by Toni Austin.
In the fall of l961, I was assigned to work at old St. Joe’s to help with the preparations for Christmas. I was a young working guest from Toronto, twenty years old.
]]>...by Trudi Cortens, first director of St. Joseph’s House.
"Nothing is alien to the apostolate except sin," Catherine often told us, and that left her, and us, wide open to take on just about any kind of work to further our goal of "restoring the world to Christ."
Here are just a few of the works we undertook in response to the needs of the people of the area.
]]>...by Catherine Doherty.
Catherine liked to reminisce about her early years in Combermere. Here is one of her favorite stories—and one of ours, too.
The day had been hard. The bed was so wonderful. Sleep was instantaneous and deep. So was the dream deep. Deep but far away. Endlessly someone was calling me. Faintly. Faintly and not so faintly. Someone was shaking me.
]]>...by Lorna Tonack.
My memories of St. Joe’s stretch back to the spring of 1980, when my husband Carl and I moved to Combermere from Edmonton, Alberta, with our two young daughters. We were a young family hoping to buy land and pursue our homesteading dream, as well as find a community to grow in.
]]>...There is movement in the quiet village of Combermere. Cars line Highway 517 on both sides as far as the eye can see. Clusters of people and vehicles are also gathered on the southeast corner where the road meets Highway 62. Everyone seems headed to an old gray-shingled house with blue trim or the brown house behind it.
January, March, May, July, September; the seasons change, the tourists come and go, yet once a week on Thursdays and Saturdays, from 2 – 4 p.m., this scene remains more or less the same. What is the attraction? What’s the draw?
]]>...by Beth Ryan.
I arise and search for my beloved (cf. Song of Songs 3:2)
I have seen Him in the faces of the teenagers in a parish youth group, who came to our house to see our way of living as a witness to Christ. They were remarkably open and interested, asking how we obtain our food, clothing, make-up. I saw Him in their hunger for God.
]]>...Deaths: Associate Fr. Duncan MacDonnell; Genevieve Enoe’s mother, Sheila
]]>...by Paulette Curran.
As I was looking over the events of the past month in preparation for writing this column, I was struck once again by the simplicity of our Madonna House life.
]]>...by Cynthia Donnelly.
Not too long ago, one of our friends called, deeply troubled by the culture of death and the relentless undermining of our religious freedoms in the U.S.A.
As I listened, I was reminded of a meditation I made years ago while doing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.
]]>...I thought it was about time that we sent you some news from our house.
This has been a real prairie winter. November is on record for having the most snow for that month in the history of Regina. We have also had stretches of very cold temperatures, the coldest being around –40 C (-40 F).
]]>...by Pope John Paul II.
Because we have been sent into the world as a "people for life," our proclamation of the Gospel must also become a genuine celebration for the Gospel of life….
For this to happen, we need first of all to foster in ourselves and others, a contemplative outlook.
]]>...See how much difference it makes when the Book of Revelation is read in some kind of recognizable context.
No, the Book of Revelation never made any sense to me either way, in or out of any kind of context. It’s all about that scary stuff about the End Times, all those weird-colored horses, big dragons waitin’ to eat babies, and creatures covered all over with eyes an’ wings. It’s too spooky for me.
]]>...What happens when someone you meet says something like, "I think the Catholic Church is the worst thing that ever happened to the world"?
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