Inserted into the liturgy at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Washington, Missouri is a prayer card which reads:

Bless us in our PAYBACK,
so that we may give generously of ourselves,
our blessings and our possessions,
to carry on the mission of Jesus and our Church

Inspire each of us to ask ourselves daily
“Lord, what do you want me to do
With all the gifts you have given me?”

A colleague of mine from years past who is quite affluent found his payback moment serving food in a soup kitchen.  Working side-by-side with his wife, they fed the hungry.  Another payback opportunity is the story about the professional who was moved to do something in support of God’s people—but what?  As he had witnessed hunger in the community, he contemplated a food pantry, but quickly told himself, how could I possibly manage such a huge task as that?   He tells the story that just a moment later he got up from his desk, turned a corner, and there on the door was a pasted a poster with the  motto, “Find a way.”

Do I see the face of Christ in the vagrants, tramps and hoboes who come out of the shadows at night?  Is He in the persona of the tent people of the Occupy Wall Street movement?   Does He live in the encampment of Hopeville?

A friend, who enjoys the proverbial good life, related a story about a recent encounter with a young woman who approached him in a gas station, asking help with gasoline.  She had packed her car with her children and a few belongings and was leaving a self-described life of abuse and mistreatment.   $75.  later, he asked himself, was this the one or am I a sucker?  None of us wants to be taken advantage of, and not only that but we often experience an undercurrent of fear in such situations.  This beggar might just be a mugger.

Jesus’ reassuring message, “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me,” is an answer to these kinds of fears.  So, the questions are– this person, who stands before me, is this the one (who is “the least of these”)?  or is it all of those whom we encounter?
-Michael Cundiff

Mary C. Curran
Executive Director
Catholic Family Services

Mary C. Curran
Executive Director
Catholic Family Services

Please send your resume to:
mcurran@ccstl.org or mail to:
Sr. Mary Carole Curran
Executive Director
Catholic Family Services
9200 Watson Rd; Ste G‐101
St Louis MO 63126

In the years following the Great Depression, hardship weighed heavily upon the country; the stock market had crashed; unemployment was devastating; and life was grim.  During that preceding decade through the Roaring Twenties, times were exciting,  good times– fast paced, energized and optimistic, though a bit on the wild side.  To follow next was a darkly heavy and overwhelmingly distressing era for the country.

It was a hard scramble existence for people in the 1930’s, much less for a kid growing up during those years.  Robert was just nine years old, in 1934, and he suffered the brunt of the times.  Just to scrape by with a most meager subsistence required one to use every available resource.   Robert was a thrifty lad, and like his family valued good things, and they subscribed to a way of life that prized taking care of things.  Making things last was very much a part of the culture of the times.  That converted to such economies as turning off lights when one left the room, setting the thermostat lower than comfort dictated, wearing things beyond their useful life, and trusting in better times ahead.  Surpluses were unheard of; the bare necessities of life were appreciated as many lacked these basic provisions.  It was about survival.

Growing up in North St. Louis, housing was, for the most part, life in flats—an up-and-down arrangement common to the area and to the period.   Robert recounts winter mornings with gray skies of ashen- tinted smoke, colored with blackened soot belching out of coal-fired furnaces, and the acrid burn of the sulfur in one’s nose and throat was stifling.  To add to the difficulty of the economic times, many people had illnesses and disabilities which prevented them from working, even when work could be found.  Extended families came together to sustain bare survival, and it was more the rule than the exception that domiciles included grandparents, couples, children, and sometimes aunts and uncles; and so it was in Robert’s home.    Indoor plumbing and running water were available only to the more affluent, and people would typically go to the public bathhouse to bathe.   Slivers of old soap scraps  were given to those who were needy and who would ask the bathhouse manager.   Few had automobiles, and the horse drawn carriage was still a common sight.  Plaguing the times were epidemics such as TB, Diphtheria, and Whooping Cough, and Robert described how like many families, he and his siblings were placed in isolation wards when their symptoms first appeared.  These were hard times.

On the near north side, there was a coat factory which Robert passed on his way home from school.   He would gather up small remnants of cloth which were discarded as too small or somehow not usable and which he brought home for grandma to work her magic on.  One result was a colorful quilt, patched together from wool scraps.   The remnants were collected a few pieces at a time, by a little boy as he passed by a nearby coat factory.  The quilt reflects a plain but sturdy craftsmanship made with the care and frugality that comes from necessity.   Grandma’s simple tidy stitches have held together for over seventy-five years.  The mackinaw style blanket is sturdy, functional, and beautiful, evidence of a life hard fought but well lived.  It represents a value of making use of what is available to provide the necessities for the family. 

Has this value disappeared?  Are we so insulated from this kind of frugal life that we cannot even comprehend it?   Has the fabric of the family changed?

-Michael Cundiff

Mary C. Curran
Executive Director
Catholic Family Services

A casual look at people and circumstances around us reveals a fallacy that many of us have been encouraged to believe—that life is fair.    Balderdash!  Things aren’t always fair; all things are not equal; people are not equal.  Different people have different endowments: some have few talents, others have many, and a few are super-endowed.  The key for rank and file individuals is to seek to attain success, wellness and happiness, and for most of us, our society makes this attainable.

Regarding inequalities among men, one can observe these in a large number of instances in history.  Consider the person of George Washington.  His accomplishments were so numerous that he was a kind of superhero of his time, and his legacy in this role lives on.  No slacker by any measure, George’s only shortfall that comes to mind is the mythical cherry tree debacle.

Raised in Virginia, Washington made his mark early, despite his father’s untimely death while George was still a youngster.  His success as a businessman was mostly in the Mount Vernon farm enterprise.

George Washington made Mount Vernon his home. Mount Vernon is a stately mansion overlooking the Potomac, and in its day, it was a huge, working agricultural facility with almost totally self-sufficient means and farming hundreds of acres.   Washington would be called away at various times to be in military service, to serve in a role as ambassador, and, of course, to serve as president and the Mount Vernon enterprise continued and thrived in his absence.   George Washington is credited with being an inventor, most notably perhaps for conceiving and building a round building with a horse-driven mill for threshing.  Slats in the floor allowed the grain to separate from the chaff and to drop through to a wagon situated below on lower level which eased the loading chores.
Not exactly a Daniel Boon, Washington nevertheless achieved fame as a woodsman and a frontiersman.  He put his talents of musketry and pistol accuracy to good use in the military service. In his youth, GW worked for the British Army as a soldier, and he was credited with repelling Indian attacks on a number of occasions.  By some accounts, in Indian ambushes, the Brits would run for cover, and George, as a young British military officer, would stand his ground, rally the troops, direct his soldiers on how to repel the attacks, and prevail despite unfavorable odds.  And such was the case when the American Revolution came; he joined the patriots and let the vastly outmanned and under-armed Continental Army to victory.   George Washington even convinced the French to side with the fledging US military effort.  Militarily speaking, he was an exceptional general particularly in the revolutionary war effort.

The famous winter at Valley Forge was a bitterly cold and grim one with inadequate stores of food, blankets, or supplies to sustain them over many months.  Dysentery and cholera ravaged the troops. Although the Army managed to stay intact over the winter, it was not without GW’s daily support and encouragement to his troops.  His character and strength held together the weakened band and ended up in victory in Trenton NJ on Christmas Evening 1776.   When the Continental Army crossed the Delaware in the dark of night, surprising and defeating the Hessians, who were German mercenaries hired by the British, the Colonies’ efforts were tremendously rallied.  This bold tactical move in the dead of winter, during a blinding snow storm, caught the Hessians off guard with their Christmas celebrations and resulted in a decisive change of course in military efforts to defeat the British.  An almost iconic painting celebrated in our United States history, depicts that Christmas defeat of the Hessian mercenaries.  It is a moment in history that we can all relish.

Washington was also a godly man. Of particular note in this matter is the famous painting at Valley Forge wherein he is kneeling next to his horse.  It portrays a moment of prayer before the battle, and of giving the situation over to God.  His ethical positions are also noteworthy as he turned down the nearly inevitable opportunity to be named king, so great was his stature and high esteem in the colonies.  Resisting popular acclamation, George Washington even stepped down after only two terms as president.

Though he benefitted from some of the best dental care of his time, GW suffered greatly from tooth decay.  The wooden false teeth of legend were more probably made of ivory, but nevertheless the 1700’s experimental stages of dentures fell short of modern dental technology.   Another famous painting, a commissioned portrait of the president, depicts a strange look on Washington’s face, which some attribute to be reflective of his discomfort with his ill-fitting dentures.

George Washington was a larger-than-life figure in our history, and he gave a large share.  For those who are given much, much is expected.

-Michael Cundiff

Mary C. Curran
Executive Director
Catholic Family Services

Mary C. Curran
Executive Director
Catholic Family Services