by Tina Sipula
People wonder when I tell them February
and March are some of my favorite times of the year – not because of the
horrible weather, but because I have begun the recovery from the food drive. Food drive meetings begin in October, our
team works very long and difficult hours all through November and then the
holidays mean non-stop door bells and incessant phone calls. January morning’s mantra is: “It’s over.” The 50 phone calls a day stop, the new
batteries have been placed in the worn-out door bell, and like the snow-covered
daffodil leaves, we await in anticipation for the promise of spring.
But it is all worth it when we spend the
rest of year making sure everyone who comes to our door is fed, and not a
single child goes to bed hungry. We
thank everyone who helped in any way with the Annual Holiday Food Drive and to
those who continue to help throughout the year to feed our many brothers and
sisters. Our food drive fell a little short of our goal, but we know the other
food drives through the year will help to keep our doors open. Special kudos to St. John’s Lutheran Church
who is conducting their annual Lenten food drive, where their goal is to
collect 5,000 items before Easter! And
many thanks to the businesses who have chosen to continue to collect for us
throughout the year – beyond their usual drive during the month of
November. As one person recently told
us, “Need has no season.”
In February we had a great 75th
birthday party for Sr. Glenda Bourgeois.
All the Clare House volunteers she works with were invited along with
all of her friends from Decatur. When
she walked through the door and all shouted, “Surprise!” it was all worth it to
see her look of awe and joy reflected back at her 60 friends. We sang, ate, laughed, and of course, told
stories for hours.
On Friday April 19th at 7:00
p.m., we will host Rosalie Riegle at the Holy Trinity Parish Center, where she
will speak about her two recently published books, Crossing the Line –
Non-Violent Resisters Speak Out for Peace, and Doing Time for Peace. Rosalie co-founded two Catholic Worker houses
in Saginaw, Michigan and taught English at Saginaw Valley State University from
1969 to 2003. The oral histories in
these volumes include interviews with over 75 peacemakers who have engaged in civil disobedience, often
with the consequences of jail or prison.
A book-signing will follow her
presentation.
As Easter approaches, I am reminded of a
quote from Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement: “What we do is very little. But it is like the little boy with a few
loaves and fishes. Christ took that
little and increased it. He will do the
rest. What we do is so little that we
may seem to be constantly failing. But
so did He fail. He met with apparent
failure on the Cross. But unless the
seed falls into the earth and dies, there is no harvest. And why must we see the results? Our work is to sow. Another generation will be reaping the
harvest.”
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