Catholic Roundup

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:35 — 36.4MB)

ductape family at Our Lady of Combermere

Our Sunday Mass experience and Social Media Ministry

Neil MacCarthy   Archdiocese of Toronto Blog:  Has a 5 part blog series commenting on the new Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate.

Feedback from Deacon Tom and Dee.

Promo for Catholic Vitamins Podcast

Interview with Michael O’Rourke from Apostolate for Family Consecration (Familyland.org)

Promo For My Audio Journal from Mary in Minnesota

Celebrations Bumper–

Catholic 100 Podcast Club at Catholic Roundup

Forgot to mention on the show:  The Fresh Air Fund which provides summer camp and vacation opportunities to disadvantaged NYC children is looking for Host Families in the Eastern Seaboard of the US and Ontario in Canada.

LOLSaints Ipod Contest entries must be in by August 15.

Vote for Catholic Podcasts. Please take some time to vote for Catholic Podcasts on Podcast Alley and submit some reviews on Itunes.  It really helps out.

1. Send your feedback, podcast, blog and website promos ideas etc… on the blog at http://catholicroundup.com by email at (catholicroundup@gmail.com) catholicroundup (at) gmail (dot) com or by calling 206-337-0611.

2. Theme Song: Lost in Christ (©) Bryan Murdaugh

Subscribe to CNMR (RSS).

Subscribe on the Itunes Music Store

Blessed Kateri Shrine, Fonda, New York, Usa

Last year one of the highlights of our family driving vacation to Boston was stopping at the the Shrine to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine in Fonda NY when we did not know it existed. You can hear more about that visit onCatholic New Media Roundup Episode 2 from last July.

This year we are spending two of our family camping weeks at Catholic Family retreats, first at Catholic Familyand in Bloomingdale, Ohio and later at Cana Colony at Madonna House in northern Ontario. We are certainly not alone in taking vacation time out to recharge our spiritual batteries and renew our faith.

There were over 140 families at Familyland the week we attended. The week at Familyland was structured with daily mass in the morning, followed by sessions for all members of the family until lunchtime. The afternoons were dedicated to sports, relaxation, watersliding, swimming and visiting with other families. At 3 pm each day, everyone in the whole complex stopped wherever they were to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Dinner was served between 5 and 7 and there were family activities and rosary time in the evenings. During each afternoon a number of priests were available on the lawn outside the chapel to hear confessions. The whole week was a wonderful balance of spiritual renewal and family fun.

While we were there, we met the Kearns family; Deacon Pat, Liz, Makenzie and Sean, from northern California who dedicated their month long circuit of the United States as a pilgrimage with daily mass and times for family rosaries. They documented their journey on the Kearns Family Pilgrimage USA blog.

This notion of traveling to renew one’s faith is not new. In fact it is very old. For thousands of years, Catholics have been making pilgrimages to holy places seeking healing or to grow in their faith. We are privileged to live quite near to the Shrine of the Canadian Martyrs, which is one such place of pilgrimage.

Catholic Roundup Big Question

How about you? Have you ever been on a pilgrimage? Have your family ever gone on a vacation/retreat? Do you take time during your vacation to recharge and enrich your spiritual life? Tell us about it. Send your responses to (catholicroundup@gmail.com) catholicroundup (at) gmail (dot) com or leave a voicemail message at 206-337-0611.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (8.5MB)

Time to register for Cana Colony at Madonna House this Summer.

I was thrilled when Deacon Tom Fox mentioned  Madonna House in his 12 Days of Christmas contribution the other Day.  Madonna House is a very special place for our family.  Every other summer we go to Cana Colony, a kind of summer camp/ family retreat for Catholic Families.  At Cana Colony, families stay in simple wooden cabins and cook their meals in a communal cookhouse.  Every day there is Mass, family rosary and one formal retreat session for the parents run by a Madonna House Priest.  For the kids there are many other kids to play with, a lake for swimming, canoes, campfires and great family times.  Cana Colony is in Combermere in Eastern Ontario.  We encourage any Catholic families who live close enough (Ontario, Quebec or the northeastern United States) to try to get to Cana Colony.  It has been an incredible way for us to grow in our faith as a family.

It is important to register early as they only run for 6 weeks in the summertime.  You can find out more information on how to register at http://madonnahouse.org/programs/cana.html.

For an application to Cana Colony, please write to:

Cana Colony
Madonna House Apostolate
2888 Dafoe Rd
Combermere ON   K0J 1L0
Canada

Phone: 613-756-3713

E-mail: combermere@madonnahouse.org

Note: If you send an e-mail to Madonna House, please remember to include your full name and complete postal mailing address.

Join us tomorrow for more reflections produced by great Catholic New Media personalities as we journey through the 12 Days of Christmas.

1. Send me your feedback on the blog at http://cc.ductapeguy.net by email at (catholicroundup@gmail.com) catholicroundup (at) gmail (dot) com or by calling 206-337-0611.

2. Go to the Catholic New Media Advent Calendar

Subscribe to CNMR (RSS).

Subscribe on the Itunes Music Store

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.