loader image

Interview with Mª Jesús Navarro for her golden jubilee

December 7, 2017

I am Mª Jesús Navarro FI. I am currently in the house in Pamplona and I belong to the
Community of Guipúzcoa – Bilbao and Pamplona.
 
Could you tell us what assessment you would make of these 50 years of your R.L.?
 
With a heart full of gratitude, what springs from the deepest part of me is: THANK YOU, LORD, FOR SO MUCH GOOD RECEIVED! And how can I keep quiet about it?! Being able to share with you some snippets of my 50 years of Religious Life is very rewarding.
 
For me it has been “A time of grace”I did not know very well where I was going, but I was sure that I heard his voice saying: Mª Jesús, Come and follow meMy heart was filled with hope, joy, together with a great desire to give myself to others. I did not lack the fear of the unknown. What I can tell you is that I was sure that I was not alone. Jesus’ gaze encouraged me, led me and always accompanied me. His firm voice whispered to me: “Do not fear, I am with you”.
 
Today, I continue to thank the Lord for the gift of my vocation; I consider myself fortunate to be a Daughter of JesusI have always tried to put the “gifts” that He has given me at the service of others, knowing that “the ground I tread is sacred,” for God and for me.
 
Being able to live my discipleship in the style of St. Candida Maria de Jesús, simple, intuitive, firm, courageous and audacious woman, full of faith, always ready to do the will of God, “Father-Mother”. It has been gratifying to have her as role model in my way of proceeding; I have tried to build Kingdom in any part of the world where I have been sent.
 
 
Would you single out any special experience?
 
I feel that God has been making history in my life, a love story. I have been treated with great care and affection in my own fragility. I thank God for the gift of my family, especially for my dear parents, simple, hardworking, deeply Christian, who without realizing it were weaving my life and helping me grow in faith and the desire to help others.
 
I have enjoyed a lot and I have felt fulfilled in the different missions; entrusted, both in the pastoral activities and in other responsibilities that have been given to me. I value and I feel identified with education to which I have dedicated most of my life. I consider it a platform with many possibilities to evangelize and help the whole person to grow.
 
Another special experience has been the encounter that I have had throughout my life with so many people that God has put along my way, thanks to the capacity for relationships that the Lord has given me as a gift; it has been a means to share my life with others. Many people have been role models in my life, some already in heaven and others with whom I continue to share life.
 
My time in Bolivia, which I can say has marked a before and an after in my life. Its people, its culture, its sensitivity and ability to welcome the one who arrives, helped me to see life and the world in a different way, to value what is there and what is here, and above all to question my way of living and conceiving the RL. Sharing life with the most needy made me more sensitive, able to be more attentive in daily life to those who sufferI would not be able to explain it well, but something was born in me, which I still feel as “grace”.
 
 What would be your message to the younger sisters?
 
The first thing I would say is: Take courage and go ahead! If you feel the call of Jesus, if you feel that God loves you, personally and unconditionally, and calls you by your name, take a chance; because it is worth taking the step, you are not stepping into a vacuum, it is Jesus, who has gazed at you, called you and tells you as he did Zaccheus: “I want to stay in your house“.
 
I would also tell them to be courageous, determined, to let themselves be led by the Spirit of Jesus. They might have moments of doubts, fears, insecurities, difficulties, loneliness; none of this will be missing. In the face of the new, the unknown, we are fragile, but He will always be by our side. I would say to them: “Do not hesitate to give your Yes to the Lord, a yes to gratuitous service, a yes to everyone, but especially to the most disadvantaged. A yes to build Kingdom with others, a yes to a RL in the style of Candida Maria de Jesús “.
 
I end by telling you that it is worth making RL  your life project, and above all to live our vocation as: “grace, gift, present” that is received to be shared with others and, of course, to be lived to the fullest. Jesus needs us to be audacious and creative, to show his compassionate and merciful face to this suffering, broken and disoriented world. Courage and forward!
 
 Is there a phrase or slogan that can synthesize this celebration?
• “I know him in whom I have believed”
• “All is presence and grace”

Relacionados