The McKay House in Boston Gail O'Donnell, RSCJ, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, talks with Joe Finn, executive director of Shelter, Inc., who arranged for the purchase of the house.

December 2, 2003 was bitterly cold in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That didn’t deter a crowd of people, including Mayor Michael A. Sullivan and State Representative Alice Wolfe, from coming out for the opening of the McKay House at 265 Rindge Avenue.

They walked into inviting warmth.

The building, formerly the noviceship for the Society of the Sacred Heart in the United States, has been turned into a shelter which will provide nine units of permanent supportive housing for individuals with disabilities.

The shelter is named for Sister Mickey McKay, RSCJ, who died in 2001.

Layton House was home to Sacred Heart novices from 1992 to 2001, when the noviceship moved to Chicago.

Joe Finn, Executive Director of Shelter Inc., the organization that developed the shelter, introduced the crowd, including lawyers, bankers, architects and developers, to the concept of “communion of saints,” which he explained “was just a way of saying that heaven and earth are very near.”

He explained that, when he first heard about the possibility of purchasing the house, Gail O’Donnell had told him to pray to Mickey, as Mickey had just died and she had a deep love for the poor. Joe prayed hard, and everything – the assistance of Society, the support of neighbors, the obtaining of necessary funds – convinced him that Mickey wanted this shelter to happen.

Let us continue to pray to Mickey for this wonderful work that is now providing a beautiful warm home for the homeless in Cambridge.

–Gail O’Donnell, rscj