This week in
Madonna House we began the Directors’ Meetings. This is always a rich and
somewhat intense time in MH—for those of us attending them, a time of deep
listening and searching out of the voice of the Spirit in our community; for
those carrying the load of the apostolate while we meet, a time of intercession
and offering.
While of
course I cannot talk about the meetings in this public forum in any detail, the
first week was mostly reports from the various houses about their year. This
year we decided to organize it a bit differently (just for fun) and went from
the furthest away house to the closest.
So we heard
from Krasnoyarsk, Russia; Resteigne, Belgium; St. Joseph’s house, Combermere
(which, by long standing custom in MH, we consider to be symbolically ‘3000
miles away!’); Robin Hood’s Bay, England; Whitehorse, Yukon; Carriacou,
Grenada; Vancouver BC; Edmonton AB; Winslow AZ; Regina SK; Raleigh NC; Rimouski
QC; Roanoke VA; Washington DC; Windsor ON; Alpena MI; Toronto ON; Ottawa ON.
Then we had reports from the various households of MH Combermere—the farm, St.
Mary’s, the main house, and our directors of training.
So this has
certainly taken up a good part of my energy and time, for sure, as well as that
of quite a few others in the community. Meanwhile, we are in full springtime
mode, although the weather this week shot us right past spring into summer heat
and humidity. We planted the onions this week, all of us going up to the farm
one evening to get them in. The gardens are in full gear, of course, and I
can’t even begin to tell you all that is happening—basically, everything we
grow is in some stage of being planted and watered.
With the
warm weather everything is stirring to life, and the swamp that our property
skirts has exploded with the sound of frogs and toads of all description—quite
loud, actually, which of course is a great sign of environmental health. One
evening two of our women held a session on the tea dock overlooking the swamp
on the different amphibian species of this area and how to identify their
croaks and peeps. We continue our commitment to adult education…
For the
month of May we are doing something a bit different in honour of Our Lady. It
is her month, of course, and MH is her house. Our communal dining room, which
is lined on its two long walls by book shelves, is filled on the top of those
shelves with statues of Our Lady of all description. So we have a little shrine
set up at the front of the room, and each day a different one of those statues
(and various other statues from other buildings) is placed in the shrine, and
before our communal rosary at the end of supper someone gives a presentation on
that title of Our Lady. We have had Our Lady of Sorrows, of Loreto, of
Apariceda (Brazil), of Beauraing (Belgium)… and more.
We also
celebrated the 40th anniversary of the death of Fr. Edward Doherty,
Catherine’s husband, who in the last years of his life was ordained an Eastern
rite priest. We had read his book Cricket
in My Heart, about his wooing and wedding of her, their founding of MH, and
his journey to the priesthood, earlier this year, so he was much to the fore in
our minds and hearts. We had a memory night on Sunday when people could share
stories about him, and a festive supper on Monday (the actual anniversary) with
his favourite—ice cream—for dessert.
Guests
continue to be sparse, although a steady trickle arrive each week. It would be
nice to see a somewhat bigger crowd, especially in this rich and beautiful time
of year—hey, any young adults out there want to have an adventure this summer? Check us out.
That’s about it for now—as I always say at this point, there’s lots else going on in this place, but I just don’t know what all it is. Be assured of our prayers for all of you and for the world as we go about our business here in the back woods of Canada.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.