On Thanksgiving
Sunday, members of St. Faith’s, St.
Augustine’s, St. Matthias/St. Luke, Holy Trinity and St. John’s Shaughnessy brought
donations of fresh produce to decorate their Altars and included non-perishable
food items as part of their offertory.
St. Faith’s
volunteers then collected these goods and delivered them to St.
Augustine’s. UBC Farms provided more
fresh produce and Cobs and Safeway donated bread, pastries, cookies, cakes and
over 20 pumpkin pies !
On Monday Oct. 12th
St. Augustine’s Hall had 12 tables overflowing with food and over 50 people in
the community came by for coffee and conversation while volunteers assisted
them to fill shopping bags with food.
Just before the
start of the event, we gathered for this prayer.
“Loving and Generous God,
On this day of thanksgiving we offer our gratitude for
your abundant blessings.
Thank you for everyone who has worked to make this
event possible, especially for those here offering their time and
talent for our sisters and brothers in need of our support and caring.
As we seek to live out your commandment to love our
neighbours as ourselves…. may we uphold them in dignity and grace.
For these few hours Lord, let us together be
instruments to bring about your Kingdom here on earth. Amen”
Throughout the
morning, as we worked to be faithful to our prayer, it became apparent that we
had succeeded when over a cup of hot cider and of course a piece of pumpkin
pie, several people shared that they had nowhere to go and no one with which to
share Thanksgiving and I overheard one of our volunteers answer “today you
do”.
