We are Called...

**Quotes are the words of Catherine McAuley foundress of the Mercy Sisters**

I am called every day...literally. I receive hundreds of, what I refer to as, "calls of desperation" a week; people trying to find help and its not just for health care. I need help is the first words that I hear on the other end of the line. I have been called to show compassion, understanding, and to be a resource to the people of Detroit who are left with no where else to turn.

What this means is that we are called to behold one another, all that anyone really wants is to be recognized.

We are called to instruct the ignorant

"No work of charity is more productive of good than the education of youth"

We are called to shelter the homeless

"It is better to relieve a hundred imposters than to suffer one really distressed person to be sent away empty"

We are called to give drink to the thirsty

"the poor need help today, not next week"

We are called to feed the hungry

"God knows I would rather be cold and hungry, than the poor...should be deprived of any consolation in our power to give"

We are called to counsel the doubtful

"There are three things which the poor prize more highly than gold, though they cost the donor nothing; among these are the kind word, the gentle compassionate look, and the patent bearing of their sorrows"

We are called to comfort the afflicted

"The spirit of the Community is one of mercy toward the poor and afflicted in whom they shall see God himself"

We are called to bear wrongs patiently

"Mercy receives the ungrateful again and again and is never weary in pardoning"

We are called to forgive all injuries

"Pray fervently to take all bitterness from me, I can scarcely think of what has been done to me without resentment"

We are called to pray for the living and the dead

"Prayer will do more in solving our difficulties than all the money in the Bank of Ireland"

We are called as a community, as a nation, and as a global society to serve one another; to live in solidarity with the poor, afflicted, weary, the ones on the margins, the forgotten. For those who identify with a religion or a God you will not find Him in materials or money - He walks with the hungry, homeless, and the impoverished. This is where you will see Him in his purest form.

Have you been called yet?

Prayer for Kids who Lose Shoes, and Those Who Have None to Lose

Prayer for Kids who Lose Shoes, and Those Who Have None to Lose

We pray for Children

Who sneak popsicles before supper

Who erase holes in math notebooks

Who can never find their shoes

And we pray for those

Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire fences

Who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers

Who never "counted potatoes"

Who were born in places we wouldn't be caught dead in

Who never saw a circus

Who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children

Who bring sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions.

Who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.

And we pray for those

Who never get dessert.

Who have no security blanket to drag behind them.

Who watch their parents watch them die.

Who can't find bread to steal.

Who don't have any rooms to clean.

Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser.

Whose monsters are real.

We pray for children

Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday.

Who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food.

Who like ghost stories.

Who shove their dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse out the tub.

Who get visits from the tooth fairy.

Who don't like to get kissed in front of the car pool.

Who squirm in church and scream into the phone.

Whose tears are sometimes laughed at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those

Whose nightmares come in the daytime.

Who will eat anything.

Who have never seen a dentist.

Who aren't spoiled by anybody.

Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep.

Who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children

Who want to be carried and those who must be.

For those we never give up on.

And for those who never get a second chance.

For those we smother.

And for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.