Live It: Maria Fernanda “Fer” Galvez

Author: Maria Fernanda “Fer” Galvez

This past year, from August 2016 to May 2017, I was a Regnum Christi Missionary. Basically what this means is that you take a year off after high school, and during that year, you live with a community of Consecrated Women (who are basically nuns, except that they live their vows differently, wearing normal clothes, and participating more in society). During the year, you put on retreats for kids, work in after school formation programs and commit to the prayer life that the consecrated women live, like daily Mass, morning and night prayers, etc. You do so much! But there is no way I can capture everything and not make this the longest post ever. So to explain how I came to become an RC Missionary I have to go back to a conversation I had with a Consecrated Woman back home. It went something like “Hey, would you ever be a missionary?” Me: “HA! What? No. That’s insane…”

But then, God did what God does, and then two months later I received my letter of acceptance into the Regnum Christi Mission Corp program. I try to think back and remember how I got from saying “heck no” to filling out a rather long application to get into the program. Somewhere in between there, I know I asked myself what I wanted, I asked God what he wanted, and I asked my mom what she thought, although not necessarily in that order. But then again I never really think too long to make decisions. Just ask my family every time I went to the bathroom to take a shower and came out with a new haircut. But I know that God knows this about me, and He knew that although the decision wouldn’t mortify me at the time, and I even kind of made it on a whim, all along He knew I would be making a decision that would change my whole life, no exaggeration.

That year was literally, no joke, officially the best year of my life. ( And I ain’t even 21 yet) It was amazing for thousands of reasons. But all of them somehow captured by the fact that I was doing His will. Everything that was beautiful and good all revolved around this. Living how He always wanted me to live. Using all of my abilities, my talents, my whole heart to love those who He entrusted to me. But of course, it wasn’t always rainbows and butterflies. But even the hard times and the heartaches eventually showed me something so much more beautiful that I had never seen before. I think of what St. Therese said. (Patron saint of missionaries btw) “My vocation is to love”.

During my year, I learned that truly my vocation was to love. Now as to how that all depends on the day. Because I am learning that, just as it was during my year, a vocation is lived in the daily moments. Because living my vocation is doing His will in my life. So day by day, with every little decision, I chose to be called into a life of love. His love that redeems me, transforms me and gives me a choice to be free in His joy.

That year I lived my vocation as a missionary. I gave talks at retreats, organized activities that got girls excited about their faith, and I worked with amazing people that inspired me always to go higher. I got to share so many experiences with people that have marked my heart forever. I also made a ton of mistakes that, although I cringe a little just thinking about it, I definitely do not regret them, because they were mistakes made in the context of God, and He has a way of making everything fruitful.

Some days ago, I started getting all melancholic, thinking about all I missed my missionary year. So I went and looked at my journal and on the last day of my year, I had sat down and written everything that I had learned. It was six pages of sentences that started “ I learned to…” and “I learned that…” Then I went on for like another two pages just thanking God for everything, (clearly I was very emotional) until finally, I asked Him how I could ever repay Him for the all He had done. And in huge caps letters, I had written: “LIVE IT”. That is all I am trying to do; to live each day the lessons that I learned that year. It was a whole year of walking hand in hand with Christ, and now, I want a whole life of that.