Baby Caps and Business Wear
By Msgr. Thomas P. Hadden
My sister, Mary Bryant of Fayetteville, lived with me for two weeks last winter helping me as I recuperated from an illness. I noticed that she spent a lot of time making rosaries or knitting. The rosaries are made for the missions by a group of parishioners of St. Patrick Parish, of which my sister is a member.
I asked what she was knitting and she showed me small baby booties and caps. Mary said they were for premature babies born at the local hospitals. She is a member of a group called Fairy Grandmothers of Fayetteville. The group works in collaboration with the hospitals of Fayetteville. There are regularly meetings which they attend to knit and visit. The items that they have made at home are taken to the hospital.
Learning of this brought to mind an experience I had as the Pastor of St. Mary in Wilmington. When I arrived at St. Mary there were present in ministry a very caring group of the Sisters of St. Ursula from Rhinebeck, N.Y. One of these Sisters was Sister Mary Isaac Koenig. She is filled with love for the less fortunate of our brothers and sisters. As part of the parish outreach she began a food and clothing closet. The clothing closet had a different twist from most such closets. Sister Isaac had a special section for women and men who needed work clothes. In particular she stocked clothing that women needed as they began a job such as a receptionist or store clerk. This gave the ladies a feeling of worth and well being and pride in their appearance.
Both ministries, my Sister’s and Sister Isaac’s, involved a Corporal Work of Mercy: clothing the naked. It is one of the works of which Jesus said in the Gospel of Mathew, “When you did it to the least of these brothers, you did it to Me.”