So I went to the University of Ottawa where he was staying. He told me he had a mission house in Whitehorse where transient men and Indian people could stay overnight; and expectant mothers could stay until their babies were born and then wait until they could get transportation home.

This mission house needed to have someone there all the time. One of his priests used to do this, but it was too much for him with all his other duties.

Bishop Coudert asked me if I had ever heard about Madonna House and Catherine Doherty. He was going there the next day to ask Catherine if she could send him someone to do this work. He asked me to pray very hard that Catherine would send some of her workers to staff the mission house.

Madonna House was very new then and had very few staff. But after first saying no, Catherine accepted, and the Yukon became MH’s first mission.

The bishop really loved me and prayed for whatever my vocation in life would be. He sent me to visit a contemplative convent he knew, but that didn’t seem to be my vocation.

Later on he suggested I visit Madonna House.

I planned to take two weeks of my vacation time at Madonna House, but a person more senior in my office had applied for an extension to her vacation, which was one of my weeks. Eventually, in July 1954, my holiday time worked out.

So I went to Madonna House and while I was there, someone arranged for me to see Catherine. She asked me what I wanted. I said, "God!"

She said, "Go outside where there are some summer chairs, and I’ll send a priest to you."

The priest who came was Fr. Gene Cullinane. He became my first spiritual director and I kept in touch with him. In February 1955 he told me he thought it would be a good idea for me to come to Madonna House for a year.

My job was in a bilingual government office. Sometimes I needed to answer the phone in French until the right person came along.

The office was very good to me. They gave me a leave of absence and a gift of a sweater and a pen and pencil set.

In April 1955 I arrived in Madonna House; I became an applicant on September 8, 1955.

My classmates took their promises and received their Madonna House cross on Holy Thursday. I was not ready to take my promises then, so I joined the next group of applicants who came on the feast of the Epiphany, January 6th. I made my first promises with them on the feast of Our Lady’s Assumption into heaven, August 15, 1956.

My first mission was to Marian Centre Edmonton. My main work was washing the dishes of the Brothers Christopher (unemployed men) after they had eaten their meal. One day a week I did the laundry.

In December 1958 I got pneumonia and pleurisy and remained in the hospital for five weeks. When I was well enough to travel by myself, I went to our house in Portland, Oregon, mostly to recuperate.

I returned to Edmonton for Easter 1959. Then I returned to Madonna House Combermere in September where Kathleen O’Herin taught me how to sew and mend personal clothing and linens.

In those days the room beside the sewing room was the handicraft room. Many times in the evening we would gather there and learn how to make things. Catherine joined us on these occasions.

We also had a budgie bird named Tommy. He quickly learned how to talk and often repeated words or short sentences. He brought a lot of joy to all of us.

Fr. Cal was my spiritual director until he died in 1984. Fr. Cal gently led all his directees to God. At Christmas all of us would join Fr. Cal in the dining room here and listen to Handel’s Messiah. He did that one evening during Lent, too.

During the winter months we had classes. Catherine would teach us, among many things, the history of our apostolate. Fr. Cal taught us all about the Mass and the encyclicals.

I was here when the statue of Our Lady of Combermere arrived on April 26, 1960. It was such a beautiful warm, sunny day and we all gathered to welcome her.

In early September 1960 I was transferred to the Yukon. There was lots of cleaning for me to do there, and I also worked in the office where I took dictation and did typing.

In the fall of 1964 I returned to Madonna House and worked mainly in the sewing room. At some point I worked in the laundry full time folding towels and doing the many little things needing to be done there.

In the summer Cana Colony, our camp for families was in full swing, and every Saturday a crew of us young people would go to clean the cabins, chapel, and cook shack for the next group of families.

Among the things to be cleaned in the cook shack were stoves and refrigerators and tables and benches and chairs. I did this for ten years.

But most of the time I worked in the sewing room. I did this for thirty years.

Now I am working in the laundry folding towels, hankies, and pillowcases. I live at St. Luke’s with Kathleen, Mamie, and Edie (other elderly members of MH), and with Kathleen Janet, our housemother. Every day I go before the Blessed Sacrament for my hour of adoration. I pray for everyone during that hour.

My life in Madonna House has been a joy to me and spiritually very rich. I have truly found God. My joy is complete.

— Excerpted from Mary’s vocation story which she dictated in July 2000, and which appeared, also excerpted, in Restoration, October 2000. In August 2006, shortly before she died, Mary was asked if she wanted to change anything she wrote in this account. She said to add: "My joy is still complete."

"I am a very simple and ordinary lay apostle, at peace with the modern world. I have no leadership qualities, outstanding talents, or specialized education. But all Christians have been given the responsibility of preaching the Gospel with their lives. And I am a Christian." — Mary Pennefather