Summer at the Mission – Part 3: Apostolate Happenings

During the summer, our various apostolates take on a different rhythm than during the school year. Our teaching sisters are off school for the all-too short elementary school summer break, our many gardens in full-bloom, and our neighborhood gatherings and meals move outside to creatively make the best of our lack our lack of a/c in the very hot Church building (where we host prayer services and meals for our neighbors in the cooler months!) This summer, we hosted many workdays here at the Mission, welcoming in large volunteer groups or teen mission trips to help us with our work of preparing for the Tuesday pantry (which only grew this summer!) and tending to the gardens and other outdoor work. As Franciscans, we do our own work whenever possible, and in the spring and summer months, we put extra attention into helping to make sure our campus and grounds are as tidy and beautiful as possible. We live in a neighborhood with many abandoned, burned-out buildings, dilapidated empty lots, overgrown weeds, and litter lining the gutters everywhere you look. In the midst of all of this brokenness, we do our best to turn our little section of Iowa street into an oasis for our neighbors, with beautiful flowers, well-kept lawns, clean sidewalks, and a vegetable garden to help supplement produce at the pantry.

This summer we also established a regular pace for Bishop Bob’s Vicariate III Young Adult group, meeting on second Tuesdays and fourth Wednesdays. It has been beautiful to see young adults desiring more formation on prayer, authentic Catholic Christian community, and spending time adoring our Lord in the Eucharist. At St. Alphonsus’ Theology on Tap series, Br. Matt represented consecrated life on the panel on masculinity, while Sr. Jess represented a few weeks later on the femininity panel. This summer we also hosted our very first Tuesday Pantry Volunteer Retreat! This was a much requested and highly anticipated event – this day-long event included talks by the Franciscans, small groups, a Eucharistic Holy Hour, and a wonderfully designed pantry “Supermarket Sweep” team game designed by Sr. Emily. The retreat day was not only fun and helped our volunteers to build community amongst themselves, but it also has born tremendous fruit in helping all attendees to take the next best step in their personal call to follow Jesus and to love and serve Him in the poor. We hope that this was only the first of many volunteer retreats in the years to come!

Finally, summer is also block party season! We hosted a bustling block party in July that provided safe play in our grass lot for the kids, as well as served ~400 lbs of meat to the attendees, generously prepared by Sr. Laura’s family and family friends. We also had a special guest – our friend and professional dog trainer Alex entertained the crowds with his talented dog! Then, in mid-August we had our highly-anticipated Back to School Block Party, where we distributed over 600 backpacks to neighborhood children in need. All that in addition to our usual weekly and monthly pantries, weekly seniors program, and frequent work days with volunteer groups.