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Maryhouse Yukon
by Julie Coxe
After arriving here in September as the new local director, I spent my first three weeks going where Maureen Denis (the departing director) goes, doing what Maureen does. It was evident that many greatly loved her, wanting to have a last meal or visit to say good-bye. She is missed and people now ask how she is doing.
Along with our Madonna House member Trudy Moessner, there are several priests and lay missionaries who live in the remote towns and villages throughout our diocese, which covers the Yukon and northern British Columbia.
In some of those villages, lay couples live and serve the Church community in one, or even several, parishes. Travelling out from Whitehorse or some of the villages, our bishop (Hector Vila) and priests drive from 2-10 hours to say Sunday Mass in the small communities. Some of these missionary priests are from India, Peru, Malta, and Poland. All of these people, both lay and clergy, are an inspiration to me.
Several seminarians from the community of The Neo-Catechumenal Way also serve here, the same community that Bishop Vila, some of the priests, and some families here belong to. These seminarians are from such countries as Peru, Nigeria, Slovakia, and Costa Rica.
Four of them came to help over the Christmas season, and others are assigned for a year or so. Soon two of them will be returning to Peru, and they will be greatly missed.
Our house can be quite busy just answering the door. Every day folks come in need of a sandwich, muffin, or clothing. During winter we give away lots of mitts, socks, hats, and coats. Many generous benefactors here provide us with these items, and at Christmas some special groups went the extra mile.
A Grade Two class had a popcorn sale, and all the proceeds went to purchasing items for personal care items bags, which we gave out at the door. Each bag had a Christmas message written by a student.
Also, a Catholic elementary school has a yearly Christmas “Giving Tree.” The gifts gathered are brought to us so we can distribute them, and they included gift cards for coffee and a doughnut at Tim Horton’s, a Canadian coffee house chain.
Every 6-8 weeks here at our house, there is a gathering for a group of families called The Holy Family Apostolate.
We start with a potluck meal, and our house is “jumping” with the vibrancy of many children. There is time for adoration, confession, and reflection together for the parents.The reflections are often based on writings of Catherine Doherty, who loved to meditate on the hidden life of the Holy Family in Nazareth.
It is beautiful to see how these families love and support each other in their lives of faith and in their family trials.
Here in Whitehorse, red foxes trot down the streets quite frequently, and giant black ravens rule the skies. One day I was amused to see one fly by with a fast-food cup in its mouth!
In fall and winter, eagles are a rarer sight, but one day while we walked on the cliffs that border the city, one flew just over our heads.
We are now well past the darkest day, December 21st, when officially the sun rose at 10:09a.m. and set at 3:47p.m. Even then, however, there are several hours of twilight at either end of the darkness, and this time is quite beautiful in its own right.
We are now in the days of growing light, gaining several minutes each day as we head towards the bright days of a welcome summer.
Casa de Nuestra Senora
Winslow, Arizona
by Renée Sylvain
So much has been happening in our in our little corner of Madonna House. It is good to pause and reflect on the golden threads woven through the cloth of our daily life. I know I don’t pause enough. I get revved up and running just trying to keep up with the next knock at the door, the next phone call. That is why I need the three-year-old in our catechesis program.
A three-year-old was working with the Nativity set. Her grandmother was reading the account and paused to ask, “What is this baby’s name?” “His name is Holy.”
Yes, the Holy One is among us. That is the Golden Thread to spot! So how has this One been among us in His many and varied disguises?
Last June, he called us to give an in-service day to a group of First Nations Sisters who teach in the Catholic preschool in Page, a city in Arizona.They asked us to share about Montessori and the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Their pastor commented that, though we shared many wonderful things, what was most touching for him was to see our love and respect for each other and how we brought out the best in each other.
Summertime was filled with the friends of Christina Milan, our former director, who returned to help out for a short time. Through her, we met many people who were new to us or with whom we had lost touch.
The beauty was discovering how many facets of service and love Christina lived. “I knew you ladies were real Christians,” a friend said, “when I saw Christina checking on a sick man who did not go to your church.” Christina is an example of something Catherine used to say: “Nothing is foreign to the apostolate except sin.”
Fall brought Janet Bourdet, another former director, back to the streets of Winslow. For those of us who know her, it was not surprising that her first act was to cover an “ugly” chair with a piece of cloth that suddenly arrived that day. Our friends said, “Wow. This room really looks beautiful now!”
We continue to sing for various events—such as the 50th wedding anniversary celebration of Bobby and Patsy Gonzales. And we have expanded our repertoire with the help of Daniel Tafoya and Tony Parks on guitar.
Fall also brought some difficult good-byes since a few of our friends died. With so many friends also grieving, we held a women’s morning of recollection during Advent. It was based on a reading about emptiness from Caryll Houselander’s The Reed of God.
Fr. Zach Romanowsky, our MH brother, and the Men’s Covenant Group hosted a day retreat for men. About thirty attended, including a few from Flagstaff, about fifty miles away. This has resulted in new members for our Men’s Scripture Group.
During New Year’s Week, Jeremiah Barker flew down from Combermere. He, Fr Zach, Julie Lynch, and I attended the FOCUS SLS20 Conference in Phoenix*. About 9,000 young people attended.
Our booth was “a poustinia in the marketplace” as old friends and new seekers found us.
The CFRs (the Friars of the Renewal) and the Little Sisters of the Poor were grateful to connect, and we were grateful to connect with them.
Fr Gabriel Bakkar CFR came with a group of students. His presence drew many others as he is a spiritual director to many campuses. He gave a beautiful explanation of MH and encouraged the students with him to go to Combermere for a visit. Fr.Michael Gaitley, MIC (director of formation for the Marian Missionaries of Divine Mercy, a new lay community) also sent students to our booth to talk with us.
Not all who visited the booth were students. One middle-aged woman began crying as I was talking about Madonna House. When I asked her what happened, she answered, “It’s just so beautiful.”
One point made in a talk by Greg Doring, a missionary with Holy Family School of Faith in Kansas City, was very encouraging for us.
He said, “Generation X and younger have less and less of an appetite for programs but desire to see an alternative way of life. You can do grandiose trips, etc., but people would rather enter into the daily movement of your life. Invite them to go grocery shopping . . . Create a social space to connect with people and then bring them to the Gospel.”
Remember how Jesus chose to walk four hours to Emmaus with two people on the biggest day of his life?
We may be hidden and humble but we do have our life to offer. And this is a great gift for the One who is Holy.
*Focus, (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) is a Catholic collegiate outreach whose mission is to share the hope and joy of the Gospel with college and university students.
