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MH Ottawa
On the feast of the Epiphany, our household received the gift* of “service.” Though this is not the one that I would have chosen, it is the one that best describes our life in recent months. Certainly we try to love and serve the 30 people who come for long listening sessions and the approximately 250 who phone or visit each month.
In addition, we serve by choosing to “rise and shine” in very simple ways as a witness to the secular culture. For example, we pray in front of the Ottawa abortion clinic on Bank Street.
Last year, while she was there, someone smacked Arlene Becker, an elderly member of our house, in the back, but she was undeterred. This year, we have been moved to the corner, which is actually better because everyone stopping at the stoplights sees us.
On Halloween, we were the only house in the neighbourhood which offered holy cards along with the sweets to the trick-or-treaters. The boys went for St. Michael the Archangel, a real superhero; the girls were drawn to the roses of the Little Flower.
For the second year in a row, Kathleen LaBrie and I gave a retreat in Montreal to a group of dynamic women who call themselves the HOPE group. HOPE stands for the Hour Of Peaceful Escape that they spend each week with Jesus.
This year, the retreat topic was “prayer.” Kathleen presented the Montessori Catechesis of the Good Shepherd on the Mass in her own version geared for adults, a version which includes quotes from Catherine Doherty and papal encyclicals. The women were enthralled.
A number of our friends suffer deeply. A few, especially those suffering from trauma, call us almost daily.
Because a particular friend has stage four lung cancer, we didn’t expect her usual Advent visit. However, several days before Christmas, her husband showed up at our door with the gift of a Christmas tree.
Kathleen and I also made a long day-trip to Orangeville for the funeral of the mother of one of our staff—Margarete Edelbrock.
On the way back, we stopped in Toronto to visit one of our telephone friends who is in a psychiatric hospital. She is also a good friend of MH Toronto.
We had our own time of “peaceful escape” from the secular “holiday” when we spent Christmas in the “sacred space” of Combermere.
At a recent clergy study day, which I attended on behalf of the Unbound Prayer Ministry, our bishop announced his diocesan theme for the year: “Jesus is Everything.” And so he is.
May all of us rise and shine this truth that he is, in actions and words.
*According to a Madonna House custom, each person is given on a slip of paper a spiritual gift, usually a quality or virtue, on Epiphany. A gift for a house is a variation of this.
