Throughout the year, we offer many different kinds of events that provide us, our neighbors, and our volunteers an opportunity to come together and build up friendships while sharing in prayer and a good meal. Over the past few months, we’ve hosted two fun, themed Community Lunches – one in late January to celebrate the Jubilee of Hope and one at the end of March to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
The January Community Lunch featured music led by the Franciscans, a simple bilingual prayer service in the church led by Sr. Jess, and a delicious meal of “enchilada casserole” prepared by Sr. Alicia and a team of Franciscans and volunteers. One of the ladies helping to sponsor the meal even purchased a custom cake decorated with the official mascots of the Jubilee of Hope for dessert! As the kids finished cleaning their plates, we set up a craft corner, where Franciscans and volunteers helped them to color special Jubilee of Hope coloring pages.
The March Community Lunch saw a great turnout, probably thanks in part to the beautiful spring weather that has just started to visit Chicago. This event also began with a simple prayer service in the church, this time with music provided by some of our USML Propaedeutic Year seminarians who generously came by on their “day off” to play music for our neighbors. Sr. Jess again led the prayer service and offered a beautiful reflection on the role of forgiveness in the life of St. Patrick in both English and Spanish. All then headed down into the church basement for St. Patrick’s Day themed Shepherd’s Pie, completely made from scratch – even the mashed potatoes! The meal was simple and delicious, with many neighbors coming back up for seconds, and even thirds, and quite a few asking for the recipe. Shamrock/Trinity coloring pages and coloring pages featuring part of the Breastplate of St. Patrick prayer were also passed around for all the kids (and a good number of adults!) to enjoy.
Thanks to all who helped to make these two beautiful community lunches possible! We look forward to hosting our next community lunch to celebrate Mother’s Day in mid May.