#toy distribution

[locustheologicus]

No Room at the Inn

No immigration 'fix' and Congress isn't really trying

Molloy High School organized an amazing toy drive for our Catholic Charities Toy Distribution in Queens. It was an amazing act of giving which will help many of the families we serve.

At that event the students had a prayer service before they made their donations. One of the readings from the Gospel of Luke was the famous passage where the Holy Family went to Bethlehem and could not find housing while they were there. I was struck by the famous response from many innkeepers who had to inform Joseph that there is no room at the Inn. As we know, the Holy Family ended staying in a manger, the place where Jesus would be born.

This reading struck me because the fact is that many of us, including us at Catholic Charities, are finding ourselves repeating this unfortunate phrase. With the massive number of asylee and refugees we are finding ourselves saying that there is simply no room in our city. The next day I met with a young man who traveled from Colombia with the promise from a distant relative that he could stay over with them as he gets himself settled. He left the economic instability of his country in order to afford medicine for his mother. He came over with the promise of sponsorship by this distant relative. After he crossed and traveled to NYC the relative informed him that they have no room but that he knew that there were shelters he could stay at. He is now in a shelter trying to find some stability in his life. Later that same day I also met a young Russian family who came to Brooklyn earlier this month and is staying with friends of the family. They have left as political refugees wanting to avoid the war. They are now feeling unwelcomed by their sponsors and came to Catholic Charities wondering what options they have.

The fact is that we are seeing many young families who are struggling to find some form of stability from the chaos of war, civil unrest or absolute poverty. But they are coming in droves to our city and we, quite honestly, are feeling overstretched and beyond capacity to adequately help them.

Normally, when I hear that Gospel reading and hear those words, "there is no room at the Inn," I judge the Innkeeper as a harsh and cold-hearted person. But at this prayer service I actually felt sympathy for the Inn-keeper. I felt that way because I am finding myself saying the same thing. Not because I do not want immigrants here, especially after I hear their tragic stories, but because there is quite literally no room at the Inn. For once, I pictured the inn-keeper feeling sad and guilty. They were not the Roman establishment organizing an oppresive system of taxation nor the Herodian monarchy that would persecute any challenge to their ruling authority. Perhaps the inn-keeper had no choice but to deliver the bad news to this pregnant couple. I have met my own pregnant couples these months who are in SRO's hotel, our own modern day urban manger. They hope for a stable life, but for now, this is where they have to stay. I am sorry to say that I now feel the same sense of guilt that I project on the inn-keeper in this Gospel passage.

The inn-keepers were not responsible for the systemic issues that forced the Holy Family to migrate to Bethlehem. Nor were they responsible for the political persecution that made them refugees in Egypt. Eventually the Holy Family was able to go back to Nazareth and enjoy some sense of stability. But perhaps these oppressive experiences may have helped develop the social message that was part of Jesus' Gospel. Quoting Isaiah Jesus would begin his public ministry by challenging oppressive structures and celebrate the rights and dignities we all have as children of God.

Catholic social teaching teaches us that among our celebrated rights we recognize the right to emigrate. St. John XXIII developed the following teaching back in 1963:

Again, every human being has the right to freedom of movement and of residence within the confines of his own State. When there are just reasons in favor of it, he must be permitted to emigrate to other countries and take up residence there. The fact that he is a citizen of a particular State does not deprive him of membership in the human family, nor of citizenship in that universal society, the common, world-wide fellowship of men. (PT #25)

Pope Francis, however, also reminds us of the right not to emigrate. One may think that this contradicts St. John XXIII's message but that is not the case. Pope Francis instead expands on this right by reminding us of the duty we have, through solidarity, to respond to regional crises so that people are not forced to leave their communities. Many of the people we serve do not want to leave their countries. A couple days after the Molloy HS prayer service I met a Nicaraguan man who, as far as he was concerned, only wants to be here just long enough to financially help the wife and kids he has back home. His hope is to be here 3 to 5 years, no more than that. For that reason he does not want to apply for political asylum even though he could. Pope Francis offered this teaching in his message to migrants in 2015 to address the cause of migration.

The Church stands at the side of all who work to defend each person’s right to live with dignity, first and foremost by exercising the right not to emigrate and to contribute to the development of one’s country of origin. This process should include, from the outset, the need to assist the countries which migrants and refugees leave. This will demonstrate that solidarity, cooperation, international interdependence and the equitable distribution of the earth’s goods are essential for more decisive efforts, especially in areas where migration movements begin, to eliminate those imbalances which lead people, individually or collectively, to abandon their own natural and cultural environment. In any case, it is necessary to avert, if possible at the earliest stages, the flight of refugees and departures as a result of poverty, violence and persecution.

Our charitable organizations are doing all we can to welcome these immigrants but our nation has done nothing to address the systemic issue that has made this situation our current reality. As the article above tells us:

Every president for a generation has tried, and failed, to enact some kind of comprehensive immigration reform. Experts argue that only a holistic approach will work and it needs to address two main problems:

• The millions of undocumented people living in the US

• The antiquated and broken legal immigration system, which does not appropriately acknowledge labor needs of the country and drives people to seek unlawful routes.

Comprehensive immigration reform and Global Development initiatives are the systemic solutions that could help us authentically address the issues that cause the current immigration situation. We are inn-keepers doing what we can for the situations we find ourselves in. But we must hold the global and national political system responsible for the reality of the situation. Our nation needs to respond to our own immigration reality, but we also need to work with the global community to address the issues affecting these nations facing war, conflict and economic depression. Hopefully then, our inn-keepers can respond justly to the local needs that are not over-stressed by international crisis.

In the meantime we will do what we can to bring a little joy to those who are forced to reside in the mangers of our modern urban society.

Bishop Brennan joined us in blessing our toy distribution. Below are his remarks supporting what we do.

[yumeinati]

hypothetically, if I had the whole entire Mechanisms discography as instrumentals (except for DTTM currently) so that mechs fans could do covers, would anyone want the files? {:

[pick-a-plush]

I find it very endearing that a lot of people tend to go for the more realistic plushes! I love my Wild Republic armadillo, but could we see a poll with some other little armadillos?

It’s interesting you point that out, I’ve been seeing the same thing. I find it so fascinating since so many of the major bestselling plushie companies are ones like Squishmallow, BAB, and Jellycat. None of them are particularly know for producing realistic plushies. I wonder if that market is so big because children are more drawn to cartoonish creatures? Or maybe the tumblr sample size I have been reaching really likes realistic animals? Maybe both reasons? Neither? I’ll probably never find out but it is cool to consider!

But on with the armadillo poll! I’ll do two realistic and 2 cartoonish armadillos so I’m excited to see the results!

[s4ndg3m]

feeling very "draw my fursona" today...

[randomnameless]

Random AU :

While helping to clean what's left of the Monastery in FE16, Gilbert finds Cyril pretty pissed because he found the "box with important things" Lady Rhea kept in her room empty, so he wants to recover what was inside ("i'm sure those imperials soldiers stole it!") but, well, he never asked what was inside.

Gilbert only notices a weird thing next to the box on the floor, but promises to help Cyril later on.

Still, he picks up the thing and while he's curious about it, given all the events happening, he puts it in the back of his mind.

One night though, he studies it more attentively (or actually wanted to make space in his inventory) and notices it's a broken toy!

(but missing two wheels)

Cursing the Imperials under his breath for not even having spared children, he imagines it might have belonged to a kid who couldn't escape the assault and tried to hide in the Archbishop's room, only to be found out and, well, neither kid nor toy survived.

However, he notices this toy seems to be old as fuck, and while he only paid regular (for Gilbert!) attention to the monastery's inhabitants, he never saw any child in the monastery play with a similar toy. What was it doing in Lady Rhea's room?

Later asking Cyril if he found the missing wheels ("the what? who designs a horse with wheels?"), Gilbert, again, refocused on the war and his duty and left that mystery aside.

After the Bridge of Myrddin and it's high number of casualties, he felt like he had to "help at least" this "maimed" toy standing on his desk - he made wood wheels himself and managed to find a branch to make everything sort of stand and roll.

When Annette learns about it, she cries to his great dismay, it's nothing - but she tells him it's everything, this war only takes lives, but the sheer act of repairing this toy means so much - there will be hope later on, and children will be able to play again. Her dad might suck at white magic, he can still "heal" things, like toys. Can he imagine the joy on its owner's face when they will finally be able to play with it again?

(even if she thinks it's a bit weird to have a toy designed as a horse with wheels)

Seteth overheard Cyril's quest about looking for Rhea's "important stuff" even if he doesn't know what it is, together they find a slab of wax and a weird golem stuffed thing with a :) face.

Cyril ignore those things, but Seteth guesses those were the "treasures" Rhea stored in that box - under Cyril's disbelief, those are junk, not important treasure!

"Well, I am sure if you gave her something, she would have stored it in this box."

After retaking Firdhiad, everyone is happily, well, taking a rest at GM before going to Enbarr and Gilbert is assaulted by dozens of orphans who are sheltered in the monastery who ask him to "heal their toys". Gilbert only says he is a knight and will help as best as he can, which prompts Dimitri to wonder if he too, can help, before remembering that he still has difficulties to control his crest activation and would most likely break the toys.

Dedue tries to cheer him up, and one of Alois' jokes leads Dimtiri to vow to open a "toy hospital" in the castle when he returns - after all, he can help in his own way, right?

After hearing the story from Cyril about the contents of Rhea's box, Gilbert returns the toy immediately - to a kid's chagrin since they found that horse very neat ("it can roll on the walls!").

Rhea ultimately returns, and, after much consideration, accepts to give the contents of the box away since it's "time to accept the past and move on".

She gives the golem :) stuffie to Billy, saying it was one of their mother's favorite toys and how she refused to sleep without it when she was a child, because Rhea made it for her 5th birthday.

Rhea nearly cries at seeing Lycaon's horse on wheels repaired and thanks Gilbert, before returning it to the kid who was playing with it, telling them the precedent child who played with it told her that horse could fly, and was actually a "dragon-horse".

The kid looked at the archbishop weirdly, before nodding and calling their new toy a "draco-horse".

However, his sigillaria wasn't as popular, an Adrestian orphan managed to recognise a duck on it (this orphan was one of the survivors of the various "weeded lines" over the decades) but still called that thing weird (tfw he didn't inherit the Hresvelg artistic skills) and prefered to play with cats instead.

Little does Rhea know, Archbishop Billy roped Cyril in their plan to give her a new present, a herborium.

They filled it with the hundreds of flowers Billy gave her during their time at the monastery, before the war, and Cyril added the small flowers and lilies he helped grow during her absence.

Rhea's so overjoyed that she cries and hugs them both.

[akirathief]

Update on that cat situation from last week: the previous owners have not responded to any attempts at contact. I'm still gonna wait a little bit longer, but uh. For all intents and purposes, Luna is my cat now

[dumb-doll-lips]

0 pumps to 5 pumps to 9 pumps (where my hand doesn’t come close to being able to wrap around it)

[tkachunk]

Hi! I’m new to hockey and have a dumb question 🫣 how on earth do defenseman play so long without dying? Why is their TOI always so high compared to other positions? Are they just in better shape or what? I don’t understand 😅 thank you in advance for entertaining my stupidity!

that's not a stupid question! on average, defensemen have to play more minutes than forwards because there are less of them. coaches are allowed to dress 18 skaters, usually 12 forwards separated into 4 3-person lines and 6 defensemen separated into 3 2-person pairings. if ice time was separated perfectly equally, forwards would play 15 minutes each and defensemen would play 20 minutes each in a 60 minute game (no overtime, no penalties). however, the best players are usually played more often to optimize the team's performance.

chabby has always one of the players with the most ice time in the league, because of his combination of skill + stamina (ie. the ability to play those kinds of minutes while still playing well). if i remember correctly, a few years ago he was the skater with the most average ice time in the league.

for tonight's game, jake sanderson got hurt less than 10 minutes into the first period. this meant that the rest of the defensemen had to play extra shift to compensate for his absence.

[girlspecimen]

i think this is a good sign for me to just quit royale high cuz wtaf

[eyefocusing]

i <3 eyesearingly neon dinosaurs. and swoop

[girldraki]

by the way we kinda gloss over it societally but little misters are kind of a shit toy line. Like. There’s exactly one of all of them

[locustheologicus]

Pope’s December prayer intention: Volunteers needed with non-profit organization.

Pope Francis points out that the "work of volunteer not-for-profit organizations is much more effective when they collaborate with each other." And he calls for volunteer organizations to "find people willing to...ceaselessly seek new paths of international cooperation." 

Working for a charitable organization I know how important and indeed essential it is to cultivate volunteers. They help us with the distribution of resources and providing social ministry to the communities we serve. During the beginning of the Covid pandemic, in the months of March, April and May of 2020, we were stretched beyond out capacity with our growing food distributions. We were blessed at that time to have volunteers that came around May from amazing organizations, unions and associations. They made it possible for us to continue doing our work.

This year we experienced the need that came from the newly arrived asylee and refugee communities into the city. Here once again we felt stretched. Learning from the pandemic we reached out for assistance and donations and once again we have been blessed by a generous response. This is truly a blessing, a blessing we must cultivate for both the organization and for the volunteer.

Pope Francis reminds us that “Solidarity finds concrete expression in service”. As a Catholic charitable organization it is our mission to serve the social needs of our community. Yet charity is not a charism that belongs solely to us, it is an essential element of the faith for all Christians to participate in. As Pope Benedict XVI says, “charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.”

Part of the richness of what we do as a Catholic charitable organization is to find opportunities for the Catholic community to share in this essential experience of our faith. Like doing physical exercise it is often difficult to do something that is not in our comfort zone even though, deep down, we know we should. Once we get into a regiment of doing physical exercises we often feel good about ourselves. In a similar way, our spiritual exercises (being more authentic with our prayer life and doing acts of justice and charity) are also very enriching for those who enter into the experience of it.   

The Advent/Christmas season is a great time to have this experience. We do what we can to reach out the community that we serve and share with them the Christmas spirit with something as simple and deeply meaningful like a toy distribution. 

It is encouraging to see the amazing donations and service that people give during this time. It’s an opportunity for donors to engage with them. The joy that people receive as they offer these gifts is heartwarming to say the least. The element that we need to continue cultivating, however, is for us to develop even more concrete experiences so that donors can find themselves serving “not just for the people, but with the people.” A suggestion that Pope Francis offers in the prayer intention video for this month. 

My goal is to explore further how to make this joy more concrete and sustainable. Like doing physical exercise people can get caught up with the good feeling they get from achieving an initial goal and then they loose the momentum to follow-up. My prayer and goal is to make the spiritual exercise of solidarity an ongoing and concrete experience for Christians throughout the year.

[vodkaing]

after 2nd rewatch ive concluded skinamarink pretty good but they should fire their editor

[ectoplasmer]

bloomic posting again sorry but uhh

screaming dying sdfkjhfdjkfhsdkjhfdskjhkjfdshjkds

[fleshadept]

looking at (vetted) gofundmes for people trying to escape palestine and i don't know how many of you actually click on the gofundme links you reblog but i would like to point out, for what it's worth, just how amazing it is that so many have raised so much money. it may overall feel like a drop in the ocean but the fact that several gofundmes have raised tens of thousands of dollars is amazing. it is so expensive to leave gaza right now, and people still need money after they escape. but regardless of what propaganda the US, UK, canada, and other western nations are trying to pump out, people across the world are doing what they can to help these people survive. many of them are still very far from their goals (like this one and this one and this one) and some of them are very close to high goals (like this one), and some of them have reached almost double their original goal.

and that's not even addressing direct aid or organizations that take continuous donations for distribution of food, menstrual products, etc. the PCRF has raised $16,000,000 of their target goal of $20,000,000 to fund current aid and long-term relief efforts in gaza. ANERA's febuary 13th update discusses the material ways they helped palestinians today:

(ANERA donate link)

my point is, it often feels like the world is turning a blind eye to palestine. but i would like to point out that there is an important difference between "the world" and "western political leaders and media narratives". a breathtaking amount of real people, the people who make up the world, are trying to help. in the face of israel attempting to commit genocide, the world is saying No. These people deserve to live. and literally sending millions of dollars internationally, through the internet connection that israel has desperately been trying to destroy.

it may not feel like it matters in the grand scheme of things. but to the people who get fresh clothes, or a hot meal, or blankets, or the kids who get new toys, or to the people who are able to bring their families to safety, it matters to them. go make someone's day better. i've linked so many options with ways to do that.

[toytulini]

jalapeño eggggggggggg