Poverty

"Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human." Henri Nouwen

For the past three years, I've been volunteering with the Out of The Cold program at St. Patrick's church in downtown Toronto. For those of you who are not familiar with the program, Out of The Cold is a program geared towards the homeless in the city, providing food and shelter during the winter months. The program provides a warm meal and a safe place to sleep for a night in the church hall. The program runs for the entire winter season, and they serve dinner to approximately 250 individuals each Sunday night and they are able to provide sleeping arrangements for 75 people every Sunday. 

One of the things I have learned in volunteering at the program is that aside from seeing the needs of those that use the program, it gives me an opportunity to see my own needs as well. My needs are different from those that come to the program, I have a place to call home, I have food on my table and a job that provides financial stability. However, just like the homeless on the street I also have a need for connecting with others, I have a need for relationships. My experience in volunteering at the Out of the Cold program has made me realize that we are all in need of creating a place for ourselves and others where we feel safe, welcomed, appreciated and accepted. 

I realize that the Out of the Cold program, is a band-aid solution, it's not solving the issue behind homelessness, it's not solving the reasons why individuals are struggling to make ends meet in the first place and all the issues that arise from living in poverty. Yet, I continue to volunteer, it's my way of connecting to others and a small contribution that I can make to my fellow neighbours. 

I choose to believe that we are in this life journey together. My experience at the Out of The Cold program has made me more aware of my own frailty, my own inner poverty, but most of all of my humanity. It is from this sense of being "real" with my self and with others that I choose to be compassionate towards myself and towards others.

Feel free to click on the link below, and reflect on what the lyrics to the peace prayer by St. Francis means to you.