Lingering Summer Days

Linger in the Leisure of these fading summer days…

Image: Unsplash/Jake Givens

We have reached the mid part of the month of August.  And if you have watched the TV ads or been in the mall shopping all the messaging seems to be saying Summer is over and we should be preparing for the Fall.  There is some truth to this sentiment, but I would rather pull myself back from those messages and live these last weeks of summer as fully as I can.

Image: Unsplash/Marten Bjork

Often our conversation about weather, from September through to May, seems to focus on our longing for summer.  Now that we here, I am going to declare that the work of fall can wait, and I am going to linger in the leisure of these last weeks of August.  When I turn the calendar page to September, I will then turn my thoughts to more serious matters, but for now, it is still officially summer.  Let’s enjoy these sunny days, and evenings and give thanks for the wonderful creativity of God who extends the hours of daylight to help us enjoy longer days and evenings, on our back porch, or walking down a wooded lane, by the lake, or over a cup a tea with a good friend.  Stay in the present moment as much and you can.

-Sister Joan Atkinson, CSJ 

Title Image: Unsplash/Etienne Girardet

St. Joe's Café

St. Joe’s Café - Our Newly Located Soup Kitchen

Sister Mary Jean Klatt, pictured right, at the original Hospitality Centre, London, Ontario, 1983.

Forty years ago, our London downtown “soup kitchen” was named St. Joseph’s Hospitality Centre.  This coming Monday, August 15th, 2022, it will be sporting a new moniker - St. Joe’s Café, as it takes up residence in its newly renovated location at 602 Queen’s Avenue. We Sisters who have prayed for the success of operating at the new address, were delighted to have a preview of the new location.

 

As we entered the café through the inviting waiting space, we were intrigued by the beautiful hardwood pews - kindly donated by St. Andrews Church, soon to be a resting place for guests waiting to be seated.  Entering the spacious dining area, we admired bright white walls set off with pearl gray accents and millwork, forming a serene backdrop for the round tables and chairs to seat hungry guests.

Our Coordinator Tracey and Sister Margo, our Congregational Leader, were excited to greet us and point out some of the new features: newly updated stainless-steel stoves, refrigerators, and surroundings to a long, raised serving counter and roomy storage space - in large part due to kind donors and generous grants. This larger space will help us accommodate more guests, to assist those in need in our community who we hope will benefit from an inviting atmosphere, nutritious food, compassionate volunteers, and a feeling of community and deep hospitality.

Sisters make sandwiches to send to the Hospitality Centre for care packages during covid, 2020-2022. Pictured below, the many changes over the years. Sisters, Staff and Volunteers that make all of this possible.

The Hospitality Centre has changed and adapted over the years as demand has changed and grown. During the recently challenging years of Covid, when we were unable to host guests inside, our Sisters and Staff continued to feed those in need, making sandwiches and ‘take-away’ meals. On a recent Tuesday over 500 people were fed - this was the most mouths we have fed in one day. Quite a staggering and sobering number.

Also housed in the building at 602 Queens Avenue are our new partners - London Cares Homeless Response Services and Regional HIV/AIDS Connection.  One can envision other endeavors to come. This is truly a partnership that we hope, by joining forces and uniting core services in one location, will enable us all to better serve the vulnerable population in London.

Our faces shone as we listened and rejoiced that another dream has come true, reaching out to continue a long-ago desire of Sister Mary Jean Klatt.  In 1982, she rolled up her sleeves and in a little storefront on Dundas Street, with a couple volunteers, began to feed the hungry.

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj 

If you are interested in providing support to this vital ministry, you can SUPPORT THIS WORK HERE. We thank everyone that makes this ministry possible.

National Sons and Daughters Day

We Are All One Drum

National Sons and Daughters Day traces its origins all the way back to 1930s Missouri, where a gentleman of the town of St. Joseph took up a young boy’s cause when the boy complained that his mom and dad each had a “Day,” so why shouldn’t he? (https://nationaltoday.com/national-son-daughter-day).  It was designed as a day for families to spend time with each other, to look at and celebrate the differences and similarities of each member. 

While it is a wonderful idea, it originated in a time where family members lived close to each other and were not scattered across the globe as many are today.  Those of us who are aging may not have living ancestors or children to celebrate with; others have chosen lifestyles or vocations that preclude parenthood entirely.  Some also say that though not biologically connected, we have been mentored or ‘parented’ by special people in our soul family or see those we meet as soul siblings. Life and definitions change with the passage of time though perhaps we simply forget old interpretations; after all, St. Francis of Assisi spoke of “Brother Sky and Sister Moon” all those years ago.

Hillary Clinton brought back the African proverb “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child” into 21st Century thinking and brought us renewed awareness that when the concept of family reaches beyond the personal to embrace a sense of the ‘human family’, only then do we care and love at our best. The spark that leads us to this grace-filled understanding may be individual but when we turn it into contemplative action the way forward takes on a Spirit-filled communal impact. 

I spent part of this morning savoring Richard Wagamese’s last book, “One Drum[1].”  His words take a willing reader to the centres of our simultaneously looped human and sacred circle of experience where there is no thought, but connection with the One.  Wagamese teaches that “…we are all one song, one family, one energy and one soul.  For when [his] people say “all my relations” at the end of a ceremony or a prayer, it is in recognition of that truth… We are all one drum” (p.24). 


[1] Richard Wagamese. (2019). One Drum: Stories and Ceremonies for a Planet. Madeira Park, BC: Douglas & McIntyre.

-Susan Hendricks, Associate, Sisters of St. Joseph