One day, I received an invitation from the leaders of the Assumption prayer meeting to join the Community Weekend Retreat of Ligaya ng Paginoon Community. I was unfamiliar with this group so I ignored the invitation. But God again intervened through my English teacher, Sr. Annunciata, r.a., who was already a member of Ligaya. With a wide smile on her face, she enthusiastically asked if I would attend the retreat. I could only say yes. The priest at the retreat explained that God did not create human beings to be alone. God’s eternal plan from the beginning was for us to live in community and not to withdraw into islands of isolation. This made me take the next step of exploring to be part of this community.
Ligaya was a place where I received formation as a Christian disciple. I learned the basics of faith, of a life of prayer, servanthood and mission. Ligaya not only provided the content, it also provided the perfect environment to live out what I was learning. Loving one another was no longer a generic phrase like “loving mankind.” It meant loving the specific people God brought into my life, whether they would be the kind I would choose to love or not. It was no longer based on a feeling of love but on a decision to love – to choose the good of others above your own.
We became a true spiritual family in community with God as our Father and members becoming my brothers and sisters in Christ. In community, I was loved as I am, yet loved too much not to allow me to remain the way I was.
Brothers and sisters in community encouraged me to grow into the woman God had called me to be. Community was a gift from God, and without it, Christian life was impossible.
There are no “Lone Ranger” Christians. God Himself is community – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and we are all called into the same communion of love.
God and life in community gave me the meaning I long searched for. Finally, I was home.
My Prayer for You:
In today’s world, people have grown more and more isolated from one another. Relationships have become utilitarian based on what we can get out of the relationship. But at the heart of the Christian life is the love we have for one another. They will know we are Christians by our love.
“A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12). May you be blessed to know the joys of Christian community.
This article by Beth Melchor is excerpted from Made for Community – No One Is an Island, in the May/June 2021 Issue of Living Bulwark.
Top image credit: Lost man in a boat searching for direction and help, from Bigstock.com, illustration © by Mike_Kiev, stock photo ID: 12118265. Used with permission.
Dr. Beth Melchor (1956 – 2018) was a senior woman leader of the Ligaya ng Paginoon Community in Manila, Philippines, and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Far Eastern University in Manila. She was active in youth ministry work for more than 40 years. She helped found the Philippine Foundation for Christ’s Youth in Action and was responsible for the training of women leaders and youth workers. She was also a founding member of Bethany Association.
See previous articles by Beth Melchor in Living Bulwark archives