The first month has been a hustle & bustle of moving and settling in. We have a cleaning schedule and are working out a food budget. We pray the Liturgy of the Hours every morning at 6:00 am. We have hosted a number of groups for food and fellowship. This has been a great way to introduce people to what we are doing, and we will continue to do it.
A lot of ministry ideas have been researched and discussed over the last several months. We have picked the following ministries to move forward with. The Holy Spirit may change our best laid plans, but as of now here is what we are up to:
* Dale has begun his ministry to the elderly. He has a regular schedule of folks that he visits each week to provide pastoral care. He will present his ministry to local churches and host a training session for volunteers. Plans are in the works to offer the Catholic Worker house for "adult day care" or meals for the elderly. Our hearts go out to the elderly, who have given us to much. They deserve our time and attention now that they are in need.* We have begun to volunteer at the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry. They are going to move from the rectory to our house in mid-March. Living right on site, we can be a resource for them to draw on in case they are low on volunteers for a particular evening or so.
* Evening prayer will be one evening each week. We will have songs, meditations, Taize chants and "roundtable discussions for the clarification of thought," as Peter Maurin would say.* We just learned that the parish has lost its ESL teacher for the Hispanic community. Plans are underway to develop a curriculum to offer English classes one evening each week.
* Plans are also in the works to begin serving hot meals to needy families. We are going to start small and determine how often to offer this, but once each week may be very possible. People would also be able to browse clothing donations and a "free store" as those resources develop.* We will be offering hospitality after masses to the parish of St. James the Less one weekend each month. The parish has been kind enough to supply the coffee & donuts as long as we are willing to host! We are more than happy to do so.
* We are researching the possibility for a medical or legal clinic. This may be of particular interest to the Hispanic community. Fr. Pat has also asked us to bring in speakers to talk about personal finances or legal issues. These maybe take some time to develop, but we are actively looking into them.* We have gotten some calls from people who need a place to stay. While we have not been able to provide them hospitality, we were able to connect one family to resources through the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the YWCA Family Center to get them through this difficult period.
The specific dates/times of these ministries are still being determined, but we will announce them as soon as they are finalized! Look for this information to be posted relatively soon.
Please consider supporting these ministries with your time, talents or finances!
Woodcut of Peter Maurin by Fritz Eichenberg (detail). The others are depictions of the works of mercy by Ade Bethune.
Added Later: I almost forgot to mention the Community Garden! Members of the parish are interested in working with us to put together a community garden on the grounds of St. James the Less. We look to have an interest meeting for this soon!
In addition, a number of people have requested that we open our space for A. A. meetings. We are currently researching those possibilities, as well.
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