This past weekend, some friends from our community in St. Paul decided to go Christmas caroling together around the city after first singing carols at the nursing home for charitable work. So our whole day was spent singing with and for others. The singing was beautiful in both cases, and seeing people enjoy it was astonishing, but the most striking part of the events was something deeper. First of all, we left charitable work with a newness in our friendship. I’m always surprised by how much closer I feel to my friends when we do charitable work together. As if our friendship becomes more true. Energized from being at the nursing home, we set out to carol around the neighborhood. Almost every person we sang for asked at the end if we were collecting money for an organization or were a part of a choir. When we told them we were just friends who wanted to do this together, most of them were shocked. And when I thought about it, I was too! This companionship we share always takes me aback. What is there among us that gives us the energy, the desire to sing Christmas carols in the city? Is it simply a way to have fun or do a good deed? In this case, it certainly wasn’t either of those. It was an overflow of the joy in our communion that we wanted to share with the world. And I could see so clearly the connection between our time at Charitable Work and our time caroling together. The encounter with Christ changes the way we are in the world and the way we want to spend our time. It gives us an even deeper friendship - not one where we simply use each other or pass away the time, but one in which we go together into the world proclaiming the Good News. There’s no other explanation for a bunch of 20-something’s real desire to spend their day in this way with such true joy. Today I was reminded of the effect of the Incarnation in our friendship: a joy that deepens our companionship and opens it to the whole world.

Jennifer Andersen, Minnesota, USA#CharitableWork