A Christmas Appeal from The STL Catholic Worker
“It is no use to say that we are born two thousand years too late to give room to Christ. Nor will those who live at the end of the world have been born too late. Christ is always with us, always asking for room in our hearts.
He said that a glass of water given to a beggar was given to Him. He made heaven hinge on the way we act towards Him in his disguise of commonplace, frail and ordinary human beings. And to those who say, aghast, that they never had a chance to do such a thing, that they lived two thousand years too late, he will say again what they had the chance of knowing all their lives, that if these things were done for the very least of his brethren they were done for Him.
They are Christ, asking us to find room for Him exactly as He did at the first Christmas.”
- Dorothy Day
“They evicted us from that abandoned building,”
Brett told me as I handed him a couple burritos. “We didn’t know they were coming. I was away and they took my dog.”
My thoughts turned to those well known words from the Nativity in the Gospel of Luke, “She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them at the inn.”
Not only are there no guest rooms for Brett and our other unhoused friends, even the doors of long vacant buildings are barred to them just as we enter the cold season, the Christmas holiday season.
The Magi brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and mirth when they stumbled into that humble Bethlehem stable that first Christmas. Burritos, blankets, and bottled water were all I had to share with Brett as we stood outside his tarp draped shack down by the riverfront.
It breaks our hearts when we can’t do more for Brett or the dozens of other people living on the street who have come to rely on us for a friendly face and a hot meal. We pray for strength and wisdom that one day we will be able to do more, not just “the Catholic Workers” but all of us.
Until that day where all give from their ability so that all receive in their need, we need your help. We need your hands to chop veggies. We need your prayers to keep us strong. And, yes, we even need a few dollars to buy tortillas and to keep the lights on.
If you’re in a place of abundance this Christmas, we hope you’ll consider helping us continue the important work of feeding and housing those in need in our St. Louis area. It’s only with the help of our extended community of support that we’re able to continue the works of mercy in all the ways we do.
Thank you for being a part of that community.
Theo Kayser and The STL Catholic Worker
If you’d like to help us pay our bills, you can send a check to:
8617 Mora Ln.
St. Louis, MO 63147
venmo or cash app us
@STLCatholicWorker
$STLCatholicWorker
In keeping with the Catholic Worker practice advocated by our founders Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, the STL Catholic Worker Community is not registered with with the government as a tax exempt organization. For more info check out Dorothy Day’s ‘We Go On Record: CW Refuses Tax Exemption’ originally printed in The Catholic Worker newspaper May 1972 and available on catholicworker.org.
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