Sunday, December 30, 2012

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing

This morning in church I ran into someone I had known in the past, Macrina, and I remembered her distinctive form of charity.  Beautiful Macrina shows charity in many forms, but her trademark form of it is her handbag.  She packs it with you in mind, and your possible needs.

Do you find yourself in need of a kleenex, fast?  Macrina will pull one out of her handbag.  Headache?  Macrina will offer you aspirin or acetomeniphen or ibuprofen.  Have you split a seam?  Macrina has needle and thread.  Has your period caught you by surprise?  Macrina comes to the rescue.  Need to write a quick note?  Macrina carries pens, pencils, and paper. 

Scissors, tape, paper clips?  They're in her handbag.  From buttons to nail files, from rubber bands to tweezers, from holy water to miniature flashlight, whatever small item she can think of that you might ever need, her Magic Handbag has it all. 

In her parish, women wear head coverings and I feel certain she even carries an extra scarf to relieve the embarrassment of women who show up without one.

5 comments:

Matushka Anna said...

Love it! (:

Anam Cara said...

I've tried to do that in the past, but my purse got too heavy. She is a strong woman as well as compassionate!

GretchenJoanna said...

Bless her! I have also tried to keep my purse filled with these sorts of items, a carryover from the days when one of our several children might need something -- but my problem is that by the time I dig around and finally locate the item in my bag the needy person has given up and gone away!

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

I tried it once, too, inspired by Macrina. But I suppose she must be a lot better organized tahn I am, because her stuff comes out of that handbag in a flash.

Elizabeth @ The Garden Window said...

I've usually got at least pen, paper, tissues wet wipes and empty plastic bags for emergencies, but these days I tend to tote around a small backpack rather than cram them into a huge handbag :-)

I also need to empty out the rucksack, sort, re-stock and re-pack it.......