The farmers are hard at work bringing it in, and the food processors—just about every woman who can be spared these days—are hard at work putting it up for the winter.

Yes, we all agree that weather-wise it was a wonderful summer, except for one thing—the tornado.

I don’t want to say much about the tornado here; I’ve said so much in my other article. But I do want to mention one way in which it has affected the life of the men this summer.

The tornado was the third extra thing that greatly increased the work of the men at what was already their busiest time of year. (The first two were the breakdown of the septic system and the necessity to upgrade the wells at St. Mary’s.)

Our men, like our neighbors, spent days cutting trees and branches and cleaning up after the tornado. They did the bare minimum, cutting down whatever that had landed on or was in danger of landing on power lines or buildings, and those damaged, weakened or bent trees that could fall at any time. Such trees, if left standing, could cause major damage or even kill someone.

The men did only about a quarter of what needs to be done. The rest they plan to do in the quieter time of November. We have lost approximately a hundred trees, most of them on the island.

Yes, it was a very busy summer. Summer school included numerous evening activities, some of which we told you about last month.

The Sunday afternoon craft exhibits and demonstrations continued. We had afternoons of yarn and string (knitting, weaving, basket-making with yarn, etc., etc.), drawing and painting, and clay and wood (wood carving, pottery, etc.)

There was also a story-telling evening at the farm, "Tales of St. Ben’s," many of them the very funny stories of inexperienced farmers. Especially funny were those about the animals.

We had a couple more evenings of music and dancing. One of them featured Celtic music and polkas and the other square dancing. It’s wonderful to see the joy of the young people, many of whom have rarely or never done the older-type dancing. Once they are taught a few simple steps, they love it!

The summer school talks and lectures and the Saturday evening sessions when guests can ask questions of the directors general also continued.

We had a mid-summer day of recollection and a beautiful Taizé evening of prayer. The guests especially loved the Taizé way of praying.

One highlight of summer school was a short play. Directed by Helen Hodson, it was about a scene in the life of St. Ignatius Loyola—the meeting of St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, and Blessed Pierre Favre.

Cana Colony, our family vacation-retreat center, also continued, though it almost didn’t. Though the tornado did not pass through it, Cana, like the rest of Combermere, lost its electric power.

We thought the families would leave, but they decided to finish their week.

Since the radio was saying that it would be at least a week until the power came back on, we seriously considered canceling the next week of Cana. But, to our amazement, the power was back on in most places two days after the tornado. (The hydro company put in new cables before repairing the old ones.)

So Cana was on.

Probably the highlight of our summer every year is August 15th, the feast of the Assumption. It is our only major feast in summer, and, especially thanks to Archbishop Raya, who taught us some lovely customs (such as the men pinning corsages on the women just before Mass) and made it a feast celebrating Our Lady and all women.

August 15th is the anniversary of so many things in MH, and at the beginning of Mass, the celebrant always reads the list: Catherine Doherty and Archbishop Raya’s birthdays, a few ordination anniversaries, etc., etc., etc.

It is also a day of flowers. We denude our gardens to make huge arrangements of them in the chapel and big baskets of them to hang from the ceiling over the tables in the dining room.

The past few years (since we’ve had people in the apostolate long enough to be jubilarians), it has become the day for our celebration of 50th anniversaries.

Our celebration is so very simple, yet what beauty there is in such perseverance! Fifty years of moment-by-moment struggling to live this very unusual, very demanding, but in a hidden way, very glorious way of life. Fifty years of, as Jim Guinan, now deceased, used to say, "just pluggin’ along and doin’ the best you can." Fifty years of keeping your body here, no matter what.

This year those who reached this milestone are Joe Hogan, Ronnie MacDonell, Joe Walker, Theresa Davis and Mary Pennefather.

All except Theresa are currently living in MH Combermere. Theresa came up from MH Raleigh in North Carolina for the occasion.

One of the jubilarians, Mary Pennefather, or "Mary P." as we call her, is slowly dying. In fact, she was so low on the eve of the feast that it seemed likely she would die then. But, as she has done a number of times, she rallied and, at this writing, is still with us.

There are so many things I could tell you about these wonderful elders and pioneers of Madonna House, who could not be more different from one another. (All of us staff seem to get more unique the older we get.) But just a taste of some of what they did will have to do.

The three men were the first farmers of MH, Ronnie, who grew up on a farm, being the only one with any experience.

Ronnie, who has a deep love for the poor and a passion for social justice, spent over forty years at the farm. In his latter years, he served in Liberia, England, and Carriacou (in the West Indies).

Theresa, too, has been an overseas missionary and was the director in such places as Bangladesh, Israel, and France.

Joe Walker spent many years serving the Brothers Christopher (street people) in Edmonton, and in his latter years, served the community, among other ways, as a shoemaker. Joe Hogan, too, served the Brothers Christopher, both in Edmonton and the Yukon, and worked at the farm. In his free time, he has done quite a bit of writing and has had about 200 articles published.

Mary P., who we will soon be telling you more about, spent most of her time in MH serving in the sewing room in Combermere.

Fr. Jim Duffy is also a jubilarian. On May 26th, he celebrated his 50th anniversary of priesthood. More than half of those years were as a member of Madonna House.

His anniversary was celebrated at MH Toronto where he has been serving for many years, and also in Combermere this summer. Besides Toronto and Combermere, Fr. Duffy has served in Regina, Saskatchewan and Carriacou. It is he who brought the Charismatic Renewal to the West Indies.

One of the most important events of the summer was the appointment by the bishop of our diocese of a historical commission to investigate the works of Catherine Doherty. This is the next step in the process of her canonization.

Finally just one more item of news among a number of others there is no room for: Marysia Kowalchyk, along with Jude Fischer of Marian Centre Edmonton (both paint icons), went on a tour of Russia, a tour which specialized in icons. Marysia gave us a talk about it and showed a DVD she’d made of some of the icons.

And thus ends another account of our hidden life in a "quiet" part of the world.