Moreover, of those visitors, three—Maria Park, Emmanuella Kim, and Michaela Bang—have become members of our community. A fourth, Joo-Eun Lee, is currently an applicant, due to make her first promises this coming June.

The bond between Madonna House and Korea has been slowly, imperceptibly growing. Two or three staff have even begun to study the Korean language in their free time. The most persevering of these has been Tom White.

In 2002, a member of Madonna House, Fr. Emile-Marie Brière, made a visit to Korea. There, he gave talks, told people about the spirituality of Catherine Doherty, and made numerous contacts.

Then in October 2005, Emmanuella Kim invited Tom White and Fr. Paul Burchat, who is the spiritual director of a number of the Korean guests and former guests, to visit Korea with her. Both said yes. When Reyna Smith found out, she asked to go along. She had been wanting to visit Korea for ten years.

Each begged for the airfare from family and friends, and Emmanuella spent much time and effort working out the details of the journey. In September 2006, the four flew to Korea for a month’s visit.

At a recent staff meeting, they attempted to put words around that very intense, very graced month.

Their slides and travelogue revealed how much of the country they were able to see including the beauty of the mountains, of rice fields, and of tea cultivated on the hillsides. Among other things, they visited Buddhist temples, an imperial palace, a re-creation of a traditional village, and the shrines of both the Christian martyrs and the martyrs for democracy. The latter were the hundreds who were killed in 1980 while demonstrating for democracy in Emmanuella’s hometown.

The staff also visited the boundary of the demilitarized zone which separates North from South Korea.

What had moved them the most on their journey? Fr. Paul said the heroism of the martyrs, an estimated ten thousand of them. Korea is the only country where the people themselves, rather than foreign missionaries, introduced the faith. (French bishops and priests came afterwards, and many of them were also martyred.)

For Fr. Paul, the journey became a pilgrimage to the martyrs.

He said that his visit to Korea also helped him to understand what others coming from different cultures experience when they come to Madonna House. In a new culture, he said, "You feel helpless and vulnerable, and you have to rely on others."

Tom found the trip overwhelming. "Everything was new and different," he said. "24 hours a day, seven days a week. It was a tremendous challenge, but it was wonderful."

Both he and Reyna were deeply moved by the tremendous generosity and hospitality they were given, a hospitality which went far beyond anything they had expected or even imagined.

Tom said, "It gave me a vision of what Catherine meant by hospitality of the heart. Now I want to try to live this in my own life."

For all four, it was an experience of intense community living. They were together almost all the time, and every day they had to plan and make decisions together. "It was a little Madonna House field house," said Emmanuella.

For Emmanuella and Reyna, who shared a room every night, the trip was a deep experience of communication. "Every night we talked," said Reyna. "I debriefed. We shared our frustrations and asked one another questions. It was a beautiful time for me to be able to talk things out."

The three North Americans expressed much gratitude to Emmanuella, who poured herself out as their guide, translator, and bridge between the two cultures.

She, on her part, was very grateful to them. She was grateful for their many prayers for Korea, and for the love they obviously have for her country. "They were so open-minded to everything," she said. "They really tried. They trusted me; they trusted us. And they ate everything."

Emmanuella’s parents were just baptized last March, and they felt very blessed that Fr. Paul said Mass in their home for the several days the travelers stayed with them. The travelers also visited the families of the other Korean staff and applicant.

They visited a seminary, a new lay community, four priests who had visited MH, and a Poor Clare monastery. Two of the Poor Clares, Americans, had spent time in MH in the early 1970s to learn about dairy farming in preparation for opening this monastery.

Fr. Paul, with Emmanuella translating, gave a retreat, which included a talk about apostolic farming, a subject the group was particularly interested in.

And of course, all four were constantly answering questions about Madonna House everywhere they went.

The Korean Church is young, both in its history—it was evangelized in the nineteenth century—and its membership. Of the five million Catholics, two million converted during the past ten years.

Our team found among those they encountered a deep desire to know more about the faith and to grow in it.

One of the reasons for the journey was to visit our former guests. Some of the ones who live in Seoul have formed a group which meets every two weeks, a group in which they read the Bible, pray, and share together. Their chaplain, Fr. Francisco Lee, has also visited Madonna House.

Fr. Paul gave a retreat to these former guests, and, of the over thirty of them, the travelers were able to get together with over twenty. At the retreat and at visits to their houses, there was much sharing among them.

These former visitors were so touched that people from Madonna House had come to visit their country, something that they had never dreamed would happen. As for the travelers, it was a joy for them to see how much the former guests love Madonna House and how they accepted them.

Now our travelers are home and are very grateful for their time in Korea. What is God doing with all of this? It is a mystery in his heart.