Even in a quiet time, though, there is always much to do in our big family. Ours is a spirituality and way of life rooted in the stuff of human life. Our foundress Catherine Doherty taught us to "restore all things to Christ." Today it would be called "building a culture of life."

Not surprisingly, individual members of our community are doing a wide variety of things—both here and away.

I’ll start by mentioning those things done elsewhere. Kathleen LaBrie, a certified Montessori teacher, is filling in in a school in Switzerland. Catherine Lynch is fulfilling a long-time dream—immersing herself in the life of a Ukrainian-Rite monastery.

A number of staff gave retreats in various places: Fr. Pat McNulty gave one to a small group in Haliburton, Ontario, and Fr. Bob Pelton went to Denver, Colorado to give two retreats to the priests of the diocese.

Fr. Murray Kuemper and Teresa Reilander gave the annual retreat for women in our Pembroke diocese. (The theme was "The Path to Silence.")

Others attended conferences or took or are taking short courses. Joanne DeGideo and Zoyla Grace are taking a weaving course. Linda Lambeth (of MH Publications), Jean Doucet (of the archives department), and Marysia Kowalchyk (an icon painter) are taking a Photoshop computer course.

Fr. Paul Burchat, Diana Breeze, and Trina Stitak attended a day of talks in Toronto called, "Celebrating the Richness of Humanae Vitae," talks marking the 40th anniversary of this encyclical. (The hall was filled to capacity and over 300 people were turned away for lack of space.)

Fr. Paul Burchat, Peggy Cartmell, and Diana Breeze attended a weekend conference on euthanasia and gave a talk to us about what they’d learned.

Fr. Bob Pelton is teaching a liturgy class at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, the liberal arts school of higher learning in nearby Barry’s Bay.

Our director generals are currently at MH Belgium, doing a visitation.

Marité Langlois, with Marie Therese McLaughlin as her driver and companion, attended a high school reunion in Montreal. It was her 65th anniversary!

Mary Davis and Ruth Siebenaler spent part of their holidays camping and hiking in Algonquin Park, a nearby provincial park.

Zoyla Grace restored the statue of St. Francis for St. Francis Hospital in nearby Barry’s Bay.

Then there are a variety of ongoing individual works that individuals are doing within Madonna House.

To give just three examples, Patti Birdsong is wood carving, and Joan Bryant and Marysia Kowalchyk are painting icons.

Then there are the personal apostolic works that various people do in their "free time." Every Sunday afternoon, for example, Ronnie MacDonnell and whoever chooses to go with him, visits at the local nursing home.

And what do most of us do day-to-day? Once again, there is much variety. For the men there is maintenance, wood cutting (both in the forest and chopping and stacking firewood), farming, auto repair and maintenance, office work, carpentry, computer repair, plumbing, electrical work, snow removal, shoe repair, etc., etc.

For the women there is cooking, gardening, handicrafts, office work, library, laundry, gift shop, book shop, cleaning, hospitality, sacristy, archives, nursing, caring for our elderly, etc., etc.

And, oh yes, a few of us put out Restoration: the editor, the layout person, and the circulation manager and assistant. (Plus lots of people mail it out in a work bee once a month.)

(Not all these works, let me add, are done exclusively by men or women.)

Besides all this, many of us make weekly or monthly poustinias (a specific type of prayer day), and a few of us are poustiniks, living that contemplative way of life for three or more days a week.

So what is our news? Well, for one thing, we celebrated All Saints’ Day.

As has become the custom, the feast begins the evening before with the procession of what we call "the little saints" through our dining room at the end of supper. These are local children who, instead of celebrating Halloween, dress as saints, visit a few places, and at the end, are given an All Saints’ Day party by their parents.

All Saints’ Day itself is one feast we celebrate differently every year. This year we presented "the new saints," those canonized by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. We dressed up as these saints and when interviewed by Larry Klein and Cathy Mitchell, told the community the life of our saint.

Fr. Paul Burchat gave two lectures on "Church History Simplified," lectures he had first given to the applicants. He covered two thousand years!

The renovation of our men guests’ dormitory continues, and this time of year, of course, it is the indoor work that is being done. Recently, the men from the HELP department (heating, electrical, landscaping, and plumbing) put in the stairs, closets, and electrical wiring.

The women staff had our annual turkey dinner, this year celebrating the re-election of Susanne Stubbs as director general of women.

Change is in the air in Combermere, literally! As part of a movement in our area to reduce air pollution caused by the burning of trash, to limit landfill, and to conserve our natural resources, we have shut down our incinerator.

We installed more paper shredders, and since the area is now doing a lot more recycling, we now have five categories for trash disposal: paper, containers (of any recyclable material), plastic bags and wrappings, shredable and crumpled paper (which we are using to start our wood-burning stoves and furnaces), and dump.

The Korean seminarians who are spending three months with us are making a pilgrimage to some of the shrines in Quebec.

Speaking of seminarians, we rarely mention the numerous priests and seminarians who come here for individual retreats—including ordination retreats—but this is ongoing.

Among the most recent ones were two seminarians from the Neo-Catechumenate Way who are studying in Toronto—one from Paraguay and one from Colombia—who came for their deaconate retreat.

Well, that’s all the news for this month.

At a time of so much darkness and threatening darkness throughout the world, we join our prayers and efforts to yours that our lives and cultures be renewed.