The Joyful Mysteries: Meditation on the joy at the anticipation and arrival of the long awaited Messiah. The first Mystery: The Annunciation “Be it done unto me” -Luke 1:38 My God, when I interviewed for Maggie’s Place, I heard your invitation. It was an invitation to put my trust in you and rely on your…
The Christmas season is all about having hope in Jesus’ mercy and love. God’s people hoped and prayed for a Savior. The Israelites believed the Messiah would be a gallant leader who would rid Judea of Rome’s tyranny. Hope is powerful although the things we hope for don’t always turn out the way we imagine.…
A few months ago, in May to be exact, I was preparing The Elizabeth House for the Feast of the Visitation. I was in charge of planning the festivities, which included a candle-lit prayer service in our backyard’s Marian grotto. I decided that the grotto’s foliage needed some sprucing up beforehand because a thicket of…
Over 2000 years ago, a young woman found herself pregnant in a less than ideal circumstance. She was young and didn’t have the knowledge or resources to raise a baby. As she approached childbirth, she didn’t have the best support system or a stable place to live. The first few places that she reached out…
Driving around Phoenix the other day, “I’ll be home for Christmas” came on the radio. I began humming and soon was singing the song. Sure enough, when the line, “I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams,” was drawled out by Bing or Frank or whichever crooner sings that song, I burst into…
Simple living, especially relying on donations and Divine Providence to provide for what we need, makes you appreciate little things more. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are some of the little things that I have come to appreciate greatly while living at Maggie’s Place: Something coming in a donation that you just put on…
In my past year and a half at Maggie’s Place, more often than not, people who hear what I am doing, remark with a “Wow, that must be so rewarding!” response to my story. Unfortunately, though, most of us MissionCorps do not go to bed at night with this on our mind. Either we are…
At Maggie’s Place, we have four core values that we strive to live by as MissionCorps and staff: love, hospitality, community, and excellence. Within the pillar of hospitality, we strive to welcome every mom, baby, donor, volunteer and anyone else who is a guest in our home with dignity and love. Each individual offers us…
A few weeks ago, I found myself driving downtown to the women’s homeless shelter to pick up a new mom and bring her back to The Zechariah House. Before I even reached the shelter and read the sign I knew which building it occupied because there were a number of women loitering on the sidewalk…
I want to show you a little bit of what life is like as a MissionCorps member at Maggie’s Place. Enter the On Duty Apron. Actually, let me back up. Maggie’s Place is a community of many homes of hospitality for homeless pregnant women, each staffed by full-time, live-in volunteers called MissionCorps, who volunteer a…