“It Is the Lord!”

Those are the words that the disciples cry out when, from their boat on the sea, they recognize the risen Jesus on the beach. These are the words that caused Peter to jump out of the boat and swim to shore in his eagerness to reach his Lord. These are the words echoed by Mary Magdalene when she ran from the empty tomb to the disciples, crying out, “I have seen the Lord!” And these are the words that resound in my heart as I contemplate my perpetual profession of vows, my definitive consecration to the Lord, in the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Paul. It is the Lord!

It is the Lord who created me, who called me, who has sustained me in my vocation until now. It is the Lord who gifts me with every moment, and it is He who gives meaning to everything I do. Or rather—it’s He who does everything, not I. When I look at my life, it comes spontaneously to say “It is the Lord,” because I truly believe that my life is a gift, a marvel, a work of God, an initiative of God, not because of anything I have done, but because of everything He has done.

It is the Lord!

For this reason, I receive my perpetual profession as a complete, utter, and gratuitous gift. And I hope that it is gift also for you. I am convinced that my perpetual profession is not just my yes to God, and it is not just God’s YES to me. My perpetual profession is God’s great big YES to you, to you individually and to all of you His children, all of you His people. I truly hope that as I pronounce the words, “for all my life,” you hear in those words God’s yes to you:

Yes, I love you.

Yes, I am with you.

Yes, you belong to me; your identity is in me.

Yes, I am the Lord—I am your Lord.

Let us allow God to say yes to us, and allow Him to say yes in us. He has need of our voices to pronounce His yes to the world. He has need of our voices and our lives to proclaim:

It is the Lord!  

- Sr. Emily Beata Marsh, FSP