Make The Extraordinary Ordinary

Someone has said that a saint does extraordinary things in ordinary ways. There is one such group of ordinary people doing extraordinary work in midtown Manhattan called the “Friends of St. Giles.” Some years ago, the group was featured in a New York Times article. Here is a portion of that story:

Child-sized wheelchairs sat empty in the corridor, an odd sight alongside the playful murals of elephants peeking through the jungle bush. Colorful too were the red and yellow syrups and pills by the nurse’s station. In a crib tucked in one corner, a three-year-old rested, his chest rising and falling with every rasp of breath.

Thomas Cahill walked into the room and glanced at the youngsters living in the “Incarnation Children’s Center,” a residence for HIV positive children. He was there to read bedtime stories — a simple act filled with the sing-song cadences of tales about giants, princesses, and animals. Yet, in reading to these fragile children, Mr. Cahill and his friends…