The title above is a fragment of a sentence in the 1st Meditation of Mama Passion on 14 December 1885.
The following experience I experienced at the beginning of my assignment to be in charge at the big School of Regina Pacis in Bogor – Indonesia. During my 40 years as an FMM, I easily obeyed. Whatever task was entrusted to me, I accepted it without asking much, even less discussion/dialogue with the Provincial, as an effort to refuse the assignment.…Never!
However, for this last task, namely being responsible for the big school of Regina Pacis in Bogor, I was forced to have 3-time dialogues with the Provincial, in the hope that she would agree to cancel her plans to send me to this School. Why? Because in my 40 years as an FMM I have never served/worked in an Education department, especially in a big school like Regina Pacis.
Education work in this era has a lot of demands from the Government, as well as from students’ parents. So there is fear, worry, inadequacy, inferiority, and other negative feelings like that. There is a sense of worry that the quality of this school will be degraded because of me.
In the third dialogue, the Provincial’s answer to my question was short and simple: If not you, then who? With that answer and after the dialogue three times, I feel like I can’t refuse anymore. And I accepted the assignment out of obedience, simply out of obedience. Really I have no clue regarding school.
The days, weeks, months I spent on this assignment, the first three months, it felt like I was in Purgatory. Even physically my health is disturbed. Various negative feelings are in the heart.
In this situation, I’m trying to learn from Mother Mary, who said YES to the Angel even though she didn’t understand what would happen, and she still said YES no matter what risks she had to face.
This reflection on Mother Mary has become a special strength for me. With an attitude of emptying myself, I started working at the school wholeheartedly while never being shy about asking questions, and never stopping praying for God’s help in this work.
Now, I have been working as the person in charge at the Regina Pacis School in Bogor, for four years, with 2,800 students (kindergarten to high school students) and 193 colleagues.
I have faced many challenges and difficulties, but there have also been many amazing experiences and I am grateful for them, I believe that this is God’s work in this educational work.
I have changed a lot now, I am not afraid like before, problems can be overcome, my experience has increased, and what is most important for me is that I am increasingly convinced that God is truly Emanuel, who continues to be with us, including in this educational work.
Truly, the advice of the Mother Foundress written in 1885 is still very relevant today. Obedience is the Vow of transformation. I was transformed because I obeyed.
Even more grateful that in this large education community, we can transmit the spirit of Mother Foundress to our colleagues and students.
“Ad Veritatem per Caritatem” – Truth through Charity, which is the Founder’s favorite sentence, is our school’s Motto and the CHIPS Characters (Compassion, Humility, Integrity, Peace and Servant Leaderships) that we explore from the spirit of Mother Foundress and St. Francis, we instilled it in the Regina Pacis School family.
Every year we always hold a 9-day novena before November 15th, and there are always two-day workshops for new co-workers to get to know more regarding FMM, the Mother Foundress and the character of CHIPS. We hope that Mama Passion and her spirit will continue to spread within the big family of Regina Pacis school.
How grateful I am to have a mother who passed on so much advice, which is still very relevant today. Mama Passion, we love you and we thank you. Pray for us. Amen
Sr. Christine Sri Murni, FMM
