Skip to main content

This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant

As I write this, it is early summer—a summer which so far is what I, for one, would call a “real summer.” That is, hot—including a heat wave that was the longest and hottest in several years. So far, also, we are not getting enough rain and are praying for some.

But before I talk about summer, let’s backtrack to June 8th , one of the most joyous of our feasts, not only of this time-frame, but of the whole year. That feast is Promises Day, the day when our members not yet in Final Promises commit their lives to God through Our Lady and through Madonna House for one year (our new members), two years, or “forever.”

It is also the feast of Our Lady of Combermere, and this year, the feast of the Sacred Heart.

Family and friends of those making Promises always come, but this year their numbers may have been the highest ever—an estimated 300 including us—for the Mass and reception.

All four of those making Final Promises are from large families—the largest being that of Veronica Ferri who is one of fourteen children. Moreover, two of those four finalists come from this area, and a third from not much farther away.

For sure we never had so many children for Promises Day. Someone counted 41!

Others of our Promise Day visitors traveled here from far away indeed: The farthest were Sofia’s parents, who came from Mexico, and two of Maria Kim’s friends, who came all the way from Korea.

As he has been doing every year since he became bishop of our diocese, Bishop Michael Mulhall was our celebrant. It gives him joy to see our new vocations, and it gives us joy to have him with us for the occasion.

In his homily, he spoke of the intimacy of God with us, and about Promises he said, “This is a moment of enormous grace, grace that strengthens beyond our comprehension.

“These are Promises that change lives, that open a floodgate of grace in a person’s life. Those whom God calls and who make such promises to him become a light that can never be put out. That is the victory that we celebrate today.”

After the homily, beginning with those making their First Promises (thus becoming members of Madonna House) fourteen people made or renewed their Promises. Besides English, they made them in French (Matthieu), Spanish (Ana Sofia), and Korean (Maria Kim).

Three others renewed their Promises in their mission houses: Joanne Slugocki and Fr. Brian Christie in England and Julie Lynch in Arizona.

Who could fail to be moved by these young people committing their lives to God? Especially in this day and age.

After the Promises were made, four Koreans (Maria, one other staff, one applicant, and one guest) enhanced the celebration by singing a song in their language in beautiful harmony. Translated the words meant, “Lord, here I am, receive me. My heart, my body, I give all to Thee. Receive me, Lord. Here I am; use me. All that I possess I give to Thee. Receive me. Alleluia! Receive me.”

Such days reveal what our lives truly are, the reality usually hidden in ordinariness.

And soon the new staff were back to that ordinariness. Ana Sofia is working in the gardens and Maria Kim in food processing. Morgen is in the auto repair shop and Alec on the farm.

The rest of us are busy as well. The farm and gardens, of course, are priorities as we need to eat, and nature will not wait. These days, among other things, the farmers and their helpers are planting and weeding and haying.

Those in the gift shop are in their busy season. They are meeting and serving vacationers as well as local people and making money for the missions.

The food processors are currently washing, chopping, and freezing the first crop to be ready: rhubarb.

Cana, our retreat-vacation camp for families, is a big job in terms of getting the buildings and all the equipment, furniture, grounds, etc. ready. This year Karen Maskiew was in charge of this and is overall in charge of Cana, and Ana Sofia is in charge of the weekly cleaning bee. Karen had been doing prep work there for a while, and she organized our big “Cana Bee,” at which everyone who possibly could, spent the day cleaning and generally getting Cana ready for the summer.

This bee is set up to be fun as well as work. It was good to work with people we don’t ordinarily work with, and a picnic lunch with treat foods and a chance to go swimming were included in the day.

At Cana, besides cleaning, there is always maintenance and repair work, which is done by the men. This year this included at least one major project.

Darrin Prowse, applicant Jeremiah Barker, and our friend and neighbor Rod Minns did extensive work on several of the oldest cabins, jacking them up to replace the foundations, which were sinking.

Now Cana is already into its second week.

The summer program for young adults began a week after Cana. Morgen Grigg and Trina Stitak are coordinating this program, and Ana Sofia is the activities coordinator.

We celebrated the French-Canadian Feast of St. Jean Baptiste with the traditional bonfires. We sang and applicant Nicholas Parrott with guitar provided some entertainment.

We celebrated Canada Day, July 1st , on the hottest day thus far (37 degrees C, 98.6 degrees F). No one felt much like moving, and it was a low-key Sunday with people staying close to and in the river. Its one event was an outdoor barbeque supper. (God bless our brothers who flipped those hamburgers in all that heat.)

Fr. Denis Lemieux has begun a series of weekly spiritual readings looking at current social issues in light of the Church’s teachings and encouraging discussion.

The topics covered so far have been the role of conscience, euthanasia, gender identity, and abortion.

We have also been given a talk about relations between men and women (an important topic for our celibate community which is composed of both men and women) by Fr. Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist and expert on psychological and spiritual wellness issues for priests. (He is a friend of MH Washington.)

Our directors general went on visitation to our one-woman house in Alpena, Michigan, stopping at MH Windsor for their 35th anniversary celebration and MH Toronto on route.

Three of our staff—Genevieve Enoe, Maureen Denis, and Darrin Prowse, formerly on staff in our former houses in Liberia and Ghana—made a journey to those two places. Maureen has written an article about it, which will be appearing in a future issue.

Peter Gravelle and crew have completed the major renovation work on the 2nd floor at St. Mary’s, and those who are living in the new dorm they created, called “Holy Family,” threw a party to thank him and Alec Bonacci for all their work.

Patrick Stewart had an art exhibit in Winnipeg.

May God bless each of you with his peace.

CELEBRATING COMMITMENT

MADONNA HOUSE PROMISES 2018

 

FIRST PROMISES

Alec Bonacci

Hilltown, Pennsylvania

Morgen Grigg

Kitchener, Ontario

Ana Sofia Corona Gaxiola

Guadalajara, MEXICO

Maria Kim

Seoul, KOREA

 

RENEWALS:

Matthieu Dacquay

Ottawa, Ontario

Augustine Tardiff

Coventry, Rhode Island

Julie Lynch

Chicago, Illinois

Joanne Slugocki

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Frank Brick

Ennismore, Ontario

Fr. Zach Romanowsky

River John, Nova Scotia

Loretta Fritz

Shaunavon, Saskatchewan

Fr. Brian Christie

Sarnia, Ontario

Fr. Blair Bernard

Charlottetown, P.E.I.

FINALS

Meaghan Boyd

Windsor, Nova Scotia

Veronica Ferri

Pembroke, Ontario

Beth Scott

Arnprior, Ontario

Gudrun Schultz

Shawville, Quebec

 

[icons icon=”fa-arrow-circle-o-left” size=”fa-3x” type=”normal” link=”https://madonnahouse.org/restorationnews/” target=”_self” icon_color=”#a3a3a3″ icon_hover_color=”#175f8f”]