Chile, 08/10/2020, Sr. Hilda Angélica Aguilera Barrera.-
The Desert has flourished,
Your Grace's rain has dressed the sand in color …
My Colombian and Chilean Sisters came to Vallenar to evangelize this Northeastern Atacama land, full of mysteries and silences, bringing in their hearts, their words and their gestures the seeds of Marie Poussepin's Charism. Her motto was to sow, serve, spread the seeds generously, leaving the end result of the harvest to the owner of the harvest.
Many young people came to share with those Religious who called our attention because of their joy, simplicity and dedication. The doors of their house always open gave us a closer and more familiar knowledge. This is how in the entrance hall I could see the painting of a "Little Nun", I didn't know who she was, but the brightness of her gaze captivated me. It was a transparent look, full of peace, tenderness, compassion, that spoke to me about God.
From that moment I started a "flirtation" ... She looked at me and I followed her gaze in a dynamic romp that without realizing it was conquering my heart little by little and I was getting into what those looks meant. Whenever I could, I would visit the community and never miss the opportunity to contemplate that face that told me so many things and mobilized me inside ...
During those years I met many Sisters and they all had the unmistakable mark of what today I can properly call the Foundational Charism. Deep experience through which the Lord began to seduce me. How simple and how deep a look can be! That, that of Marie Poussepin, was the great coup de grace in my vocational history.
Many years have passed and his penetrating gaze has not changed, he remains within me, she continues to accompany me and little by little she has taught me her lifestyle through coexistence and the testimony of my sisters who have contributed a lot to my growth. personal. I recognize that, as a dry and rough land of the mining area to which I belong, walking has not been easy, but the Lord who always takes the initiative, led me and sustains me with his Grace, in this Congregation in which he had prepared a place for me.
It was something humanly incomprehensible, because I was educated with the Sisters of Santa Marta, I lived my pastoral commitment as a young person, at the level of the parish and the Diocese (Copiapó) with the Company of Mary and I ended up being a Dominican Sister of the Presentation, thanks to Marie Poussepin who did not let go of me, until I became one of her daughters.
It only remains for me to thank God for his infinite love and Fidelity, and offer him my effort every day to walk with my Congregation towards the response that the poor and the Church request of us, with the hope that where there is dryness, life always begins. because God is in charge of watering it and making the sandbanks re-colored.
Thank my Lord! Thank you, Marie Poussepin! Thanks to each of my sisters, those who left for the Father's house and those who still share life and mission on this earth with “so much love with so much good” (textual words of Sr. Blanca Libia Arboleda Toro, who always said them to me in the novitiate).
With my motto of profession, I want to close these lines dedicated to our Mother Foundress and to my faithful companion on the journey, Jesus.
"Lord with you I will go ..." With fraternal embrace and gratitude.