After a tiring day of work as a construction day laborer, a weary Aurelio was looking forward to seeing his wife, Maria, and their five children in their small, cramped apartment in downtown Los Angeles. But the sight that greeted him when the door opened made his eyes pop with confusion, and later made his heart swell with gratitude: the joyful faces of his entire family surrounded by an avalanche of gifts in their tiny living room, all thanks to Adopt-A-Family. "I was incredulous. I knew they said they were going to help us, but we didn't know they were going to give us so much," Aurelio (last name withheld by request) said later. "We just thank God that it was true," he told The Tidings, newspaper of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. Adopt-A-Family is a Los Angeles archdiocesan outreach program coordinated by the Mission Office that provides gifts of household essentials and longed-for presents to hundreds of struggling local families with children every December. "My kids were so happy to receive so many presents, everything they had asked for," continued Aurelio, a native of Mexico. "I've lived here in the U.S. for almost 15 years and I had never experienced anything like this. We are ending this year on a positive note. Thank you to everyone who made this a happy Christmas for us." This is the best of what Christmas can be. We all need to make a difference in our part of the world. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Kurt Hilgefort, is a Catholic father of six who publishes his thoughts on his blog Shadows of Augustine . He responded to my seven question survey with the following answers. Kurt is the first layperson to respond to the seven question survey and I think that his experience is extremely relevant to me personally and I hope that you are inspired by his thoughts as well. If you would like to respond, please send an email to fellmananthony@gmail.com with your thoughts and I will be happy to publish them as well. 1. What is the biggest challenge to your faith that you have faced so far? The biggest challenge for me has been the whole dying to self thing. On an intellectual level, there are no barriers. It comes down to a matter of accepting the authority of the Church that Christ founded upon Peter. My challenge is not in the intellect, but rather in the will. The challenge for me has always been to continually seek conversion. I want to be transformed, but I want it to be over all ...
