People & Characters
This Michigan city is where Jane volunteers at the thrift store.
What is Kalamazoo?
St. Vincent de Paul is run primarily by these kinds of workers.
Who are volunteers?
Jane learns that small acts of kindness can have this kind of spiritual impact.
What is a transformative/meaningful impact?
Jane often finds “saints” among these groups of people.
Who are the customers?
Jane learns that faith is most powerful when expressed in these everyday actions
What are acts of service?
He is Jane’s husband, who initially questions her decision to volunteer.
Who is Dean?
Money from the thrift store primarily supports this activity for local families in need.
DAILY DOUBLE What is emergency assistance (rent, utilities, clothing, etc.)?
The book repeatedly emphasizes that God appears most often in these types of moments.
What are ordinary/ everyday moments?
The store accepts these kinds of items, often leading to surprising donations.
What are used goods (clothing, furniture, household items)?
Volunteering teaches Jane that helping the poor is not optional but central to this spiritual identity.
What is the Christian identity?
This longtime volunteer becomes one of Jane’s role models at the store.
Who is Dorothy?
The name for the home-visit teams that meet with people in need.
What are Vincentians?
This virtue grows in Jane as she interacts with people whose lives differ greatly from hers.
What is compassion—or empathy?
In one story, a man returns to thank the volunteers for this type of assistance that helped him get back on his feet.
DAILY DOUBLE What is rent or utility assistance?
Many stories show that giving should be done with this internal attitude rather than suspicion or superiority.
What is humility?
This woman came into the store knowingly she has cancer, and once she died she gave all of her memorials to SVDP.
Who is Christine?
This French saint’s example inspires the society’s mission.
Who is St. Vincent de Paul?
A key theme is confronting this uncomfortable truth about poverty.
What is that it is complex and not easily “fixed”?
In a memorable incident, a woman buys an item for only 25¢—a moment Jane connects with this spiritual idea.
What is meeting Jesus in unexpected places?
Jane recognizes that she often receives more than she gives, which illustrates this Gospel principle.
DAILY DOUBLE What is “the last shall be first” / “blessed are the poor”?
This person is the president of the thrift store.
Who is Gene?
This principle of dignity requires that volunteers treat every customer like Christ.
What is the belief in the sacred worth of each person?
Jane ultimately discovers that charity is not about “saving others,” but about this mutual process.
What is being changed/converted/learned by each other?
A tense story involving a stolen coat leads Jane to rethink this moral issue.
What is judgment vs. mercy?
The book argues that charity must eventually evolve into this deeper, justice-oriented response.
What is solidarity—or systemic compassion?