When I try to explain to someone exactly what I do, I often can’t find the words and many of the descriptions I attempt to give fall flat. Being a corps member at a Maggie’s Place home is a strange and wonderful occupation to have. Your Monday can feel like it’s lasted for a week, and…
If you go on a tour of every Maggie’s Place home, you will see that they are all unique—the Elizabeth House has a garden in the backyard and a stained-glass window in the chapel, the Magdalene House has several different buildings on the property, and the Michael House is open and one-storied. We are located…
When I first started looking into Maggie’s Place, one of the aspects that appealed most to me was our core values and how they enable us to concretely live the mission of welcoming women into a community filled with love and dignity. Our four core values are: love, hospitality, community, and excellence. As MissionCorps members,…
There is a beautiful image of Mary and Eve that I really love in which Mary is comforting Eve. The colors are vibrant and the message it conveys is a comfort to me. As Mary crushes the serpent that is wrapped around Eve’s leg, she holds Eve’s hand to her rounded belly, sharing with her…
I just came back from an amazing retreat! The theme? True Friendship. We discovered what it meant to will the true well-being of another, even risking conflict, and to have that feeling be mutual between both individuals involved. Charity is something else though, it is when you love others as God loves you. I never…
As I prepare to leave Maggie’s Place after eight weeks, I have an abundance of thoughts running through my mind. Most of them consist of reminding myself not to cry, because I know the moms will make fun of me if I do, but I’m actually alright with that – I’m used to their teasing…
“See the world” has always been my answer to the age old question, “What is your deepest desire?” When I was little it was my automated response to adults who were interested in what I wanted to do when I grew up. When I learned of bucket lists, after watching the heartfelt movie The Bucket…
Life at Maggie’s Place is hard—plain and simple. It’s not hard because of the moms’ backgrounds or their current situations that are lined with a million different frustrating scenarios. It’s not hard because of the struggles of community life; like when it’s your turn to clean the kitchen and there is a sink full of…
This blog post was originally going to be about how the little, everyday moments are what make life at Maggie’s Place wonderful. Nice, simple and a glimpse into daily life—done. However, while working on my post, it was getting late so I decided to head to bed before putting the finishing touches on it. I…
Lent—a time set aside to help us reflect, pause and grow in silence, to deepen our relationship with Christ. Sometimes I wish the rest of the world would get the memo and cooperate with my selfish desire to have 40 days to be a hermit, and come out a better person. As much as I…