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One of the realities of life in our mission houses is that we don’t stay there forever. We might be there for five months or twenty years, but at some point, we will be transferred somewhere else. The following three staff recently left one of our mission houses.

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MH Vancouver

by Sushi Horwitz

For a few months, I have been on temporary assignment at MH Vancouver, and now as I get ready to leave, I would like to share what especially struck me:

1) Two young women, foreign students: Here in Canada, while studying at an Evangelical college, they discovered Catholicism, and it had a great impact on them.

I was struck by the intensity of their hearts and their search. They have found a pearl of great price, and seem willing to sell everything for it. And there are other foreign students like them.

2) The Holy Family Apostolate Meetings. Founded by Bishop Gary Gordon when he was bishop of the Yukon diocese, this group meets at the parish close to our house or at another parish one Sunday a month between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.

We begin with an hour of silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, discuss a line of the Madonna House Little Mandate*, and have a potluck supper and fellowship. It is a blessed gathering.

3) Mornings of Recollection: Once a month, we host a morning of recollection from 9:30 a.m. to noon for anyone who wants to come. Usually one of the staff gives a talk and leads a sharing and reflection. At these gatherings, too, we have been reflecting on a line from the Little Mandate.

What struck me about these mornings of recollection was the depth of peoples’ sharing. There is an openness, vulnerability, and faith in the Lord that I have rarely seen in any group. This is such a rare and precious gift. The mornings I attended were truly blessed by Our Lady.

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Did anything else strike me? Yes. Following is a little meditation I wrote after I had been here a few weeks.

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The House Where Love Dwells

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There is a little house in a big city. You would not notice it if you walked past it. Small, brown, old, and set back from the street, it blends into the background, undistinguished from the houses around it. If it were a bird, it would be a sparrow—ordinary, common, unremarkable.

The house has three bedrooms, all small. The biggest one has been made into a chapel, and there Jesus silently lives in the Blessed Sacrament.

The little house is in an ordinary neighborhood. On one side lives a mother with her two children; on the other, a family with three children. Next to them is lady with her two dogs.

But the little house holds a secret: Love is there. Love lives there, especially in the room where he is present in the Blessed Sacrament.

It is easy to feel his presence, for Jesus is very close. When you go to bed, Jesus is only ten to twenty feet away. When you are in the living room, he is fifteen feet away.

In and out of this little house, people come and go. They come to talk, to pray, to ask for prayers, to bring donations, to ask for help. The residents of the house, the MH staff, baby-sit, visit the elderly and lonely, garden, help with funerals.

I would think that the Holy Family did much the same things.

Jesus himself lived there. And Mary, not divided and hampered by original sin, also radiated love as she cooked, cleaned and did the laundry. Joseph, living as he did with God and his Mother, would have radiated love as well.

Since the Lord of Love is present there in the Blessed Sacrament, the hidden little house in Vancouver, too, spreads peace and love.

For Jesus, though hidden, is powerful. His presence blesses and radiates love in an ever-widening arc, like ripples in a lake after a stone is thrown in. Unseen but powerful, that love radiates throughout the house, the neighborhood, the city, even the world, bringing life, order, and peace.

*Words that give the essence of Madonna House spirituality

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MH England

by Sara Matthews

The following is adapted from a short article Sara wrote for their diocesan newspaper to describe her transfer to friends of the house.

Occasionally, I would look out over the beautiful coast at Robin Hood’s Bay and think, “How did I ever get here?” To come here was a complete surprise from the Lord.

Two and a half years ago, I was working in the kitchen at Madonna House Combermere when the director of the women asked me to come see her. As I walked over to her cabin, it did not occur to me that I might be asked to move.

We chatted for a bit, and then she said that she would like me to go to our house in the UK. It was a surprise, and I was absolutely thrilled.

This past November I received the call to move to my next assignment. I know that I will miss Robin Hood’s Bay and our life here very much, but it was a gift in the first place, so I cannot cling to it or claim it as my own.

I return to Canada with so much gratitude; first to the Lord for my vocation and the gift of two years in Robin Hood’s Bay; then to the community in our house, Cheryl Ann, Nikola, and Fr. Brian, for their love and support over the years; and to all those whom I have had the privilege of meeting during my time here.

As members of Madonna House, we make a promise of obedience. Our directors general pray to the Holy Spirit in order to discern in which house God is calling each of us to serve.

Our promise of obedience is an act of trust in the goodness of God. Wherever we are sent, we trust that the Lord will use us for his purposes and sustain us and be our help. I know that where I have been asked to serve next is God’s will for my life, so I know that it will be good.

As I return to Canada, I will carry in my heart all those I have met here. My faith has been nurtured and has grown through the faith of the people here—our fellow-parishioners, our visitors, and those who have come on retreat.

I will continue to pray for all of them and for the diocese of Middlesbrough. I am so grateful for the kindness and hospitality I have experienced here.

Catherine Doherty, the foundress of Madonna House, said that when we go somewhere as missionaries, it is “to find the Christ who is already dwelling there.” This is true, as I have discovered, and he was revealed to me, too, in the beauty of the people and places of North Yorkshire.

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MH Washington

by Cynthia Donnelly

It was December 1982 when I first walked through the blue doors of Madonna House Washington. There I was met by Bonnie Staib as she was caring for a homeless man. Then when we walked into the house, I saw Mary Catherine Rowland on the phone listening to someone.

The peace of this house penetrated my heart in a profound way.

I had just made my first promises a few weeks earlier and was on my way to my first assignment in Muskegon, Michigan. Jean Fox, then assistant to Catherine Doherty, had suggested I stop over and visit MH Washington first. That visit began a love affair that has continued until this day.

I had always hoped to serve in MH Washington, but this was a dream that took many years to be fulfilled.

A few days after the attacks of September 11, 2001, when I was in poustinia in Combermere, I heard a call in my heart to come to the U.S.A. and pray for my country.

A year later in December, that call was answered when Jean Fox transferred me to Washington. I have been there for fifteen years.

It has been an honor for me to serve here. The mandate for this house, to pray for those who work for the government of the U.S.A. and for the President, stretches the heart of a person. It has certainly stretched mine.

For those of us who serve and have served in this house, this mandate has been a challenge as we see the diminishing of virtue and civility in many of our elected officials.

Yet this experience has been balanced by the faith and goodness of our friends whom we have been honored to serve: those who come seeking God in our poustinia, those who come to chat over a cup of coffee about this and that, and those who come for a listening ear to share the pain in their life or for spiritual guidance.

And last but not least, we find joy and hope in watching the play of the children who come with their parents.

I shall leave this wonderful house in two days. I leave with peace in my heart, tears in my eyes, and a deep conviction in my soul that our humble, hidden life is transformative for us, for our friends, and for the world.

St. Paul describes our call so much better than I can.

I urge you … to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. Do not conform yourselves to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God … Let your love be sincere, hate what is evil, hold on to what is good…..Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, perservere in prayer. … Bless those who persecute you … rejoice with those who rejoice. … If possible, live at peace with all (Rom 12:1-18).

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