Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
January 30, 2002
Laywoman finds call in consecrated life
Edith Garcia, 32, was born in Lima, Peru. She is a member of the Marian Community of Reconciliation (MCR), an association of Catholic women who consecrate their lives to serve God through a full apostolic availability. The MCR was founded in Lima on March 25, 1991, by Luis Fernando Figari, a Peruvian consecrated lay man.
Garcia arrived in Denver February 2000. Since that time she has been serving in different fields of apostolate in the Archdiocese of Denver. She made her perpetual promises of full apostolic availability in the MCR last week in Lima with three other consecrated lay women. She will return to Denver this week.
Register: How did you discover your vocation?
Garcia: I always had a great desire to help people. The more aware I became of the deep and growing crisis of the world in which I live — its crisis of values — the more I wanted to do something to change this situation. I met a group of people (the Marian Community of Reconciliation) who were uneasy for the same reasons I was, who had the same questions I had and the same desires for changing the world we lived in into a world more equitable and reconciled.
This ideal fascinated me. That's how I threw myself into the great adventure of discovering the path that God has for me to be happy. I knew that I was called to give my life to him in the task of evangelizing the world — in the task of taking the same answer of the Lord Jesus to each human heart. With the help of many people and with a lot of prayer I discovered that what the Lord asked of me was to become fully available to fulfill his plan, to give my whole life to serve him and all human beings.
Register: Why did you choose the Marian Community of Reconciliation?
Garcia: Because when I started wondering: "Who am I?" "Why am I here?" "What is the most important thing in my life?" I met people who had found true answers to these questions. I wanted to live the same way. I wanted to give my whole life to this immense and fascinating ideal of being saints — of sharing the great and valuable treasure that I found in the Lord Jesus. I saw the need of showing that to everybody — of teaching the world that Christ is real, that love is real, and that it reconciles and saves.
In the Marian Community of Reconciliation I discovered the concrete path through which the Lord wanted me to consecrate my life. As I understood better the charisms of the MCR, I found myself and I found a place to satisfy all my longings: to work with youth who also share a great desire to change the world and to give their lives for a noble ideal — one worthy of living for. To work with the needy in order to allow them to live with more dignity and humanity. And to help suffering people to unite their suffering with the Lord Jesus on the Cross.
And last, but not least important: to evangelize culture, a fascinating task of the Church. Evangelization seeks to take the person of the Lord Jesus to every realm where the human being is. It is about working for culture to be more Catholic, to be more human, and in this way, to be a place where man can fulfill himself.
Register: What would you say to youth who are discerning their vocation?
Garcia: The first thing I would say is, "Do not be afraid," which is not mine, but the Lord's, who said it to his disciples many times and which the Holy Father repeats to us.
Don't be afraid of listening to God's voice. Don't be afraid to commit yourself to God — he knows better than anyone else, even more than us, who we really are. He knows where our true happiness is. He knows why you have been created. When we answer God's call we don't lose anything, but gain everything.
Pray a lot and ask the Lord to help you to be faithful on the path you take.
And one more bit of advice: Pray to our mother, holy Mary. Ask her, who trusted in the Lord, to teach you how to trust and how to be faithful as she was.
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