CLARE HOUSE IS NOW CLOSED

Donations are no longer being accepted.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Clare House News


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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