News about Paulines in Pakistan

Church says biased report led to police raid on Catholic bookstore - Jun 30, 2005

Archbishop Evarist Pinto of Karachi presided over the reopening of a Catholic bookshop 12 days after police raided it and confiscated 150 compact discs and videotapes of biblical films.

Archbishop Pinto, speaking with UCA News at the June 25 reopening, called the police raid on the bookshop "a single, stray incident" based on a misunderstanding that took root in a prejudiced mindset.

The archdiocese owns the store, which the Daughters of St. Paul operate, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. The raid was conducted June 13, a day after the Urdu-language newspaper Nawa-i-Waqt ran a story alleging that Christians were selling CDs and videotapes about the lives of the prophets.

The newspaper report claimed the films contained blasphemous material. Muslim religious scholars, whose opinion the paper sought, reportedly issued a "fatwa," or religious edict, calling the material offensive to Muslims by depicting the prophets and defaming their character. Islam does not allow visual portrayals of God or the prophets.

 From "The Universe" Britain and Ireland's best-selling Catholic newspaper - founded in 1860

St. Paul

Happy Feast of St. Paul! Today is a special feast granted by the Holy See to the Pauline Family. It includes a plenary indulgence ("under the usual conditions") for all members, including (God bless them) our steadfast cooperators. We had Mass at our convent this morning. It is a little tricky, because the liturgy book for Pauline feasts is so small and unfamiliar to the visiting priests who celebrate these days with us. But we managed!
This is also the day around which we try to schedule our professions. In Korea a group is making final vows, and novices in Kenya, Congo, Madagascar and the Philippines (and two other places, both in Africa, but I forget which countries) are making first vows. Please pray for them, that St. Paul obtain some extra special grace for each one.
And for us, too.
Saturday will be my 27th anniversaryof first vows. (We made profession on the Sunday closest to today's feast.) Pray for me!

John Paul Beatification site

Dare I say it? The official website for the Cause of Beatification of our greatly loved and esteemed Pope John Paul II is... hideous. Somebody ought to find those people a graphic artist--quick! It is almost as bad, yes, as the overall design and plan for the original Jubilee web site. The person who imposed his vision on that site refused to let the professionals give any guidance. Their jobs were at risk if they offered it. And it almost appears as if the same guy is on this job. This brings back a lot of bad memories--the aspects of my life and work in Rome that I have tried to repress. I am not going to be a frequent visitor to this site. Somebody let me know if they ever redesign it!

free ain't easy

As I wrote some time ago, one of my favorite words is "free" as in "free stuff." A close runner up is "rebate." So when I (the community grocery shopper) saw in this week's ad section that 12-packs of Coke soft drink products would be on sale with a great REBATE plus one pack FREE, I added that to our shopping list, along with (2) green peppers, celery, eggs, bacon and strawberries (feast day breakfast plans). Got home and proceeded to fill out the rebate slip. Free ain't easy. Went to make a photocopy of the receipt (the rebate requires an original, but we need to keep track of the expense). Next: the UPC codes. What to do? Ah! A box cutter. Just the thing. I easily removed the UPC code from a 12-pack of Coke and moved toward the root beer (Sr. Phivan and I are into root beer, but I only buy soft drinks when they are $2.50 per 12-pack). Slice! And up came a tiny brown spray. And up. And flowing over the cart the boxes were on. And spurting onto the floor and onto my habit. The blade of the box cutter had easily sliced right into a can of root beer, the aluminum being no heavier than the cardboard containing it. I attempted to cover the spray with one hand while reaching for a glass in the kitchen cupboard. All that did was distribute the spray more finely until I managed to flip the slit side of the can over to pour out into a glass.

I filled out the rebate form "Daughters of St. Paul" and then noticed "not valid for any group, organization, etc." DARN! So I added my name in tiny letters and put "C/O" in front of the DSP line. Hope it works!

Another Good Read (coming up)

Among the catalogs from the RBTE there was a booklet featuring unpolished chapters of an upcoming book by Joyce Rupp. The title (good advice in itself) is "Walk in a Relaxed Manner" and it comes from the suggestion a wise Spaniard made to Rupp and her companion as they nursed blisters along the Way of St. James. (Rupp wanted to walk the whole Cammino to Compostela for her 60th birthday!) The chapters featured in the booklet (we have to wait 'til mid September for the full version) were warm and inviting. I really got a lot of good from reading them, and am looking forward to the book's release. Stay tuned!

More Books Worth Reading

I didn't do my homework on this, I am just sharing off the top of my head. These have all been around a while. Some I found in the public library, others were in our inventory.

 

Author: Alice Miller

Title: Don't remember, but it was about the childhood traumas of people who marked the 20th century either as artists or despots and what made the difference in outcome. Includes Nietzsche, Picasso, Stalin....

 

Author: Don't remember

Title: Flannery O'Connor, Hermit Novelist. I read this last summer on vacation and loved it to pieces. The author demonstrates (impressively to me!) the correlation between O'Connor's writings and the spirituality and writings of the desert fathers. He develops the idea of the "logismoi" (which Sr. Lorraine picked up in my talk; this is where I got it) in the desert fathers' experience and in O'Connor's fiction. (As an example, the voice of the "stranger" talking inside Francis Tarwater's head in "The Violent Bear it Away.")

 

Author: Josef Pieper

Title: On Hope. A little gem.

 

Author: Norbert Baumert (I think)

Title: Woman and Man in Paul. A pretty heavy text (literally and figuratively), but I found it very enlightening on aspects of Paul. Bring a Greek dictionary.

At-risk baby

About that unborn baby, I learned from the grandmother that her daughter, the baby's mom, was being pressured to abort the child because chances for survival were so slim. Evidently, the doctors did not want to risk being sued for malpractice in the event that the child were to be born with multiple problems. The parents are standing firm on this, as you can read in the mom's write-up. Their greatest desire for this child now is for baptism. (Being "claimed for Christ"!)

As for me, I am marveling at where our lawsuit-happy society is taking medicine.

There are other pressures that may be pushing people to consider abortion who would never come to that decision on their own. A year or two ago, another woman I know became pregnant with her second child. And the insurance agent made a not-so-subtle remark that, according to their insurance plans, they hadn't been planning for a child that year.... There were no complications or anything, just that the insurance company didn't want the client to cost them anything. The wife exploded, "This is the kind of pressure that pushes women to have abortions!" They now have a healthy, happy daughter.

Keep Praying!

Here's an update from the family whose unborn child was found to be at great risk. Keep those prayers up!

We wanted to share with you the Good News that we received today.

 

I had a Fetal Echocardiogram performed this morning.   The results are encouraging! 

 

I was “warned” once again, that because of the lack of Amniotic Fluid, some of the images were not "clear" enough and that they cannot be 100% sure that the baby's heart is perfect and free of problems.... BUT....by what the Specialist was able to see and hear... our baby's heart is very strong and sounds very healthy.   She told me that she does not foresee a need at this time to have a team of cardiologists on hand when the baby is born.   One more blessing to be thankful for and one less thing to worry about at this time.

 

And on top of this "Good News", we were told that the baby has gained a bit of weight in the 3 days since I was last seen at the hospital!!!!

 

Our baby weighs approximately 472 grams (15.65 ounces) today!!!  That's a gain in weight of about 20 to 30 grams (1/2 ounce) more in only 3 days!

 

It may not seem as much, but for a tiny "angel" such as our baby...it IS a BIG DEAL!!!   As soon as the baby hits the 500 gram (one pound) mark, we will be able to get the steroid shots needed to get the lungs prepared for delivery and the doctors will take it from there. 

 

It may be a "long shot", but we have gotten this far in a couple of weeks, so we must be doing SOMETHING right.  That only proves that your prayers (in union with ours) are working and that God is attentive to our plea.

 

Whatever the outcome, we will never be able to repay you (your family and friends, as well) for the help you've given us... be it your prayers, advice, a kind smile and hug, your cards and e-mails of support -- It all means a lot to us and to God.

 

As God has shown us His Mercy through these little "improvements" in our child's health, we are sure that He will reward you for your participation in the realization of this "miracle" our baby so desperately needs.

 

St. John the Baptist must be smiling even more today with our good news.  Beside the fact that it is his feast day today, he must share in the happiness we all feel as we approach the day we will be able to administer the same sacrament on our baby, as he did for Jesus close to 2,000 years ago.    Our little baby is putting up a fight for his/her life here on earth and with our positive attitude and prayers; he/she will be even more resilient.

Santo Subito

I've been doing research online for a talk I'll be giving in August to religious educators in New Orleans (home sweet home!), and found... no kidding... a plastic "santo subito" wristband. Like the "livestrong" kind, only bright blue. $5. And special offers for fundraising groups. No indication that proceeds from bracelet sales go to the canonization process, though.

 

On a more pious note, today's first reading struck me in a new way. It recounts Abraham's hospitality to the three mysterious guests (who later go towards Sodom and ... you know the rest). When Abraham ran to meet them and begged them to accept his welcome, the "spokesman" of the three replied, "Let what you have said be done." That's GOD saying a "fiat" to MAN.

Thursdays in Boston

The Boston community is large enough to have all day adoration on Thursdays. During the week, there is exposition only in the mornings. (Not having a monastic lifestyle, we can't really manage more than that, but it is certainly nice.)

The sisters seemed to really enjoy my presentations on the Founder. Tomorrow I head back to Chicago, but I'll be back in July to give the presentation to one last group.

On a sad note, while taking a walk here around our woods, I noticed that our fabulous raspberry briars had been cleared away. I guess the guys thought they were just brambles, but they were the finest raspberries on the planet. I loved getting all covered up in protective gear to pick those ruby-like berries, so sweet and pure. So ... a bit of mourning, too. (Jesus, I want to see those raspberries in heaven with you!)

Romanian postulant's blog

About ten years ago, a group of sisters went to Romania to begin a communty there. Last year, a postulant entered, and she is getting her "formation" in Boston. I think she is back in Romania now for a home visit and to do some mission work in her own language, and then she will return. She has been doing a blog in Romanian. The only thing I can understand are the words "a warm greeting" that start her header. But the pictures are nice! So you might want to give it a glance.

Greetings from Boston

Well, we touched down a tad early, but the wait for my one little tiny bit of checked-in luggage took care of that! I will be here for just two days to give a presentation on the Founder. Please pray that grace may abound!

Things to like about Chicago

Things to like about Chicago

Free outdoor concerts at Millenium Park--one block away.

Book Report: The Rise of Benedict XVI

After coming home from the book exhibit yesterday, I noticed a new book in our inventory: The Rise of Benedict XVI by John Allen. Having read portions of Allen's biography of the present Holy Father (the book, titled "Benedict XVI, the Life of Joseph Ratzinger" is a reprint of a 1999 biography), I was a bit cautious. That book did not exactly bestow praises on its subject. But I had also heard that events around the Conclave had given Allen such new insights that he was writing a new preface to the biography (that edition is expected around September). So anyway, I read the book. The whole book. In chapel. Until 10:40 p.m. (Those of you who know my usually preposterous early retiring each evening will realize how significant that is.)

The book is fabulous.

And it's only $19.95 in hardcover! (Doubleday.)

Read it. Revisit those spring days, feel the tears rise again over John Paul, feel the hope, feel the genuine encouragement from the well-chosen citations from Ratzinger's books and homilies. (Allen is a superb journalist; in preparation for the 1999 bio, he read ALL of Ratzinger's then-published books, including things only available in German. He probably knows Ratzinger's mind as well as anyone, even if he is not always in heartfelt harmony with the new Pope's perspective.)

I had a lot more to say about this book, but ... it's not like I was taking notes! Just read it.

 

S.J.

The last speaker for the Scripture Seminar was William Kurz, a Jesuit from Marquette. He was what Karen Hall would call a "St. Ignatius Jesuit." The real deal. A Wisconsin native (funny, it never occurred to me that Jesuits would be from Wisconsin, just "in" Wisconsin), he has 3 or 4 Master's Degrees, 2 STL's and a Ph.D. And at the same time, he is the most ordinary, unassuming, genuine sort of a person. His faithfulness to just down-home orthodoxy and Catholicism was utterly refreshing. In fact, he is just finishing up a paper for a symposium honoring Cardinal Avery Dulles (S.J.!), and the topic of his paper is Theology of the Body from a Scripture scholar's point of view. I can't wait to get a hold of it. But it may not be published for a while. I'll keep looking!
I was able to chat with him for a few minutes as I showed him the way to that lovely lake (see photo posted a few days ago), and as we walked he testified to his own vocation as a Jesuit, saying that he felt a real kinship with St. Ignatius--and that from his youth, but especially from his early formation in the Society. He also had pointed out in his talk that Ignatius' "first principle and foundation" really represents a "biblical worldview." That gave me an extra tidbit to add to my talk for the sisters in Boston next week (on our Founder, who was greatly influenced by Ignatius). Just say it was very inspiring to meet and hear this good soul. Pray for him and for his work, which is now moving toward a rediscovery of the Church Fathers' forms of biblical interpretation.

The Scandal of Baptism

I love Baptism! I love everything about the rite, especially the "I claim you for Christ" and the "keep this garment unspotted until the wedding feast." That is why I was especially taken aback at a breakfast conversation here at the Scripture Seminar (where I am running the book table). One of the lay women who had traveled quite a distance to come to this event, and who has obviously really worked at growing in theological awareness (I hesitate, almost, to say "knowledge") remarked that the part of the ritual where the celebrant says "I claim you for Christ" makes her shiver with indignation at the imperial presumption in those words. But then, she doesn't believe in infant baptism and is sure that Augustine is to blame not only for the notion of original sin, but for the practice of infant baptism itself.

Anyway, her rejection of the expression (as well as of infant baptism!) got me to reflect on my instinctive drawing back from the very idea that someone would have such an interpretation of those beautiful words as to see them as "imperial" in the most negative sense possible.

"I claim you for Christ." Is the celebrant "claiming" something that is not Christ's own already? Do these words violate the rights or the freedom of the one so claimed? Do not all things belong to Christ already? I mean, not only in virtue of all things being created through the Word, but also by the fact of the Incarnation, when Christ "in a certain way, united himself with all men"? And much more through his whole earthly life, culminating in his death "for us and our salvation."

If "all things in heaven and on earth bend the knee at the name of Jesus" ("all things," not just "all people" or "all Christians"), then where is the violence or injustice in claiming for Christ an infant whose parents seek that grace for their child? What would any sane person, confronted with the infinite good, desire and "claim" as their own?

"All things in heaven and on earth", "all time and all the ages" and we ourselves "are Christ's and Christ is God's."

Maybe Jesus is suggesting to me to pray the canticles in Ephesians and Colossians with a deeper heart, "claiming" all things for him!

What is your take on this woman's perspective?

Here I am!

Here I am!

This is where I like to make my morning meditation when I'm at Mundelein. Bonus: my room is right by chapel!

iPod land

Interesting. As I walk around the Loop during the week, it seems that every other person has a pair of white cords dangling from their ears. But today, going up Michigan Avenue, I only saw three people plugged into iPods, and one of them had the right cord hanging down as he held a cell phone to that ear (multitasking). So Saturday is not an iPod day. Saturday is for hanging with live friends and family. Even in downtown Chicago.

Women and Theology of the Body

A breakfast conversation with the priest who celebrated our morning Mass turned to the subject of John Paul II's impact on history. He is of the impression that the Pope, despite his masterful use of communication and his sense of drama, will not have much of an impact, and that for the millions who saw him in person and participated in Papal events, the experience is already faded. When Sr. Yvonne said, "What about his Theology of the Body? It is one of the most asked-for titles around." He shrugged. There aren't exactly crowds and crowds of people who are that into it. (This is true, but I think that is because--among other things--it hasn't made it to Oprah...)

I remember when JP2 started those talks on Genesis. To me it was something utterly new that no one else was saying. It was so divinely countercultural! It offered a new vision. And when I hear women dissing it, dismissing it, shrugging it off, I just shake my head. This is the most pro-woman presentation of the relationship between man and woman that the world has ever seen. I am afraid that most people have just never really seen it at all, and when they do get a sound byte of it, it is within the context of the overall culture and its givens and so is interpreted by those standards. Women don't see how redemptive and liberating it is, because they have already been molded to the values of a secular society which interprets relationships in terms of power. They don't realize that the Theology of the Body puts not "man" or "woman" but the "couple" at the center of human life: "it is not good for 'Adam' to be alone."

So it is not really taken seriously even by members of the Church. Does that bring us back to the concept that has been attributed to Joseph Ratzinger that the Church may indeed get smaller, but that is okay if its members are more faithful to the Gospel? That Christians may become again a "little flock" and not a significant demographic?

She said it first

Among the books I am reading (I'll post a list) is "Flannery O'Connor's Sacramental Imagination." The author (Susan Srigley) cites the novel "Wise Blood" where the main character declares, "There's only one truth and that is that there's no truth." And Srigley adds O'Connor's commentary: "Those who have no absolute values cannot let the relative remain merely relative; they are always raising it to the level of the absolute."

I was kind of referring to that idea in my post the other day.

Good Catholic Girls

I keep thinking about that matter of "fighting to change the Church." It just strikes me as so amazingly inappropriate. And I wonder how many of the women highlighted in the book, which I am bringing to Mundelein with me, really see that as their goal. I mean, to believe yourself so guided by the Spirit, and so purely motivated as to give your own experience and perspective that much weight hardly seems rational. I guess I found out the hard way that something can be true without being "the truth."

There is another issue that I noticed at play in the pages I flipped through: the postmodern tendency to identify a statement of doctrine with a moral judgement against a person. This is the most mystifying thing in the world to me, but I see that it is quite common. It makes even holding something as objective reality an offence against someone!

Here is another issue that is out there: believing that Church teachings are some sort of pious ideal that you are most welcome to pursue if so motivated. This is really insidious, because--again--it treats objective truth as an option, and not as the real measure of things. I noticed when I lived in Europe that Europeans do not take laws, for example, nearly as seriously as we Americans do. (I've written about this before, in another context.) But "laws" and "truths" are not the same thing. Falling short of a law and falling short of living by the truth are very different! (Didn't St. Paul indicate as much in Romans and Galatians--never mind 1 and 2 Corinthians?!) And yet our postmodern culture identifies even truth as a kind of law, and allows you to observe it or not. Again, if you have this mindset, then of course you will "fight to change the Church" which insists that truth is true whether you want to conform to it or not: when truth is not recognized as the reality of a thing, it is bound to be seen as oppressive.

In all this, I am not saying that there are no huge institutional failures. I'm just saying you can't identify "the Church" as "the enemy" when it is more likely a matter of "group think" or an effect of corporate culture. These things are not, as we would say in catechism language, "marks of the Church." They are more like the "scars of the Church," the wounds of our own sinful contribution.

I guess it comes down to: you want to "change the Church"? Look in the mirror.

prayer alert

We just received word from one of our longtime employees (now retired, a steadfast volunteer) that her daughter's unborn baby has a 1% chance of surviving in the womb. There is insufficient amniotic fluid, and ultrasounds indicate that the baby may have no bladder and some kidney problem. The young family was so happy to be expecting a second child; the father is devastated. Please pray for them, their unborn baby and their toddler, who is now with Grandma for a few days.

They are all counting very much on prayer.

 

Here is a prayer for the intercession of our co-foundress, Ven. Mother Thecla Merlo:

Most Holy Trinity,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

we thank you for the singular gifts of light, grace and virtue which your granted to Sister Thecla Merlo, and we thank you for having constituted her the wise mother and sure guide of the Daughters of St. Paul.

Through her intercession, grant that we may live of her great loves: Jesus Master in the Holy Eucharist, the Church, the Gospel and souls, souls sought and served through evangelization with the instruments of social communication to the point of total sacrifice.

O Lord, if it be in the designs of your divine wisdom, carry out even on this earth, for this very devoted Daughter of St. Paul, your divine promise: "If anyone serves me, my Father will honor him."

Exalt this faithful Servant to the joy of the Church and the good of many souls and grant us, through her intercession, the favor we ask of you. Amen.

(Glory Be... Hail Mary...)

Busyness

I neglected to mention that we did get home from Minnesota, having logged some 850 miles on our new Ford minivan. What a way to break a car in! (It's not easy being a missionary van.) Now I am getting ready to run the book table (room) for the Scripture Seminar at Mundelein. I am delighted to be going for this: lovely atmosphere, a bit of edumacation, and a nice salad bar, too! We are in the midst of a clearance sale, so the attendees will also be able to benefit from enormous discounts on things like volumes of the Anchor Bible, Hebrew lexicons, and so on. I have about 10 boxes of sale books and maybe 6 boxes of more recent acquisitions, including a few key titles by His Holiness. But before I leave (Sunday), I have got to get myself down to the Archdiocesan Media Resource Center to review some audio-visuals that would be appropriate for teaching different age levels about the Liturgy of the Word. That is for a talk in New Orleans in August. Any suggestions? The junior high level is the challenge here.

Book Report (sort of)

Sr. Helena attended the RBTE and picked up some free books for me. (These were free samples from various religious publishers; some were galley proofs.) One of the books was "Good Catholic Girls: How Women Are Leading the Fight to Change the Church" by Angela Bonavoglia (whose last name means "good-will"). Among the recommendations on the back cover are words from Sr. Jeannine Gramick ("pioneering minister to Catholic homosexuals") and Mary Ramerman ("ordained Catholic priest"). Poor things.

I guess I am thinking of the history of the Church. The people who really changed the Church in the best way didn't set out to do that. They were simply focused on living the Gospel and proclaiming it effectively. Many of these people (we call a good percentage of them saints) were thorns in the sides of ecclesiastical leaders who were more comfortable with staid mediocrity. Some of them found ways to get around, to maneuver within the "system," because their goal was not fixed on the system, but on something bigger. Think of St. Vincent de Paul and St. Louise de Marillac skirting the obligation of cloister for consecrated women by deliberately not including solemn perpetual vows in the women's congregation they founded! Just fluttering through the pages of "Good Catholic Girls," though, you find lots of people with righteous feelings about their agendas, but it is hard to see how things like "fighting for reproductive rights" (has its origin in the Gospel.

I'm going to read the book, just to be informed. (Besides, sometimes when I get irritated I also get creative.) Then I will send the book to Sr. Bernadette in Rome. She is feminist without being weird and ugly about it. She may be the one to formulate a healthy response.

Anyway, books. There will be another one coming out on a completely different subject, and it promises to be fantastic: a book by Joseph Ratzinger (!) about John Paul II. Put me on that mailing list!

Greetings from Wisconsin!

Greetings from Wisconsin!

Maiden voyage for the car--thanks and God bless, Mike and Bill!

Off to Minnesota

Well, the car is still in the shop (brakes and cylinder problems???), but we hope to rescue it tomorrow morning and head off before too much time elapses for St. Paul. There we will display our latest titles for the Minnesota Homeschool Association. I went two years ago for the same exhibit. Even though last time we went, we made a note not to come so far for only one event, our community calendar is so overloaded we are doing just that. And Sr. Therese was going to make the trip ALONE!!! I kind of insisted on coming with her; can't have a newly professed sister fall asleep at the wheel alone somewhere in Wisconsin, can we? Now I can be the one who falls asleep at the... no, I won't! I'm bringing Altoid-strength gum, crunchy munchies and lots of music to help on my leg of the trip. I don't know what Sr. Therese needs. She might actually be alert!

So pray for our little mission there and for all the other events this week: the Religious Book Trade Show (we have a team of about 8 sisters and staff there, presenting our new titles to bookstore owners), the First Friday Film Club and First Saturday Women's Book Club this weekend, and the Archdiocesan Evangelization Institute (two sisters are on the Archdiocesan Evangelization Committee, but only Sr. Helena can make it to the Institute, and only for one day of it at that!). Oh, and Sr. Helena's three presentations at the Winnipeg Charismatic Conference were very well received. She came home Sunday night (tripped the burglar alarm in the process, but we won't talk about that) and even brought us a treat: chocolate covered cashews (in a white paper bag marked "Polar Bear Droppings"). Yummy.

A good day to run errands on foot.

Actually, this was yesterday. Shot from Roosevelt and Clark.

Begging: the Question

After my recent liturgy-inspired posts, I was especially interested in several articles in today's Trib. A cover story highlighted homeless youth (7-21): roughly 15,000 in Chicago (and 215 shelter beds allocated for them). There was also a second-section story highlighting a woman in her 60's, head of Catholic Charities for the Joliet diocese, who has been active in addressing the needs of the poor since early in her married life, when she was inspired by a local parish which had bought a housing unit to provide free housing to women with children who needed a place to live while the mother learned work skills or simply got things together with a bit of tutoring.

How do you help? A few years ago, a couple of our sisters were coming out of a grocery store when they were approached by a man who asked for $2 so he could buy bread and peanut butter. The sisters gave it to him, and as they were pulling out of the parking lot, they saw the same man emerge from the store. He was holding a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. Weeks later, the same man encountered them again. He was beaming with hope: he had a job interview lined up at a local eatery, and told the sisters that their help reached him when he was at his very lowest. It changed his life.

Our paper cup guys here on Michigan Avenue would really like your quarter or dollar.  They know and you know that it just helps them continue another hour or day in the same half-life. But I doubt it will help change their life, really. And yet not to give is also problematic. Maybe it will help someone hit bottom sooner, but maybe these souls are so lacking in a sense of self that they will never hit bottom at all. Unless, perhaps, they are touched in some personal manner: a greeting, eye contact, an offer of lunch.

What I really hope is for a greater strengthening of grass-roots action like that of the parish in Joliet: meeting the needs of fragile families so that more children do not end up wandering the streets of Chicago's "Boys Town," and growing up (if they live that long) into cup-shakers on Michigan Avenue. Donations to Catholic Charities and other social service networks go farther than a quarter in a cup. Volunteering as a tutor for a child or unskilled adult would help change lives. So would welcoming foster kids, where that is a possibility. (I read a book last summer that indicated that the chief difference between the despots and the artists of the 20th century, of those who had traumatic childhood experiences, was that the despots had no one in their young life to "model" healthy, caring behavior, while the artists received some notion of stability and fidelity from some grown-up in their neighborhood, if not the extended family.)

There was a third article in the Tribune, or maybe it was a letter to the editor following up on yesterday's article about substandard housing. See, Chicago has been closing down housing projects and sending the poor with vouchers into private housing. But many of these units are unfit for habitation: lead paint, leaking sewage, etc. And the landlords get away with it! So housing is an enormous need over here. As Paul VI pointed out decades ago, when families have inadequate housing, the effects are felt for generations.

So. Now what?