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MH Regina
We have had so much to give thanks to God for during these past months. In early winter, even without our asking, our benefactors asked us what food and winter clothing we needed for the men we serve.
Our volunteers are so generous: After all our renovations, they rebuilt our front yard fence and laid the new sod. They helped to keep the falling curtains in our dining room on their newly installed rods. They made bread pick-ups and food deliveries. And they did all the regular and indispensable work needed in our soup kitchen and clothing room.
The men whom we serve are grateful, too. One man who has been coming for many years and has become a dear friend, offered his thanks for all he has received here–with tears. His gratitude is a precious gift to us.
There have been changes in our little family. Hugo Isaza, our local director, is now director of Marian Centre Edmonton. The fruitfulness of his nine years here was evident in so many ways. It was no surprise to us that so many came to say goodbye to him both in private gatherings and in our organized goodbye for him.
Peter Anzlin joined our team this past summer and has done well—including most recently in getting well following an emergency appendectomy. During the time of his convalescence, David Guzman, whom many remembered from his previous assignment here, came and is now also part of our Marian Centre community.
Kate O’Donnell continues to manage the kitchen in a remarkable way. The meals are always good and substantial and our thanksgiving is not feigned. Christine Herlihy and I both spend a lot of our time doing office work but are quick to go downstairs and help when needed. I ask her lots of questions as I continue to learn my new job as director.
In September we travelled three hours north to St. Therese Institute of Faith and Mission, in Bruno, Saskatchewan. For years, it has been a special gift for us to spend some time with the students there. This year we were invited to facilitate a discussion of Catherine Doherty’s book, The People of the Towel and Water.
Commenting on it, one student said how difficult it is to be hidden, to not get noticed for the work you do, to accept that it really is enough to do it out of love, knowing that God knows you are doing it.
Our litany of gratitude could go on, but before I end it, I want to mention two more things.
Perry, one of our friends and a regular patron of our soup kitchen for the past two years, decided after anguished thought that he would end his prolonged suffering from throat cancer with a doctor-assisted suicide. We felt anguish at this, and we made our disappointment and opposition to his decision known. We prayed for him and continued to support him.
We also enlisted the prayer of many on his behalf, and on the very day he was scheduled to be euthanized, he flew to his family home in Nova Scotia instead.
There his family offered to support and take care of him, and his heart was open to receive this mercy.
Before he left he told me, “You have to have more faith,” and with gratitude and relief, I told him he was right.
Finally, we are grateful for a certain regular visitor—Bishop Don Bolen, the bishop of our diocese and a Madonna House associate, who celebrates Mass for us in our chapel several times each month. This is always a joy.
Let me sum up these notes by saying what our Tuesday stew cook, Tom Kramer, would say: “What’s not to be grateful for?”
