigration service to leave the United States with our two kids and go back to my country, Ecuador, for two years. That time was very hard for me. I lived not knowing how our future was going to be because Jorge could also be deported from the United States at any time. I felt very lonely, unprotected and extremely sad and worried. If I could compare my feelings with a color it would be black and if it had flavor it would be like bitter taste of vinegar. During these two years I would find refuge in God. I used to go visit the Holy Sacrament of the Altar for forty consecutive days. I did this several times in a year. In the silence of the chapel, I could talk to Jesus; I shared with him my worries and my feelings of sadness. When I visited Jesus the heaviness in my heart became lighter and I was able to feel comfort. I learned that life has ups and downs and I have to trust in God during hard times. I believe that God gave me the strength to make our situation easier. I know now that I have to invest time and effort to live God’s plan and to be able to feel him more intimately. It is very easy to love God when we have everything we want in life, good jobs, good health, and good children. Today I have become more conscious that I need to know God more intimately, so that I may have a stronger faith in Him. My faith must be strong for when God sends me times of trial - like that of my sister’s. Seventeen months ago my sister had a son who was born with severe Down Syndrome, and his health condition is critical. This child has had one stomach surgery, and two heart surgeries. In the last two weeks he has been in intensive care. I feel a great sadness, just thinking of the pain my sister must have visiting her son in the hospital and seeing his body full of bruises from the last surgery and his mouth hurt by the tubes from the artificial respirator. My sadness is even greater because I can not be there to comfort her being that she lives in Ecuador. It is in moments like these that our faith is tried. My prayer is that my sister and her husband can accept God’s will, and accept His decision. FATHER JOSE: As a child I would hear my family talk about this God who would punish if we did not do what our parents asked us to do. He was a punishing God, more like an enforcer of the rules, a policeman. My view of God began to change in my teens. I was sixteen going on seventeen when I was living on my own here in the States while my family was back in Mexico. I lived in a trailer and sometimes at night I would feel very lonely and homesick. I missed my mom and brothers and sisters terribly. I was like a fish out of water. So many times I would cry myself to sleep. One night about three o’clock in the morning, I can recall waking up and crying for what seemed like hours. As I was crying, I remembered the words that my mother said to me a day before I came to the States: “Always remember that God is always with you”. That night I felt so abandoned and let down that for the first time I yelled at God and asked if He even cared for a poor emigrant strawberry picker. After I had told God off, I heard a small voice in my heart that said “Just open your eyes and see that I am all around you”. At that moment, I began my relationship with God. That I can say was my first dialogue with God and it was more like an argument! Most of my life I would ask God for something or thank Him for something. At the present time, my relationship with God is more of a parent child relationship - sometimes He is my Father who pushes me to do things when I think that I am not able. At times He even sends me to my room to think about my actions! Sometimes He is like my Mother who gives me rest and a needed hug. God is the Mother who loves me unconditionally. I can say that God has always been what I need when I needed it. The change in our relationship has taken place because we have been able to have honest conversations. God has always been honest with me but I have not always been honest with Him or with myself. I have been learning to tell Him if I am happy, sad or even upset with Him. But most importantly, I have been learning to listen to Him with an open heart, even when He is upset with me and tells me of my mistakes. FATHER JOSE: We all have burdens that we carry. Burdens drain our energy. They tear us down and poison our relationships. How would I be able to lift my loved one up if I cannot even walk because of the weight I am carrying? Jesus wants to take our burdens away but He will not force them off our backs. We must bring them to Him. The more we know Jesus, the more we are aware that He wants to give us rest. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says “Come to me all who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Do you need to rest from some burdens? Then bring them to the Lord who will give you rest. As you can see, on the stage is a big cross and under that cross is a basket. This basket will remain there all weekend and we invite you to write down any burdens that you have been carrying and place them in the basket at the foot of the cross. Give your burdens to Jesus and let them go. Let Him set you free. FATHER JOSE: I am not able to share my problems with just anyone. I would be a fool to come up to a stranger and tell him my life story, especially my shames and secrets. However, I have no problem sharing my life, shames and secrets with someone I know, love and trust completely. How are we to gain this kind of relationship with our God? The same way we build our relationship with our spouse - through real and meaningful conversations. We must be willing to share and listen with open and sincere hearts. If we are not honest in what we share, our relationship will be false. We must also be willing to open not only our ears and mind, but also our hearts. We must be willing to listen without interrupting. I can remember one time I was so angry with God for taking my best friend in the seminary. Stuart died while I was doing some missionary work in the summer of 1994. He was the nicest person you could meet. He would not talk about anyone and he loved to help people out. He was the person who I would come to when I needed to vent or when I needed anything. He would do things for others without wanting them to know that he did it for them. He would have been the best priest. Well, many years later as I was complaining to God because I had too much work and because people can be so demanding with my time, and when it came time to listen to God, He said: “Jose, I gave you this gift - a gift many have desired but have not received. Love it!!” Stuart came to my mind and I knew he wanted to be a priest more than anything in the world. I began to see that my priesthood is a gift and not a burden. God took a burden from me and gave me a gift. MONICA: During my two years outside of the United States I had many dreams and illusions about how Jorge and I would live together again. However, it was only one year after I arrived back with Jorge that I began to feel very disappointed with our relationship because my expectation of our marriage was not met. I thought that being by himself accustomed Jorge to living as a married-single person. I thought that I was not an important part of his life. Also, I thought that it would have been better if I had stayed in my country since my parents, brother and sister live over there. I felt extremely sad, lonely and confused. I didn’t know what to do or where to go. I was ashamed to tell my parents what I was going through. I could compare my feelings like when I am driving in a dense fog and I don’t know what is ahead of me. I felt a deep sadness and constantly had tears in my eyes. I even felt as though I could not breath in my own home. I went to my prayer group, but I didn’t find any relief. Jorge would ask me to forgive him but I would not listen. I closed myself out and my pride would tell me that I should not forgive him, besides all this, I thought I had no self worth in Jorge’s eyes and I thought he didn’t love me anymore. I searched for God in the church, but I could not communicate with him because I was so submerged in my pain and in my role as a victim that it would not allow me to listen to God. As soon as I would arrive at home, I would again begin to complain, even though Jorge would tell me he was going to change. In these conditions, we went to our Marriage Encounter Weekend. God with His great power and love transformed me to a new Monica being happy and optimistic, who believed that our marriage was going to change. During the weekend a light of hope was reignited. This is what I needed. I thanked God because He gave us a second opportunity to begin again in our marriage. I left my burdens, my pride, my sadness, and my poor self-esteem in order to by happy with Jorge. I made the decision to love Jorge, and to live with a better attitude. After the weekend, every afternoon, when I arrived home from work I would light a candle that our prayer couple gave us. I prayed asking God to stay with me every day and to help me keep the peace that I had in my heart. I realized that I had to leave the past behind because it was like an anchor which didn’t let me live the present and without the present I could not have a future with Jorge and our children. Because I found intimacy with God, I could break the chains of my pride, selfishness and impatience, which had tied me down. God’s love gave me freedom and happiness. It isn’t always easy to keep the peace in my interior and I sometimes find myself walking backwards. But, I go back to Jesus’s cross. I listen to him. And I feel embarrassed to recognize that it only takes a small conflict for me to become weak, angry and discouraged. I reflect how Jesus suffered and agonized for me. His love touches me and makes me strong so that I can make the decision to love and forgive Jorge, and to ask for forgiveness the times that I need to. JORGE: Now I’m going to share with you that on April 15 of 1994, Monica and I were detained by the INS in our places of work, because someone turned us in, and our visas to stay here in the US were expired. All of the sudden, we found ourselves without work and without being able to work due to our lack of papers. Our bills didn’t wait, mortgage, food, clothing etc. I felt a profound sadness and solitude being behind bars and with no light at the end of the tunnel. Once we got out of the detention center, it seemed to me that everybody was looking at us and I was afraid to get out of the house. At that period of our lives we started a legal battle with the INS because we thought that the law was very unfair and cruel. Every month I had to report myself to the INS office in San Francisco, I’d travel 230 miles each way. We had many hearings to attend and in 1995 Monica was forced to leave the country for two years. She took our son and daughter and all the furniture with her. That was a traumatic experience. It was really hard for me to let go of Monica and the kids at the airport, but it was even harder to come back to an empty house without Monica and the kids, and knowing that I would not be part of their lives for two years. Gabby was 8 months old and Jorgito was 8 years old. The pain I felt was awful and I couldn’t sleep that night even though I had moved the bed to the living room. Two plus years went by, Monica and the kids were back, but our case with the INS seemed to not have a solution. Every time I had a hearing, the fear of being deported was present. I remember on one occasion my lawyer telling me there was nothing more to do, that the judge would be deporting me to Ecuador that day. I prayed and asked for God’s help. When the time of my hearing came, the judge told my lawyer that she would not receive me, and to re-schedule the hearing 6 months later because she was really busy that day. I know that was God’s hand reaching out to our family and me. During that time the law changed and we could seek relief through the ten-year program. After we lived the ME Weekend, and because we tried everything we could and our Immigration case seemed like it was going to fail, we decided that it was necessary to leave this matter in God’s hand. I prayed to the Lord asking for His help, decided to trust everything in His hands, and left it at the foot of the cross. After that imploration to God, it was like I took a heavy backpack from my back and I was freed to walk again. I told Jesus: “Here I am Lord, I’ll do whatever you ask me to do for you, I trust you that where ever you put me, I’ll be happy, and that I’m willing to be happy where ever you want me to be, here in the U.S. or back in my beloved Ecuador. Lord I want to work for you, serve you and I willingly accept your plan.” Then I remembered that “it is not important where you were born or where you will die but where you fought”. I answered yes to God and here I am. It is with great joy in my heart that I tell all of you today, that God did what we (Jorge and Monica) couldn’t do it in 8 years, here are our green cards - physical proof of what God did for us. And Lord here I am doing what you asked me to do, sharing our love and telling our brothers and sisters that you live and that your love is real. Thank you Lord. JORGE: Now I would like to share with you what has been the difference in my life when I haven’t trusted God. Because of my type of personality which is the organizer, one may think that Jorge is a well organized person in all aspects, but the truth is, I’m not well organized in everything, I’m very unorganized with my finances in general, the moneys that end up in my hand, don’t last very long in it. A lot of times I’m an impulsive buyer. In our home finances, I did it the same way, trusting that I could handle it with no sweat. Monica in the other hand, is very careful with the money, she likes to save and be ready for the rainy day. Because of the difference between the two of us, we had constant conflicts in how to handle and how to spend our hard earned dollars. I accused her of being tight, and she accused me of being a squanderer. We didn’t have a home budget. Our differences in how to handle our finances were so deep that each of us opened a separate banking account, so neither of us had to tell or ask the other about them. We were rivals living under the same roof, and it seemed that we’d never reach an agreement. I was selfish and I didn’t ask God for His help, I was doing as I pleased with our finances. After we lived our ME Weekend, we felt the necessity of asking God for His guidance. We took a 12 week course on “How to handle our finances according to the scriptures”. There we found the answers to our prayers. I learned some important principles that I hadn’t known, and others that for convenience, I didn’t want to apply in my life. Now I know that God owns everything, that we are only stewards of what has been entrusted to us. We now have a home budget and we have agreed to buy only what we need and not what we want. Now we give with the right attitude, with generosity, not because is our obligation. I trust that God will provide with food, clothing and shelter as He has promised to everybody that is faithful to Him. God is in charge of our home finances and our work finances, and everything couldn’t have been better. FATHER JOSE: when I was a child, I was totally dependent on my parents. I had nothing to worry about because I knew they would take care of everything. No worry in the world. What a life! Things were different when I moved out on my own. I had to make sure that I made ends meet with my very tiny check and I had to prepare my meals, do my laundry. I had to do everything on my own. My independence came to a point that I lived as if everything depended on me. I did not trust anyone because no one did anything for me. Not even God. I did not need God - so I thought. But I was like a rose that had been cut off from its rose bush. I was dying little by little. I was dying inside. I began to drink to ease the pain of loneliness. I was surrounded by my people, yet I felt as if I was floating in space all alone. MONICA: My relationship with God has built our faith and trust in God. I can see the difference that God has made in my life. When Jorge and I met, he was a Mormon. He belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Days Saints. He accepted to get married in the Catholic Church, but I used to go alone to Mass after we were married. We didn’t talk about religion to avoid a conflict. On our weekend during a deep dialogue we created a question: Who is your God and who is my God? It was then that we resolved that we would be a Catholic family so that we could be united. We began to go to Mass as a family. I felt very happy and proud. Since then, we began to get closer to God as a family. We have received many blessings and a lot of happiness. We live in a better world, which we have built little by little. Sometimes when we wake up, Jorge gives me a strong hug and we stay very close for a few minutes. At that time I give thanks to God because he is the one that keeps us together living our Sacrament with peace and unity. Jorge and I found in God a lasting happiness, which cannot be compared with the short happiness that you can find when you are drunk or even when you buy a new dress. We have found a treasure; this is our Sacrament, which makes us leave our burdens at the cross and helps us grow as persons. We have responded to His call serving as lectors and Eucharistic ministers in our Parish. We are very active in our WWME in Fresno. We do whatever our coordinators ask from us. We believe that, as there were couples that were willing to rescue us from the mud in which we lived, now it is our turn to be the lifesavers to those couples that live with tormented and bitter hearts. We are the link between our and future generations to keep Jesus’s name and His Word alive. FATHER JOSE: The closer I got to God, the more I realized that I need Him and the more I realized that He would never let me down. Over a year ago, my doctor put me on medication for stress. I was in shock when he said that my health problems were a result of stress and anxiety. I knew people with this problem, but I could not believe that I was suffering from it! Of all people, my doctor said to me “Why don’t you see your spiritual director?” He said “You need to leave your problems back at your parish when you are on your day off.” I finally saw my spiritual director two months later and he helped me to see that I was trying to play God and to realize that God’s job is too stressful for me. My spiritual director helped me to see, to my surprise, that the world had been turning way before I was born and that it would continue turning after I die. It was all news to me! So I began letting God take control of His church and my stress began to disappear. I began trusting God and I stopped needing my medication. JORGE: Dear Brothers and Sisters, God love’s for us is so great that He couldn’t leave us in darkness. God inspired the prophets of the Old and New Testament to write His actions in their time. I believe the words of the Bible and the doctrines concerning salvation contained in this Holy book are true, and their observance will elevate any people, nation or family that dwells on the face of the earth. The doctrines contained in the Bible will lift to a superior condition all of us who observe them; they will impart to us knowledge, wisdom, charity, fill us with compassion and cause us to see the wants of those who are in distress, or in painful or degraded circumstances. If we observe the precepts contained in the Scriptures, we will be just and true and virtuous and peaceable at home and abroad. If we follow the doctrines of the Bible, we will make splendid husbands, excellent wives, and obedient children. We will be happy families and prosperous nations. We take the Bible for our guide, for our rule of action; we take it as the foundation of our faith. It points the way to salvation like a fingerboard pointing to a city or map which designates the latitude and longitude of any place on the surface of the earth that we desire to find. If we follow the word and precepts of the scriptures, it will direct us where we may see as we are seen, where we may converse with Jesus Christ, have the visitation of angels, have dreams, visions, and revelations, and understand and Know God for ourselves. After my ME Weekend, I experienced a need to know God more and more, and I decided to read the Scriptures. At that time I’d read only the first five books of the Old Testament. Now, I’ve finished reading the New Testament and am going for my second time, one chapter a day. In my search for God’s word for me, I’d found peace, understanding, knowledge, charity, compassion. The scriptures have helped me to become a better person to myself, to my family and to others. If you want to know God, the scriptures is a great place to start, you will find God and you will be at peace. JORGE: The scriptures are love letters, written to us and for us to reveal God to us and to reveal ourselves in relationship with Him. The books of the Bible are ours. They are God’s word and how he speaks to us today. They are living words. A very ancient prayer, practiced at one time by all Christians, is the technique known as Lectio Divina. It is a slow, contemplative praying of the scriptures, which enables us through the Word of God, to come to a union with God. Lectio Divina enables us to discover in our daily life an underlying spiritual rhythm. With this rhythm we discover an increasing ability to offer more of our relationship and ourselves to our Father, and to accept the embrace that God is continuously extending to us in the person of his son Jesus Christ. Lectio Divina begins with cultivating the ability to listen deeply, to hear with the ears of our hearts. When we read the scriptures we should allow ourselves to become women and men who are listening for the still, small voice of God. This gentle listening is an “attunement”, being in tune to the presence of God in that special part of God’s creation, which is the scriptures. JORGE: Now we are going to have the opportunity to experience this type of prayer. Please get comfortable in your seats, snuggle up with your spouse, and close your eyes. I am going to read a verse from Matthew. As I read it, I’d like you to focus on one word or a simple phrase that speaks to you. I will read this in Spanish and in English. After I read the scripture twice, you will have a short time for a silent reflection. The first time I read the Scripture, I invite you to listen for the still, small voice of a word or phrase that touches you. God is gently inviting us ever more deeply into his presence. The second time I read the Scripture, take the word or phrase into yourself. Memorize it and slowly repeat it to yourself, allow it to interact with your inner world of concerns, memories or ideas. Allow this inner pondering to invite you to dialogue with God. Mathew 6:31-34: (Read in Spanish and in English) (Give one minute of silent reflection time) MONICA: Now, I am going to read the same passage again. This time, we are asking you to see Christ in the text. You ponder the word that has touched your heart and ask yourself where the word or phrase touches your life. In other words, how is Christ touching your own experience, your own life? Please listen both in a spirit of silence and of awe. “So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and He will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.” (GIVE TWO MINUTES OF SILENT REFLECTION TIME) FATHER JOSE: I am now going to read the passage aloud one final time. Following this reading you will have two more minutes for silent reflection. During this reflection time, I invite you to listen for what God may be calling you to do today or in the next few days. “So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, and He will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.” (GIVE TWO MINUTES SILENT REFLECTION TIME) Now, I invite you to take a couple of minutes to share with your spouse what you have heard God say to you this morning. If you are lucky enough to have a priest sitting next to you, please invite him to share with you. (GIVE THEM TWO MINUTES TO SHARE WITH EACH OTHER) JORGE: Dear brothers and sisters, what you have just listened was a letter from God to you. If you listened with your heart, you heard God’s whispering voice, and that is responding to our call “To know God”. Now each of us will have the opportunity to answer the letter that God gave to us. We are going to have a special time in which we will write a love letter responding to God. In this letter you will have the freedom to open your heart and be totally sincere with our Lord. Feel free to write your dreams, your goals, your worries. Whatever comes to your heart leave it in God’s hands. We will have 15 minutes to write our love letter to God, there will be no exchange of letters. Please write all the time that is given to you, but if you can’t write for the entire 15 minutes, please stay in your seats and pray for the remaining time. When the music ends, it will be time to leave for lunch. Thank you. (Play the music during the writing time) (Write for 15 minutes.)
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