Charitable Work

Charitable work is a fundamental educational dimension of Communion and Liberation, which aims at teaching, through faithfully performing an exemplary gesture, that the ultimate law of existence is charity, gratuitousness.

"When there is something beautiful within us, we desire to communicate it to others. When we see others who are worse off than we are, we desire to help them with something of ours. This need is so original, so natural, that it is within us before we are conscious of it. We call it the law of existence. We do charitable work to satisfy this need … We do charitable work so that we may learn to fulfil the task of becoming ourselves"
(Luigi Giussani, The Meaning of Charitable Work).

There are numerous activities available around the UK. We suggest that the gesture either starts and/or finishes with a prayer and reading a paragraph from the booklet The Meaning of Charitable Work, in which Fr. Giussani describes the aim, consequences and directives of charity work. 

LONDON

Bethnal Green
Supporting children after Sunday morning Mass with formation following a lay association called the Legion of Mary. The meetings run once a week for just over an hour.

Ealing Abbey
Visiting sick and housebound parishioners, every two weeks. Volunteers will need to complete a safeguarding check before starting.

Ealing Abbey
Working with young people. Every 2 weeks volunteers meet with a group of young people of the parish, aged 11-16, to help them on their path of faith. Meetings are on a Sunday lunchtime, starting with noon mass. Volunteers will need to complete a safeguarding check.

Earls Court - “Our cup of tea” (Sant Egidio)
A group of friends from Wimbledon School of Community have started this charity work with the Sant Egidio group in London, preparing a meal for older and homeless friends. One Saturday per month at St Cuthbert’s Church (Earls Court). From 12 to 4pm or from 12 to 7pm. All dates are in the website of Sant Egidio. You need to sign up the week before the event at https://www.santegidio.org.uk/our-cup-of-tea.

Hillingdon Foodbank
A few of us help at the food bank in St Gregory's parish, South Ruislip, organised by the SVP group there. It is open every Saturday, but we go every few weeks. The work involves preparing bags of groceries and interacting with the families who visit the food bank.

Oval - Little Sister of the Poor
Visiting poor, elderly people in a care home. We animate the 10:30 Sunday mass, prepare a cup of coffee afterwards and spend some time chatting with them. The frequency is one Sunday a month. However, volunteers are welcome on other days and for other tasks as well (to be discussed with the sisters). Safeguarding checks required (it can be done through the sisters).

Wandsworth
Visiting prisons. Some people are volunteering at HMP Wandsworth once a month for a couple of hours during weekends, providing support for families who are visiting prisoners.

Choir
"There is no greater expression of human feeling than music...Truly there is no service to the community comparable to singing..When you sing at the retreat you express us, you are us and your voice rises and touches us like a gift. For this reason song is freely given, singing is charity. Song is pure charity...This is why the choir, why singing, is the most useful and charitable service given to the community (Luigi Giussani)." The choir aims to serve the community in expressing and growing in our awareness of our belonging to Christ through the charism of CL by singing at the various gestures. During Autumn we focus on preparing for a Carol Service in the final weeks of Advent, and during Spring we prepare for the Way of the Cross on Good Friday. We also serve the Church and wider community by responding to many requests for us to sing at weddings, funerals, baptisms, confirmations and other special occasions throughout the year.  We meet on Tuesday evenings for rehearsals in London.
If you are interested in joining the Choir, please contact the Choir Secretary: choir.cluk@gmail.com

CAMBRIDGE

SVP soup run
We join the St. Vincent de Paul society (based at Fisher House Catholic Chaplaincy) in their soup-run project which takes hot soup and sandwiches to homeless people around Cambridge city-centre.

EDINBURGH

Sisters of Mercy
We help the sisters to offer food to homeless people, either working in the kitchen, or serving food. The convent feeds more than 100 people every day. People normally go on a weekly basis and we help the sisters on Tuesdays or Fridays. 
For more information: clscotland.secr@gmail.com

Secretary Team.