Their financial responsibility and those of their families: the donations box

The financial support of the St Raphael centres is something that should fall to the boys or girls themselves. It should also fall to their families, to their parents, with whom we should always be in contact, getting them to help out. And this support should come from many others as well, at first as friends and later, I hope, as our brothers and sisters.

Therefore, apart from the little or large donations that the young people or their families may wish to give to the Director or the Secretary of the house, there should be a donation box in some inconspicuous place where each person, following the promptings of their generosity, puts in whatever they can without any show, passing unnoticed. It is good for those who have been friends of the work longer, to whisper in the ear of the recent arrivals that this is one way – in justice – of responding and showing their gratitude for what they are receiving in the St Raphael centre.

Reviewing the accounts, it is moving to see how someone handed over the few pence he was going to spend on the tram: he chose to come walking instead. And let me say that, although it might not seem very much, perhaps that fellow gave more than the one who gave a lot simply because he had a lot.