P. O. Box 70113 Houston, TX 77270 Dear Friends, Christmas is a breath of fresh air. With its hope of celebration, family gathering, sharing and surprises, it breaks through the humdrum and even desperation that fills people's lives. There is bound to be hope and healing where people worry more about giving than receiving, being inspired by Mary giving birth to Jesus in a stable in God's gift to humanity. This Jesus taught us about giving—not about getting. We learn from Him that the paradox of suffering and evil can only be resolved in the experience of compassion and love. Ever since Jesus was born in a stable, the followers of the Nazarene have been called to practice this love in helping families avoid giving birth in stables. This is what drives us at Casa Juan Diego to practice the hospitality so important to Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. Our work is difficult as we try to replace stables. There is a constant stream of suffering—so many people to house each evening, mothers and their sick children (imagine a very sick baby several days old), mothers whose husbands have been deported for working, young immigrant women expecting their first baby, like Mary with no place to go, and mothers abused by their husbands who have thrown them on the street(much less providing a stable for them). We have the people who have lost their limbs and others who are paralyzed from falling from a scaffold at work or who have been shot in the head or the back or who are very sick, referred by the hospitals of Houston. We have many young men who have risked life and limb and thieves (all are robbed) in coming north to earn a few dollars for their families who live on the margin of human existence. Fortunately, our hiring hall at 4811 Lillian can provide jobs for the immigrant men who have taken refuge at Casa Juan Diego. Please patronize it if you need workers. Thanks to dedicated Catholic Workers, medical professionals and generous donors—all of whom give their work as a gift—we can provide hospitality and medical care (we do need more dentists and doctors). Local resources like the Houston Food Bank help us to also provide over half a million meals to Houston's hungry. We ask your help for our efforts for another year. We need your help to serve the many poor who come to us. All generosity goes to the service of the poor. There are no salaries at Casa Juan Diego. We hope you can be generous. Gratefully, Mark and Louise and all at Casa Juan Diego
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