The Crescat
… This gig at Patheos has been quite a blessing. For the first time in, well ever, I’ve found myself in a position to be more charitable than the typical weekly tithe. But who or what organization to give to? You have to be extremely careful about stuff like this, you know. You don’t want to end up on The Dreaded Catholic Mailing List…
It’s like winning the lottery, if the lottery was paid in cheap tin medals and plastic rosary winnings. Seriously, how much money do charities waste on mailing lists? Anyway, I digress… back to charity.
Recently I came across this and this. The gist…
Of course I don’t personally know her, though I personally know people who personally know her. However, the little I do know is enough to make me profoundly grateful for what I have and is reason enough for me to want to help. She has eleven children, eleven, that she is raising on her own on top of trying to go back to school and study nursing. No small feat. You can donate here to her nursing school fund.
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And then there is this incredibly beautiful family.
A child named Adam was born at a hospital in India. Severely deformed his mother abandoned him and his family threatened to kill the baby if the hospital made them take Adam home. Here’s there story…
Within the same hospital as Adam was a young couple, married for just six months – Raja Paulraj, a psychiatrist at the hospital and Jessica Cooksey Paulraj, a nurse and nursing teacher. They heard about this abandoned baby, and they went to him.
The Paulrajs loved Adam upon first sight. Doctors told them that he wouldn’t live long, maybe only a few weeks. But the young couple adopted him anyway.
Adam is now two years old and thriving under the love of his adoptive parents. Unfortunately Adam is not yet a U.S. citizen and therefore does not have health insurance. Medical bills for his surgeries pile up quickly. If you would like to donate to Adam’s fund click here. You can also follow the Paulrajs’ blog here.
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“If I… have not charity,” says the Apostle Paul, “I am nothing.” Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, “if I… have not charity, I gain nothing.”103 Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: “So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity.” CCC 1826 (103-104)
Charity is the form, mover, mother and root of all the virtues. – Saint Thomas Aquinas
Charity is the sweet and holy bond which links the soul with its Creator: it binds God with man and man with God. – Saint Catherine of Siena
And now some art.
The Charity of St. Lawrence, Bernardo Strozzi c. 1639
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