The community always considers one of its main duties the instruction and the education of youth (R. XXVII)

Hna. Maribel VillanuevaI remember that I started working in the DIF, a Government entity at a municipal level, in the area of promotion of women. At that time I was young and I was the instructor of a group older in age and experience, it was a real challenge for me. Another challenge was when I was placed in charge of three centers or “little schools” of women in different municipalities; each one of those places had different contexts, but they all had something similar; the marginalization of women, especially in the area of Education. While we were working together in the workshops, I discovered that they had great desire to overcome their limitations not only on an intellectual level, but also on a human level. This aspect was common to all the women adult or young, married or single. For seven years I learned with them a different way to be, because all those women had already finished the course, used to meet and create small businesses. For others, the point of reference was to be a true woman or head of a family; others took advantage of what they had learned and continued their studies outside their municipalities. Although after a while the places of the "little schools" changed, the work was the same; looking for women, promoting them and supporting them in their search for some means for a better living.

When I discovered my vocation and entered the Congregation, I found that Marie Poussepin’s charisma was to promote the people, especially the girls from poor families of the countryside and without education, this was a different way to look: respecting and promoting their dignity as children of God. This vision of the charisma confirmed my vocation. My first mission as a Sister of the Presentation was in the school, the Instituto Forja, in Jalisco, Mexico. I was assigned to the Pastoral of the Elementary and High School. Sharing with teachers and catechists mothers was very significant because we had common plans to accompany the students in their personalized education, according to the pedagogical model offered by Marie Poussepin. I consider that this mission helped me to discover the desire to study Pedagogy, an opportunity the Congregation offered to me. The reality of the school was to build more the style of education that we wished and give to us the conviction that formation for the mission in the Congregation is a duty of justice with the recipients of that mission.

When I was transferred to the community at the School Mier y Pesado, in the Federal District: Elementary and College levels, I also gave Religious Education classes to the girls and young adults. I discovered then the value of team work at all levels, for the students to be able to discover the presence of God in their life, as well as making them able to show Him to others wherever they were. I saw here more clearly the pedagogical model offered by our Mother Foundress. Then, I saw it reflected in the sisters who had worked more in education, it gave me new energies for the service of charity in this field, which now fills me with great joy.

Later I was transferred to Guatemala Capital, at the school Betanzos, it was one more experience for me. I was the Director of the Elementary and the Pastoral of the School; it was just for a very short time because I had left my University studies and had to get back to them. However, it gave to me enough time to see another way of the education according to Marie Poussepin´s style. The children, teenagers and teachers lived in the midst of violence, poverty and marginalization and they showed to me a God closer to the people and who was easy to seek in their life. They needed someone to lead and walk with them. I keep in my heart this experience, and I value Marie Poussepin´s Spirituality. It is applicable and valid in all the realities that seek to continue promoting the people.

Another experience had marked my life was when I was sent to the house Hogar Corazón de Angel, in this mission I could accompany the boys and girls suffering from different and vulnerable situations of violence. This task was a challenge for me in many ways: to promote boys and girls, help them to discover the value of being a person, respect their own dignity, believe in God that always was and will be in their lives, motivating them to increase their desires to prepare themselves for a better future.

I thank God for these experiences, the Sisters of the Presentation as well as the recipients of the mission for helping me to discover the value of the formation offered by the pedagogical model of the Presentation and the importance to live the inheritance that Marie Poussepin left to us: "All these works of Charity, can bring the greatest glory to God and offer more advantages to men, especially when they are done the way Sisters must do: sowing in the hearts still tender the seeds of piety".

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