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 June 25, 2009:

Art With All Its Teeth

by Jacques Maritain.

Do not say Christian art is impossible. Say rather that it is difficult—difficulty squared—because it is difficult to be an artist and very difficult to be a Christian. It is a question of reconciling two absolutes.…

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Posted June 23, 2009:

Donna’s Still Life Paintings

by Ineke Zigrossi, director of Abbozzo Gallery.

Traditional still life, with its emphasis on depicting the ordinary—arrangements of fruits, flowers, and mundane objects, as small celebrations of everyday reality, has a deceptive simplicity about it. In fact, it is an extraordinarily challenging form of painting that requires a special kind of artistic temperament.

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Posted June 17, 2009:

The Formation of the Madonna House Artist

by Catherine Doherty.

The apprenticeship for the Madonna House artists may be long or short; it depends on God. They are going to work in the handicraft center, the gift shop and in other places in the apostolate where they will at first deal with little things and learn to do them well.

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Posted June 11, 2009:

Servants of Beauty

by Donna Surprenant.

The following was written in connection with the death of Pope John Paul II.

Though I usually spend my days painting, today instead of taking up my paintbrush, I am taking up the tool that Pope John Paul II used—the pen. For in this time of closure after his death, I am filled with gratitude for his grace and wisdom.

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Posted June 09, 2009 in The Pope's Corner:

Beauty Will Save the World

by Pope John Paul II.

The Spirit is the mysterious Artist of the universe…. Dear artists, you well know that there are many impulses which, either from within or from without, inspire your talent. Every genuine inspiration, however, contains some tremor of that "breath" with which the Creator Spirit suffused the work of creation from the very beginning….

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Posted June 03, 2009 in One Man's Scrap:

One Man’s Scrap, Another Man’s Gold (May-June 2009)

May and June are special months for our Madonna House family. During May the directors of all our mission houses come for their annual meetings. Then in June, we have the joy of witnessing staff make and renew their promises.

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Posted May 28, 2009:

A Dream Dreamt in God

by Linda Lambeth.

Synonymous with Madonna House are Catherine Doherty’s words, "a dream dreamt in God." From her early youth, Catherine was given, through the tireless efforts of her family, a profound vision of true Christian culture.

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