A Tour of the Madonna House Training Centre

Our Library and Books

Now, let us proceed on our little tour to the Madonna House library-dining room. There, you will see shelves lined with books, more than 50,000 books, all of which have been contributed by generous people.

From our begging, donated books now go all over the world and have spawned several hundred small parish libraries in isolated communities and missions, as well as larger urban centres. In her outline on the library, Catherine Doherty speaks to the Madonna House librarians:

Each book has been carefully chosen, and much work has gone into getting it on the shelf. The work is nothing, however, when one considers why the book is on the shelf.

Meditate a little at this point, and slowly let the thought sink in, that you are a ‘God-Giver.’ Yes, you give God to people who sometimes do not know him at all, or who know him very little, or who desire to know him better. As you sort, classify, access, make cards, put books on the shelf and take them off again, you are feeding a person with God, for knowledge is God.

Walk softly. Say a little prayer, for the Word is in the words of this book. How reverently, how zealously, how humbly, how joyously you should approach this vital work of giving God to hungry man.

Library work is a great discipline, a great mortification, and a great joy. It is a very special class in the school of sanctity. You will learn much more than the mere handling of books. You will learn to love in a way you have never loved before. Your heart, your mind, and your soul must abide in the great tranquillity of God's order and his peace, for your work is exacting, full of small details and little things that sometimes will become a crown of thorns that really bites deep.

Be concentrated. Never forget that a book is God's word. Deal with it carefully, thoughtfully, efficiently. Be at peace, and allow yourself to be filled with the Word that you bring to others.

As a librarian of Madonna House, you must be ready to preach the Good News. You preach it with the simple act of handing a book, a tape, a pamphlet, to another person. People are hungry for God and for the kind of knowledge that leads them to him. Feeding people's minds comes under the works of mercy, the fruit of love.

The library is a beautiful department. It is truly a place where little things are done well for the love of God. Reverence for books, keeping them well, repairing them, adjusting them, and sending them as messengers of love across the world, is one of the most potent little things done well for the love of God. For that little thing that is a book enters the minds of men. It enters a heart and therefore the heart of humanity, and it changes it. Books console, uplift, heal, bring hope, bring faith, and bring men back to the faith they have lost. Books are friends and companions always at hand for the lonely. Books are God's gift to men.

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