Taking Up the Mirror; Changing the Reflection
“Let us wake up then, open our eyes in apostolic charity, and if we are called, set out for any place where the work is great and difficult.” That statement by our founder, Samuel Mazzuchelli, has challenged me lately. Ministry with victims of domestic violence has been both life giving and energy sapping. At times, I feel like Alice – not of Wonderland but of the Looking Glass. Every day I am impelled to look into a mirror and claim what I see; to acknowledge some of my internal reactions to people I’ve met, situations I’ve encountered, and to the culture in which I find myself - a culture so different from my own experience and one that is negatively impacted by the effects of racism, poverty and white privilege – including my own. This work, while so necessary, is painful for me. Honestly, sometimes, it just seems too great and too difficult. A friend recently suggested that perhaps the great and difficult work I am being called to is...