Molded, blessed, and sanctified.
After reading the September issue of Restoration, which featured experiences of poustinia over the years, I think it may be time to share my story.
My name is Joe Murphy. I was ordained a priest for the diocese of Newark, New Jersey on May 27, 1961. I served as an associate priest for nine years in a parish in Elizabeth, NJ. At my request, I was named a hospital chaplain in Newark, NJ in 1970.
A desire to be closer, or more intimate, in my relationship with Jesus led me to examine many possibilities available in various religious communities nearby. It also led me to attend a weekly charismatic meeting at a nearby university.
At one of these meetings, two people talked about Madonna House. I had never heard of it. Around the same time, I attended a retreat. At lunch, the person next to me said, “I hope you don’t mind, but I feel the Lord wants me to say to you, ‘Stop walking along the shore and put out into the deep.’”
Friends of mine were going to a charismatic convention at Notre Dame University which featured the late Cardinal Suenens. I decided to join them and also arranged to fly, after the conference, to Chicago and on to Toronto to pay a visit to Madonna House in Combermere.
I arrived in the fall of 1974. I was warmly welcomed and given a tour by Fr. Wilf Lenius. At the end of the tour, I asked him how he would describe MH. He replied, “It’s a place where a person can stop walking along the shore and can push out into deep water.”
With the permission of my archbishop, Peter Gerety, and the approval of MH, I returned to MH that October to take up residence as a working guest through the following May.
Under the direction of the late Fr. Bob Sharkey, I began spending a day each week in poustinia. Very soon that became two days a week, and shortly after that, it became three consecutive days each week in poustinia. The notes I have from those days continue to inspire me in my feeble attempts to live the Little Mandate (the spirituality of Madonna House).
Prior to my going to Madonna House, my spiritual directors were Passionist Fathers, and when I left MH, they suggested I spend 40 days at their farm in Pennsylvania, preparing to reenter parish ministry. In my mind, I was preparing to return to local ministry, having been trained in how to run a soup kitchen and a shop to clothe the needy.
During those 40 days, a totally different course of action revealed itself. I was being led to open a house of prayer fashioned on the idea of poustinia. A very long series of events finally led to the archbishop giving me permission and encouragement to open the House of Solitude.
The house opened in September 1979, in a convent. Priests, seminarians, and Protestant ministers could come for 24 hours to pray and fast. Each Saturday we had a day of recollection for groups of lay people, about a dozen people each week.
A copy of the book Poustinia was placed on the bed stand in each of the 24 bedrooms. The House of Solitude flourished for seven happy years.
My time at MH had led me to where I wanted to be — in a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus. Poustinia changed my life radically and continues to impact my lifestyle.
I recently celebrated 90 years of life. This coming May (2026) I will have been a priest for 65 years and an associate priest of Madonna House since 1979.
With ongoing spiritual direction, the Little Mandate, and the gift of poustinia, my life has been molded, blessed, and sanctified; I am a very happy and grateful priest of Jesus Christ.
Fr. Murphy now lives in Whiting, N.J.
[Poustinia drawing by ©Carolyn Desch, Madonna House]
