WELCOME!

This is Sister Maria Lai (黎潔雲修女). I am a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Orange. Currently I am serving at Loyola Marymount University as a both Campus Minister for Graduate Students and Resident Minister. During the weekend, I am blessed with the ministry at Saint Bridget Chinese Catholic Parish. Occasionally, I facilitate for various online formation courses at VLCFF, Dayton University.

The purpose of this website is to reflect my own gratitude to God for His abundant blessings. I pray that through this SHARING OF THE HEART and my learning experiences, you too may come to know who you are and what you can become in faith.

I desire and strive to be the consolation of God. I believe it is important to have a discerning heart as to remain in God as God remains in me. I am grateful to be tagging along with the Holy Spirit and seeing God’s glory in you and me each and everyday. In order to share who I am and not just what I do, I decided to invite the voices of others to review the privilege of discipleship. For Jesus said, “… blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” (Luke 10:23-24)

1. From Alisa – a single woman who accomplishes a lots in the business world. I knew Alisa for about 17 years and she was a volunteer at the Religious Education Program at the parish.  We still keep very close contact with each other after I left the parish.

“I believe your legacy is to keep us renewing our relationship with God. You strive to have us dig deeper than we feel comfortable. You have reminded us that God is in our heart, around us always, even if we don’t want to admit it. You have challenged us to be aware, to look for God in everything, everybody, everyone. You have also taught us (me) to use a different form of communication to connect with others about our relationship with God.”

2. Patrick is one of the students’ fathers.  He is a father of three beautiful children. Through Patrick’s son, I came to know the whole family.  Patrick is a young dedicated dad.  He works hard for his family.  From Patrick:

“Sister Maria is an inspiration to all.  She gives her time at a moment’s notice to people from all walks of life and circumstances.  She is a friend, teacher, and spiritual adviser and is a part of our family.  We are all very blessed for having her in our lives.  Everyone who has ever met her comes away a better person. She has helped so many realize who they are and what they can be.” “Before I met her I was stuck on an island and God was on another island and she was the “bridge” that connected the two islands. I feel I had all the materials and tools inside me to build the bridge (i.e. baptism, CCD Classes, Confirmation, Catholic School) but she was the bridge maker who taught me (and still teaches me) how to build that bridge and get closer to God. Tina and I are truly blessed that she became part of our lives.”

3. Amy is a mother of two children.  She is also a very successful business woman in her workplace.  I occasionally gave workshop for Amy’s group of young parents. Here is Amy’s reflection:

“ …I found it VERY helpful. First of all, I haven’t had this kind of sharing session for a LONG time since I have my first baby… 5 years now!! …  I know I would say it’s because I was busy, no time, kids taken all my time, etc….but those were just excuses!! The truth is …. too lazy, no initiative to attend, etc… but really, I was totally a lost sheep and my faith went down to ground zero or even lower!! 

Back to yesterday session, it was a great sharing that I realized how different my thinking was compared to God. My mind was always negative, negative, and negative in which yesterday session completely conformed my thinking!!! The most thing I like or I learned from you is that you would teach us how to change our mind step by step and most important of all, you taught us in a VERY practical way to achieve the changes!!… Unlike other speakers who talk about faith in theoretical way which I never understood!!”  

4. I met Doris more than twenty years ago at the convent. We lived together for three years during her formation.  Here is Doris’ memory:

During one of the Basic Catechist Faith Formation classes – “I remember there was a team of Sisters and one lay person teaching the course.  Although this senior religious sister was also a good teacher, I noticed that the people would only sit up in their seats when you would get up to present.  You added a lot of humor to your presentation which made it more interesting and digestible.  (This is something that comes naturally because it is not as effective when someone tries to be funny in their presentation). I remember your talk on grace during the course.  You spoke of Adam and Eve and the difference between “She took” and grace being a free gift which we receive.  (I have used this idea in my own lesson presentations because it struck me very much at the time.) You also encouraged the listener to think.  One thing I noticed was that you turned every thought and answer of the student into the “right” answer by helping them to fill in the words rather than telling them they are way off or they don’t have the right answer. One of the prayer services you used a “magic birthday candle” and had us each think of something we lack faith in and we were supposed to say out loud, “Jesus the re-light the light of faith in my heart.”  A couple times the trick candle did not work and the light did not come back but instead of making it a bad experience you simply said, “Sometimes Jesus uses the help of His human instruments to help re-kindle the light of faith in our hearts.”

Other Classes – “Community living class was the most practical for me and the only class I remember trying to live out everyday.  When I returned to the Novitiate as a staff.  I did not use the notes left behind from my other teachers.  Instead I looked back to my own notes from the Novitiate to teach the Novices the principals we were taught by you. 

Passing on the Faith to Others – In Community we were taught by a founding sister how to teach religion but none of it made sense to me until I actually watched you present a lesson back to us and then you not only demonstrated to us how to teach but you actually gave us the tools to study and teach with conviction.  Only after you presented the 10 Commandments and the 10 Lepers to us did I start to enjoy teaching.  Before that it was a burden to study the lessons because we were all trying to memorize it word for word instead of using our own words and the conviction in us to convey the message.

Others: https://youtu.be/z5FDtG75kMI.

To sum up their words and the words of many others, the below Wordle.net has created the image of who I am and what I want to be. Perhaps you can do your own Wordle and see what may come up for you too.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Sister Maria’s CV – https://sistermarialai.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Sister-Maria-Lai-CSJ-CV-2024.pdf