
Written by Madonna House staff, Restoration is an essential part of our witness to the Gospel. Here we share our personal stories and reflections on the Gospel challenges of today, along with writings from Catherine Doherty and the Catholic Church.
by Fr. Mark Mitchell.
No, Madonna House hasn’t opened a house in Michigan. This was written by one of our associate priests.
I have always been close to Madonna House, and when MH had a house in Muskegon, a city 35 miles away, I often went there for visits and poustinias. I regularly visited MH Combermere as well, and whenever I did, I would bring donations and other things from the Muskegon house to Combermere.
Continue reading "Notes From Near and Far: Grand Rapids, Michigan"...
by Fr. Kieran Kilcommons.
My particular apostolate within the apostolate of Maryhouse has been taking me around much of the area north and west of Whitehorse, the city where we are located. Every month I visit six mission parishes.
Continue reading "Notes From Near and Far: Maryhouse, Yukon"...
by Paulette Curran.
"If only our priests were holy," she sighed. Two women were talking with us in the MH mission house where I was stationed a number of years ago. In fact, they’d come a number of times, and often at least part of their conversation would be about priests.
Continue reading "Do You Want Holy Priests?"...
by Catherine Doherty.
Dear Fathers, you do not realize how much joy your very presence brings. How much hope it brings, too. I have a story to tell.
Continue reading "A Story About a Priest"...
by Catherine Doherty.
Our foundress Catherine Doherty gave the following talk in the 1970s before the current revelations of sexual abuse by priests. Had she written it now, her style and approach would have been different. Her essential vision of priesthood, however, would have remained the same.
Continue reading "What Is a Priest?"...
Living as we do in a climate with very definite seasons, we experience over and over the beauty of a new season as well as the whole range of activities that go with it. Of course, some things remain the same. What ever the season, chickens continue to lay eggs, the cows need to be milked, and we still need to cook and do laundry.
Continue reading "One Man’s Scrap, Another Man’s Gold (January 2010)"...
by Bonnie Staib, circulation manager.
Last week I received a call from one of our subscribers. "I haven’t read the current issue of Restoration yet," the woman told me. "There’s a story I’ve been meaning to tell you but never get to it, so I told myself I wouldn’t read the next issue of the paper until I phoned you." Here’s her story.
Continue reading "A Restoration Baby"...
Assignments: Beth Ryan, Roanoke; Petra Muller & Trina Stitak, St. Joseph’s House; Maureen Denis, Yukon; Sandra Wood, Windsor (as local director pro temps); Teresa Gehred, Christine Herlihy, & Tom Kluger, Combermere.
Deaths: Pat Probst’s father, Al.
by Paulette Curran.
As I write this in mid-November, we are continuing to enjoy an unusually mild autumn. But though it doesn’t feel like November, the view from my window confirms that it is. The bright leaves of autumn are gone, the pine and spruce trees are a dull, dark green, and all else is varying shades of gray and brown.
Continue reading "Combermere Diary (January 2010)"...
by Cheryl Ann Smith.
Life in Roanoke, Virginia, has been a surprise. In fact, it has been layers and layers of delightful, colorful, beautiful surprises.
Continue reading "Mountains, Music, and the Bible Belt"...
by Catherine Doherty.
We tend to pray with great intensity for the things we want, but do we ever think of praying for what God wants?
Continue reading "Praying for What God Wants"...
by Catherine Doherty.
To me, prayer has always been a matter of listening. All my life, I have desired passionately to listen to God. When I was a little girl, I used to run in the low hills which were covered with wild flowers.
Continue reading "Listening to God"...
by Fr. Pat McNulty.
Ah, weddings! Here’s a reflection in connection with the wedding feast of Cana, the Gospel for January 17th.
The formal toast at a wedding reception is usually made by the father of the bride, but this one was made by the mother. This bride was the youngest of their many children, and the father had motioned to his wife to do it.
Continue reading "Salut! I’ll Drink to That!"...
by Fr. David May.
It was a very annoying situation in a most beautiful setting. I was on vacation in Maryland, walking along the Atlantic shoreline. The autumn day was sunny and pleasantly warm. The ocean waters were calm, remarkably so, as the waves broke gently over my feet and massaged my toes.
Continue reading "The Fork in the Road"...
by Emmanuella Kim.
Staff worker Genevieve Enoe has for the last several years been taking care of her mother, Mama Sheila, on Carriacou, a tiny island in the West Indies. Recently, Emmanuella Kim of MH Vancouver, visited her.
Continue reading "Mama Sheila"...
by Sandra Wood.
God was always present and acting in my life, but it was a long time before I knew it.
Continue reading "I Was Almost a Pagan"...