 |  | | Janice LaDuke was baptized at St. Joan of Arc but her parents left St. Joan's in the early 70's and went to a "less radical" Catholic church instead. She's very glad to have found her way back to St. Joan's in 1994!!
Janice is a librarian by profession and has been working in the library of a healthcare consulting firm since 1997.
In her spare time, she enjoys listening to all kinds of music and working on her home near Como Lake in St. Paul.
Janice is also Echo Thoren's assistant every Sunday at the 11:00 a.m. service.
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Thursday, November 27th at 10 a.m. about 350 people took time out of their
busy holiday schedule to reconnect with the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
It is about the food but not about the food we eat personally. It is about
being fed but not fed in the body but in the soul.
If you've never attended the Thanksgiving service at St. Joan of Arc I
highly recommend it. As in past years, attendees were encouraged to bring
food for the food shelves. As usual, Joan of Arc responds with a extremely
high volume of donations. The monetary collection was also given to charity
rather then the church. So the service is about food but it's about giving
food to those who need it rather then keeping it all for yourself. In
keeping with tradition, it is also about connecting with family-in this case
our St. Joan of Arc family.
Rather then a homily, it is traditional at this service, as at the New
Year's service, to have "open mic". Anyone can go up to the mic and tell us
what they are thankful for. There were only a couple of survival
stories- meaning someone has faced and conquered a fatal illness this year.
Usually there are a lot of those stories. It's good that there are fewer of
those. It means there are fewer people in our congregation really ill. It
was interesting that this year there were a lot of people saying they were
thankful for Joan of Arc, thankful for Joan of Arc's inclusiveness, thankful
that Father's George and Jim are at our church, thankful for George's
courage with his homilies. I think this year the challenges that we at Joan
of Arc have faced in the last year because of our open inclusion of
non-heterosexual people was very much on everyone's mind. We are all
thankful we have emerged from that experience relatively unscathed and still
going strong!
If you want to have a Thanksgiving holiday where you feel really good about
yourself and the real meaning of the day, I encourage you to think about
attending the Thanksgiving Mass before your feast next year!
| |  | | Kathryn Smith is a graduate from U of Mn in the Biological Sciences. Research in
Veterinary Medicine. Teacher at Community College in Biological Sciences.
Currently retired and taking the time to enjoy all that I have not had time
or opportunity to do before.
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Father Wertin introduced the Thanksgiving Day Mass by saying that "Eucharist" means
Thanksgiving and then he quoted Meister Eckard ----in that he believed that the only prayer
needed was to say thank you------- that is enough.
This was followed by a number of parishioners expressing their personal
thanksgiving, statements of hope and healing. Some of which were as follows:
Survival of the first year of retirement, the family being together for
Thanksgiving Day, thanks for the Church of St. Joan as a place of support, sons
with mental illness and the courage they showed. A child volunteered a thank
you for friends, food and family. Another person became involved in the parish
because of the AIDS ride. Now she feels part of the community and appreciates
the staff and music at mass. A new mother with the baby in her arms was
grateful for her new daughter, Olivia Rose.
Cyril Paul led us in a song that he
thinks of when he is at mass. The first lines were as follows.
"You are my people, I am your God, You are my people, close to my heart."
Another theme expressed was "Awaken to the past, we are not separate." One
fellow relayed the sorrow in his family in that his brother died and that his
mother died shortly thereafter.
On a more positive note, a parishioner finished up the "thank you's" by
acknowledging that St Joan's is a unique place and that she admired the courage of
our pastor in practicing his beliefs and speaking out to support them. George
seemed to have a light around his head at this last statement. a halo? or
maybe just a reflection?
Before communion, we all brought up our items for the food shelf. The
collection was to be donated to the people who come to the Parish Center door
asking for help.
The music during this day's service was led by Anna Vagle and talented
entertainers,
which always add so much to the meaning of the service.
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