That was the question my thirteen year old daughter Alexis asked when I told her of the mission of the Little Sisters of the Poor. As a new employee to Little Sisters of the Poor I was intrigued by the mission of the Sisters; the ever present caring compassion that is the spirit of Saint Jeanne Jugan. I have the best of both worlds working with the Little Sisters of the Poor; I get to not only hear about all of their efforts, I get to see them in action on a daily basis.
Often times we are faced with obstacles and challenges where we face what ifs and what should we do next moments. These challenges occur everywhere, it is just a fact of life however; it became very apparent that the Sisters have a unique way of overcoming these challenges – the power of prayer. I spent some time thinking about what I could do to support the mission of the Little Sisters of the Poor, after all a mission is not what we cannot do, but rather what we set out to do that makes a difference. After work, I sat down with my family and we talked about how the kid’s days went at school, how my husband’s day was at work and I came back to the same topic the mission of the Little Sisters of the Poor.
My daughter Alexis instantly perked up asking “how can I help?” There it was right in front of me this entire time, I am blessed to have a compassionate daughter not only did she want me to help she wanted to take the reigns. After getting approval from Mother Maria Francis; my daughter now had her very own mission – baking cookies. Alexis has been faithfully baking cookies sometimes two even three times a week; she wraps them up and I bring them to work. There they sit at the front desk; the smell fills the air and the urge to buy cookies kicks in. All of the time and effort is a donation from Alexis and the proceeds are given directly to Mother Maria Francis. So what is my donation to the mission? I now believe my mission is to raise compassionate, inspired children who care about the well-being of the elderly. Morale of the story, take a step back and think about not what others can do for you but what you can do for others.
“HOW CAN I HELP?”