Be Encouraged | John 19:26

Consecration to the Virgin Mary

St. Louis de Montfort: Today, I, a faithless sinner, renew in your hands my Baptismal vows; I renounce Satan forever, his pomps and works; and I give myself entirely to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom, and will carry my cross after Him all the days of my life, and will be more faithful to Him than I have ever been. With the entire heavenly court as my witness, I choose you this day for my Mother. I deliver and consecrate myself to you, my body and soul, myself, both interior and exterior, and the worth of my good actions, past, present and future; leaving to you the total right of disposing of me, and all that belongs to me, according to your wish, for the greater glory of God in time and in eternity.

St. Maximillian Kolbe: Immaculata, Queen and Mother of the Church, I renew my consecration to you for this day and for always, so that you might use me for the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus in the whole world. To this end I offer you all my prayers, actions and sacrifices of this day.

You are a ring-bearer, Frodo. To bear a ring of power is to be alone. This task was appointed to you. And if you do not find a way, no one will.

The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien

Sources of Strength

Drafted in February 2016:
We found coping with infertility very isolating and were further disheartened to find few peers at our relatively new local parish. More recently, I attended a women's bible study where, following my comment that Saint Joseph is a good example for adoptive fathers in particular, a kind local woman my mother's age insisted that there was nothing at all in the bible regarding adoption. And the other 10+ women apparently agreed! Mind you, at the time, we had more full-heartedly turned our attention to adoption and I had recently found myself encouraged by the overwhelming beauty of the theme of adoption throughout scripture! We suffered from a lack of Christian fellowship throughout our 2 years of NaproTechnology treatment, though we seemed to incessantly try to 'plug in' in new and different ways. Here were my sources of strength, in addition, of course, to my wonderful husband and parents; not even my closest friends got the complete play-by-play. It was a very lonely road.
            

KLove

Dr. Timothy Keller's Sermons | Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City
Biblical scholarship + profound understanding of cultural zeitgeist = a clarion call to make Jesus Christ the center of your life--woven and integrated into all aspects~

The sermon subscription is excellent as is the series on Hebrews, just to name one.  I love the message that it's about faith in God; not faith in one's hopes for this life.  And God doesn't owe us anything--He has already given us everything in Christ.

Women's Infertility Support Group | The Gianna Center, New York City
In the end, this was by far the best source of support I found: a faith based group at Dr. Nolte's office (see previous post for location and phone number for current schedule).  I met many wonderful women through this group, a handful of which have become true friends.

WQXR