Tuesday, August 26, 2008

First Day

Once again a lot has happened since I last posted. My internet access has been rather limited for the last two weeks. I'm working on fixing that.

God works in funny ways, so - incredibly enough - here I am again at in the cluster of LaFortune, blogging. Darragh's missing and I don't have any homework (let alone a thesis).

I'm here, but I'm not a student. It's a strange feeling. I haven't decided if it's nice or not - just strange. I feel bad that everyone's running off to do homework and I'm just sitting around thinking "hmm what should I do now?"


What am I doing here?


Well, uninformed readers, today I started my new job here in South Bend. I'm now a pregnancy resource counselor.

I struggled with the decision to accept the position for a while - partly because of my own financial needs and partly because of the intense nature of the work. Thank you to everyone (especially Salt and Pepper, if either of you read this), for the prayers. I know I will continue to need them. My first day proved my concerns: a 19 year old highschool dropout expecting her second child, with visible scars on her face from her abusive older boyfriend who threw her out as soon as he learned she was expecting again. Hard. Very hard. But at the same time she also gave me assurance that even though there will be many losses this work will have it's rewards: she was resolute to be a good mother, to pull herself together and go back to school, to not let herself be abused again, to save herself for the man who will marry her.

...
God our Father, You were pleased to Bless the Virgin Mary with the gift of bringing Your Son into the world. Graced with the Word of God within Her, She brought forth Your New and Eternal Life to all creation.

We pray You that as You guided Mary, protect and guide all women who carry new life within them. May they be ever conscious of the great Dignity they have been given. May they turn to You in constant prayer and be ever thankful of the Gift they carry within them.

We pray this in the name of Jesus, who is Lord of Life, now and forever. Amen.


Most Rev. Loius E. Gelineau, D, D., Bishop of Providence

4 comments:

Claire said...

Congratulations, Mary Liz. I know you're going to do a lot of good. You and the women you work with will be in my prayers.

PS: Sorry I missed you when you were back in town! It was kind of a crazy summer...

Robert Gotcher said...

Mary Liz,

I also want to offer my congratulations and my prayers. This is most important pro-life work and flows directly from your work with the pro-life group at ND.

Robert Gotcher said...

Oh, and say "hi" to Tim for me.

Darragh said...

I never spent much time in Lafun this summer. It just didn't seem right without you there to "work" on our theses. *sad face*