Vol. 4, No. 1, January, 1999

My Story of Christ in Me
By Berlinda Delgado

All praise and thanks to Jesus Christ, who is the Good Samaritan!

I am the "man" from Jericho who fell prey to the robbers, beaten and robbed by my own selfishness and pride. Selfishness and pride temporarily robbed me of a personal relationship with my Lord Jesus. But Jesus, my neighbor, has picked me up oft the road that I was on. With His forgiving love He has healed the wounds that my selfishness and pride had caused. He has treated me with compassion, and He has called me to "go and do the same."

As a child I always felt a closeness to my Lord Jesus. I was very much aware of His presence and I treasured the times I was "alone." because they were times that I shared with my Friend. During my teenage years I felt that maybe the Lord was calling me into religious life but later chose a different road.

By the time I was 21 I was desperately in need of the Lord in my life. I had come to the mistaken idea that. because of my sins. God no longer loved me and I had no right to go to church or even to pray. much less to ask Him for anything. Another 12 years of life passed before I found out this way of thinking was wrong. I was married and had two children by now.

When my son was four years old I realized that I needed to teach him about God. With that came the horrifying realization that I didn't know God myself. What was I going to teach my children?

My search began. And even though I still believed that God did not love me, I knew that I did not want the same thing to happen to my children. What started out as a search for their sakes turned out to be a gift for me also.

I discovered that the Friend that I had abandoned still loved me. He wanted to renew the friendship that we once had. I knew I had a Father who loved me so much that He sent His son as an offering for my sins. All that Jesus went through. He did for me.

I surrendered and committed my life to Jesus Christ. In 1983 I was prayed with for the release of the Holy Spirit. Now. once again. I am aware of the Lords presence within me 24 hours a day. He has gifted me abundantly. I have a tremendous desire for the Eucharist. for reading the Bible. and for truly living my life for the glory of my Heavenly Father. through Jesus Christ. in the power of the Holy Spirit.

With committing my life to Jesus Christ came the responsibility of sharing the Gospel with others. But the Lord has empowered me to do that by giving me the gift of His Holy Spirit. He also placed the Sisters of the New Covenant in my life who, by the witness of their lives and their willingness to teach others how to live out the Gospel message, are truly a gift from God for me.

With the Lord's help, and with the help of family and others He has placed in my life, I know that I will become the person He created me to be. "He who seeks only himself brings himself to ruin, whereas he who brings himself to naught for me discovers who he is" (Matthew 10:39).