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It is 5:30 pm on a February Wednesday workday. It is a chilly evening with below zero wind chills setting records and traffic backed up on the freeways everywhere.
I am in a warm bright room watching the hustle and bustle of St. Joan parishioners carrying in pot after pot of homemade soup. A roomful of delicious aromas in the air defies anyone to distinguish a particular flavor. Which one to choose is always the lingering question? The workers are stationed behind their soups and beverages and the doors are opened to hungry soup lovers.
This is in preparation for St. Joan of Arc Church’s popular annual Lenten “Soup ‘N Prayer” event that occurs each Wednesday of Lent and continues until Holy Week. In addition to soup is a Prayer service followed by an Adult Forum.
Ignoring the traffic problems and the cold on this third week in Lent, those entering the Hospitality Hall see at each pre-set round table a basket of fresh sliced bread and butter along with a jar of peanut butter and jar of jam to add to the exquisite soup entree of their choice. I like to call it “Casual Cuisine”.
The names of the various soups are as creative as the soup makers and besides the staple “Chicken Noodle” line on the white board soup list, most titles give one reason to pause and wonder what to choose as we take up our soup bowl to have it filled. Many are willing to try something new, as they know they can come back for seconds.
The beverage table is the next hurdle. On the long table are paper cups (recyclable) filled with water, milk or apple cider. Tonight, two young volunteers are assisting two of the many generous adult volunteers. These youngsters are the son and daughter of the event’s organizer, SJA staff member, Steve Fredericks. Steve seems to be everywhere you look making sure that everyone and everything was working to the utmost efficiency.
After everyone is amply fed and the volunteers are finishing their chores, the invitation to the prayer service beginning at 7 pm is offered to everyone. Childcare is available and attended tonight by Leah Kremer (often seen on Sundays caring for our precious children during masses).
As we move upstairs to the Church area of St. Joan’s, we hear the mellow sound of Steve Kremer’s guitar as we find a place to settle while greeting fellow parishioners or visitors. This lovely room with its colorful glass windows is always full of warmth and light in anticipation of a bit of music and prayer.
The Prayer Partners that will lead this evening’s service are Mark Scannell and Joan Riebel(right) who approach the podium to welcome everyone and open the service with a song led by Steve.
The first line of the opening hymn seems to encompasses the theme as we sing, “God to enfold me, God to surround me…” The Gospel reading; Matthew 17: Vs 1-9, is the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus and the mystery of God’s Presence in a voice saying, “Listen”.
The reflection by Joan speaks of her experience of hiking up a foothill of the Adirondacks and seeing the world from varying viewpoints and vistas than she ordinarily sees and hearing new sounds that all seem to say, “listen to what God is saying to you”.
We are now encouraged to spend a few moments in quiet so we too can listen. Next we are invited to gather in groups of two or three to exchange ideas that came to us during this meditation. After that we are asked to share the thoughts our group discussions rendered.
After listening to some interesting shared ideas and thoughts, the evening’s service is ended as we join hands and pray the “Our Father” together and sing our final song.
The essence of this prayer service’s message to me was summed up in the opening reading from Michael Leunig’s “A Common Prayer”, which said in part;
And onto the NEXT part of this evening’s tri-event:This evening’s guest speaker, Frank Kroncke(right), is about to give the second of two talks given on the subject of “Vision of Vatican II”.
Frank’s astounding story is part historical, part biographical and part theological. His seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm for his subject keeps the audience rapt and alert to follow his rapid speech. It is as though he has so much to tell us, so much to teach us, so much we need to know, that there is hardly enough time to complete even one sentence before the next one explodes with even more packed information to devour.
As a theologian who believes solidly in Vatican II Council of Pope John XXIII, Frank gave us that vision of a Catholic church of joy and hope and most of all, of peace. Pope John writes of a future where ALL peoples will be united in Christ and led by the Holy Spirit as we make our way on our journey to the kingdom of the Father. It tells us of the dignity of all human persons, EVERY human person.
It was the peace ideal that was strong in Frank, as a young college man in the 60’s, who with seven other young men, was arrested, tried and put in prison (he, for 19 months) for destroying government draft records. He told of the horror of that time with vivid, and sometimes difficult to listen to, facts. His trial defense was summed up in the words of Pope’s John’s encyclical that spoke of this elusive “peace in the world” that affected these young men so deeply that they forfeited much for their dedication to it.
It did not break Frank, but instead, deepened his continuing growth of this new vision of faith and a peaceful world up to the present time.
There is a current theater play being staged at the University of Minnesota presently. This portrays the story of “The Minnesota Eight”. Even though it depicts an event roughly forty years ago, it is timeless in its theme because there will always be people who fight for justice and peace in this world.
Our own St. Joan of Arc Church is being given a peace award in connection with the presentations of this play for being a “Peace Church”. For more information on the play, go to this link.
In spite of the energy levels of this evening’s activities, I can say that I was quite energized participating , but mostly I left with great pride for my church’s activities and efforts to bring food for the body, food for the soul and food for the mind from these three events this evening.
There is much more to happen in the next three weeks of our Lenten Forum. Our own staff member, Tom Smith-Myott will be speaking this week, and Jim Smith will follow Tom bringing us more related subjects concerning our future church.
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