Sharing Time, Talent and Treasure in Advent

This is the second post from Brooke Broussard, our guest blogger for December. Brooke is a St. Catherine’s parishioner who can be reached at brooke.l.broussard@gmail.com.  Her family attends Session E.
 
                                                                       ​“It is surely justice to share our natural gifts.”
                                                                                             St. Catherine of Siena           

This weekend, my 3rd grader worked on a chapter for his Family Faith session that discussed three different ways people can serve and share with others- by sharing time, talent, or  treasure.  Some people have all three in abundance, while others have one or two, but everyone has something to offer others.  Here are some ways that you can use your time, talent or treasure to undo racism and support social justice in our community this Advent season and in the New Year:  

• Be “Santa” for a Family In Need.  Nearly 1 in 4 children in Texas live in poverty, and nearly 1 in 4 families of color in Texas live in poverty.  The Austin Police Department sponsors Operation Blue Santa to provide gifts for families in need for the holidays.  Right now, all families have already been adopted for this holiday season, but APD is still accepting toys at drop off locations.  Visit www.bluesanta.org to read about the program and local toy drop off sites. 

 

• Change the Way You Talk About Santa in your Family.  Speaking of Santa, the idea in our culture that Santa gives “good children” nearly anything they want can be confusing and hurtful to children living in poverty, or who have families struggling with unexpected medical issues, job loss, or other strife.  This can be especially confusing for children who enter the foster care system and may experience a Christmas tradition completely unlike Christmases that they’ve experienced in the past.  If you have young children, consider using your story-telling talents to teach them that Santa fills their stocking and brings them one gift, and that all other gifts under the tree come from mom and dad or other loved ones.  Talk to your friends and family about the “Santa myth” and how that may affect children in our community.  Ask your friends and family what they teach their child about Santa, and encourage them to flip the narrative to a story that can be shared with the 1 in 4 children in our community that are living in poverty.  We hear a lot about putting the “Christ” in Christmas, and changing the way we talk about Santa to our children can be a part of it. 

 

• Support Children in Foster Care.  The Texas foster care system is in crisis!!  There are not enough families willing to provide a loving home, either temporarily or permanently, for children who are victims of abuse or neglect and there are not enough organizations meeting the needs of these children and their families.  The need is especially great for older children with special needs.  Over 70% of children in the Texas foster care system are children of color, and the majority of children in foster care come from low-income families.  There are many ways you can serve the foster care system- from adoption to becoming a licensed foster (long-term) or respite (short-term) care provider, to becoming a foster care babysitter or Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), to donating your time, treasure or talent to one of the many agencies providing services to children (providing sports or music lessons, birthday parties, therapy or other needs).   The Travis County Collaborative for Children (TCCC) has created a centralized website for people wanting to help the Texas foster care system by connecting them with organizations that could use their help.  Visit www.fostercommunity.org to learn more.


 

• Support Public Schools.  Texas public schools are in crisis!!  Teachers use their own money to purchase needs for their classroom, and many of the public schools in Travis County do not even have textbooks for their students!  Over 70% of Texas public school students are children of color and nearly 60% of Texas public school students are economically disadvantaged.  To donate monetarily, visit www.donorschoose.org to find local teachers that need supplies for their students.  To donate your time and talent, contact Communities in Schools of Central Texas, Junior Achievement of Central Texas or Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Texas to learn how you can provide enrichment activities or mentorship to public school students.  If you have a special love or talent, like theatre, playing an instrument, or another hobby, consider volunteering to teach a class or host an after school program at your local public school. 

 

• Pray for Racial Healing, Forgiveness and Social Justice.  Pray for racial healing, forgiveness and social justice and encourage prayer groups to do the same.

 
As St. Catherine said, "it is justice to share our natural gifts," whether those gifts are our time, our talents or our treasure.  Sharing is an especially important part of the Christmas season.  Dan Rather recently wrote a very moving story about his experience growing up during the Great Depression and how he and his neighbors worked together to ensure that a family going through a tough time would have presents under the tree.  An important lesson that he learned from his mother is that service is not done because we feel sorry for people- it is because we understand how they feel.  We understand the role that luck plays in our good fortune, and that it is our duty to share with our fellow neighbors- To love one another as Jesus loved us, and to build the Kingdom of God with our hands, our words and our hearts. 

Building Bridges

To continue our November discussions on being a bridge in our own communities, we invited Brooke Broussard to be our Guest Blogger for December. She is a St. Catherine’s parishioner who can be reached at brooke.l.broussard@gmail.com. Her family attends Session E.

“Speak the truth in a million voices.  It is silence that kills.”

• St. Catherine of Siena

 
“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.  Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.  We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”

• Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 
"We become bystanders who tacitly endorse evil and so share in guilt in it."

• U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1979 Pastoral Letter on Racism
  
  

These three quotes reflect on the sin of silence in the face of racism and injustice.  Have you ever seen racism and injustice in the world, but felt powerless to do anything about it? As St. Catherine’s guest blogger for the month of December, I’d like to explore steps that all of us can take to undo racism and injustice in our community. 
I thought I’d take a little time to introduce myself- I am a woman who wears many hats.  I am a St. Catherine parishioner, a mother of two bright, athletic and spirited boys, ages 9 and 13, a wife of a very supportive husband who has served in the US Air National Guard Security Forces for 13 years, a business lawyer who counsels businesses of all sizes, from small family-owned restaurants in East Austin, to idea-stage start-ups, to large technology corporations like Google and Tesla, a volunteer lawyer for children in the Texas foster care system and child immigrants, an owner of two bossy dogs and three friendly chickens, a Cajun who grew up in rural Southwest Louisiana, and then later, one of the largest and most diverse cities in the United States, and a white woman who is part of a mixed race family and raising two biracial children. 

​ In October, the St. Catherine’s bulletin advertised “Courageous Conversations” at Holy Cross Catholic Church in East Austin.  Courageous Conversations is a monthly discussion group about race and racism formed a few years ago by the Austin Diocese Office of Black Catholics, Pax Christi Austin and several local Catholic churches.  At the first meeting I attended in October, we discussed ways we can undo racism in our parish communities, and at our meeting last week, Chief Brian Manley of the Austin Police Department had a candid Q&A session with us about what APD is doing to better serve the community.  He mentioned that APD recently worked with community activists to adopt new de-escalation guidelines and encouraged those who have concerns to approach him directly.  I left the meeting feeling hopeful and empowered.
            This month, I will be blogging about ways that we can undo racism in our homes and community.  The first step is to learn about racism in our community.  A good place to start is by reading articles by Catholics who write about race and social justice, such as:

• the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ 1979 Pastoral Letter on Racism;
• this article about the Vatican’s call to Catholics to be a stronger force in confronting racism; and
• this article from the National Catholic Reporter about white supremacy. 

            Another important way we can undo racism in our community is by refusing to be silent.  The quotes I chose for the beginning of this post reflect on the evil of remaining silent in the face of injustice.  Start conversations about structural racism and social justice with your family and friends.  Participate in your own “Courageous Conversations”.  When you hear a racist joke, stereotype, or comment, or when you see other forms of racism in our community, speak out!  Do not remain silent because you think it is the polite thing to do, or because you are afraid.  Change depends on racists being stopped and challenged.  When we speak out, we are working to build the Kingdom of God here on Earth.  And the time is always ripe to do right!