"Our
First Year as a
Consecrated Couple"
Testimony by Trevor and Sandy Aleong
given at Holy Mass on July 27, 2001 in celebration of the Feast
of St Joachim & St Anne
(On
November 26, 2000, twenty-two covenanted couples of the Living Water
Community consecrated their marriages to the Lord at the Community's
25th Anniversary Mass)
We have not
experienced any flashing lights or signs from heaven signaling to us that
we have truly lived out our consecration faithfully in this first year,
but, we hope that what we share might strike a note somewhere in your
hearts.
You must understand
that when the idea of “consecration” was first mentioned almost a year
ago, my dearly beloved husband’s first reaction was….”Well, yes,
now we reach, no way, not for me…I eh able with dat…You will have to
do this alone…Yu see dis ting, dis go cause real bachannal…..dis is
holy control….dis is all I need now…..”
This is how he felt
at the time, while my reaction was…..”Well thank God, because we
need all the help we can get…..and Jesus-centred to boot, how could we
go wrong, after all we’ve been trying it our way and we seem to fail
miserably most of the time. If
this is what God is calling us to…why not?”
Well, no need to tell
you who won this rounds…..Nooooope….not me…It was Jesus - talk about
Lord …..Dat is Lord!
As we reflected on
the written consecration, the words that tugged at our hearts most
forcibly were the first two lines of the Consecration which reads:
“Father, as your
son and daughter, called to minister to each other in the Sacrament of
Marriage, we Trevor and Sandy, consecrate out marriage to your Son, Jesus
Christ.”
For those who are in
ministry, you have a fairly good idea of what ministry means - total
commitment, faithfulness and a whole lot of positive things.
For us, this spoke of humbling ourselves, loving even more,
sharing, caring, supporting and serving with that extra special healing
touch……a serious call to become holy and wholesome, by being available
to each other at all times. Now tell me, how could we not want this in our
marriage? And how could we
have this without Jesus being the center of our lives? We both realized this and understood that as difficult as it
might become for us because of our strong wills and stubbornness and in
spite of our doubt and fear - God had presented us with this opportunity
to be a consecrated couple - consecrated to Him because of His special
love for us and His desire that we enjoy a happy, holy and wholesome life
together - a union that we wanted in the first place - that’s why we got
married. God just put the
final touches on our union and stamped it with His approval.
It has been almost
one year (this November) since we made this Consecration in our community
and during that time until now, it seems that without any trumpet blast or
fanfare….but in the quiet of our hearts….in the quiet of our
prayer….and in the quiet of our days and nights (yes, we have these
sometimes)….we have come to recognize the importance and blessedness of
our individuality. We are becoming more aware of the many gifts God has blessed
us with, as individuals, and have felt the “bond” of love he has
wrapped around us as a “couple”, drawing us closer together - as man
and woman, as husband and wife, as mother and father, as grandfather and
grandmother, as uncle and aunt, and we can go on and on…
We have become more
aware of how different we are and yet of how beautiful we can become
through the power of God’s Holy Spirit working in us.
We are beginning at
last, after 33 years of married life (not very easy years) to appreciate
and cherish our giftedness, our personalities, our strengths and
weaknesses, and to realize that as opposite and different as we are in so
many ways, we feel a loving obligation to complement and support each
other in our daily lives together and in whatever we have to do as we face
the challenges of life and family.
We
find ourselves encouraging each other to thank and praise God for who we
are, for the ups and downs, for the joyful and sad times, so that at the
end of the day, we can truly say…..IT IS ALL GOD’S WORK…we are only
the empty vessels He wants to fill and refill.
It is not an easy ‘lovey dovey’ journey…we have had our share
of pain and conflict…that’s for sure…and we’ll have those until w
e die, but we know that with God…all is possible.
Tonight, it is with
humility and openness that we stand here to share with you and to tell you
that each day we continue to await God’s on-going infilling, which we
know will help us to love each other more and to live better lives as
individuals and as a specially chosen consecrated couple.
We have learnt that
the most important step of this journey is to recognize, to accept, to
love and to thank God for who we are as individuals, living together in a
blessed union - our marriage - and to be at all times constantly open to
Jesus and Mary who can transform and mold us into their special “olive
branches” of peace and love to each other and in our family as we
‘walk the walk’.
We have grown a
little…I think….Yes? Yes,
we have, Praise God.
It has not been
easy-going but we would not like to imagine what our lives would have been
without this special grace and blessing which we received through the
holiness of this consecration. This
has come through the gift of the Eucharist, His Real Presence in the
Blessed Sacrament and through the love and support of you beautiful
“olive branches” - our consecrated couples, who have shared some of
our ups and downs, who have encouraged and prayed for us…up to this
moment. Most importantly, to
our Leaders, Rose and Rhonda, our Household community and our very, very
beloved Priests, who have taken us into their hearts and prayers at all
times, in good times and in bad times… We thank God for all of you
daily, and we love you.
May God bless us all
tonight and always. Thank you
and Praise God!
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