As a young man, I spent almost a year at Madonna House, discerning my vocation, chopping wood and veggies, and learning to live their life of simplicity, prayer, work and charity.   Madonna House is a community of laymen, lay women and priests in the woods of Northeastern Ontario in Combermere.  Their foundress, Catherine Doherty was born in Russia and brought to North America a deep and practical faith that straddles both the Eastern and Western traditions of the Catholic Church.  She died in 1985 and has been designated as ‘Servant of God’.  You can check out the progress of the Cause for her canonization at  http://www.catherinedoherty.org/ .

Although the members of Madonna house live a very simple life, (think of growing their own food, woodstoves, and outhouses), they do have a wonderful website with a description of their community and all their field houses, as well as a catalogue of their many publications.  You can also subscribe by RSS feed to receive articles from their monthly Restoration Newspaper in your favorite newsreader.

Every other summer, our family has enjoyed a family retreat at Cana Colony, a week long  program for families hosted by Madonna house.

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