When so much can be said it’s often hard to find what to say. As I sit to write this, we are celebrating today 15 years of blessings at The Magdalene House. I’m not sure what is fit for me to say regarding our home when I’ve only had the privilege of serving here for 11 months. I feel like I’m always discovering something new every week about its history and running and the people and things that belong to it. As the years continue and people come and go, The Magdalene House remains, strong and beautiful, becoming a home for all who enter its doors and I am thankful for the season it has been my home.
Thankful. I am thankful to you, Mary, Christy, Teresa, Lisa and Jen, our five brave founders, as words can’t adequately express the gratitude I feel in having a home and family which you helped form. I’m thankful to the staff and Missioncorps members who have bravely served before me at The Magdalene House and helped it to be what it is today. In particular I’m thankful to Malia Furtado and Sarah Waggoner who taught me what I know (the little that I know) in helping run the home, and Amanda Ayala who has patiently been helping me grow these last months to make The Magdalene House the best it can be. I’m thankful to our Fiat staff for all their expertise, sacrifice and guidance. I’m thankful to the Missioncorps serving at The Elizabeth House, The Michael House and The Zechariah House for being my extended family. I’m thankful to the current Missioncorps I serve with Morgan, Alicia and Mary Clare as we journey together and Hayley who made it so sweet for a time. I’m thankful to the generosity of our volunteers and donors who continue to make this work possible. I’m thankful to The Magdalene House moms for sharing a life in common with me and teaching me. I’m thankful to our patron Mary Magdalene who intercedes for us and helps us to strive for the boundless mercy she received. Above everything and all else is my gratitude to God for His Divine Mercy, Providence, protection and Love to our community as all this is borrowed from Him who desires our greatest good.
If you really want profound reflections I’m afraid I’m too inadequate a poet and writer to give them. I would recommend reading our Maggie’s Place book for these gems, “Where the founding time was like the whirlwind ride of a romance in the budding stages, the work of today is much more about the little gestures of fidelity in the day-to-day life” (Mary Peterson). So now I too return to be present to my current moms and prepare our home to welcome our newest mom and continue the cycle of love and community.
“For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work. Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” – Philippians 2:13-16
By Leticia Sanchez, a MissionCorps member
