Heart's Home USA

Grayson, volunteer in Argentina: “First impressions”

Sr Mariana — 2010-09-02T20:33:07Z

Grayson H., a volunteer from Michigan, joined the Heart's Home community in Argentina in July 2010 for a 14-month mission. Below is an excerpt from his first sponsor letter.

“Today is day 42 of my life in Villa Jardin, a barrio of Buenos Aires some 30 minutes outside the city center. Six weeks ago, after leaving the stifling summer heat of New York City, I landed into an overcast and blustery Argentinean winter day and was greeted at the airport by two members of the Heart's Home community, Juan and Enzo.
After taking two bus trips from the airport, we arrived at the Villa, walking through streets of uneven and broken concrete with scattered trash and the occasional droppings of the many stray cats and dogs here. We ducked into a narrow street, barely the width of our shoulders, turned into another narrow pass which opened into a wider street and we were suddenly there, facing the Heart's Home with its turquoise front and yellow wiring protecting the window.

After settling in and dropping my bags off, I ventured out into the Villa with Juan and Rebeka to meet some of our friends. This is perhaps my strongest first impression of the life of our Heart's Home in Villa Jardin: in my first few days, time and time again, I saw the signs of the trust, friendship, and love between us and the people of the Villa. Walking in the streets or visiting our friends, I saw face after face light up upon seeing us. Greetings and kisses are always exchanged, normally followed by an easygoing and natural conversation. Many times, invitations are extended for lunch, dinner, tea, coffee, or mate – the traditional Argentinean drink, a bitter herb blend served in a small, gourd-like container, sipped through a bombilla, a metal straw that also serves as a strainer so you don't directly ingest the herbs. The kids in the neighbourhood run up to us for kisses and hugs, jumping into our arms and ofte n asking to be spun in circles.

The source of this friendship comes from the fact that the life of our Heart's Home is rooted in prayer. Stated simply, this is a recognition that our love for the community, our Villa, is not something that we create of ourselves. For love to be given, it first has to be received. This is something that is becoming more and more concrete to me as the weeks pass.”

Grayson H.

Monthly Holy Hour in Manhattan: “The Hour of Compassion”

Sr Mariana — 2010-08-26T20:45:36Z

Join us every second Saturday of the month at 8pm to adore the Blessed Sacrament at St Malachy's Church, the Actor's Chapel, on Times Square (NY).

Together with the Blessed Mother, let us stand at the foot of the Cross and offer this one hour, at the very heart of New York City, for God's compassion to flow in our hearts and in the hearts of all people.

Songs and meditations will lead us into prayer, and help us make this time a time of silence in the midst of our busy lives. “Where sin abounds, Grace abounds even more.” (Rm 5:20)

Priests will be available to hear Confession in English, Spanish and French.

Our first Holy Hour is on Saturday, September 11

Spread the word !

September 18, 20th Anniversary Pilgrimage

Sr Mariana — 2010-08-18T14:54:55Z

Heart's Home invites you to its 20^th Anniversary Pilgrimage in honor of Our Lady of Compassion. In 1990, the first two Heart's Homes were established in Argentina and Brazil. Ever since, this seed has continued to grow, spreading its roots of compassion all over the world. We invite you to share with us in a unique and inspiring program!

When: September 18^th, 2010, from 10am to 5pm.
Where: International Center for a Culture of Compassion (2 hours north of New York City).
Program: Mass on the hill, blessing of the shrine, unveiling of the statue, time for meditation, and barbecue!
Register before September 10.

Schedule & details

Whether or not you can physically join us for the pilgrimage, you can still be part of it. By selecting the “Support” option below, you can make a donation which will enable families from the Housing Projects to participate.

Registration fee
- adults & youth: $20
- children 6-12: $10
- children under 6: free

Transportation
- $30/seat
- departing from Brooklyn (stops in Manhattan and the Bronx per request).

Contact:
- Sylvie Muller (718) 522 2121

See Directions on our GoogleMap

September 18th: Schedule & Details

Sr Mariana — 2010-08-18T13:05:13Z


7:30am		Departure of the bus from Brooklyn
10:00am		Welcoming of the pilgrims at the ICCC
11:30am		Procession to the Shrine
12:00pm		Mass, blessing of the Shrine, unveiling of the statue
1:00pm		Barbecue
3:00pm		Talk: “Our Lady of Compassion” (Fr. Paul Anel)
3:30pm		Rosary
5:00pm		Departure of the bus to NY
8:00pm		Arrival in Brooklyn

Nathan, volunteer in Chile: Stories from “Porvenir Bajo”

Sr Mariana — 2010-08-16T16:36:13Z

The Heart's Home community is currently composed of Alejandra (half-Chilean and half-Argentinean and a lay consecrated member in Heart's Home for now 9 years), Luis (French volunteer and a future Heart's Home seminarian), Maria (a German volunteer), Nathan (a French volunteer) and Candela (an Argentinean volunteer). The house is located in the hills of Valparaiso, in a neighborhood where poverty is relative.

I would like to tell you a little bit about señora Hilda. She is a wife, a mother, a grandmother and a great grandmother of 95 years old and she lives a few hundred feet away from our house. Each time we are visiting her, she is telling us in tears how much she would like to be able to walk to our house and join us for the Rosary. Unfortunately her legs don't allow her to do so. She is a woman who is thirsting for a true presence. The most important when we are with her is not to speak but to be with her and to listen to her. Her body is aging more and more but her memory remains intact and she shares with us about her life and her family. She also likes to sing the Chilean national anthem and teaches it to us so that we can sing it together. She is so grateful for the times she shares with us and we always need to make sure we come back soon.

Let me now introduce you to Chalia. She knows the definition of family as she has 15 brothers and sisters and most of them live in the neighborhood or the surrounding neighborhood. She has two children but she also takes care of one of her nieces and one of her nephews because their mother is not able to do so. When we go and visit her in her apartment, we are considered as honorary guests. Nothing is more important for her than talking to us. During our visits, she tells us a lot about her difficulties and how she is concerned for the needs of her brothers and sisters and tries to help them. She is very open and true with us. She asks us to pray for her and her brothers and sisters as well as for her responsibilities educating the children. She always offers us tea or coffee with some cake. She has little to offer but offers it with generosity.

What is our mission all about? I would say it is about encounters that are transformed with time into friendships. These friendships with the children as well as with the elderly require our time, our perseverance and our faithfulness in order to grow more an more. "God wants above all my efforts, and nothing that is made out of love will be lost", Saint Alberto Hurtado.

Nathan

Marylouise M.- India

Sr Mariana — 2010-08-13T19:41:57Z

Christmas break 2009 I thought I had everything planned out for my life after graduation. Upon graduating from Franciscan University of Steubenville in May 2010 with a double major in Theology and Philosophy, a wonderful group of friends, and a deepening intimacy with the Lord, I would move to Boston to pursue my long-time passion of photography. Then, sitting by the fire one night with my father, I confessed to him that in fact all of my planning was not resting peacefully in my soul and I felt God calling me in a different direction—to a life of service, a life of missionary work abroad, a life of living as the Lord's hands and feet, eyes and ears, heart and life to those who most need him, a life of radiating the love of Christ.

Since that moment I have experienced the profound love and support of a mother, father, and brother and many close friends and family members who stand behind me urging me on to follow God's call.

It wasn't long—two weeks to be exact—before I found Heart's Home online and immediately fell in love with the simplicity and depth of their mission of compassion, the contemplative devotion and sacramental life of their missions, and their answer to the dire need for respect for the inherent dignity of the human person. Over the past year the Lord and His most holy mother have been gently teaching me the pain, love, and strength of the cross and the beauty of being a presence at the foot of the cross. Without knowing it, this teaching has been all the while preparing me to walk the path to which God was calling me—the path of a Heart's Home missionary.

With such peace, joy, and zeal that can only come from the Holy Spirit, I look forward to my November departure for India to begin an 18 months of presence, compassion, poverty, and transformation—but most of all love, a life of love. As a Heart's Home missionary, as a troubadour of the enchanting love of Christ, that is my call—to live of love. To leave you with the simple and beautiful words of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, patroness of missionaries:

“To live of love is to sail afar
And bring both peace and joy where'er I be.
O Pilot blest! love is my guiding star;
In every soul I meet, Thyself I see.
Safe sail I on, through wind, or rain, or ice;
Love urges me, love conquers every gale.
High on my mast behold is my device:
‘By love I sail.'”

Sponsor Marylouise!

Renée, volunteer in India - “Welcoming the Children”

Sr Mariana — 2010-08-12T21:25:16Z

Renne K. has been in the Heart's Home Jules-Monchanin since September 2009 for a 18-month mission. Here is an excerpt from her last sponsor letter.

“Two year old Stinather and his five year old brother Arish were the first to start regularly bouncing into our house… and are often there to welcome us home! These two little brothers live in the house just in front of ours. Shortly before we move in, their father left and their mother committed suicide. Fortunately, they have loving aunts that are raising them and who of course don't mind that they spend a lot of their time playing in the Akka Auntie house. They have learned how to knock before entering, to ask for toys and most of the time to listen to our request to clean up… to bow to the tabernacle when they enter the chapel, sitting like us with little books in their sweet hands. They have joined us for adoration, entreating Jesus with giggles and little dances, and some nights for evening prayer, following the melody of the psalms with their syllable voices.

The past several weekends the house has been full with neighborhood kids. When we meet the children on the street, we always remind them that our house is open at 4 pm to play… but one afternoon a big group showed up just in time for our 3 o'clock rosary. So, I handed out the mysteries in Tamil and they joined our prayer. Another evening I came home to the sound of children singing. Agnes and Marguerite where rehearsing a bhajan, Indian hymn, with them for the evening prayer! They have adorned our walls with artwork and soon their painted flower pots with be seeded and hung on our window. It brings us such joy to have the presence of the children with us after six months in our new house.”

Renee

Heart's Home ministry beside the Homebound in Brooklyn

Sr Mariana — 2010-08-11T13:18:29Z

Each Saturday and Sunday the Heart's Home missionaries go to Farragut Housing Project to bring communion to the homebound not able any more to go to mass on Sundays.

“Farragut is sadly renowned for its violence because of the presence of gangs as well as drugs and alcohol. In the midst of these young people who seem to have lost any ambition for the future, of these single girls who are mothers too early, of lonely and sick people, we are given the gift of friendly faces and I would even say of holy figures.

The first face that comes to my mind is Linda who has been bedridden for her last ten years and therefore is completely dependant on the care of others. Her bedroom is filled with stuff and the walls are decrepit and of an indescribable color.
Linda welcomes us each week with bounty and joy thanking us for coming to visit her. To this day I have never heard her complain about her situation or the fact that she has no visits. She likes to have news from our families and the other members of the community. But above all she loves to pray to God. She sings along with us as if the words were in her heart all the time and she sometimes says the words of the Gospel with me when it is one of her favorite passages. She seems to be inhabited by Another and receives the Body of Christ with a lot of gratitude. When we are talking about her age, she tells us mischievously that she hopes she will live until 100 years old (she must be in her eighties).
Despite being unable to do anything, despite her loneliness, despite her physical pain, despite the ugliness of the place where she is living, she wants to live up to 100 years old! To me she is a living host offered for the world's redemption and thanks to her there are many mornings when we find the courage to get up and to face the day in front of us.

After all these years spent at the service of the poor, I keep being filled with wonder at them and learning from them the meaning of living, loving, serving, giving oneself. Father Thierry de Roucy wrote just one year after Heart's Home's foundation: “There, you understand, you can not calculate. You do not save for retirement. You do not wonder whether it will be possible or not to go skiing. You do not look at your neighbors to see if you are richer than them. You do not give what you have in excess. You give your essentials and you mysteriously know that giving it over to the one who is knocking at the door is giving it to Christ Himself. […] And, of course, you know it well enough, it is not heaven but you will learn how to open your eyes to those behaviors which will move you to the deepest and proclaim the Gospel to you so strongly…” Obviously the poor and the little ones are our masters!”

sr Regine

Audio presentation on Adrienne von Speyr

Sr Mariana — 2010-08-04T13:26:13Z

On June 17, 2010, Dr. Matthew Sutton professor of theology at “St John's University” introduced the new American volunteers to the teaching of Adrienne von Spyer, a 20^th century mystic who greatly influenced the founder of Heart's Home. The title of the presentation is “Our Finitude Encounters the Trinity's Infinitude.”

To listen the digital audio version of the presentation you can visit Dr. Sutton's website:

Audio presentation on Adrienne von Speyr by Dr. Matthew Sutton
Heart's Home Orientation program - June, 20^th

Save the Date: September 18, 20th Anniversary Pilgrimage

Sr Mariana — 2010-08-04T01:51:20Z

Please join us on september 18^th, 2010 at the ICCC (2 hours north of NYC) for a pilgrimage in honor of Our Lady of Compassion.

In 1990, the first two Heart's Homes were established in Argentina and Brazil. Ever since, this seed has continued to grow, spreading its roots of compassion all over the world.

Come and celebrate 20 years of Compassion with us!

We invite you to share with us in a unique and inspiring program: Mass on the hill, blessing of the shrine, unveiling of the statue, time for meditation, and barbecue!

Transportation will be available departing from Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx (per request).

More information to come soon!