Of course, relatives from more southern climes are horrified at our tales of snow accumulations and negative temperatures delivered in incomprehensible Celsius figures. They are awestruck at how casual we are about it all, taking it in stride, though not without an occasional slide into a snow bank or a hard fall on an icy path.

Winter can also be a reflective time, as compared to summer, at least here in this rural region, where there is much more activity and population in summer than now, with farming being at the head of the list in Madonna House.

Of course, if you were with Fr. Louis and the bush crew, you’d never guess that summer is the more active season.

By March, they will be transferring their activities from cutting wood for fuel to tapping trees for maple syrup, which even though there will still be five feet of snow on the ground, is still regarded optimistically as the first sign of spring.

On to the "reflection" part of the title of this article: I can’t help but think from time to time about our trip to Ottawa this summer to return Catherine Doherty’s Order of Canada after Dr. Morgentaler, the abortionist, was nominated for the award. That happened in July—the announcement and our returning the medal a week later.

For a brief moment Madonna House was in the national limelight. The community was in agreement that it was the right thing to do, and that the way we did it—presenting the medal and certificate to an official at the Prince’s Gate of Rideau Hall in a very public manner—was appropriate.

Our presentation was dignified and at the same time made it clear where Madonna House stands on the matter of abortion and "life issues."

We soon disappeared from the interest of the national press, but hopefully a seed was planted as a reminder that the issue of abortion is neither dead nor "settled" in Canada.

Life issues, however, involve a lot more than a one-day trip to Ottawa to make a public statement to the nation. Life issues go on all the time, because there is a battle now in so many hearts about whether life itself—my life, your life, his life, her life—has any great value or meaning.

So many people today are unmoored one way or the other, and in fact, no small number of young people find their way to Madonna House each year seeking some kind of mooring or anchor in the truth, especially the truth of our Catholic faith as a basis for living a sane and even saintly life.

It can take time, effort, prayer, listening, sharing, working together, tears, cries of pain and joy, play, joking, singing, drawing, painting, handicraft, carpentry, poustinia, being still, time, and much, much more to help turn a heart around, to help bring a ray of light and meaning where darkness and hopelessness have held sway.

The Gospel of Life is not only about "issues," but about living and learning how to live in Christ. Do you know what is most foundational to help bring about this turnaround to life and hope, at least from the human point of view?

People who are committed to "being there" for you, and who will be there for you in the future, simply because they love God and are "living the life," as we say around Madonna House.

"Living the life" is a lifetime effort! It means you believe that God is in the midst of commitment to a cause, in this instance the "cause" being the Madonna House way of life.

And since God blesses a life of commitment, there is a power and a grace in it that can transform those who share in it, even if only briefly.

A committed life or a vocation as we usually call it—whatever the form it takes—is blessed by God because it reflects something of who he is: the Bridegroom who has committed himself forever to humanity’s plight, suffering with us, dying with us, and then rising as only he can to newness of life, that we, too, might rise with him.

Jesus Christ is the perfect icon of commitment, if I can put it that way. He is "there" for us, always: I am with you always until the end of time (Mt 28:20). He is the wellspring of hope in the midst of life’s trials.

It is he that our life together bears witness to, in the sense that all human activity has been touched by his Incarnation and can now become an expression of his divine generosity and creativity of love.

I was actually thinking of that business of being an extension of the divine Incarnation when I was back in Combermere the day after our trip to Ottawa.

As usual on summer weekday mornings, I was back in the vegetable garden at St. Mary’s very early, hoeing and weeding away according to my instructions from Chris Hanlon, the head gardener.

At this point in my life, I am totally sold on the idea that whatever I do in obedience to the Lord is giving him an opportunity to extend his blessing to this earth.

I don’t mean only the soil—though that, too—but this earth of billions of human beings, and millions of aborted infants, and millions of struggling or lost parents of those infants.

The tragedy of our world today is that it is no longer obvious that life is worth living.

But when you enter into the spirit of the Gospels, understood as being lived out in the body of Christ in a thousand ways, a prayer rises in your heart that begs the Lord to bring order, light, and clarity through the very work of your hands, which have become his hands working at this humble task.

You discover that, as you surrender to the grace of this moment, your own heart is being transformed and that the Giver of Life himself is very near to you.

Your work becomes a prayer, then, for that gift to be extended to many. And what you draw from the experience of this service is a wisdom to share with those you will meet this day.

It may be a bitter winter’s day, but there is an assurance of spring because God is with us always, and what seemed impossible to bear a moment ago becomes not only bearable, but a joy, by the strength and mercy that he gives.

All of this is but a partial and even poor expression of the Madonna House way of life, which is a gospel way of life.

The appearance at Rideau Hall was but the tip of that "iceberg," which is not an iceberg at all, but a Flame of life, hope, and love that God gives lavishly so that it can be generously shared with many.