Total Submission to God’s Will

Sr. M. Teresita de los Santos

“I thought that was the end of my religious vocation but in my heart, I trusted God and His will for me and submit everything to Him, to His disposal. Thy will be done”, Sr. M. Teresita uttered.

These were the words of Sr. M. Teresita recalling her “unforgettable trial” in her religious life as she describes it. She was about to join her co-postulants for the religious clothing when three weeks before that, it was discovered that she had a sickness. She was advised to recover at home. It was not easy for her to accept this unexpected decision of her formator. She felt what Job had experienced in the Scripture, “The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away. I received good things, and should I not accept evil?”

Though she tried to be resigned to God’s will, yet she could not help feeling sad because of her great love for her religious vocation. On the day when her companions were vested in great joy, she was at home lying in bed because of her sickness and with deep sadness in her heart. During this difficult moment in her life, she recalled how she responded to the divine call. She ran away from home when she was twenty just to heed the divine call and to follow the Master, and only to find herself suffering in that way. She bore her mother’s misunderstanding and agony and everybody’s disagreement in the family just to follow her heart. Despite this, she was so determined to leave home for God and felt an extra-ordinary peace and joy deep inside her heart.

She even recalled how she wholeheartedly offered herself to God during her entire stay in the convent as an aspirant and a postulant, in prayer and in doing what was asked of her. With all this sadness and pain, the light of God was still with her and she said, “Had I not learned from St. Therese (her patron saint) the spirit of resignation to God’s will due to my feelings of frustrations and loneliness, perhaps I would have gone crazy at that very moment.”

Despite this, she found herself not giving up on her strong love and desire of becoming a Pious Disciple of the Divine Master. At that time, her prayer when she first entered the congregation was still the same: “Lord, please help me to be with you forever in this congregation as a Pious Disciple.”  She believed that what kept her going was her spirit of faith, hope, constant prayer and most importantly her total resignation to God and to His divine will for her. She believed that in God’s own time, things will fall in place.

True enough, after almost three years of waiting and resignation to God’s will, on Holy Thursday, April 3^rd, 1968, she re-entered the congregation and joined the 7 postulants in Antipolo. Despite being grateful and happy to find herself again in the convent, she still had the fear that her painful experience before her religious clothing might happen again. She was afraid to be sent out again because of her sickness. So, she asked her Novice Mistress if she could undergo a health examination and thanks be to God, all was well with her. 

Finally, her deep desire to be a Pious Disciples of the Divine Master happened at the right time …    which she believed was God’s perfect time. In 1971, she joined her three co-novices on their first profession. And just last year, she celebrated her Golden Anniversary in the religious life.

According to her, “As a simple dressmaker, I was being clothed by God to be His bride forever. I did not choose the congregation but the Divine Master Himself.”

Now, Sr.  M. Teresita is already 52 years as a PDDM and until today, her total resignation to God and to His will makes her a happy and a fulfilled disciple of Jesus Master. Just in the past until today, she dedicates her whole life and her God-given skill for love and for the service of the God’s ministers sewing their vestments, especially cassocks, clerical shirts, etc.

Almost all her years in the convent until now are spent in the sewing rooms. Silently, she works with great love and joy in her heart. Each day, in each circumstance in her life, she totally resigns herself to God and to His Holy will. With the Blessed Founder, James Alberione, she prays:

My God, I do not know what will happen to me today.

I only know that nothing will happen to me

that was not foreseen by you and directed to my greater good

from all eternity.

This is enough for me.

I adore your eternal and unfathomable designs

I submit to them with all my heart for love of you

I offer the sacrifice of my whole being to you

and join my sacrifice to that of Jesus, my divine Savior.

In his name and by his infinite merits,

I ask you for patience in my suffering and perfect submission,

so that everything you want to permit to happen

will result in your greater glory and my sanctification.

Amen.