By MARY JO LEDDY. Romero House Founder.
I grew up in a cold country where I learnt how to warm a heart. At the beginning of
Advent, each family received a bale of hay from a local farmer. Each morning as the
darkness lifted, children would take a treasured piece of straw from their family’s bale to
the church and place it in the crib in the nativity scene.
The parents told the children (like me!) that the most important preparation for
Christmas was learning the value of what we were carrying as we made our way through
the snow towards the church. It was cold. We entered the church and walked in silence
toward the crib. Then we returned home, sure that we had done something important
and that we had something to share. We had only one straw but it mattered. To each of
the children in the neighborhood, they realized that they had something important to do
with our lives.
The memory of carrying the small straw in my mitt returns to me now as Christmas
draws near. I am growing older but also a little wiser. I have learned that I have
something important to give with my life. One thing, as small as a straw, can be
significant. It can sometimes seem more significant if I do it with others who are carrying
their little straws.
Romero House is a place where we are bringing our little straws, where we are creating
places for families to live, for babies to be born, for animals to be sheltered, for
friendships to be formed. One straw at a time.
