Serving her community

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| Monday, March 17, 2008 | (No comments posted.)

CHICAGO | Patricia Smith works more than 20 hours a week at a Jewel grocery store, carries 17 credits at St. Xavier University, serves as a campus minister and volunteers at a homeless shelter.

“I have these feelings about social justice and making a difference,” said Smith, a Markham resident. “You can learn and discuss theories of what you should do, but then you have to actually do what you’re talking about.”

St. Xavier professor David Neff believes some students are on a spiritual quest.

“I think many of them are already searching at a deeper level, and it can be hard for them to find God in a traditional setting like church. They’re looking for intensity, something transformative that will take them to a new place,” said Neff, who teaches the university’s God and Social Action class in which students are required to minister weekly at a service site away from campus.

Once a week, the students meet as a group to review individual service, discuss related readings and share personal experiences and provide support to one another.

Smith volunteers at the Southwest Chicago Public Action to Deliver Shelter (PADS), an ecumenical group serving the homeless. She welcomes guests and provides meals and clothes. Smith said working with people in real need has been a time of epiphany.

“Some of the discomfort I was feeling before I started at PADS was that I felt guilty about everything that I have that they don’t,” Smith said. “But I’ve since realized that the homeless don’t need pity, they need dignity. The people at the shelter are our guests. That was a big breakthrough for me. The aspects of social justice and focusing on service and human rights, that’s what appeals to me about Catholicism. I think that’s why I wanted to take myself out of my comfort zone and do this.”

- THE TIMES

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