Alumnae Collaborate as Reporter and Subject for TV Documentary

Mary Rose (Bacani ’03) Valenti 和维罗妮卡·费里(2006届)在十大欧冠投注网站(Thomas Aquinas College)重叠的一年里是朋友, 但这些年来，他们因另一种共同的爱而联系在一起: Madonna House 在安大略省的Combermere，一位致力于不妥协地活出福音的使徒. Now, in a recent documentary, the two friends invite many more to share this life they love.

麦当娜之家是一个由凯瑟琳·多尔蒂于1947年创立的社区, 他是加拿大的俄罗斯移民，改信天主教. Under the patronage of Mary, Our Lady of Combermere, Madonna House’s full-time members are, says Miss Ferri, “lay men, lay women, and priests who take promises of poverty, chastity, and obedience, 并分享共同的生活”，模仿凯瑟琳·多尔蒂的例子. After 75 years, and with nearly 20 daughter-houses worldwide, 很明显，她的榜样继续吸引着那些发现她的人——无论如何 how they discover it.

Hailing from the Philippines by way of Toronto, Mrs. 瓦伦蒂毕业于托马斯阿奎那学院，一心一意的目标是利用电视向年轻人传福音. This zeal led her to join Salt + Light Media她在那里担任制片人和记者，并遇到了她未来的丈夫理查德·瓦伦蒂(Richard Valenti). 虽然她在2011年退出了Salt + Light，以照顾她的孩子. 瓦伦蒂仍然时不时地把她的肩膀伸到该组织众所周知的犁上.

It was during her early years at Salt + Light that Mrs. Valenti first encountered Madonna House, 当一位同事建议她制作一部欧冠投注使徒工作的简短纪录片时. “I was not drawn to Madonna House then, 因为我认为这些成员的生活方式太过乡村和“贫穷”,” she admits. 但近年来，这种乡村生活方式有了新的味道.

“2018年，我和丈夫觉得我们需要滋养我们的婚姻生活。. Valenti continues. “我偶然发现了卡纳殖民地，这是麦当娜之家举办的为期一周的夏季家庭静修营.退修者将使徒的精神生活和自愿贫穷的承诺变成了他们自己的一周——瓦伦蒂夫妇对节奏的改变很感激. “质朴”的生活让我们摆脱一切不必要的东西，在当下简单的责任和快乐中开辟出一个空间来寻找上帝,” she says.

Thoroughly repentant of her former dismissiveness, Mrs. Valenti was overjoyed when, last year, 盐+光提议制作一部纪录片来纪念麦当娜之家75周年. 这是一次回到精神绿洲的机会，也是一次拜访TAC的老朋友费丽小姐的机会, with whom Mrs. Valenti reconnected on her 2018 retreat, 她找到了自己的路，投入了贡伯米尔圣母的怀抱.

“Ever since my First Communion, I have had a knowledge that the Lord wanted me for Himself,” she says. Firm in this knowledge through her time at the College, Miss Ferri began discerning religious life after graduation. 她回忆道:“我开始了为期三年的朝圣之旅，寻找我的天职。. Her travels took her across the United States, visiting both active orders, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Dominicans, and contemplative ones. 但是，尽管她遇到了许多美丽的社区，但似乎没有一个是旅程的终点. “At a standstill, I returned to Canada and began a master’s program in Canon Law,” she says, “but my heart was not happy.”

费丽小姐一生都是安大略人，她一直都知道圣母之家. After her long and seemingly fruitless search, 她认为这个乡村静修处是一个安静祈祷的好地方，可以让她看清自己曲折的朝圣之旅的方向. “I decided to come for one month,” she recalls. What followed was quite a surprise.

来住就像在自己的城里遇见先知一样. What good could come out of Nazareth?” As it happens, nothing but good! 她的访问持续了一个多月，因为很明显她的旅程已经结束了. “I found what I was looking for all along,” she says. “这种简单的拿撒勒生活深刻地塑造了我的整个生命，并给了我从福音的核心思考真理的空间.”

Miss Ferri has since become a full-time member of the community, living Gospel simplicity in the company of friends. “We begin our day in common prayer with Lauds, 然后一整天都在农场做分配给我们的工作, laundry, kitchen, sugarbush, woodpile, publications, handicrafts, etc.,” she says. “One of our main services is hospitality, 接待来自世界各地和我们一起生活的客人.”

When shooting the documentary last November, Mrs. 瓦伦蒂的面试日程包括和费丽小姐坐了很长时间. The resulting documentary, available through Salt + Light Media’s website, 是麦当娜之家体现的凯瑟琳·多尔蒂的精神愿景的证明，也是学院提供的动态多用途教育的证明.

任何人都可以学习电视制作的技巧. Bacani. “But I was given a strong intellectual foundation by Thomas Aquinas College; I was taught how to read well, how to approach a topic, and how to think clearly on an issue.而一位校友则坐在摄像机后面负责制作, another sits in front of it, 详细介绍了她如何将在学院形成的思想和心灵带入完全为基督而活的生活.