Community Update Advent 2020

December 2020

Dear Beloved Community, 

We are grateful for your care and support, especially through this wild year.  

I imagine you are all as tired as we are of uncertainty, as weary as we are of separation and waiting.  Tired, in fact, of even naming the uncertainty and waiting. As we move into winter and Advent, the metaphors are almost painfully obvious.  We prepare in the quiet, and often alone, for a time we can’t fully grasp or predict or bring about on our schedule.  We may start to hold our breath a little too much.      

I’ve been reading and listening to Fr Greg Boyle this fall on and off, and there are a couple of ideas that I’ve been sort of carrying around in my pocket, that have helped me when we stumble into harder stuff than we feel ready for, when I start to hold my breath.  The first is that the widow and the orphan and the stranger are our trustworthy guides into kinship, and that kinship is the deeper “why” for all the concrete actions that we take each day.  When in doubt, we are listening to the experience of our guests and the people on the street, working to create new opportunities to spend time together safely, and asking what is needed from us to help people outside make it through the winter.

And the second idea is this: that tenderness can be our methodology; that a place that holds each person in tenderness is a place where powerful change can happen. Tenderness is the “how” of our work.  This strikes me as more and more true the longer I am here. Especially when it would be more comfortable to claim certainty, we try to remember to soften our hearts and listen. 

 Just like always, we are accompanying people who are saving for their own apartments, and helping people prepare for a cold winter.  As one guest moves out we are preparing a welcoming room for the next person.  There are the victories of a guest finding a job, getting immigration paperwork completed, continuing in recovery, and doing their healing work.  These are big things, and they are even more clear to us now. It is our joy to accompany people whose lives are at a turning point.  This year has put our full attention on the essentials.  The work of our house and the work of Advent is preparing, rather than waiting.   

A lot of time and resources have to go into organizing, maintaining, keeping houses so the essential stuff can keep happening.  That is where all of you come in.  This month we hope to raise $20,000 for heating bills and groceries, replacing old carpet and buying cleaning supplies; all the things that will carry us into the new year.  We have always been sustained by many small gifts from friends, and we ask again for you help.  

Thank you for staying with us in the hard times.  

With gratitude, 

All of us at the Catholic Worker