Contemplative Haven

Not exactly what you expected for an Advent song at the Haven?
Alot of things happen that people don’t expect. Take those foolish virgins, for example. No oil. No oil. No place to get oil. Can we borrow some of yours?
Jesus is coming. Don’t miss that train.
People get ready
There’s a train a-coming
You don’t need no baggage
You [...]

From St. Faustina’s Diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul:
532     After Holy Communion, I saw the Lord Jesus, who said these words to me:  Today, penetrate into the spirit of My poverty and arrange everything in such a way that the most destitute will have no reason to envy you.  I find pleasure, not in large [...]

An excerpt from Caryll Houselander’s, “Lift Up Your Hearts”:
“The condition of peace is courage, but the moments in which we most long for it are those when courage seems most difficult.  When all that we want is to loosen our hold, to throw off responsibility, to rest.  We want not a sword, but a lap big [...]

A friend, who returns home time and time again exhausted in spirit and body from her work in the soup kitchen, writes:  “I’m happy.  In a very sad kind of way.  I am happy with the poor-exhausted.  It makes no sense.  Like all of His paradoxes, it only makes love, not sense.”
Who are they who [...]

 Let us rejoice.

Direct to YouTube is Here.

Direct to YouTube for this video is HERE.
[Edited to add:  The creator of this video, Bob Carlton, posted it on his blog about a year ago, with the lyrics by Paul Simon.  You can see the lyrics here.  Bob Carlton's YouTube Channel is here, and he has made some really lovely videos for reflections on [...]

[Excerpt from: The Essential Advent and Christmas Handbook. A Daily Companion. A Redemptorist Pastoral Publication.]
“The child prophesied by Isaiah was to be born in circumstances that were not at all promising.  The child prophesied by Isaiah was to be born of poor and illiterate parents, in a country oppressed by an occupying army, into a [...]

What better time, than as we enter the Advent season, to pass along the joy of God-centred people, as Marie and Ginny describe here.
I would like to pass this on to the very dedicated people of the Madonna House apostolate.  You will also find a link to their field houses in my sidebar.
To begin the [...]