When I had Him, I had comfort

by Veronica

One Lent, I was blessed to be stricken with Malaria.  Yes, blessed to have Malaria. I had spent the previous spring in a Honduran orphanage. While I was there, one boy got malaria, all of the children took their medication.  I took mine too- but mine only worked half-way.  A little parasite hid itself away inside of me, and decided to come out a year and a half later.

It was seven years ago and I entered Lent with the common expectation of trying to be humble and growing closer to God. A week after Ash Wednesday, I got sick. It started with an extreme chill. I shivered, I shook, I rattled, I was freezing cold. I took a hot bath, and warmed up in blankets. I had a very high fever. My body ached. I fell asleep and slept in a hot pain for almost a day. And then - just as suddenly as I was sick - I was better. I felt better enough to go back to work with a few ibuprofen, so I did.

A simple meal - things in the pantry

by Veronica G

The meal suggested for tonight in the 2012 CRS Lenten Rice Bowl Calendar is Vietnamese Vegetable Spring Rolls, this dish has 8 ingredients which we did't readily have in the house, and would have to go to a specialty store to procure.  Therefore, we created our own meal tonight.

Tonight we had an onion cooked in oil, cooked with kale, chick peas and some Tamarind and Garlic sauce (which I bought on clearance) that has been sitting around our pantry for a month, and rice.  Instead of celebrating Vietnam with our meal, we celebrated India instead. 

 I cooked all of these things together in one pot, and also made a pot of rice.  The result was fast, easy, and delicious. 

Picking up pennies with mittens

Posted by Mary

I went to a program to celebrate 40 years of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.  I had been aware of the CCHD through the annual collection at Mass, but I really did not know much about it.  I learned about CCHD’s work to fund low-income empowerment projects and to educate Catholics about the root causes of poverty in the United States, all within the context of the Catholic social teaching.  I was inspired by personal stories of Catholic community organizers ages 25-70.

So where do the pennies and mittens come in?! 

One of the CCHD interns, a very gifted seminarian named Desmond Drummer, helps students understand the inequality of poverty by challenging the students to pick up 100 pennies from the floor.  Some students use their bare hands (easy!), a few use spoons (ok, not so easy) and most wear mittens (impossible!)  Desmond helps the children understand how responding in faith to social injustice is part of our call as followers of Christ.


Photo credit:  Steven dePolo