We are in the midst of our annual Advent Giving Tree (AGT) program and to date we have raised $19,655.  As you well know the AGT supports two beneficiaries: the Knights of Malta Mobile House of Care, providing medicine and treatments to those who have no opportunity to seek medical help outside of the Emergency Room at area hospitals, and our parish’s own Neighbors In Need fund, which assists our neighbors with food, daily living expenses like heat, electricity, medicine, and more. Both of these outreach programs help people right where they are—in the midst of suffering,—your generosity alleviates pain and suffering, hopelessness and anxiety.

Here are some important facts you should know as you decide to help and how much to participate:

MALTA HOUSE OF CARE:

• The average cost of one Malta Medical Van is $390,000—and that’s before it is equipped with necessary medical devices;

• In 2019 there were 6,200 patient visits—bringing their total patient visits since its founding to 56,000-plus—reducing potential patients in the local hospital ER;

• Medical supplies such as you would find in a medical office—necessary to treat patients—costs another $25-50,000 per year; and,

• .The Knights of Malta are in need of medical staff (many are volunteers including doctors, nurses, APRNS, technicians, volunteers and DRIVERS. Call them at 860-548-1593, or go to their website at www.maltahouseofcare.org, then go to the volunteer tab, to see about volunteer opportunities

NEIGHBORS IN NEED:
Believe it or not in Simsbury there are people who are in need—of food, heat, assistance with everyday living expenses or with a little lift-up so that they don’t give up;
 

• You, as St. Catherine of Siena Parish, have assisted families without jobs and who cannot afford Thanksgiving or Christmas meals, or had to make choices to pay a light bill and buy medicine rather than purchase a gift or a new coat for little children who would have woken up on Christmas morning to an empty room with-out a Christmas tree or a gift;

• You have enable our parish to provided financial support to senior citizens who cannot afford their oil heat—even though they worked all their life—in the winter months or cannot pay their medical deductible or prescription drug co-pays; and,

• You have cared enough to repair a car so that a single parent can get to work and keep their family together; and,

• You have helped a family hit by illness keep their heads above water, you have assisted a family with psycho-logical counseling for their young teenager in need, and we have supported a terminally ill person without resources to buy food and pay a few household bills as they prepared for death.

I believe these above listed “acts of kindness, compassion and help” are made possible because of people like you—who making a donation to our Advent Giving Tree—make Christ present in a practical way in the midst of life when it seems to be on a losing streak. You have given hope to the hopeless, food to the hungry, heat and shelter one on of the brink of losing it all, and helped one make peace with God in their final days. This is what the Christian faith is all about and is why the Catholic Church is the largest private provider of social services in the world—and it all begins at the local, parish level.

It doesn’t seem enough to simply say, Thank you for your support and for your kindness, but it is not just a “thank you” from the parish or me, it is a
blessed “thank you” from Christ and His Church, as He said, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)