DIANE O'CONNOR

In Part 1: The Dilemma, I concluded that we live in a world of urgent physical, emotional, and spiritual need—and we desperately want to help! But good intentions are not enough. While Americans are very generous, much of what we donate is either wasted or actually harms the very people it is targeted to help. And sorting it all out can seem overwhelming. My desire is to move the church into a conversation about what we might do to effectively help in a different way. Through

There's a lot of talk right now about "need" and "systems being broken." I see many good-willed people scrambling to understand and respond to needs they see everywhere they turn. Some want the government to do more. Others want the church to do more. Still, others want "the rich" to do more. Everywhere we turn, we continually hear, "We must do more, give more." So we give more. We do more. Yet people are not being lifted out of need; more often they are being sustained in a

One day on the Sabbath Jesus stood up in the temple to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it he found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke goes on to tell us, "Then He rolled up the scroll,

With the downward spiral of everything in the world right now I'm feeling a sense of urgency. Not a panic, but a compelling nudge

I came across this print in my art room this week. I hadn't seen it for years, but it triggered all kinds of emotions and memories. When I was a senior at UW-Milwaukee in the final stretch toward my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, I took a printing class. We were introduced to many types of printing, and always made extra prints of each design to trade with others. One older woman in my class made this lithograph of her daughter, and it was my favorite. Even though I loved this

AN UNSUCCESSFUL BRIDGE-BUILDER [My story—The Short Version] God placed me in a great family in a suburb of Milwaukee, and my childhood was very positive. My family attended Catholic church, and my sister and went to St Eugene Grade School and Dominican High School. I was always very much aware of God in my life. In fact, in fifth grad, Sr Mary Marcinus encouraged me to ask Jesus into my heart, which I did.i believe that God honored that child's prayer and protected me though