Cathedral Shelter Reflection

The Cathedral Center Shelter for Women and Children, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, operates 365 days a year. It houses 35 single women and 8 families. There are agencies on site that  work with each woman to develop a plan to move into permanent housing during the business weekdays.  After 5:30 pm, the Shelter depends on volunteers to bring the evening food to the women and their children. Volunteers experience much more than serving a meal to the guests. They see firsthand the subculture of those unsheltered within our city. These women and children are people who did not choose to be homeless. But they are surviving circumstances that are often out of their control. Some women have courageously come to the shelter to escape abusive situations. Others come because, at minimum wage salary, they cannot earn enough money to pay for rent, utilities, medical services, need of their children, etc.

One Sister's experience...

At the Women's Shelter I stand beside women who are in tight spaces in their lives. Preparing a meal and serving among them, I witness. Most often I hold the hope with them that there will be a spacious new Life for them. The hope to which I witness is that none of us will be excluded, forgotten or ignored by society. I witness by hanging on to my belief, against great odds, that our society is abundant enough to include, remember, pay tender attention to these women and their children and create the necessary change.

A touching example of good news shining in our world occurred when a child of eleven years, who had not spoken during the four weeks they had lived cramped in one of the Shelter's rooms, spoke after hearing they had been given a permanent place to live: "C'mon, mom, we're going home!" Thank you, little one, for witnessing there is a spacious place for you.