Update from the House Leader

By Maggie May

For those who don’t know me, my name is Maggie May (pictured on the left), and I have been serving as the House Leader since August 2023. I have lived in the house for two years, and it has been such a fruitful experience to live in this community and now serve as the House Leader. It has given me a new perspective on how to serve our community and attuned my eye to the unique needs of others. I figured I would share some of my experiences as well as fun things that have happened these past several months!

The House Leader serves a year-long term and wears many hats. She is responsible for monitoring the spiritual health of the house, leading by an example of virtue and character, doing any administrative work, working with applicants, acting as a liaison with the Parish, and much more. The Lisieux ladies and I joke because I served as my sorority President in college, and I often compare Lisieux House to being a "Catholic sorority." Now serving as House Leader, I can say it is quite similar to being my chapter president. I used to manage our communications with our headquarters, oversaw the chapter recruitment process, corresponded with other chapters, ran the initiation process, monitored the wellbeing of the chapter, etc. When you compare the two, there is a lot of overlap! However, I have found that the most different element is the most important: the element of faith. The members of my sorority had similar values, many of them Catholic, but the values of Lisieux reach a much deeper level as our community centers around the Catholic faith and the Eucharist.

When describing the house to coworkers, family, or friends, I say the Lisieux House is an intentional of Catholic women. The word intentional is a key part of our house and of my role as house leader – women intentionally live here, looking for authentic, Christlike friendships as well as a community to encourage growth in faith. In being the house leader, I look to see ways we as a house can support women in their current states of life. The house has many different seasons, and we often bear the weight of each other’s trials and tribulations as we share vulnerably in our community. This weighs on my heart in prayer and in asking Jesus where He wants to lead us, if he wants to heal us, where we need to rest, where we are at capacity, etc. Thankfully, Jesus is just a short walk down the hallway from my room!

This year has been a busy and full one for the house. From August 2022-2023, we had a steady season in the house, with the same nine women living in the house the whole time. Since then, we have had three women move out, and three women move in. The waitlist is ever growing with new requests weekly, especially since the Catholic News Agency article released in February. We have had some job transitions, two retreats, a few parties, many dinners, and the house is always dealing with random repairs that you would expect from an old convent. With the advent of Partners in the Gospel, St. Matthew’s is also preparing for significant changes.

Change and transition makes many of us uncomfortable! This is the undercurrent of life, however, and calls for greater reliance on God. I live by the mantra of one of my favorite saints, St. Padre Pio: “Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayers.” I am reminded continually of the fruits of prayer. Back in November, I spent nearly a month in Italy visiting my sister abroad and traveling to many pilgrimage sites. At the time, there was a certain house issue that was becoming stressful for some of the ladies. I was reminded of St. Padre Pio’s words, and even though it felt silly in the moment, I wrote it up and took it to the location of St. Catherine’s head in Siena (yes, her head and body are separated...just Catholic things). What do you know: the issue went away! Naturally, that church had some special graces, but God hears all our prayers and reminds us not to despair of our problems. It is an honor and privilege to be able to pray for the house in a special way as house leader, and this was very affirming of God’s love for us.

One could say there is never a dull moment in this community, but I prefer to think that there is never a moment God is not using for His greater good. This is surely attributed to our patron, St. Therese of Lisieux, as she reminds us of the beauty and meaning in the small things and the everyday moments. This past year has drawn me deeper into this mentality, and I am blessed by every second of it.