Once found, she never let go

“I was already working when I thought about my vocation. I was then a radio personality in DXDA-AM radio station in Bayugan City,” Sr. Lydia Sumampong, SFIC, started.

“My involvement in the two religious organizations in the church such as the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement and the Sagrado Corazon de Jesus fostered my relationship with the Lord,” she added. As a choir member of the Charismatic group, who also sung in the parish masses, Lydia worked closely with the SFIC sisters involved in the Music Ministry of the parish, administered by the Order of Carmelite Fathers.

“Masaya pala ang religious life,” Lydia observed the SFIC community. That, according to her, was how she discovered her vocation. She was at this time already 25 years old.

“May hinahanap na hindi ko mahanap,” Sr. Lydia recalled the emptiness she felt. However, once she found what it was she was looking for she never let go of it. This was when she got to know the Lord.

The young Lydia was an active member of the League of Filipino Students in the University of Bohol. An activist who did not really know the Lord, she was not concerned about her faith. Her family was not also active in Church except one sister who was not with them. But later she discovered that a number of her paternal relatives are either priests, brothers or sisters.

Her musical inclination nourished by the SFIC sisters drew her closer to the Lord. In time, she entered the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (SFIC) as a postulant in 1994 at the age of 27. Sr. Lydia had her perpetual profession in 2004.

Today, Sr. Lydia is the Campus Minister of the SFIC-run St. Joseph School in Toril. She is happy that she is given the chance to live her life according to the words of the Lord, “There is no greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (Jn 15:13).” Hence, she encourages young people to be attentive to the tiny voice of God calling them to serve Him through the Church especially this year of compassion and mercy.