Thanksgiving is upon us and then we fall very quickly into all of the busyness of the Christmas season. Since Advent begins on December 2, this is a very good week to prayerfully consider what sort of Advent reading will best feed our spirits and help us—amid all the tight schedules—to remain connected to this season of expectation, discovery, and enduring, mysterious love. Particularly at a time when the world feels volatile and dark, we need Advent’s promise of an ever-burning Light, and to stay in touch with it.

With that in mind, here are some suggestions for Advent reading, offered by members of the Word on Fire team.

Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives by Pope Benedict XVI. Published in 2012, Benedict’s focus on Jesus’ birth and what the Gospel tells us about childhood and Mary and Joseph makes for compelling and instructive reading:

 Jesus’ origin, his provenance, is the true “beginning”—the primordial source from which all things come, the “light” that makes the world into the cosmos. He comes from God. He is God. This “beginning” that has come to us opens up—as a beginning— a new manner of human existence. “For to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:12f).

The Life of Christ and The World’s First Love: Mary, Mother of God, both by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen are twin Advent suggestions that show this great evangelist—who reminds us that “If Christmas were just the birthday of a great teacher, like Socrates or Buddha, it would never have split time into two, so that all history before the advent of Christ is called B.C. and all history after, A.D.”—at his teaching best.

 “Love burdens itself with the wants and woes and losses and even the wrongs of others,” Sheen says in the Life of Christ. And then, of The World’s First Love, he writes: “The mystery of the Incarnation is very simply that of God’s asking a woman freely to give Him a human nature.”

Good heavens, just two lines and there’s a week’s worth of Advent lectio!

Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, T.S. Eliot, Edith Stein, Alfred Delp, S.J., Thomas Merton, Madeleine L’Engle, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Kathleen Norris, Philip Yancey, and many others. A tremendous anthology of inspiring, illuminating Advent and Christmas meditations delivered through prose and poems. Some readings are suitably brief and others a bit lengthier—Alfred Delp’s reading is thirteen pages long and worth every line!

The Story of Holly and Ivy, by Rumer Godden, Artwork by Barbara Cooney. One to read aloud with the kids over the course of a few evenings, it is a suspense builder. An orphan named Ivy dreams of having a real home and sets out in search of the grandmother she thinks she can find. Meanwhile, Holly, a doll, wishes for a child to bring her to life. And then there is the Jones family. It’s a delightful read. Older children might enjoy reading The Kitchen Madonna in Advent, as well.

The Life of Mary, as Seen by the Mystics, by Raphael Brown. Completely in line with the Gospel narratives, this book nevertheless reads like a novel as it relates what various recognized mystics have seen and heard from Mary and her holy and altogether unique standing within humanity.

To Know Christ Jesus, by Frank Sheed. “When someone tells me they want to ‘deepen their personal relationship with Jesus,’ this is the book I give them,” says our team member. “From a devotional standpoint, this is simply the best life of Christ I’ve read. Sheed writes about Jesus with remarkable clarity, charm, and enchantment.” An intensely personal look at Jesus Christ, and very suitable for Advent.

The Everlasting Man, by G.K. Chesterton. Recommended by two separate members of the Word on Fire crew, one of whom specifically recommends reading the first chapter of the second part, entitled “The God in the Cave.” Coming in at less than twenty pages, it explores “the joyful paradox of the birth of Christ, a paradox that turned the whole cosmos inside out and made humanity’s good dreams come true.”

On the Incarnation, by Saint Athanasius. One of our team members calls this his “favorite book on Christianity’s most ‘distinctive’ doctrine (CCC 463). He adds, “St. Athanasius presents a beautiful exploration of who and what the God-man is and what the Incarnation means for the world.”

If you’re afraid reading something so ancient may be too daunting, this recommendation comes with two further suggestions. The first: a bit of “Do not be afraid” bit of encouragement. “Many Christians hesitate to read the Church Fathers because they’re afraid they’ll be smothered with dusty complexity. But that’s not Athanasius. His writing is deep and ancient but also clear and accessible. Even sixteen centuries later, it’s still lucid and remains the most important book on the Incarnation.”

Secondly, we are urged to, if possible, try to get our hands on an edition that includes an introduction by C.S. Lewis, who also encourages the reader to put away all fear of such a classic.

Finally, because sometimes it’s nice to be quiet and let the subconscious mind work on what we’ve read while we are otherwised engaged, Daniel Mitsui’s The Mysteries of the Rosary: An Adult Coloring Book might be just the thing for those evenings when the wind is howling, and a little quiet is all we really want or need.

 Elizabeth Scalia is a Benedictine Oblate. Her work can be found on the Word on Fire Blog and is used with permission.

In an episode of Call the Midwife, young nurse Jenny Lee works with a teenage-girl who has lived a life of poverty. A Catholic priest, who oversees the home where the girl has been sent to escape an abuser, tells an angry and distraught Jenny: “Poverty isn’t bad housing or dirty clothing. It’s never having been loved, or even respected. It’s not knowing the difference between love and abuse.”

This description of poverty was particularly striking to me as a Catholic and because at the time I was trying to devise a health education session specifically for people who have high blood pressure and are homeless. It’s well known that people who live in poverty often don’t do what they are “supposed” to – whether it’s take their medicine or hold down a job. Why is that and what can we do about it?

As I went through the various behavior change models, trying to convince my homeless clients to take even small steps to improve their lives, I found that traditional approaches for behavior change make two key assumptions that weren’t applicable to the people I was working with: first, traditional methods assume the sole responsibility for changing is on the individual. Secondly, they assume all people view themselves as worthy of good health and a good life. But these faulty assumptions create a disconnect that can harm the very people we are trying to help – and it ties back to the description of poverty given by Father Joe on Call the Midwife.

I then happened to attend a trauma-informed care training. Trauma-informed care is based on research that has been around for 20 years, and it changed how I saw and did everything as I interacted with people living in poverty. Most importantly, it gave me tools to connect with my homeless clients as we talked about their health and lives.

The idea is that emotional trauma – abuse, neglect, living in poverty – alters a person’s brain and body, and leaves them much more likely to suffer poor health and social outcomes. And while trauma affects all demographics, its effects are most severe in vulnerable populations, such as those who live in rough households, or distressed neighborhoods. There is hope, though. With trauma-informed schools, churches, hospitals, and social services, we can help people and communities build resilience and heal.

We are called to serve the poor and vulnerable among us; we must see that poverty is more than a lack of material resources. Therefore, our first step is to become trauma-informed and build our services upon this foundation. As we encounter the homeless, the incarcerated, the addicted, and those living in poverty or abuse, we then will open ourselves to a greater empathy and compassion in a productive, respectful manner.

Trauma-informed care is a tool that helps us be better servants to those who need us most.

 Erica Smith is the executive director of Helping Hands of Springfield, a non-profit organization in Springfield that serves people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. She is also a SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)-certified Trauma-Informed Care educator.

 If you are interested in helping our parish discern how to better care for those in need, please come on Monday, December 10, at 6 p.m. to the Atrium for a 45-minute presentation called “Healthy Spaces for Helping.” This is a session about the effects of trauma (abuse, neglect, living in poverty) on children and adults. We’ll learn about why being trauma-aware is essential to responding to the needs of our community, particularly people and populations who are homeless or who live in poverty. If you are interested, please contact Vicki Compton at [email protected] or by calling 522-3342. All parishioners and friends of the Cathedral are welcome!

Many of us will celebrate the annual tradition of this coming Thursday as Thanksgiving Day. Our national tradition goes back to 1621 to the giving of thanks by pilgrims and their Native American neighbor s at Plymouth (although history argues that many of the details of the first Thanksgiving are more myth than anything else). The tradition continued through the years, finally being fixed by President Lincoln by decree in 1863 that a national day of thanksgiving should occur on the last Thursday of November. The date was fixed again in 1941 by an act of Congress declaring that the fourth Thursday of November would be the date for Thanksgiving each year. This was a compromise between Republicans and Democrats. President Roosevelt had wanted Thanksgiving on the second to the last Thursday of November to provide for a longer Christmas shopping season to help the American economy. Republicans wanted to keep Thanksgiving on last Thursday of November, as Lincoln had declared, as an honor to the former president. The compromise allowed for both sides to get what they wanted, depending on how many Thursdays were in November in a given year.

No matter what Thursday the holiday is celebrated on, what is important is the reason why the day is celebrated. This is the one federal holiday that is designated as a day of offering thanks to God for the gifts and blessings that he has bestowed on the nation. While many of us will gather with family and friends to give thanks in the afternoon or evening, I invite you to first come to Mass at the Cathedral at 9:00AM, as there is no better way to celebrate Thanksgiving Day than with thanksgiving at Mass. The word Eucharist in Greek means “thanksgiving.” Every time we gather for the Mass, we are gathering to offer thanksgiving to God for his goodness, his mercy, and his love.

Long before the pilgrims at Plymouth gathered for the “first” Thanksgiving, thanksgiving had already been offered on these American shores in the Mass, but no one can be exactly sure when that happened. If you ask the Irish they will tell you it was by St. Brendan all the way back around the year 512 (one of the windows on the south side of the Cathedral commemorates this tradition). We know that Mass was offered on Epiphany on the island of Hispaniola as a part of Columbus’s second voyage in 1494. Finally, most likely by 1498, Henry Cabot’s expedition was exploring Newfoundland and Augustinian friars were among those in his party so Mass was most likely offered on the continent by then.

It is important for our lives to be marked by thanksgiving. Thanksgiving must be a way of life for the Christian, not simply a day on the calendar. Acknowledging that God is the giver of all good gifts, and that our talents and resourcefulness emanate from him, keeps us humble and open to receiving the continued graces that he wants to bestow on us. On behalf of Bishop Paprocki, Father Stock, Father Friedel, Deacon Smith, Deacon Keen, and all of the Cathedral Parish staff, I wish you and yours a blessed and happy Thanksgiving. God bless you!

 Father Christopher House is the Rector of the Cathedral and serves in various leadership roles within the diocesan curia, namely Chancellor and Vicar Judicial.

I enjoy working out. After my second child, a switch flipped in my brain and I started lifting weights and changing my eating habits. I think we hear about those kind of transformations all of the time but I’ve learned that training my body and mastering my eating habits also had a profound affect on my spiritual life.

We suffer from a grave disembodiment. We tend to believe that our hearts, our souls, our minds are somehow altogether separate from our bodies. I would argue that they are altogether the same. Our inner life is often reflected from without, and the same can be said in reverse. When we are heavy of heart, we may expound this externally—binging on food (hello, pint/gallon of ice cream) or listening to sad music. When our heart is light, we do the opposite. There is a sense of incredulity when you see someone urging others to give all that they have to holiness when they cannot apply that discipline to how they care for their bodies.

What care are we called to? As with all things, we must operate in “reality as given,” and Christ rarely asks contrary of us. For instance, I have four children under the age of seven and a profound love for writing/theology. I rarely make time for more than an hour in the gym. Even that can be scarce at times. I won’t be training for Olympia or the NYC marathon anytime soon. That’s my “reality as given,” and I’m sure yours is different.

When St. Paul wrote “I beat my body into my slave,” I’m sure he wasn’t speaking of hitting the local gym as much as the spiritual asceticism that even Pope St. John Paul II frequently spoke of as self-mastery.

I remember speaking with my doctor about all of this—fitness and the like. He told me that he struggled with the eating part. He didn’t like the idea of “depriving” himself or the monotony of repetitive meals. I invited him to change his hermeneutic. There’s really no deprivation or monotony if we view it all as simplicity and discipline. Simplicity of life without beckons us into deepening our inner life.

Now, the flipping of my switch that I spoke of didn’t come without suffering—cravings that I chose not to fulfill, painful soreness after moving up in weight on squats, etc. Great love requires suffering. That suffering begets humanity. Even the science behind muscle building requires a breakdown of muscle fibers. And that “breaking down” makes something stronger, just like suffering actually restores our harden hearts with “natural” hearts. Suffering makes way for love.

Ratzinger wrote, “When we know that the way of love—this exodus, this going out of oneself—is the true way by which man becomes human, then we also understand that suffering is the process through which we mature. Anyone who has inwardly accepted suffering becomes more mature and more understanding of others, becomes more human.”

Suffering over a spin class and suffering of spirit may seem vastly different, but taming my flesh has taught me a lot about taming my soul, and it has given me the greater gift of praxis that otherwise I have not. All things point to Christ, and all things that we give credit to the world for are meant to be redeemed for him —even what we eat and even more so how we treat this body that was made to worship him. All for Christ! Everything.

 Rachel Bulman is a wife, mother of 4, speaker, and blogger. This post is found on the Word on Fire website and used with permission. Find more of her work at RachelBulman.com.

  In his apostolic letter to close the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis suggested the Catholic Church set aside one day each year when communities can “reflect on how poverty is at the very heart of the Gospel.” He designated this day as the “World Day of the Poor.” It will be celebrated on the thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary time (two Sundays before the season of Advent each year.) The second World Day of the Poor is Sunday, November 18, 2018.

 “It would be a day to help communities and each of the baptized to reflect on how poverty is at the very heart of the Gospel and that, as long as Lazarus lies at the door of our homes (cf. Lk 16:19-21), there can be no justice or social peace. This Day will also represent a genuine form of new evangelization (cf. Mt 11:5) which can renew the face of the Church as She perseveres in her perennial activity of pastoral conversion and witness to mercy.”

 – Pope Francis

 Here are 5 Ways you can observe the World Day of the Poor:

1. Pray for the poor. There are so many people who need our prayers. If you’re overwhelmed and not sure where to start, try praying with your newsfeed. As you see headlines about what’s happening around the world, pause and pray for the people affected by those stories.
2. Learn about the causes of poverty and work to change them. There are many reasons why people around the world are trapped in poverty: lack of jobs, war and climate change that affects what farmers can grow are only a few examples. We can raise our voices together to ask our government to support policies that help address these causes of poverty. Advocate on behalf of people who are hungry and living in poverty by sending a letter to your Representatives and Senators in Congress at support.crs.org/act/nourish-change-13.
3. Support the church’s outreach to the poor. One way to care for the poor around the world is to support the work of Catholic Relief Services, the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS is motivated by the example of Jesus Christ to assist poor and suffering people in more than 100 countries. Go to crs.org/ways-to-give to help our brothers and sisters in need. Cathedral parish is looking to deepen our involvement in caring for the poor locally. Contact Vicki Compton at [email protected] or call 522-3342 to be part of this effort.
4. Make caring for the poor part of your routine. Do you buy coffee, chocolate or Christmas gifts? One way to support lowincome workers around the world is by buying things you use on a regular basis from organizations that pay a fair wage. If you drink coffee or tea, look for a fair trade label, which means that the farmers who harvest the coffee or tea are paid fairly and work in safe conditions. As you begin your Christmas shopping, consider buying gifts from around the world that are produced and traded ethically. Locally you can shop at Simply Fair, 2367 W Monroe and you can find a list of ethical online companies at ethicaltrade.crs.org/guide.
5. Practice the corporal works of mercy. The Corporal Works of Mercy are drawn from Jesus’ life and teachings. They call us to: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned, bury the dead and give alms to the poor. Pope Francis added a new work of mercy: to care for God’s creation. The Corporal Works of Mercy offer a clear model and starting point for how to care for our neighbors in need.

 For more information, please contact Vicki Compton at [email protected].

I am not sure your family tradition the night of Thanksgiving, but much to my chagrin I have a few family members that hit the big sales starting that evening. While I am not opposed to snatching a good sale, I always feel uncomfortable thinking about the workers who leave their families to prepare for the mad rush of eager shoppers. I am sure the deals on that evening make it worth it for that special item someone has been asking for all year, but I wish we could just give it one day. In fact, the next day, known as “Black Friday,” is one of the biggest shopping days in the US. Did you known the most popular requested gift card this year is an Amazon gift card? Anyone surprised? The shopping weekend doesn’t end here! We continue onto “Small Business Saturday” and then “Cyber Monday.”

The upcoming weekend is a shopper’s delight! But, something seems to be missing in all of this commotion. Thanksgiving is an opportunity to recognize your blessings! The gift of family, friends, a warm meal; we receive an abundance of blessings! I hate to say it to my fellow shoppers reading this, but wouldn’t it be better to have “giving days” rather than “shopping days” ahead of us?

Good news, “Giving Tuesday” is right around the corner! Giving Tuesday is celebrated on November 27, 2018 and is promoted as a global day of giving. While the day has increased in awareness and popularity since its inception in 2012, it is still unknown to many. Giving Tuesday was created by a team at the Belfer Center for Innovation and Social Impact and an organization called 92nd Street Y. They wanted to create one day when individuals and communities could celebrate and encourage giving. The day juxtaposes the consumerism culture prominent in days prior. Last year, all types of nonprofits received over 2.5 million gifts which totaled more than 300 million dollars all raised in ONE day! Those numbers are a tremendous example of generosity in a world that sometimes seems to emphasize individualism and consumerism over philanthropy.

So, how can we as Catholics participate in Giving Tuesday? How about responding in the spirit of stewardship? Think about your GPS for a minute. Yes, the GPS that you may have used to navigate you to a store or an event recently. Just as a GPS navigates us to our destination, stewardship helps us navigate our faith life. Ultimately, the destination is being in full communion with Jesus. Here at Cathedral, we will be posting opportunities to use our Stewardship GPS to Give, Pray, and Serve. We invite you to join us.

On November 27th:

• Join us for Mass at 7AM or 5:15PM
• Come in for Confession from 4:15PM- 5:00PM
• Take time reading the Scriptures for the day, easily found on USCCB’s website (http://usccb.org/bible/readings/112718.cfm)
• Pray for those listed on the online prayer wall or listed as a Mass Intention for the week Consider serving at your favorite organization that day or contacting an organization about volunteering
• Call a friend and invite them to an upcoming faith formation event or next Sunday’s Mass

Share with us how you use your Stewardship GPS on Giving Tuesday by engaging in the conversation on Facebook or with your peers. We are all blessed in abundance by God. Let us lead the way (GPS!) by our example on Giving Tuesday!

Katie Price is the Coordinator for Stewardship at the Cathedral. She can be reached at [email protected].

This past Tuesday evening we completed a three part faith formation video series on the Lord Jesus as Priest, Prophet and King. I am grateful to those who participated and for the great conversations that we had at each session. In the series, Bishop Robert Barron explained what these three ministries, what we call the triple munera, meant for Jesus and what they mean for us by virtue of our baptism since we are given a share in them by virtue of this great sacrament.

Our Lord Jesus came to sanctify the world anew, to show us the way to offer right praise to God. By virtue of our baptism, we are called to share in the priestly ministry of Christ by striving for holiness each and every day, by striving to offer God right praise in every aspect of our lives. As a priestly people, we are called to make the world holy by our presence and action in it. The second munera, the prophetic ministry of our baptism, calls us to witness to Christ by calling people back to relationship with God. This was the role of the Prophets in the Scriptures, fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, to call Israel from its sinfulness back to its covenant relationship with the Lord. In a world of false or misguided priorities, this ministry can be very challenging as many people are disinclined to break habits and mind-sets that are contrary to God’s will; sinful as these things may be, people can find a false comfort in them and are not quick to give these things up.

The third ministry of Christ that we share in by virtue of our baptism is that of kingship. What this means for us in the life of the Church is that we are called to maintain proper order. As individuals, we are called to maintain proper order in our lives by fully participating in the life of grace and seeing that sin does not enter in; we must do this because we are a part of the mystical body of Christ and if we are diminished by sin then so also is the whole mystical body. If we find sin in our lives, it must be cut out or pushed back. This is a serious mistake that people make at times, thinking that there can be some co-existence with sin and evil. It isn’t possible. This was the mistake made by many of the kings of Israel. Some blatantly cooperated with evil but others tragically compromised with it in various ways. Though sometimes well intentioned, any attempt to compromise or coexist with evil leads to bad kingship.

While all of the faithful are given a share in these three-fold ministries, those men who are in Sacred Orders by virtue of ordination have a unique responsibility in fulfilling these offices in the Church through teaching, governing, and sanctifying. Among them, the bishops of the Church have the greatest responsibility. They are the successors of the Apostles and it is through them that priests and deacons are ordained and ordered to assist them in these three sacred functions. This week the bishops of the United States will be holding their annual fall meeting in Baltimore and they have asked for our prayers. It is no secret that there has been poor exercise of the Kingly charism by some in governance and the bishops will be meeting to address these issues along with other pressing and difficult questions for the good of the faithful of this nation and the Church at large.

It is an unenviable task that the bishops have, to be responsible for every soul in their own particular diocese and to also share in responsibility for the greater Church. They need our prayers. The vast majority of the bishops are good and holy men who need the grace of God as much as we do and some perhaps even more. Let us pray for them, especially for our own bishop, Thomas John, that God will grant them zeal, courage, and fortitude in safeguarding the good of the faithful, especially the most vulnerable, as we all strive to answer the Lord’s call in our lives and journey towards his Kingdom.

Father Christopher House is the Rector of the Cathedral and serves in various leadership roles within the diocesan curia, namely Chancellor and Vicar Judicial.

Peace in our world is something that we all dream of, though we often feel paralyzed in our efforts to bring about peace. Watching news clips of the political and religious turmoil present in our world today is enough to make even the most optimistic person sit back and wonder if peace is something that can be achieved.

The question that has often come to mind when I think about the daunting task of world peace, is how on earth can I, as an individual, really make a difference from day to day?

John Henry Newman (1801– 1890) in part answers this question in his statement “holiness before peace.”

Newman claims that true peace can only be found through becoming holy. But what does this mean for us as we go about our daily lives?

The answer to this sounds quite simple: The closer one grows to God, the more peaceful one becomes. That’s because as Christians, we believe that peace on earth ultimately stems from the peace of God. How does this work, practically speaking? Every act of holiness (going to Mass, praying the rosary, helping the homeless) allows God to act in our lives, which in turn allows God to act through us in bringing about peace in the world. As we ourselves grow holier, this allows us to participate in God’s peace, which ultimately influences those around us.

Sometimes bringing about peace in our world can be as simple as a smile or hug to someone who needs it. We recognize Christ in our neighbors, and so we also allow Christ to work through us in our interactions with our neighbors.

Peace, even in the simplest of gestures, originates in God.

Reflecting upon Newman’s idea that peace stems from holiness, we begin to see that the peace that God gives to us as we grow in holiness is actually a gift for the world. St. Teresa of Calcutta is a great example of peace stemming from holiness. St. Teresa often spoke about her work as a mission of love. She understood her mission to the poor as originating in her worship in the Mass and her participation in the devotions of the Catholic Church, such as the rosary, daily prayer, and feeding the hungry. The peace that St. Teresa exuded in her work with the poor flowed out of her experience of Christ in the Eucharist and her closeness to God, and even though she didn’t always feel the love of God, she cognitively knew that God was present.

While most of us don’t lead the extraordinary life of a St. Teresa, the wisdom of holiness leading to peace is certainly relevant to all of us. As Catholics, Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is present to all of us. This living encounter through the Eucharist changes all of us and brings us all closer to God.

Our daily prayers, rituals like journaling, and acts of mercy like helping the poor or visiting a sick friend all aid in our growth toward God.

In turn, our worship at Mass, accompanied by the daily nourishment of prayer, changes us from the inside out and inspires us to work for peace, whether it be buying a cup of coffee for a person having a bad day or feeding an entire nation. All of these acts come from God and bring us closer to the peace of Christ and help us to build a peaceful society.

May we as Christians remember where peace ultimately originates: in Christ’s love for his people.

Elizabeth H. Farnsworth heads the daily operations for the National Institute for Newman Studies’ Newman Studies Journal, which provides scholars with top-tier knowledge on Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman’s life, work, and influence. She is also currently a doctoral candidate in theology at the University of Dayton.

At the close of the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis suggested that the Church set aside one day each year for communities to “reflect on how poverty is at the very heart of the Gospel .” He designated this day as the World Day of the Poor, to be celebrated each year on the 33rdSunday in Ordinary Time.

It is right that during our Season of Stewardship and during the season of Thanksgiving that we take some time to reflect on how the Gospel is calling us as individuals and as a parish family to serve the poor. The widow who fed Elijah with the last of her flour and the widow in the Gospel of Mark help us understand that God is calling us to extravagant generosity. We are called to give all. Really, it’s ridiculous! And impossible. Except for those of us in whom Christ lives. And so it is not impossible. St. Teresa of Calcutta said that The Holy Hour before the Eucharist should lead us to a “holy hour” with the poor. Our Eucharist is incomplete if it does not make us love and serve the poor.”

The Cathedral parish, and its members, are active in a wide variety of service activities, and welcome the opportunity to serve people in need in our parish and beyond. There have been many opportunities over the years for parishioners to support the local community. Here is what we have been doing lately:

Catholic Charities Holy Family Food Pantry
A collection bin is in the Atrium for an ongoing food collection for the Holy Family Food Pantry. In the past, the CCCW members collected non-perishable food at their fall meetings to fill the Holy Family Food Pantry Thanksgiving and Christmas food baskets. Beginning this year, all parishioners are invited to participate in this giving opportunity. A list of suggested food items has appeared in the bulletin and cash donations are also accepted. Place a check or cash in an envelope marked “Food Pantry” and drop it in the collection basket.

Helping Hands Food Ministry
We are completing our 13th year of providing a home-cooked meal for the 50 men who seek shelter at Helping Hands. Teams provide a meal on the 4th Saturday of each month. Each January an organizational meeting is held to form teams and plan meals for the year. Volunteers prepare the food, purchase drinks and disposable dinnerware, deliver and serve the meal.

Christ Child Shower
The CCCW has coordinated the Christ Child Shower for many years. Generous contributions of items for babies, preschool children and pregnant/new mothers are accepted and divided between the Pregnancy Care Center and Mini O’Beirne Crisis Nursery for distribution to their client families.

Blessing Bags
Parishioners donate toiletries, personal care items, socks, etc. to make Blessing Bags for individuals who are homebound or who cannot afford them. In 2018, a group of CCCW ladies and their families prepared packages for 65 residents of a local nursing home as well as 18 home bound Cathedral parishioners in Sister Francella’s ministry. In past years, these bags were also provided to Helping Hands to provide needed items to homeless individuals.

Socktober
Borrowing this idea from other parishes, Cathedral parishioners donated almost 500 pairs of socks, hats and gloves for area shelters! We will make this much needed service an annual giving opportunity.

Breadline Sunday
Held annually on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, Breadline Sunday is an easy way to donate to St. John’s Breadline and get the bread for your Thanksgiving stuffing.

All these ways of helping are essential for vulnerable members of our community and the agencies who assist them. But there may be ways we can do more to address the root causes of homelessness or perhaps join with the Heartland Continuum to seek long-term solutions.

The Heartland Continuum is an organization of all agencies and individuals who serve the homeless population or are interested in helping. These agencies include shelters, soup kitchens, resource areas, and day services. To learn more about the Heartland Continuum and what is going on in Springfield to help people experiencing homelessness, visit heartlandcontinuum.com

If you are interested in helping our parish discern how to better care for those in need, please come on Monday, December 10, at 6 p.m. to the Atrium for a 45-minute presentation called “Healthy Spaces for Helping.” This is a session about the effects of trauma (abuse, neglect, living in poverty) on children and adults. We’ll learn about why being trauma-aware is essential to responding to the needs of our community, particularly people and populations who are homeless or who live in poverty. If you are interested, please contact Vicki Compton at [email protected] or by calling 522-3342. All parishioners and friends of the Cathedral are welcome!

 Vicki Compton is the Coordinator of Faith Formation and Mission at the Cathedral. She can be contacted by calling the Parish Offices or emailing her directly at [email protected].