In Charity and Truth

In the epistle In Charity and Truth, Pope Benedict XVI uses the word charity and love interchangeably. Today, at the Micah Center, six Nerinx girls have learned that there isn't two words in the English language quite as similar as those. What we have long considered "charity" work blossomed today into love for people, complete strangers, who seem so different but couldn't be more similar. It never ceases to amaze me how every time I go out to do "charity" that the people I'm helping help me more than I could ever help them.

Today, Amy Welin went with ne and said that she learned a profound message: It's not that the homeless are all alone, but they always need a helping hand; that one single action could change their life. Even if they aren't off the streets, even if that one single action didn't get them a job or a hot meal, just a smile could turn their day around.

Of all the things that they are missing in their lives, it isn't a home, a meal, or even shower that they ask for: what some people really want is to be noticed. I've learned today that, in the everyday lives of these people, sometimes the only interaction that they get with other people is the cops chasing them off the beach— which, for all intents and purpose, serves as their home— or being completely and totally ignored. What they ask is that someone simply notices that they exist.

I think the best lesson I learned today is this: Notice.

--Courtney Lane