Na certeza da incerteza | Aliança de Santa Maria

FOR SURE
INTEGRITY

"The best person to be here
talking about my story was Him"

"To be great, be whole".
It was in the certainty of this "wholeness" that I said yes to consecrated life.

It's time to give thanks! O Lord continues to call today! And there are young people telling him that "Yes!"

In a few days' time, Sr. Ângela Oliveira will profess her perpetual vows in the city where she currently lives, Fátima. Behind the "Yes" that she will say on September 8, at 10am, in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima, in front of her community, family and friends, Sister Ângela has a story of 'resistance-cedence' to what God wanted for her. It's worth reading, giving thanks for the gift of her life and self-giving!

Ângela Manuela Ribeiro de Oliveira is twenty-seven years old and from Guimarães. She is the youngest of four daughters. "I was the last hope for a boy! But now there are two grandchildren." She had a very serene and happy childhood, which she calls "normal, in a Catholic family, with traces of a relationship with God", who passed on the faith as an inheritance. In her mental journeys to the past, she mostly recalls concrete images that marked her."I remember the peripeteia of going to Mass on a Sunday. My father in the car waiting for the five women." She recalls the memory of attending Sunday Mass as a family. This memory is also accompanied by family trips. It's clear that he feels comfortable bringing up the past, but we can't tell if the sparkle in his eyes comes from the memories or from talking about his family. Probably both.

A PERIOD OF DIFFICULT CHOICES

The journey through the past goes back to the days when God was still limited to the idea of the "Most High and was that distant image", to whom he asked for help to protect his family and to help with tests.

It was during her teenage years that she was first asked about her vocation to the consecrated life. She recalls a period of difficult choices, particularly about which secondary school to follow. Choosing an area of education wasn't easy, she says, not least because the desire to learn a bit about everything came from way back. "When I was little, I wanted to be a painter, a pianist, a teacher." She decided on science, but her choice only lasted two years, when she switched to art. Her love of drawing and the performing arts spoke louder and the sketches she was making in her biology notebooks led to a new choice. She cancelled the specific subjects and studied for the exams in the area she had chosen, completing her secondary education in visual arts.

It was in tandem with this change that she invested more in her lifelong love of theater, starting to attend a course. "Human beings tend to be the protagonists on the stage of their lives, but will be so much happier if we focus on Jesus and put him at the center of our lives"he makes a point of saying.

A GROWING VOCATION

The process of vocational discernment was gradual, he says. "I'd seen the Sisters once or twice in Guimarães, but I'd never gotten involved." In Ângela's subconscious there was a somewhat prejudiced image of what it was like to be a "religious", frowning, distant and rigorously serious; until a closer contact arose when her blood sister joined the congregation of the Covenant of St. Mary. She talks about Bernardete, who is seven years older than her. "How did my sister become a nun? Bernardete!" She was thirteen at the time and started taking part in youth meetings organized by the Congregation. The initial indifference gradually turned into growing interest.

"How can they be so cheerful with almost nothing? What's behind all this joy?

She describes an intense and remarkable experience, which made her deconstruct the idea of a distant God and helped her unveil a very low God, who wanted to come face-to-face with her. To make sense of everything. "My knowledge of the Covenant was very much marked by my relationship with the Sisters and by this encounter with Jesus, through mediation, provided by the meetings I attended." At each meeting she was "emptied of everything", even of prejudices, she says, and the complicity she felt in that place made her feel good. She then began to question herself, firstly about apparent things. "How do they manage to be so happy, having almost nothing, and what is behind all this joy in giving?".

"Seeing all this happiness and closeness, I began to wonder what he would want for me." It was in this introspection, "which at the same time upsets and captivates", who discovered vocation as a process of happiness and personal fulfillment. She recalls a poem by Fernando Pessoa that describes very well what accompanied her at that stage: "to be great, be whole". What was your measure? I'd be happy as long as I was whole! It was a question of wholeness... "Having a head, heart, legs, hands, mouth, all for God and for others!"

Daily prayer and the help of a Sister were fundamental during this period, he recalls. Her desire to be there and to return was one of the most obvious signs that her vocation was being fulfilled in consecrated life. "There came a time when the meetings were no longer enough and I began to feel the need for more. It was really a falling in love, and already I couldn't imagine myself out of there."

The death of a friend in a car accident was what he considers to have been a defining moment in his process of discernment: "I had a jolt that made me think about the how fragile and brief life isIt was a great experience, which awakened me to the importance of discovering my place and not 'defrauding' God."

A ROAD WITH UPS AND DOWNS

He then made the decision to join the Covenant of St. Mary after 12th grade. Although he had a perception of the consecrated vocation when he was still young, that wasn't the reason why he stopped living things more intensely, he reveals. Until the final decision, there were ups and downs, he recalls. Perceiving God's will does not - most of the time - go hand in hand with easy understanding.

At this point, she started working part-time and the money she was earning allowed her to experience more independence. There were also times when "her heart beat faster and she felt butterflies in her stomach". On the other hand, her love of theater and the possibility of taking a higher education course in this area made her rethink the decision she was about to make. She remembers a time when she was involved in many activities. But when she returned home in the evening, silence finally gained a voice in her room. Irresistible. God's place and mark on her was stronger than any other passion. She knew that she no longer knew how to be without him and she wanted to follow what she knew. Her vocation was fulfilled in consecrated life.

A VOCATION THAT IS FULFILLED

He is currently preparing for his perpetual vows. After nine years of a journey of intimacy and growth, he will say in front of his community, family and friends: "Yes, I do." to the question: "You wantwith the help of God's grace, to embrace forever the same life of perfect chastity, obedience and poverty that Christ the Lord and the Virgin His Mother chose for themselves?"

She knew that she no longer knew how to be without him and she wanted to follow what she knew.

Article adapted from Diogo Carvalho Alves' interview for
Present Newspaper | Diocese of Leiria-Fátima