By Jane Gordon Julien
February 5, 2025
I grew up in a Catholic household, but I also grew up in a catholic household. A lowercase ‘catholic’ means universal, or inclusive. Laugh all you want – the Catholics aren’t known to be so inclusive – but if you follow the nuns, they are. I read Global Sisters Report faithfully, and it tells me all the good that nuns do throughout the world.
My mother was in a Catholic convent before she left and married my father. A moral code was taught in our house, and even if sometimes as children we struggled to make sense of what a moral code meant to us, it prevailed. We might not have been particularly kind to one another – sibling rivalry is brutal – but we learned that the most vulnerable among us needed a little help. Maybe just help across the street. Food. A donation that we felt sure would be used well. Some decent clothing.
A leg up, is what I’m saying.
In the chaos of our new government, that moral code looks to be endangered. But we as a nation – we as human beings – are a powerful force of compassion and kindness.
So this is what I ask of you this week: that you exercise your power. That you give that woman freezing on the street five dollars. That you bring food to your local food pantry. That you include an extra dollar for the gas company’s fund to help people who can’t afford their heat.
We can be a powerful force for good. We can set the example, and live by that example.
Embrace your power. Live the compassionate life. You will know you’ve done all you can, and that is always enough.
Detail one action you took this week that made you feel you were contributing. Write about it. Tell me! You aren’t bragging, you’re giving. And that is beautifully human.