Restoration

Restoration

Written by Madonna House staff, Restoration is an essential part of our witness to the Gospel. Here we share our personal stories and reflections on the Gospel challenges of today, along with writings from Catherine Doherty and the Catholic Church.

Posted March 15, 2010 in My Story:
There Is a Hope in Hell

by a staff worker.

Perhaps you have heard the saying, "there isn’t a hope in hell," which refers to an impossible situation or problem. That line was certainly part of my vocabulary.

This past year, however, I have discovered hope emerging in my life and in the darkest and most painful corners of my past. Through the telling of my personal story, I want to tell you how hope became very real for me

Continue reading "There Is a Hope in Hell"...

Posted March 12, 2010:
The Sign of the Cross

by Romano Guardini.

When we cross ourselves, let it be with a real sign of the cross. Instead of a small cramped gesture that gives no notion of its meaning, let us make a large, unhurried sign, from forehead to breast, from shoulder to shoulder, consciously feeling how it includes the whole of us, our thoughts, our attitudes, our body and soul, every part of us at once, how it consecrates and sanctifies us.

Continue reading "The Sign of the Cross"...

Posted March 10, 2010 in Lent and Easter, and in New Millennium:
Praying With Your Body

by Fr. David May.

The old man peered from behind the curtain of the iconostasis. "Sign!" he yelled. "Sign! Why aren’t you signing?!"

Continue reading "Praying With Your Body"...

Posted March 09, 2010:
Poem

by Lolita Jardeleza.

Continue reading "Poem"...

Posted March 08, 2010:
A New Way of Seeing

by Roman Guardini.

The more we think about long-familiar things, the clearer does their meaning grow. Things we have done thousands of times, if we will only look into them more deeply, will disclose to us their beauty. If we listen, they will speak.

Continue reading "A New Way of Seeing"...

Posted March 05, 2010 in Lent and Easter, and in Word Made Flesh:
Why Not Be a Mystic?

by Fr. Pat McNulty.

One cloudy day, I was sitting on the ground outside the poustinia in great turmoil and pain. I was trying to make some very difficult decisions in my life, and I was feeling a desperate need for a sign from God.

Continue reading "Why Not Be a Mystic?"...

Posted March 03, 2010 in My Dear Family:
Forgiveness

by Catherine Doherty.

We must forgive the society from which we came; we must forgive the ways it has hurt us.

Continue reading "Forgiveness"...

Posted March 01, 2010:
Forgiving is a Journey

by Irma Zaleski.

Some twenty years ago, I spent two weeks at Madonna House. Although I had already known the community for a few years and thought I knew them quite well, my short stay made me realize how little, in fact, I had known or understood how demanding and difficult their life could be.

Continue reading "Forgiving is a Journey"...

Posted February 26, 2010 in One Man's Scrap:
One Man’s Scrap, Another Man’s Gold (February 2010)

Whoever invented the twelve-month calendar was wise to give February only 28 days. They must have had an inkling it was going to be a cold, dreary month. But dreary or not, we think it’s a good month for getting things done. After all, there are fewer things going on in February.

Continue reading "One Man’s Scrap, Another Man’s Gold (February 2010)"...

Posted February 25, 2010 in Lent and Easter:
We Are Saved Sinners

by Jean Fox.

We say, "I’m wounded" or "I can’t help that because I’m wounded." We must learn to say, "No, it’s not my wound that makes me mean and irritable and devious and hateful. It’s the fact that I’m a sinner."

Continue reading "We Are Saved Sinners"...

Posted February 23, 2010 in The Pope's Corner:
How Can I Not Pay Tribute?

by Pope Benedict XVI.

"The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus," the saintly Curé of Ars would often say.

Let us reflect with heartfelt gratitude on the immense gift which priests represent, not only for the Church, but also for humanity itself.

Continue reading "How Can I Not Pay Tribute?"...

Posted February 22, 2010 in Lent and Easter, and in Word Made Flesh:
Got a Penny?

by Fr. Pat McNulty.

The toothless, scruffy old beggar outside the bus station didn’t bat an eye when I declined her sexual pitch. But before I could converse with her along a more favourable line, she said to me, "Got a penny?"

Her question caught me off guard. "A penny?" I asked. "What are you gonna do with a penny?"

Continue reading "Got a Penny?"...

Posted February 19, 2010 in New Millennium:
He’s Admirable, But…

by Fr. David May.

If an article in Restoration starts with the theme of "penance," are you likely to continue reading? Are you still with me? If so, let’s look together at the example of St. John Vianney, patron of priests, for this is the Year for Priests, and he is its patron.

Continue reading "He’s Admirable, But…"...

Posted February 17, 2010 in Lent and Easter:
Lent: School of Love

by Catherine Doherty.

Lent is God’s lovemaking to man. But God’s lovemaking is strange. He knows, for instance, that a child is trained to jump by having first a little brick to jump over, for his feet are very tiny; then two bricks; then three; and finally the Olympic jump—whatever it is.

Continue reading "Lent: School of Love"...

Posted February 15, 2010:
What I Learned in Russia

by Fr. Michael Shields.

The author, who has been a missionary in Russia for fifteen years, is the pastor of the first Catholic parish in Magadan, a city which, under Communism, was an administrative center for the gulags (prison camps).

People outside Russia usually ask me how I am doing and what I am doing. I then give a litany of what we are doing, leaving out what we should be doing and our failures.

Continue reading "What I Learned in Russia"...

 

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