Robert_Wild_-_Catherine_Doherty_Servant_of_God

consists mostly in how to love in simple ways. Some people
may be sent away to complete a nursing course for the
needs of the community, or to the seminary to study for
the priesthood, or to a language school to prepare for one
of the missions. Further professional education is open to
us. But presently our apostolates are very simple and
unprofessional.
In this sense we’re all amateurs, “little lovers,” (according
to the meaning of the word), not putting the emphasis
on our skills but on our loving, and using whatever skills
we have to manifest the love of God to others. We are constantly
amazed at what this love can do. Love is the real
healer, the real teacher, the real wisdom. Catherine
believed that genuine love of others was at the heart of
every attempt to help. On one level our “help” may be,
and often is, quite inexpert. And we may have to direct
people to get expert help some place else. But often they
return to our houses for the love they originally experienced.
One example of many. An AA friend of one of our
houses was going through a particularly difficult time. His
sponsor said to him, “you have to find a safe place to go
through this.” He called Madonna House because he said
it was the safest place he knew.
“The Restoration of All Things In Christ”
The Russian world Catherine grew up in would still
have been permeated by Christian symbols and a
Christian atmosphere. Churches were everywhere. Christ
was a reality in the homes and mentality of the people.
(Not in everyone, of course: that’s why there was a revolution.
The “intelligentsia” had lost the faith long ago.) But
in many ways Russia was still a Christian society: the
monasteries were flourishing, the saints were invoked, the
icons were carried in magnificent processions, the Czars
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