A VaLENTine’s Day gift

Immaculee and the Nuns

 The last time Valentine’s Day fell on Ash Wednesday or rather Ash Wednesday fell on February 14th was a few months before I entered Carmel.

I must tell you that day I got the most flowers I have ever received in my life. Jesus sent me 8 full large buckets of flowers. Talk about making a girl happy.

I have learned since then that when God gives, He always gives in abundance.

And so, on Tuesday after weeks of unusually warm weather and sunshine, we got a snowstorm that kept everyone home. Well, everyone except a few, one of them being Immaculee Ilibagiza who, snow or no snow, still made it to our chapel, despite several hours of travel delay due to 6 inches snow as you can imagine.

So instead of having a packed chapel, we had the speakroom all to ourselves with her. This intimate gathering allowed us to speak to Immaculee personally, hear her story and ask questions. Immaculee is a Rwandan Genocide survivor and a motivational speaker. Her story is an incredible story of forgiveness, and people need to hear it now more than ever in a world torn by war and strife. The nuns read several of her books, (Left to Tell being the main one), but to meet Immaculee in person and hear her speak about what she went through during the genocide, to which she lost most of her family, was truly inspiring. God shines through her in a very powerful way. She is full of joy, has a great sense of humor and is completely down to earth about the struggles of our human nature (the choices we can make between fear and anger vs love and forgiveness).

What struck me was her love for Our Lady as she spoke to us about the apparitions of Kibeho, in Rwanda.

To learn more about our beautiful guest please visit her website www.Immaculee.com

We are so grateful to God for this pre-Valentine’s Day gift.

Sr. Teresa of Divine Mercy, O.C.D.