Helen Is Engaged!
Friends, I am engaged!
Many people have been asking me how I feel upon hearing the news of my engagement. So to answer simply, if I were to describe how I am feeling right now in this moment, it is a sense of deep peace and a quiet confidence that yes, this is how everything should be.
And I am also filled with deep gratitude. First, I am thankful to our good Lord who has blessed our relationship again and again. I am thankful for Brian, my fiancé and best friend. And of course, I am thankful for the ladies of Lisieux House, who have screamed and cried for joy with me in celebration.
When Brian and I first began dating (literally, on Day 1), he boldly proclaimed his intention to marry me, to which I responded with hesitation. I thought, “Who does this guy think he is?”
But this, I would later come to learn, had revealed the qualities about Brian that I came to love dearly: his unwavering, sure heart and extraordinary, intentional love. Clearly, Brian and I aren’t perfect, but I can say with confidence that in all of our time together, I was blessed with the sound security of his love for and commitment to me.
I have been loved well.
It is a love that loves the person and not only their qualities and characteristics (those things are definitely important). He loves me, Helen, not just my ability to cook a delicious bibimbap (which, I will happily note, he does greatly appreciate and enjoy). It is a love that invites me to be fully who I am, without any reservations and fears.
He wills and chooses my good over and over, inviting me, teaching me, and encouraging me to do the same.
As Brian and I prepare our hearts for the Sacrament of Matrimony, we ask that you pray for us, that our union will glorify God and become a place of healing and beauty for others.
That our hearts will be a home to many.
As the great St. John Paul II said in his book Love and Responsibility:
“Love is never something ready made, something merely 'given' to man and woman, it is always at the same time a 'task' which they are set. Love should be seen as something which in a sense never 'is' but is always only 'becoming', and what it becomes depends up on the contribution of both persons and the depth of their commitment.”
We joyfully embrace this exciting and important task that is set before us!
And while I had begun writing with the intention to announce my vocation, I realize this has more or less turned into a love letter to my fiancé. Love is so wonderful, isn’t it?
