20
Gulf Pine Catholic
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February 27, 2015
Catholic Social and Community Services:
Why you should give to CSA
BY JENNIFER WILLIAMS
Director of Catholic Social and
Community Services
Many programs of the Diocese
benefit from your CSA contributions.
Catholic Social and Community Ser-
vices, Inc., receives the bulk of your
contributions. I could tell you that your
donations allowed us to help 10,195
people in need last year, that we distributed almost 2,300
children with diapers and formula, that our Food Bank part-
ners distributed almost 2 million pounds of food to nearly
748,000 people, that we helped 77 households in their re-
covery from disaster, that we distributed over $600,000 in
direct assistance. But these are just numbers on a piece of
paper.
Behind every number is a person. A person not so dif-
ferent from you and me. A person who we would be if one
circumstance or choice was different in our lives.
We at CSCS have the privilege of seeing your contribu-
tions in action. A few examples include:
The immigrant who has worked diligently to become a
citizen of our great country. We teach the citizenship class-
es and interview preparation that helps get them ready to
take the difficult test and then celebrate with them when
they are able to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance as
U.S. Citizens for the first time. Too often we American-
born citizens take this privilege for granted but we get to
see their diligence and determination pay off. This would
be impossible without your support.
The woman who began living with her husband at the
age of 14 and endured years of isolation. Now, at the age of
39 and with 5 children, she has made the courageous deci-
sion to leave the abuse and start a new life. She came into
our office seeking assistance with a power bill. We were
able to connect her with resources to help obtain her GED
with college credits, to show her how to budget and com-
plete job applications, and to show her that there are people
and places that are available to help her succeed. While she
was sitting in our office she said that she felt like what an
18 year old leaving their parents home for the first time
would feel like. She said that she felt as if she was starting
completely from scratch. As she was leaving she said that
she felt empowered and more confident in the choice she
made for her and her children. Some people think that all
we do is pay power bills, but your contributions do so much
more than that on a daily basis. They help provide hope.
The baby that receives diapers and formula. The dia-
pers and formula are representative of the commitment we
make to women when we encourage them to choose life.
Too often times women are told that they need to have their
babies, no matter what, with no encouragement or assis-
tance once the baby is born. It’s as if the choose life mes-
sage ends with the birth of the baby. Your contributions
help provide necessary items to care for the child and to
help us stay in contact with the mother. This contact allows
us to offer parenting tips and ongoing encouragement for
the woman that chose life.
The birth mom that made the unselfish, loving choice
to place her baby for adoption and the family that receives
their forever child. The birth mom, a young woman about
to enter college, made the decision early on to give birth
to her child and to place for adoption. She was unwaver-
ing in her determination to follow her plan, no matter the
challenges and obstacles. She took great care of herself and
her unborn child, and when he was born she lovingly com-
pleted her plan. This child’s forever family was overjoyed
to find out they were going to have a son and have enjoyed
being his parents every day. Your contributions made this
possible this year. They allowed us to work with the birth
mom as she developed and continued with her plan and it
allowed us to connect a child with the parents he was meant
to have.
These are just a few stories of what we have the honor
and privilege of seeing every day. These are the people
that benefit from your gifts to Catholic Sharing Appeal.
They are real people in real situations that most of us hope
to never find ourselves in, but would hope that someone
would be there to help us in our time of need.
On behalf of all the real people that will receive help
because of your generosity, thank you for your gifts to
Catholic Sharing Appeal.
Put your beans before your rice
I would like to start off by apologizing for slacking
off! A sweet lady at our Parish asked me a few Sun-
day’s ago when I was going to write again, and I didn’t
have an answer. The truth is that sometime after having
baby 5, I started going through the motions. I could go
through the myriad of things that are on my to-do list,
but let’s be honest, we’re all busy! It doesn’t matter if
you’re married, single, retired, you have one kid or 15;
life gets busy! So what are we going to do about it?
Blessed Mother Teresa once said that when she had
more work to do the only thing that would help was to
pray more, so she would add an extra holy hour into her
day! Is that how we handle it? I know I don’t, I know
that when I start getting overwhelmed and stressed I
go into survival mode and just try to get things done.
Guess what? This doesn’t work, you can ask my hus-
band! This is usually when I become more stressed out
which leads to my beautifully practiced impatience.
Hold on kids, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!
This hit me hard yesterday, me and the three littlest
were driving home from a physical therapy appoint-
ment for one of our twins. It was a rough appointment,
her muscles were extremely tight and we were asked if
we could come back next week vs. our usual monthly
visit. This was my fault. I had gotten so into just go-
ing through the motions and getting the things done that
had to get done immediately that I had stopped giving
attention to some of the most important parts of our life;
i.e. stretching and exercising our little angel. I was so
“busy” running from one thing to the
other that I wasn’t really getting any-
thing done. I hadn’t stopped and or-
ganized my responsibilities and I was
relying on myself to get it all done,
and not giving it to God first.
Do you ever find yourself in this
pattern and routine? I despise this
place but I seem to find myself here
often. So what can we do about it? It’s
simple, beans and rice. No, no, don’t
get your pots out and start cooking;
I’m talking putting your beans before
your rice. An amazing woman, Michaelann Martin,
would teach this idea to the FOCUS staff. See, if you
have a one cup jar and you need to fit one cup of beans
and one cup of rice into it, how are you going to get it
done? If you place the rice in first then there’s no way
the beans will fit, but if you place the beans in first, then
the rice, the rice will fall into the empty spaces between
the beans and all will fit. If we compare this to our own
lives we have to see the beans as our main priorities,
God, spouse, children, self. We can sit down look at
our day/week/month and see where we are putting our
“beans.” Are we putting God first? How has prayer fit
into our busy life?
This is exactly what Blessed Mother Teresa was do-
ing when she added an extrad holy hour to her already
packed and busy schedule. She would put God first,
give Him the worries and stress of her schedule and
therefor put peace back in her vocation. That is what we
are all called to do.
If you have found yourself feeling overwhelmed
and overtired, maybe you feel your prayer life isn’t
what you want it to be, then I challenge you to use this
Lent to put your beans before your rice. Stop everything
you’re doing right now, get out a piece of paper and
write down the types of prayers you feel you should be
doing. What works with your lifestyle, waking up early
for a morning offering and meditation, spiritual reading
later in the day, rosary, reading the daily reading and
reflections. Think about your family and personal hab-
its, can you wake up earlier, do you have natural down
times in the day to read a little, can you pray a rosary
with your spouse or children. Then pick times in the day
and write them down, do that right now. Give that time
to God. I promise just this step will make a difference in
your life! Once you have given your first priority to Our
Lord take the time and write down your other “beans.”
Look at yourself, are you eating well, exercising, rest-
ing? Continue this pattern for all the other major areas
in your life; spouse, children, home, job and so forth.
May the Peace of Christ be with all of you this Lenten
season, and may our souls be turned to Him in all that
we do!
Jessica Maddox is a member of Holy Spirit Parish in Van-
cleave.
Faith and
Family
Maddox
