Madonna House: Living the Teachings of Jesus Christ, Forming A Community of Love

Our great hope as believers is eternal life in communion with Christ and the whole family of God.

Someone once asked Catherine Doherty, "What is Madonna House?" She answered, "What is Madonna House? Madonna House is a very simple thing. It is an open door. It is a cup of tea or coffee, good and hot. It is an invitation to work for the common good. . . . [It] is a house of hospitality. It is a place where people are received, not on their education, not on how wonderful they are as painters, or whatever they have to do; they are received simply as people. They are loved."

ONTARIO, Canada (Catholic Online) - Pope Benedict XVI has often observed that we indeed live in a critical age; for the Catholic Church and the Gospel are under attack on many fronts. Yet in the face of these present troubles the Pope reminds us of our greatest hope: the life of love that awaits the followers of Christ. During his 2008 homily at the First Vespers of the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Father offered these encouraging words: "Although many clouds are gathering on the horizon of our future, we must not be afraid. Our great hope as believers is eternal life in communion with Christ and the whole family of God. This great hope gives us the strength to face and to overcome the difficulties of life in this world."

There are many ecclesial movements born in the Church that, as Pope Benedict has noted, trace their conception to "an impulse derived ultimately from the Holy Spirit." These movements seek to invigorate the Church with new life and new love by reaching out to our brothers and sisters, wherever they are, in whatever state of life they find themselves, urging them to join together in that unitive life of Christian holiness so precious in the eyes of our Savior. These ecclesial movements empowered with the fiery grace of the Holy Spirit, a Love that goes beyond the world, are themselves a "strength" which helps us to overcome the many tragedies and difficulties of earthly life. One of these ecclesial movements is Madonna House Apostolate (MHA), founded by Catherine Doherty and her husband, Eddie Doherty, in 1947.

Catherine Doherty was clearly a woman in love with God. She experienced fist hand the difficulties of this world of which our Holy Father spoke. During her life, she knew both privileged wealth and grinding poverty. Her love of God was tested as she endured the circumstances of two World Wars, the Russian Revolution, and the Great Depression. She experienced the difficulties of being a refugee, the enduring pain of a broken marriage, and the hardship of single parenthood. Yet through all these trials and more, her love for God remained as a brilliant flower on a windswept hillside.

Eddie Doherty was an Irish American newspaper reporter and best selling author who, at the age of 79, was ordained a priest in the Byzantine Rite Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Yet Eddie's history was, much like Catherine's, marked by both success and tragedy. He lost his first wife, Marie Ryan, to the flue epidemic of 1918, after only a brief four years of marriage. The shock of this event caused him to turn against the Church and God. Not long after, he met the beautiful, young Mildred Frisby who was also a writer. But Eddie soon experienced another loss when Mildred was killed in a fall in the Beverly Hills countryside. Later, in 1940, Eddie's life would take yet another turn while he was doing a story about Harlem, New York, and stumbled across Friendship House, headed by the then Baroness Catherine de Hueck. Through this meeting, Eddie set out on a new life, one of spirituality and giving. Eddie and Catherine were soon married.

It was in 1960 that Catherine Doherty erected a beautiful little shrine beside Madonna House in Combermere, where she placed a life-sized bronze statue of the Virgin Mary. MHA's website tells us the statue "depicts the Mother of God running with open arms to embrace us, her children, and lead us to her Son, Jesus Christ." Perhaps in those few words, in the meaning behind that statue erected fifty years ago, we find what is at the heart of Madonna House Apostolate.

Someone once asked Catherine Doherty, "What is Madonna House?" She answered, "What is Madonna House? Madonna House is a very simple thing. It is an open door. It is a cup of tea or coffee, good and hot. It is an invitation to work for the common good. . . . [It] is a house of hospitality. It is a place where people are received, not on their education, not on how wonderful they are as painters, or whatever they have to do; they are received simply as people. They are loved."

Catherine died in 1985, but her love for God continues on in MHA, which has since grown to include more than 200 members and two-dozen field houses throughout the world. Today MHA is a Public Association of the Christian faithful within the Roman Catholic Church, under the bishop of the Diocese of Pembroke, the Most Reverend Michael Mulhall. The MHA website informs us that members are a "family of Christian lay men, women, and priests, striving to incarnate the teachings of Jesus Christ by forming a community of love."

The MHA field houses are an outgrowth of the main Training Centre in Combermere, Ontario, Canada. The first field house opened in 1954, and, since then, each field house has opened at the request of a local bishop of a particular diocese. Each house is somewhat different, with its own distinct mandate which is geared toward the needs of the diocese in which it resides. Some houses, for example, serve the poor with soup kitchens; others combine many aspects of neighborly services directed toward the needs of the community; still others are houses of prayer and listening in which the soul journeys along a quiet, peaceful road toward Peace Itself.
There are currently five MHA houses in the U.S., one of which is located in Alpena, Michigan. This particular house was founded in 1984 after Bishop Robert Rose had written to Catherine Doherty requesting a foundation in the diocese of Gaylord. This house's purpose was to be one of prayer in service to the entire diocese. In order to facilitate such a purpose, two houses were purchased: one to act as a residence, the other to be used for prayer based on the poustinia (Russian for "desert") tradition.

As the MHA website informs us, at Alpena "you may find a listening ear, friendship, a place to pray,. . . . All are welcome, Christian and non-Christian alike, to come for a visit, a cup of tea, or simply to use the library. . . . As other field houses, Madonna House of Alpena is meant to be an arrow pointing to God."

Susanne Stubbs has been with MHA for nearly 43 years, is currently Director General of Women, and was kind enough to answer a few brief questions for Catholic Online.

COL: Ms. Stubbs, what first brought you to Madonna House Apostolate?

"I first visited in 1966, when there were few lay activities or lay communities in the Church. Through two friends I heard there was a lay community called Madonna House in rural Ontario. The Holy Spirit arranged circumstances for me to get here. I was 25 years old."

COL: What are some of your duties at MHA?

"In our Prayers of the Faithful on Sundays, we pray that our directors guide this family [of Madonna House] into the fullness of the Gospel. Directors are guardians of our spirit, practicing vigilance that it be lived out. My duties? I pray for women, listen to them, guide them and discern with them. With the Director General of Lay Men and the Director General of Priests, I [also] make major decisions in the apostolate. We pray to discern together, as three leaders, in unity of mind and heart. This unity is called sobornost in Russian. Our foundress, Catherine Doherty, was Russian."

COL: What do you feel is an important aspect of MHA's focus in the contemporary world?

"We try to share with people an incarnational way of living the Gospel, a way of meeting Christ in every moment. Modern people need to experience stillness, silence, and the value of simply being before doing. Active ministry must come from a deep place within where there is prayer, and from a radical self-emptying. We try to help other lay people, by our example, to be Christ for the world."

COL: Ms. Stubbs, what might you say to those who are interested in finding out more about MHA?

"Come and see!"
Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that "in our times, marked by uncertainty and concern for the future, it is necessary to experience the living presence of Christ. It is Mary," he continues, "[the] Star of Hope who leads us to him. It is she, with her maternal love, who can guide young people especially who bear in their hearts an irrepressible question about the meaning of human existence to Jesus."

The Madonna House Apostolate offers to those who feel that "irrepressible question" within their hearts an avenue of experience which, through the supreme Christian example of the Virgin Mary, leads along the lighted path of love toward Christ. That experience is the tradition of poustinia prayer; it is also a tradition of listening, of solitude, of friendship and community, and of service to neighbor in Christ-like love. Madonna House is truly a special and unique ecclesial movement, one which constantly seeks to return ever-more deeply to Christ in humility and simplicity. Much like a cup of tea shared between two lifelong friends.

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F. K. Bartels is a Catholic writer who knows his Catholic faith is one of the greatest gifts a man could ever have. He is managing editor of catholicpathways.com, and is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.

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