41 Meditation #3 No Pain, No Gain I was born to a traditional Catholic family. In my village all of the people are Catholic. So, for me I have a great environment of my faith. I remembered when I was child, I used to play a game with my friends where I would wear a sheet and pretend to be a priest and celebrate mass. As I started second school and left the village, the religious atmosphere weakened, and I gradually forgot these childhood games. But the important point is that the seed of faith has been planted in my heart, just waiting for the time to grow. The schoolwork in second school and high school was very heavy for me, and I could only have some time to relax during the holidays. One day, my playmate called me to join a seven-day faith promotion program with him. During that event, I felt very happy to make some new friends. It was very interesting that one night a few of us sat together and chatted, sharing our own faith experiences. One boy said, “If you feel something makes you happy, why not try to live that life? If you are not happy, then find a new life.” Then I started to think to myself, since I felt that this experience of faith was very attractive to me, so why not go and experience it in depth? With this idea in mind, I tried to ask some priests for advice, and of course they were all encouraging me to give religious life a go. After high school, I began my attempt to live a life with a new mission. I entered the seminary to study philosophy. Those two years were painful but also fruitful. In the first semester of my study, I had a culture shock because this seminary was located somewhere else. I began to find that other people’s living habits and thinking were very different from my own. I even had a lot of arguments with others, including my spiritual teacher. I began to have the idea of giving up. My spiritual teacher, over several conversations, guided me to look at things from a different perspective. Gradually, through these arguments, I began to understand other people's lives and thinking. This understanding also helped me to have a deeper understanding of faith. I also started encouraging my friends to live a life of mission. Some of them told me that they were not ready, and my answer to them was that I too was not ready either, but the experiences along the way are helping prepare me. If I waited for the right time to be ready to start, I don't believe I would start. I came to Australia to start my new journey. It was full of challenges. I couldn't even speak a complete sentence at the beginning. The challenges of the first semester of theology included doing endless homework I couldn't understand. But all these, I realize, are pushing me to grow. In English, I like the saying, ‘No pain, no gain.’ That is a motto I apply to myself.
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