Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
Today we celebrate the heritage of St. Andrew the apostle. Andrew was a simple fisherman when he was called by Jesus, a good man invited to be more. He didn’t know where his immediate response to hand his nets over to his father and go with this compelling man would lead him, but he walked away from all he had known to follow him.
You and I have heard the same call to follow the Lord, and we’ve walked away from other opportunities in order to become fishers of people. We’ve been called to reach out to people in the depths, not of water, but of despair, poverty, suffering, abandonment and hopelessness. Our services provide a net: a safety-net of services and a net-work of resources to bring them through their times of trouble and into new life options.
You can be assured that if you work with a Catholic Charities organization, like Andrew, you and your co-workers have a special call to reach out to others in their time of need. Like St. Andrew, God will bless your work, especially when it feels overwhelming and you don’t see the results you are working toward, because God will be working with you and through you in ways you are not even aware of.
Sr. Mary Louise Stubbs is a Daughter of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul who currently directs International Project Services (daughtersips.org). Her team responds to requests from Daughters of Charity in low-resourced regions and seeks the resources they need for everything from basic food to water and sanitation systems in healthcare facilities (WASH) in collaboration with the Vatican.