Madonna House is spread over many buildings. You sleep in one, eat in another, pray in another, work in another. And you use still another building when you go to the outdoor jon.

So all winter long, whenever you go from one building to another, it’s boots on, lace them up (for some boots), coat on, hat on, scarf on, mitts on. Or off more or less in the reverse order. Over and over. Many times a day.

It’s one small reason among many that, come February, we, along with everyone else who lives in a northern climate, are eager for spring.

February is the perfect time to begin Lent. There’s been a stretch of ordinary transition time after the Christmas Season, and the longing for spring can melt into the longing for Easter.

Plus those winter-type things that we are weary of can, by being offered to God for the whole world, be part of our Lenten life. Even boots on, boots off. (By the end of Lent, they’ll be mud boots instead of snow boots.)

There was a different type of thing to offer up in Madonna House during the days this column covers: the Advent asceticism—the constant busyness and the inevitable frustrations when everyone is under pressure getting ready for the feasts within Advent and for Christmas.

Yes, we do try to have recollected hearts to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child, but here, too, it’s easy to get frazzled by the pressure and the inevitable frustrations and misunderstandings.

But these things are part of Advent, and God very much works in our hearts through all of them. In fact, it is in this very stuff of life that he often does his deepest work of purifying our hearts.

All of the above is especially true for those who work in "feastday-related departments": departments such as the kitchen (of course), the sacristy, the handicraft department (which is responsible for most of the decorations), the cleaning department, and the schola (our version of choir).

But, factually, everyone is involved: baking cookies and other desserts, practicing music, making wreaths, decorating, etc., etc.

Piercing through all of this activity and very much a part of it are our celebrations of the feasts within Advent, feasts which like Christmas itself are a fusion of religious celebration and fun.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is probably the best example of this. The day starts with mañanitas (morning song) to our Mother, beginning with a pre-dawn candle light procession to the chapel where a large picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe stands in front of the altar surrounded by vigil lights.

There we sing to her in the wonderful variety of our mother tongues. At evening time, our Mass is sung in Spanish and is followed by a Mexican supper. Finally, the day ends with what is always one of the best parties of the year.

Every year it is different, and this year it was an evening mostly of singing—of old songs that early staff had written to the melody of popular tunes, songs that were sung in those days in sing-songs to pass on Madonna House spirituality with fun and humor.

We’d been invited to write new ones, and several of us, including guests, did. Old ones included, "You Don’t Have to Be Crazy But it Helps" and new ones included, "Teatime," (to the tune of "Downtown"), "Daylight Come and We Shovel the Snow," (to the tune of the West Indian Banana Boat Song, "Day-O") and "Boots on, Boots off."

We also take two days—December 8th and December 14th as quiet days, prayerful days that help us to center on the essence of the season. December 8th is another celebration of our Mother, and December 14th, the anniversary of the death of Catherine Doherty, is a day of recollection.

Also for Catherine’s anniversary, archives put on a wonderful display—a chronological and visual journey through Catherine’s life, with memorabilia from its many stages.

It does increase the work pressure in one way to take out these two workdays, but it is our faith that if we put him first, God will take care of the details. In fact, everything does get done.

Though most of our news this month is Advent-time related, here’s one event that wasn’t: Remember our ad asking for apples in the September Restoration? Well, John O’Neill, an old friend from Belleville, a couple of hours drive away, recently arrived with 65 bushels of eating apples.

Having seen our request, he had been keeping an eye on apple prices, and when he spotted a bargain, he bought some for us.

Bringing them to us was part of his 75th birthday celebration. He was invited to lunch, and Renée Sylvain, our head cook, managed to find a cake.

We have spiritual reading right after lunch, and that day it was a letter to the staff by Catherine about joy.

John shared beautifully about his joy in being with us, his joy in bringing the apples, and the joy he has experienced throughout his 75 years.

May God give all of us the grace of seeing the joys he gives us every day and thanking him for them—even as we continue to offer him all the trials and pinpricks of that day—even something as small as boots on, boots off.

Blessed Lent to each of you.