A young American college student returning from Guatemala reported that many of the children he saw during his mission week were naked. And Jesus said, "I was naked and you clothed me...Truly, I say to you, as often as you did it to one of these least brethren, you did it to me." (Matthew 25: 36,40)
In 1883, when the Hawaiian government made an appeal for health care workers, Mother Marianne Cope, a Franciscan Sister of Syracuse, traveled 5000 miles to open a hospital and home for the daughters of leper patients on the Pacific Island of Molokai. While Marianne wore the habit of her religious congregation, she personally designed and sewed colorful and beautiful dresses and hats for the impoverished and discarded young girls there, restoring dignity and a sense of hope and delight.
We're a long way from providing new clothes for those who would be otherwise badly dressed or not dressed at all, but Saint Basil of Caesarea said, "If you have not used it in a year, it no longer belongs to you but to the poor."
Our Father Who Art in Heaven...
Hail Mary full of grace...
Glory be to the Father...
