Dear Friends in Christ,

Mother's Day is a day to honor the special women -- mothers, grandmothers, aunts, friends -- who have fed, nurtured, loved, and shaped us into the people we are today. It is through their unconditional love that we begin to understand the depth of Christ's love for us, and his command to share that love with one another.

Mother's Day is therefore an appropriate day to support a critical mission of the Church: the care of the poor and vulnerable. By participating in the Catholic Charities Mother's Day Collection, each one of us has the opportunity to share Christ's love with those who are hungry, homeless, hurting, and in need of help. We are greatly blessed in the Archdiocese of Chicago to have an extraordinary social-service agency like Catholic Charities to help us fulfill Jesus' command to care for those in need.

As we share our resources with the poor and vulnerable, we not only allow God to bless others through us, but we are blessed as well. The poor teach us the virtues of tolerance, meekness, and patience. God comes to us cloaked in poverty. It is through our connection to the poor that we encounter the suffering Christ and so humble ourselves and truly open our hearts to his tremendous grace and mercy.

I thank you for your past support, and I invite you to again join me in making a contribution tot eh Catholic Charities Mother's Day Collection. Your gift will help serve more than one million people of all ages, races, and religions in Cook and Lake Counties, including one out of every three citizens of the City of Chicago.

May God bless you and your families. You and those you love are in my prayers; please keep me in yours.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.

Archbishop of Chicago 

Watch the 2014 Mother's Day Collection video here