A Tour of the Madonna House Training Centre
We are Beggars for the Lord
Catherine Doherty writes:
Now, on to the hard brass tacks of Madonna House.
We are beggars for the Lord! We beg, first for the poor whom we serve everywhere, and secondly for ourselves. This has been God's desire, his mandate to me when I first started way back in 1930 in the slums of Toronto. I knew very well then, and very clearly, that we must remain beggars — poor always. It would be against our spirit to stop begging.
We beg for everything — money, clothing, crockery, kitchen utensils, furniture, food, whatever the apostolate and those it serves needs. Needs will always be there and we will have to beg for them.
In the reality of everyday living, this begging which I established and followed for over 50 years now results in endless packages and freight coming to us by train, by truck, by car, by mail, or brought in person, often by benefactors driving long distances. The column ‘One Man's Scrap, Another Man's Gold’ in our newspaper, Restoration, proves the charity, the understanding, and the goodness of people everywhere from whom we have begged.
In the reality of daily living, it means that these gifts of charity must be sorted. And this brings me to a meditation on sorting.
Every gift, every carton, every loose pile of clothing, every piece of furniture sings and shouts of charity!
But charity is not a thing or a virtue alone. Charity is a person. Charity is God. So, figuratively speaking, we must ‘take off our shoes,’ for the place is holy indeed. Charity, the Lord himself, dwells here. Every piece of clothing that we touch, every item that goes through your hands — be it a few bobby pins, an enormous chair, an appliance, a handkerchief, or an earring — each sings, shouts, and speaks of caritas — the Lord himself!
This is the beginning of sorting, but there is more. You just can't throw things around. You touch everything reverently, prayerfully, concentratedly, with the end of the thing in view. Is it going to the poor? They must get the best. Does it fill a need in Madonna House or in the apostolate? Think deeply before you say so, for the poor always have precedence over everything. Not a tinge of any kind of greed must exist there — neither in the touching, nor in the eye or the mind. For greed has many faces, and it is very subtle.
Gratitude must be wide awake and fill our hearts, and we must thank the giver for every package and for every gift, be it the smallest piece of jewellery or a little box with a rosary or medal in it.
Gratitude, the handmaiden of charity, must fill our hearts. Prayer must be in our souls and in our hands. Patience must never be allowed to leave our side. Fatigue and tiredness must be the coin of our love which we offer in atonement and in gratitude to God. There must not be a shadow of any desire to take anything for the apostolate, collectively or individually, that we do not need. Eternally, our first concern is for the poor. We are the last.
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