Jimmy Fallon’s “Thank You Notes” routine on The Tonight Show is a good reminder of the Thanksgiving season. What otherwise might be consigned to an extended November week-end for shopping and football now gets a regular, albeit irreverent, look at recent events deserving thanks.

Our perspective is that mercy and the Year of Mercy, are not about pity. Rather, mercy, like Thanksgiving, is a word of action. So let’s examine the acts of mercy for which Catholic Charities, our employees, staff and partners are grateful for since the Year of Mercy began last December:

â–º Volunteers and deacons who have come forward to teach, nurture, comfort, build, repair, and paint. They serve as examples to others who are committed to service and people.

â–º The members of Caritas, Catholic Women’s League, DCCW, St. Joseph and Sons and others who have helped refurbish St. Elizabeth Catholic Community Center, providing an internal facelift that reflects respect for the poor, the needy, and the children we serve.

â–º Counseling programs that can now include support for families who survive a loved one’s suicide; adolescent outreach that has been able to concentrate on teen fathers as well as teen mothers to keep new families healthy even when not intact.

â–º Refugee Resettlement volunteers and staff who address fears and misapprehensions about the refugees who resettle in the Rockford Diocese, and help integrate our new community members into jobs, schools, churches and citizenship.

â–º Long-term Care Ombudsmen who resolved hundreds of issues from quality of care to financial exploitation in various residential facilities around the Diocese.

â–º The several families who have come forward to explore the option of adoption. They have begun the process of discerning and learning about welcoming a new life into their families.

â–º Clergy who have stepped up whenever asked to teach and inspire us with prayer and meditation when planning and executing events and meetings.

â–º Parishes looking to help the newly arrived immigrant.

â–º Cooperative agreements with health professionals from St. Anthony School of Nursing and the University Of Illinois School Of Medicine to provide screenings for vulnerable populations.

â–º Community outreach programs that address calls for immediate and emergency needs.

â–º Donors who help us manage financial pressures resulting from the State’s inability to pass a budget. Catholic Charities remains determined to wean ourselves off government money to the extent possible, but the negative impact on other agencies has directed many of those in need to our programs.

Most importantly, we are thankful for the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy itself during which Bishop Malloy has reminded us Catholics of the importance of the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. For Catholic Charities, the Works of Mercy are our institutional DNA; they are what we do and who we are. The liturgical calendar may be turning the last page of this Year of Mercy, but our work continues.

Happy Thanksgiving from your Catholic Charities.