I offer these words from Dorothy Day as a challenge to each of us as we move through November days toward a time of Thanksgiving.

Works of mercy – feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, helping those who are in need – are easy to do around the holiday time, especially if we take the true meaning of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa seriously. Donating some canned goods or dropping a couple of dollars into the Salvation Army bucket, or visiting a friend in the hospital all are helpful and make us feel good. But the words of Dorothy Day call us to something much bigger, much deeper than that.

Dorothy’s words ask us to see every act of kindness that we do every day as an action that very concretely wounds and disempowers evil. No matter how great evil seems to be, no matter how intense the violence and darkness is around our world, good actions on the part of good people lift suffering and take the sting right out of evil. Imagine what power these good actions would have if they didn’t stop when the holidays are over.

Recognizing what works of mercy are, and making them part of our daily routine, is something we will be helping our Hope Hall community to do during the month of November.

Works of mercy don’t always involve spending money. Recently I stopped into a Wegmans store near Hope Hall early in the morning to get a cup of coffee. I noticed that the young woman serving me looked really sad, so I said to her, “I appreciate your help, I hope you have a nice day.” The woman’s eyes connected with mine and she said, “ I just found out my sister has cancer. I’m feeling pretty down.” I touched her hand and told her I’d be praying for her sister and for her.  The woman smiled and said, “I really needed to hear that – thanks.”

Human contact — waking up to the people around us — paying attention to the fact that we are not the only ones in this world — treating others the way we would like to be treated — all of these simple actions take little time, no money, and make a tremendous difference. If we practice paying attention to people around us every day during November, doing daily works of mercy might just become a habit that stays with us for the rest of our lives. Imagine the diminished evil this could bring about!  This is what faith is all about. This is something for which we can be deeply thankful.