A dozen young people showed up tonight to serve our community meal. It was an amazing experience. They worked so hard and so cooperatively. The older ones were shepherds to the younger ones. They served everyone who came to share this meal with us, offering them drinks, meals, and take-home packages. Then we gathered for conversation to reflect upon our experience together.
To see photos of the event, please see our photo gallery.
Here are the highlights which I saw:
- Everyone jumped right in, doing whatever was asked of them, and felt comfortable doing it.
- There was a gift in having all the youth (9-18 years old) together. We have incredibly kind and helpful older youth here who were always willing to be with and help those who may be younger.
- There was real interaction between the guests of the dinner and our young people. At one point, one of our guests, who is a youth, joined the line of servers of young people and a new kind of community seemed to be formed.
- Our young people immediately saw and spoke about how this was a family gathering this evening.
- During our reflection time, I heard such compassion and empathy for others that my heart was very happy! We have young people who care deeply for people, who understand what Jesus is saying to us in feeding other people, understand how what they feel inside is actually how the food and meal are blessed.
- One of the prayers which I will always hold in my heart I heard today, when we were praying for the people who came this evening. It was “for those who have lost their sunshine, may they find it again”. That’s deep intuition and compassion. Thanks be to God for the prayers of our young people!
It was a great event, except for the fire alarm going off through the whole dinner! I learned a lot from our young people and am ever in more deeper awe of them.
Blessings, Mother Barbara