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Catherine Doherty considered letter-writing one of her most important works. A person writes out of loneliness, sorrow, anxiety, or to share something with you. So letters should never be left unanswered. Catherine said an unanswered letter is like a telephone left off the hook, with someone waiting on the other end to speak.
Factually, she considered any paperwork concerning people very important.
I remember back when I was a guest at Madonna House many years ago, when one of the new staff was training me in the office routine; she had come just a year or so before me.
She said to me, “Theresa, I know this may be boring you, but I want to tell you about these index cards that have the names of our benefactors on them. (Obviously, this happened before the days of computers.)
“The name of the person,” she said, “has to be typed on the right-hand side and the address right underneath.”
Catherine was working in another part of the room and overheard these instructions.
“No,” she said, “this is not a boring job. Can Jesus Christ be boring! You are touching Jesus Christ. Each card is a person, and each person is Christ. Each card is holy!”
Excerpted from Living Fully in Our Times, (2000), p. 93, Pauline Publications, Mumbai, India
