Combermere Diary

by Paulette Curran

As happens some years, I am writing this column for this February paper on the day we return to work after our three Christmas days off.

Well, “days off” doesn’t re­ally say it; for those Christmas days have a very special quality; you could say that we enter into a whole other space.

In this issue about holy plac­es, this column is about holy time—not just Christmas but the whole Advent-Christmas Season. At Madonna House, this season is among the most beautiful, the richest, and the fullest in the year.

During Advent, when the songs, liturgical prayers, and Mass readings are filled with the longing for the coming of Christ, the Church invites us to a time of stillness in which to get ready for his coming.

Well, for us, as for many of you, keeping this focus is a chal­lenge as we do all the work that celebrating requires—especial­ly since Advent contains feasts other than Advent.

During one week, for exam­ple, piercing through the Ad­vent atmosphere were the feasts of St. Nicholas, the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Gua­dalupe, the anniversary of Cath­erine’s death, and St. Lucy. To varying degrees, we celebrated each of these, and when I say “celebrate,” I do mean celebrate.

A day of recollection on the anniversary of Catherine’s death helps. It’s a prayerful pause in the midst of the busy­ness—and an act of faith that things will get done even if we take a whole day away from do­ing them.

One thing that makes this time so busy and full was ex­pressed well by one of the men staff during a staff meeting many years ago: “Every coun­try has its Advent and Christ­mas customs,” he said, “but we do all of them.”

Well, not all, but quite a few. Some of what we call Madonna House customs and traditions Catherine taught us, and some we have since added on.

But every year has its own particular character as well. This year, for example, we have lots of working guests, more than usual for winter, especial­ly men. They have been given a second housefather, and we have had to refuse some who wanted to come because we’d run out of beds.

The women guests, for whom a second housemother is not unusual in the summer, have needed a second one now as well. As for priest visitors, well, there have been more of them, too. On Christmas Eve, for example, there were six.

During Advent, the guests have a liturgy class in which they learn about Advent and, learning by doing, they partici­pate in the preparations and do presentations for the feasts.

This year the liturgy class was led by Fr. Michael Weitl, Alec Bonacci, and Philomena Lim. Among other things, the class did a beautiful, reverent, and simple presentation of the story of Our Lady of Guada­lupe. It was written and nar­rated by Christina Milan and told from the point of view of Our Lady.

For St. Nicholas Day, the guests presented his story by doing a shadow play us­ing sheets. One of the guests, Lauran McKay, composed and played the background music.

The guests, along with staff and applicants, cooked and baked as well.

They made the tortières (French-Canadian meat pies eaten after midnight Mass), St. Nicholas cookies (cut in the shape of bishops and decorated), tortillas for our Mexican sup­per on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and in what’s called a “sugaring off,” they made ma­ple syrup into maple sugar.

In the evenings, whoever wished to could make cook­ies. Well, lots of people did: the kitchen was filled with cookie-bakers almost every night that something else wasn’t going on.

These cookies we eat as supper dessert all through the Christmas season. This year, we well may have set a record for the number made.

Another added dimension this year—not an “official” part of the decorations—is two wonderful snowmen, one at the main house and one at St. Mary’s. The one at St. Mary’s, made by applicant Nicholas Par­rott and a few guests, is huge—probably about twelve feet tall. They had to use ladders to make the upper part.

Would you believe that I have only described part of what went on during Advent?

As Christmas neared, more emphasis was put on getting ready for that feast. We made wreaths and strung up lights and decorations. We went car­olling in the area, had a penance service, and heard two Christ­mas stories read during supper­time.

Then suddenly, it was Christ­mas Eve—a time of last minute getting-ready-for-Christmas tasks, especially by the kitchen, handicraft department, and sac­risty, and, for those who could manage it, a quiet winding-down time.

Who can describe Christmas at Madonna House? Our Savior, Christ the Lord, has been born as one of us to save us. What­ever pain and darkness are in our individual lives and in the world, what cause of joy!

Somehow, our Christmas is all one: joy in the birth of Christ, beauty of all kinds—Masses, songs, decorations, food—ice skating, skiing, vis­iting with one another, hiking, Christmas stories, watching a movie, looking at the sparkling snow-covered trees, free time to do whichever of the above or even just sleep longer than usual.

A couple of added features of the last couple of years are these: breakfast with the elderly and carolling by the Baklinski clan.

On Christmas and the days after it, the days on which we each make our own breakfasts, staff can sign up to make break­fast and eat with the residents of Our Lady of the Visitation, our annex for the elderly.

The carolling? Well, in an area in which there are a num­ber of large families, the Bak­linskis with their fourteen chil­dren might well be the largest. These fourteen are now grown and several of them live in the area with their own families.

For the last couple of years, they have been carolling us in the Polish tradition, with someone carrying a lighted star. Three generations of Baklinskis came singing and bearing gifts of cookies and “words” from the Christ Child to each of us.

And as I write this on De­cember 28th, the festivities are not over. Though things do ta­per down—we can’t postpone our work forever—we celebrate the whole of the Christmas sea­son.

The cookies will continue, as will the during-supper en­tertainment (music, Christmas stories, songs, etc. performed by any of us who can and wish to). And then we will have Epiphany and the Eastern Rite Theoph­any, but I am getting ahead of myself.

I usually start with the weather but this time, I will end with it. I won’t simply skip it, as I sometimes do, because at the current time at least, the weather is noteworthy.

Temperatures have been mild for around here—fluctu­ating between above and be­low freezing, with intermittent precipitation—mostly snow, but some rain as well. Warmer feels good, of course, but under these conditions, it also means ice underfoot. Some days, just walking can be dangerous. Cold can be a blessing when it brings snow to cover the ice and give traction.

On the positive side, the young ones are enjoying ice skating and hockey on our small rink between the mainland and our island. Thanks go to Darrin Prowse and others who main­tain the rink.

May God grant you in abun­dance whatever graces you need at this time.