The Spokane Team in NYC!

By Margaret Flynn, Heart’s Home vol­un­teer in Spokane, WA

Before flying to New York, my three sis­ters of com­mu­nity (Amy, Jessica, Victoria) and I had spent four months trying to figure out what our mis­sion in Spokane should encom­pass. Although no Heart’s Home is exactly the same, our house is unique by the fact that we are all stu­dents. We trav­eled to New York with the hope of mirac­u­lously trying and dis­cover how we can live out the Heart’s Home charism more fully. Now that we have returned, we agree that although we did not learn the exact, one sen­tence, Webster’s def­i­ni­tion of Heart’s Home, what we dis­cov­ered in New York is much more valu­able.

We were blessed to spend an entire day at the ICCC in upstate NY with Fr. Thierry. We spent the day walking around the peaceful land and mar­veling at the beau­ti­fully painted walls of the house. The day con­cluded with a sending forth Mass in the chapel where we made our com­mit­ment and received our rosaries, hand­made with prayer by Sister Diana. They dan­gled from our wrists, reminding us that the rosary is what brought our house together as a Heart’s Home in the first place. Although we had been living as a com­mu­nity together for four months already, our com­mit­ment put into words what we had been living and gave us a con­crete goal to strive for in the next few months. While speaking with Fr. Thierry, we began to realize that you can’t define Heart’s Home and put it into a box, you must expe­ri­ence the mis­sion to really under­stand it.

Over the next few days we really entered into the daily life of Heart’s Home. We prayed, ate, worked, and vis­ited neigh­bors with the com­mu­nity, real­izing that we really do belong to the Heart’s Home family. We came to under­stand that Heart’s Home is not the result of extraor­di­nary acts, but rather of very small, simple ones. The little things, such as lis­tening to the sto­ries of our friends in the nursing home, sharing coffee with the women at the shelter, or making a cake to cel­e­brate a birthday, are far more effec­tive than money, or medicine, or any­thing else. This sim­plicity is what we hope to take back to Spokane.

Our time in New York was pre­cious. It was so good to see Melanie again and to meet Natalia, Severine, Laeticia, Sr. Regina, Marian, Fr. Paul, and Fr. Gonzague. We feel blessed and strength­ened by the friend­ship we share with the New York com­mu­nity. We no longer are con­cerned with trying to define what Heart’s Home is for our friends. Our goal is to live and let our friends expe­ri­ence what it is through our pres­ence to them. We look for­ward to con­tin­uing our journey in Spokane and we are very glad to know that we are not alone on the journey.