Annie Michaud - CMC Missioner
A wise woman once told me, “Our weaknesses are our hidden strengths…with God.” This describes many of my inner thoughts and challenges during my life here in Colorado on mission. It is hard to wrap up and convey the significance of this year, its hardships and struggles, its many joys and discoveries. Perhaps the most memorable is that I discovered how instrumental one person’s presence can be in another’s life.
I’d like to share a story about a child from Annunciation School in Denver, where I served as a teacher’s aide. As a second grader, this boy had reading and comprehension skills well below his grade level. He continually guessed at words and made up sounds, unable to interact with the world of reading. With his background, no doubt many obstacles were before him, but I witnessed a beautiful thing happen with this boy. He got a teacher who wouldn’t allow him to fall back on any excuses. She pushed him and brought forth all the motivation inside of him, and she did it with Christ’s love.
Annie Michaud, who ministered as a teacher aide at Annunciation School in Denver, CO, pictured with some of her students at Annunciation School.Her belief in this precious boy was rooted in all the ways God had made things possible for her in her own life. She ignited a spark in him and watched it gradually set him afire with enthusiasm throughout the course of the year. He started to understand things he couldn’t understand before. He began to read independently and grew hungry to learn more. It was incredible! As I watched this transformation take place, I was able to fit some puzzle pieces of my own together. When I did, I saw that the Holy Spirit is always at work and can be felt in everdeepening ways, if only I allow myself to be open to it.
I tell this story because it expresses how I’ve come to feel on many different levels about my journey here in Colorado at Annunciation School and the Mother Cabrini Shrine. I’ve been blessed beyond measure to live in a community of ordinary people who put extraordinary things into action. I’ve been the recipient of love, patience and genuine care by people expressing Christ’s love that’s living within them. And that has made all the difference.
I started this adventure with God to become reacquainted with Him. Now in leaving I want to be fully captured by His burning, yet gentle love… the love of the Sacred Heart that beats for all of us. I’ve learned that it is when we are in our most vulnerable, weakest states that God seeks us out and waits for us to invite Him in. If we do, we can then pour His love out to all those we meet, just as the teacher did with the boy, just as those who have walked into my heart this year.
