The Wonderful Fish Bowl Life
Living in community with those you serve and those with whom you serve is one of the most unique experiences you can give yourself. You learn very quickly what makes your fellow community members tick. You learn their love languages, their ways of expressing...
The Strength Within
Courage has been one of the qualities for which I have consistently requested prayers during my time a Maggie's Place. You can ask my fellow MissionCorps; it's pretty much my staple prayer request! I realize how many times I am feeble in addressing certain issues with...
To Love Another Person
"To love another person is to see the face of God." That is a famous quote from Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Misérables. If you’ve ever seen the play or watched the musical, I hope you sang those words in your head (as I often do!) when you read them. I ask you now to say...
We Are Family
A few weeks ago, one of our moms here had her four older children—three sons and one daughter— over for a sleepover. While we were making lunch, her kids were having a discussion about what makes a person rich. One piped up and said, “You are rich if you have gold!”...
Fatherhood
We talk a lot about Motherhood. This makes sense, after all Mothers are being made day after day before our eyes. Motherhood is something to be celebrated. And yet, what of the fathers? They are just as integral to the lives of these children. True, they do not carry...
#MaggiesPlaceProblems
#MaggiesPlaceProblems #15 - When you go to answer the door and realize you’re still wearing a cape you found in donations #7 - When you live with 10 women and realize you get awkward around men #17 - When you have so many cute scarfs and only one neck...
A Mother’s Love
Today is my Mom’s birthday—my actual mom, not one of the moms I live with at The Michael House who I continually refer to as “my moms.” Today my mom turns one year older (Happy 29th Mom!) and it gets me thinking about how lucky I am to have such an amazing person to...
True Meaning
“7:00 AM? Really? OK…we can do that, I guess.” The moms had voted an early morning time to open their Christmas presents at the Zechariah House. I knew the MissionCorps would have a late night Christmas Eve. We went to midnight Mass and still had “elf-work” to do...
Community at Christmas
Community in the homes is very special, especially around this time of Christmas. This will be my first Christmas at Maggie's Place and I am really looking forward to it. Maggie's Place has become my home away from home; each mom brings her own color to the Maggie's...
The Gift of Prayer
Things get very difficult in our homes at times. Lately there has been particular suffering in the homes back to back, and all the homes seem to be going through these struggles the last couple of months. What I’ve learned is that the only thing that helps when we...
Hunger We Hope to Feed
I was recently driving back from a Corps meeting when I stopped at red light. Here I saw a homeless man and young woman who seemed very uneasy with her surroundings, possibly even scared. While this is not an unusual sight around Phoenix sadly, it struck me...
An Open Letter of Gratitude to the MissionCorps
Dearest Sisters- This letter has been a long time coming, and I only pray that the Holy Spirit grants me the right words to convey the depth of my gratitude to each and every one of you. I had all sorts of different ideas of what made a community when I came to...
The Mothers of Maggie’s Place
Preparing for motherhood was not one of the things I had in mind when applying to Maggie's Place. Of course I knew there would be babies to be held, diapers to be changed, and crying to be soothed, but what I didn't expect was the motherly dynamic of loving the...
Being a Corps Member
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...
The Maggie’s Place Family
As a new MissionCorps member who lives in the house, I learned very quickly that what everyone had been saying, about Maggie’s Place being like family, or the houses becoming your homes really was true. I became aware of this newfound family very quickly, with the way...
Goal Fish and Bubbles
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...
The Duty of the Moment
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,...
Building One Another Up
A few weeks ago, I was invited to take a hike with a fellow MissionCorps member and a friend. We decided to try Camelback Mountain, and when we set off in the early morning I was feeling very confident and very excited to climb my first Arizona summit! After a few...
Loving with an Open Hand
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...
Letting Divine Providence Provide
I’ve heard this saying, “You must live with people to know their problems, and live with God in order to solve them,” (Peter Taylor Forsyth). It sounds nice, doesn’t it? It is a gentle reminder to have genuine, intentional relationships with people and a genuine,...